Robert Glasper x Black Thought Ft Chris Dave, Derrick Hodge and DJ Jahi Sundance

Robert Glasper​ is the leader of a new sonic paradigm with a career that bridges musical and artistic genres. To date, he boasts 3 Grammy wins and 8 nominations across 6 categories, and an Emmy Award for his song for Ava Duvernay’s critically hailed documentary “13th” with Common and Karriem Riggins. 

Evolution is his hallmark. Glasper’s breakout crossover album ​Black Radio​ changed the face of the genre and set a new expectation for what popular music could be. The album won him the Grammy for best R&B album and established him as the musician of choice for some of the world’s most iconic artists; notably playing keys throughout Kendrick Lamar's ​To Pimp A Butterfly, ​ winning another Grammy for the elastic track “These Walls”. The ongoing Black Radio series has since become Glasper’s calling card, upholding a place at the heart of a trailblazing community: from long-time sonic brothers Mos Def and Bilal, to legends including Ledisi, Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Jill Scott, and Erykah Badu.  

Glasper’s eternal pursuit to further his sound has been consistent in challenging and transforming his creative horizons across the board. Whether producing a remix album with Kaytranda or as a bandleader, Robert consistently defies the limits of the genre. This is evident in a portfolio that ranges from his acoustic jazz trio; which simultaneously defies and elevates the traditional idiom by uniting it effortlessly with electronics from visionary DJ Jahi Sundance, to August Greene; a collaboration with Common + Karriem Riggins, to R+R=Now; a supergroup at the crossroads of hip-hop and Jazz. 
In the last year alone Glasper has seen a staggering diversity of success. He dropped ​Fuck Yo Feelings​ ; a star-studded mixtape; his first on Loma Vista Records; with features ranging from YBN Cordae to Herbie Hancock to Yebba. He created an original score for the Emmy Nominated doc​ The Apollo ​ and the feature film ​The Photograph​ starring Issa Rae. He led a legendary residency at the Blue Note NYC with 56 sold-out shows in 27 days which saw everyone from Dave Chappelle to Tiffany Haddish, Chadwick Boseman, Q-Tip, Anderson.Paak and Angela Davis join him on and off stage. And, alongside long-time collaborator, co-producer, and creative partner Terrace Martin, he formed another dream team supergroup featuring Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder called Dinner Party, who together wrote and recorded a debut self titled album that was released to rave reviews.  

With boundless innovation and elite technique as his signature it’s no surprise that Glasper has an avalanche of accolades, awards, and achievements to his name - most recently being asked to play at the 2020 March On Washington with Derrick Hodge and funk legend, Sir George Clinton. In August of 2020, Robert released ‘Better Than Imagined’; the first taste of his hotly anticipated forthcoming ​Black Radio 3 ​ album​. ​ Featuring H.E.R and Meshell Ndegeocello, the song advocates for Black love and the power, and responsibility, we have to improve our world; again demonstrating that, above all, Glasper is an artist at the heart of a moment - and a movement - to champion Black music, Black people, and the possibility of a better future. The hip-hop-head-nod ballad is a dedication to just that: the beauty and brilliance of a heritage that is as much Kendrick as it is Coltrane, and which seeks to empower and uplift with every offering.   Both ​Fuck Yo Feelings ​ And ‘Better Than Imagined”  have received Grammy Nominations for the upcoming 2021 Grammy Awards.  

In his own words: 
"Black lives matter and so does black love; no one wants a life without love, but we have generations of people in our community who haven't had the tools to actually be in healthy relationships. It seems like people are finally ready to open their eyes to systemic racism in this country, and if we're going to talk about it, we have to also talk about how it affects our relationships, how we communicate, how we see ourselves, how we treat each other. It's not always good, even though maybe it could be." - Robert Glasper  

 

Known neither as a spotlight-grabbing solo artist nor as the figurehead of the Roots, Black Thought is nonetheless widely recognized as one of the most skilled, incisive, and prolific rappers of his time, dating back to the '90s with Organix (1993), his group's recorded debut. Despite Thought's anchoring of a dozen studio albums with the Roots, including the Top Ten, Grammy-nominated releases Things Fall Apart (1999), Game Theory (2006), and How I Got Over (2010), demand for true spotlight-seizing projects has been high since the rapper scrapped an early-2000s solo project for MCA. Outside the Roots, Thought has worked in collaborative settings for the Streams of Thought trilogy (2018-2020), Cheat Codes (2022), and Glorious Game (2023), releases that have heightened his profile as a masterful street poet.

Tariq Luqmaan Trotter grew up in the Mount Airy and Point Breeze neighborhoods of Philadelphia. His childhood was marked by turmoil and tragedy. Before his first birthday, his father was killed. At the age of six, he accidentally set his house on fire. As Trotter later immersed himself in hip-hop culture and graphic art, he was arrested for tagging (spray-painting) a basketball court. While in high school, he dealt crack cocaine, and was eventually prompted by an uncle to escape the Philly streets by living temporarily in Detroit with other family members. Shortly after he returned to his hometown, his mother, who had struggled with crack addition, was fatally stabbed. Trotter further developed his interest in art at Philadelphia's High School for Creative & Performing Arts, where he met drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. This connection eventually enabled Trotter to redirect the pain and anger of his upbringing into rap music.

The alliance of Trotter and Thompson, forged in 1987, developed into a rap unit that, after numerous developments and name changes, settled into the Roots. The band made their independent recorded debut with Organix (1993) and shortly thereafter signed with major-label DGC, releasing the RIAA gold-certified Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995) and second consecutive Billboard Top Ten R&B/hip-hop album Illadelph Halflife (1996). The latter featured the Top 40 hit "What They Do," thereby making Trotter -- then known more commonly as Black Thought -- one of the least materialistic rappers to cross over. In the process, Thought had attained major hip-hop clout, epitomized not only by his inclusion in the cover photo of XXL magazine's "Greatest Day in Hip-Hop History" issue (October 1998), but also by the recognition he received at the shoot from Rakim, one of his primary inspirations.

Moved from DGC to MCA and primed for long-term mainstream presence, the Roots had their greatest success with Things Fall Apart (1999), which peaked at number four on the Billboard 200, eventually went platinum, and was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Rap Album. Its biggest single, the Erykah Badu collaboration "You Got Me," won the award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Phrenology (2002) and The Tipping Point (2004) followed on MCA and Geffen, respectively, with the former set another gold-seller, also nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy. The Roots then initiated their longest label affiliation with Def Jam, an era that has entailed artistically uncompromised and Grammy-nominated works such as Game Theory (2006), How I Got Over (2011), and Undun (2013). Meanwhile, the Roots became the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and recorded albums with John Legend, Betty Wright, and Elvis Costello, though Thought was involved with only the first in the series, Wake Up! (2010), which won a Grammy for Best R&B Album.

Black Thought has been a featured artist on dozens of tracks since the start of the Roots' ascent, including titles by contemporaries such as Common, Pharoahe Monch, Ghostface Killah, Talib Kweli, and J Dilla. As a headliner, his output has been minimal. In 1998, he and producer J. Tacuma, better known as jazz bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, teamed up for a pair of 12" releases on Japan's P-Vine label. A couple years later, there was "Hardware," a 12" on MCA proclaimed as "the first joint from the debut solo album Masterpiece Theater." That project was shelved, though some of its material was used for the Roots' Phrenology.

The next solo release from Thought didn't arrive until 2018, on the heels of a mind-boggling ten-minute freestyle for Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 radio show. Streams of Thought, Vol. 1, a five-track digital EP with production from 9th Wonder (four tracks) and Khrysis (one track), was issued that June. By then, Thought had also established himself as an actor, and had added to his list of credits with a recurring role in the dramatic television series The Deuce. That November, he issued Streams of Thought, Vol. 2, produced entirely by Salaam Remi. He then worked with Sean C to make Streams of Thought, Vol. 3: Cane & Able, issued in October 2020. The set featured "Good Morning" with Pusha T and Killer Mike as guest MCs and Swizz Beatz as hype man. In 2022, Thought starred in a musical theater adaptation of George S. Schuyler's 1931 novel Black No More, on which he also worked as a lyricist. He additionally teamed with Danger Mouse for Cheat Codes, released that August with a posthumous verse from MF Doom and additional collaborations with Joey Bada$$, Raekwon, and Michael Kiwanuka. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 43. Next was Glorious Game, a 2023 release on which Thought was backed by dusty-groove synthesists El Michels Affair.

There’s a good chance you’ve heard Chris Dave play drums, even if you didn’t know it was him. Over the last 20 years, the Houston-born percussionist, bandleader, and producer has played with some of the most revered names in jazz and R&B, offering his unique drumming style to songs by D’Angelo, Justin Bieber,The Robert Glasper Experiment, and Adele. The Roots’s bandleader Ahmir Questlove Thompson once called Dave “the most dangerous drummer alive,” a characterization that Dave playfully dismisses. “I don’t believe that at all,” he deadpanned during a recent interview. Maybe that’s why he endures: He lets the work speak for itself. And his music is so resonant that it does just that.

Derrick Hodge is one of our moment’s most complete and complex musicians. A prolific composer, conductor, musical director, bandleader, producer bassist and advocate, Hodge has played on some of music’s most iconic albums, written & performed breakthrough orchestral arrangements and compositions, scored an impressive catalog of film and television work and created evocative sonic installations for prestigious cultural institutions, all alongside his work as an activist in the field of emerging young musicians. To date he has been awarded two Grammys, named a Sundance Composer Fellow, received the Motif Award; one of Nation’s highest honors for Child Advocacy, and his playing on Common's “BE” has been officially recognized as one of top 20 basslines in Hip Hop History.
Hodge describes his career as “speaking existence into possibility”; driven by a passion for music rather than genre, he is an artist defined only by his multiplicity. As lauded a composer as he is revered as one of THE great bassists and musicians of his generation, he is critically acclaimed across genres and mediums and boasts a diverse and devoted global audience. Growing up just outside Philadelphia, Hodge’s talent was quickly recognised by the luminaries of the city’s neo-soul movement, and whilst still in college he became the bass player and Musical Director of choice for pioneers including Jill Scott, Maxwell, Floetry, Nas, Common, James Posyer and Musiq Soulchild. Simultaneously he was forging a career in jazz circles with the likes of other legendary musicians including Terence Blanchard, Donald Byrd, Mulgrew Miller and Bootsie Barnes while also holding a star place in his university’s orchestra.
The trust and admiration Hodge commands among musicians - and the expertise he commands in his craft - is unparalleled, and has seen him play a foundational role in a wealth of groundbreaking projects. In 2014 Hodge became the first Black composer to compose Hip Hop for the National Symphony when he acted as Orchestral Arranger and Music Director for the iconic event “20th anniversary celebration of Illmatic” which saw Nas perform the album with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Steven Reineke’. The event - which was named by FENDER as one of the top moments in Hip Hop history - was also the first time Hip Hop was ever performed by the National Symphony and at the Kennedy Center. In 2021 Hodge continues to break new ground: this time as Arranger for the LA Philharmonic’s shows with Christina Aguilera and H.E.R. at the Hollywood Bowl, part of the re-opening of the iconic venue in Los Angeles. In 2022 he followed with conducting and orchestrating a sold out show at Disney Hall for his long time friend Robert Glaper. Orchestrating for the YOLA orchestra for the SuperBowl and later in March he conducted and orchestrated for the 94th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. All while balancing his TV & Film career, with most recent work on Stella Meghi’s “The Photograph” and Lionsgate’s “Run The World” Series and the upcoming 2022 Netflix release of “The System” Starring Terence Howard and Jeremy Pevin.
Tellingly, Hodge has been the ‘first’ many times in his career: including being the first Black composer to write strings for Hip Hop at Carnegie Hall (as Arranger for Mos Def in the venue’s first full Hip Hop show in 2008),and the first black composer to write symphonic music for Hip Hop with the Houston Symphony (as Creative Director & Arranger for Common with the Houston Symphony in 2019).
This habit of breaking new ground and forging new paths hints at how significant a cultural force Hodge is in ways beyond music. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to write the installation music that accompanies their permanent exhibit about Oak’s Bluff: “The Power of Place”. The exhibition explores how place is something defined as much by people as by geography, and how Oak’s Bluff became a place of collective imagining, struggle, achievement and freedom for a burgeoning African American community. Hodge went on to compose for “Social Dance” - part of the NMAAHC’s seminal ‘Cultural Expressions’ floor, which explores African American and African diaspora culture - and for their “Making A Way” exhibit, which pays tribute to the creativity, agency and resilience with which individual African Americans crafted opportunity and possibility in the face of racial oppression.
Throughout his life, Hodge has devoted himself to projects that elevate and animate the African American legacy: the struggle but also - always - the poetry and the triumph too. It is this ability to honor and advance both culture and people that is the principle thread which weaves together Hodge’s work.
As a performer, Hodge has founded and played in bands and groups as diverse and as influential as R+R=Now, the Robert Glasper Experiment and The Blue Note All Stars, as a producer he has collaborated with icons including Quincy Jones, Don Was and Common and as Musical Director he has worked with luminaries including Yasiin Bey, Nas, and notably held the position with Maxwell from 2009 to 2019. As a Blue Note Recording Artist Hodge has released three critically acclaimed solo projects: Live Today (2013), The Second (2016), and Color Of Noize (2020). His albums are rich, raw and revelatory - reflecting everything from his roots in the church to an undercurrent of hiphop and eternal reverence for melody and classical composition.
The Color Of Noize project is Hodge’s signature concept-series, bringing together contrasting sounds, styles and set-ups to create an immersive and inherently transcendent audio-visual experience. It is also particularly close to Hodge’s heart as it opens up not just his music, but also his mission: to create a new, free space for music whilst also championing his community of both established and emerging musicians. More than an album, The Color Of Noize is an ongoing commitment to artistic excellence and inclusion, in particular the creation of opportunities and broadening of horizons for inner city youth. He first premiered Color of Noize in 2019 as part of his Artist Residency at Monterey Jazz Festival, where Hodge brought together a collection of musicians, some as young as 4, on stage with him to explore his original compositions in a remarkably moving and beautiful concert. As he puts it “it was never just my potential that made things happen; it was my community advocating for me - now I want to advocate for others, to pass that on”.
This is the natural progression for an Artist whose career has always been as rooted in meaning as it is in music: Hodge’s body of work speaks to a sense of social responsibility that he carries as keenly as his creativity. Whether collaborating with giants, writing for the big screen, forging new paths for orchestral composition, or creating outreach projects like providing access to his symphonic scores and original arrangements to HBCUs & inner-city Music Programs, his work has the telltale trademark of always provoking social commentary, awareness or insight. Here we find the fundamental character of Hodge; an incurably hopeful and humble man, who, through his work and his art, has made the world a definitively more beautiful place.

What happens when “love isn’t enough?” With his EP, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and DJ Jahi Sundance responds with a collection of break-up anthems that fuse funk and soul with heartbreak and longing, dichotomizing emotional fallout with uncompromising beats, depression with disco. Love is, after all, a paradox. And in these six songs, Sundance gifts us with an up-tempo exploration of the stages of relationship grief, acknowledging what breakthroughs may or may not come from breaking up.

With over 25 years in the music game, Sundance has created some of the most inventive DJ sets & sounds scapes in the scene today. He has toured with Robert Glasper, Me’shell N’degeocello, Christian McBride, and graced the stage of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Recent producer/writer credits include Chris Brown, Danity Kane, Miguel, Common, and The World Cup.

Jahi lives in LA where he manages his record label More Than Enough and continues work on multiple projects.