''3ChordFold'' is the debut studio album by American producer

Terrace Martin Terrace Jamahl Martin (born December 28, 1978) is an American musician, rapper, singer, and record producer. He is perhaps best known for producing records for several prominent artists in the music industry, including Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dog ...

. The album was released on August 13, 2013, by AKAI Music and Empire Distribution. The album features

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...

s from Ab-Soul,

Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Duckworth (born June 17, 1987) is an American rapper and songwriter. Known for his progressive musical styles and socially conscious songwriting, he is often considered one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generat ...

, Problem,

Musiq Soulchild Taalib Hassan Johnson (born September 16, 1977), better known by the stage name Musiq Soulchild or simply Musiq (pronounced "music") is an American singer and songwriter whose style blends R&B, funk, blues, jazz, and gospel influences fused w ...

Robert Glasper Robert Andre Glasper (born April 6, 1978) is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger with a career that bridges several different musical and artistic genres, mostly centered on jazz. To date, Glasper has won fou ...

James Fauntleroy James Edward Fauntleroy II (born May 16, 1984) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Inglewood, California. He is best known for writing credits on tracks by high-profile artists such as Travis Scott, Frank Ocean, Kendrick ...

, Focus...,

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, ''Show and Prove'', in 2006 and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 20 ...

, Brevi,

Ty Dolla Sign Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He first gained major recognition in 2010 for his feature on Ameri ...

, Snoop Dogg and

Lalah Hathaway Eulaulah Donyll "Lalah" Hathaway (born December 16, 1968) is an American singer. In 1990 Hathaway released her first album titled ''Lalah Hathaway''. After releasing another album, titled '' A Moment'' (1994), it debuted at number 34 on the To ...

Singles

On February 12, 2013, the album's first single "Something Else" featuring Problem was released. On May 7, 2013, the music video was released for "Something Else" featuring Problem. On August 2, 2013, the music video was released for "No Wrong No Right" featuring

and

. On October 1, 2013, the music video was released for "You're The One" featuring

Critical response

''3ChordFold'' received generally positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. Jay Balfour of

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of hip hop music criticism and news. The website's current president and publisher is Sharath Cherian and the Head Of Content is Jerry L. Barrow. ''HipHopDX'' is the flagship publication of Cheri Media Group. ...

gave the album four out of five stars, saying "Overall, ''3ChordFold'' is a gratifying listen, in part, and this is beholden to Jazz albums of the past, because it’s full of memorable moments. Taken as a whole it acts as a smooth mix of R&B and Hip Hop (despite the previous term’s continually being encompassed by the second) and its best characteristic is its creator’s musicality. Even when building a song that might fit on the radio, Martin’s production has a dynamism too often missing in today’s Hip Hop. In the end, it’s hard to complain too much about a lack of truly deep lyricism when there is so much else to pick through. In 2011 Martin told MTV, “The good thing about music is you can just keep on doing it.” Free of the lifestyle agenda and celebrity of his peers, Martin may be a logical pick for continued musicianship in Hip Hop. As fans, we can only hope he just keeps on doing it." Christian Mordi of '' XXL'' gave the album an XL, saying "With strong melodies, experimental textures and an array of stellar guest spots, ''3chordfold'' is an often excellent album. Martin continues to showcase his ability to merge a mixture of jazz and funk backdrops with his California rhymes throughout the record. While early mixtapes like ''Locke High'' and ''Locke High 2'' introduced the underground to Terrace Martin, ''3ChordFold'' should open the door to many mainstream fans to a talented musician." Zach Gase of RapReviews gave the album an 8.5 out of ten, saying "Terrace Martin is many things: a rapper, a producer, a saxophone player, among other things. On his debut full-length album, "''3ChordFold''" he expertly utilizes all of his skills to create one of the year's best records."

Track listing

Unless otherwise indicated, Credits are adapted from liner notesTerrace Martin - 3ChordFold. Empire. 2013. ERE-CD-110 ;Notes *All Interludes are written by Wyann Vaughn *"Can't Help It" is originally performed by

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

as "I Can't Help It"

Sample Credits

''Triangle Ship'' *"Shhh" by

Tevin Campbell Tevin Jermod Campbell (born November 12, 1976) is an American singer and songwriter. He performed gospel in his local church from an early age. Following an audition for jazz musician Bobbi Humphrey in 1988, Campbell was signed to Warner Bros. Re ...

*" What You Won't Do for Love" by

Bobby Caldwell Robert Hunter Caldwell (born August 15, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. He released several albums spanning R&B, soul, jazz and adult contemporary. He is known for his soulful and versatile vocals. Caldwell released the ...

''Something Else'' *"How Deep Is Your Love" by Keith Sweat ''Over Time'' *" Ironside" by

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

*" The Light" by Common ''Move On'' *" Let's Chill" by Guy ''Angel'' *" They Don't Know" by Jon B. ''I'm For Real'' *"I'm for Real" by Howard Hewett

Personnel

Credits adapted from liner notes *

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

(15), bass (15, additional on 4), Fender Rhodes (8),

mini moog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popula ...

(8),

keyboard bass Keyboard bass (shortened to keybass and sometimes referred as a synth-bass) is the use of a smaller, low-pitched keyboard with fewer notes than a regular keyboard or pedal keyboard to substitute for the deep notes of a bass guitar or double bass ...

(6), additional keyboards (2, 4),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

(1),

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

(2-3, 6, 14), horn arrangements (7), instruments (all other on 10, additional on 11), mixing *

Craig Brockman Craig Xavier Brockman (born May 16, 1973) is a hip hop and R&B record producer, arranger, keyboardist, and instrumentalist. He mostly works with Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Terrace Martin, Warren G. He is also a member of The Soul Seekers. Pro ...

: additional keyboards (2, 6, 14), Fender Rhodes (5, 11, 13), mini-moog (11),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

(1),

Roland Jupiter-8 The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981. The Jupiter-8 was Roland's flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980s. Approximately 3300 units have ...

(9), additional music arrangements (5, 9) * Neka "LB" Brown: additional vocals (1, 3, 8, 15) * Kenneth Crouch: keyboards (15), all instruments (Interludes) *

: additional vocals (6) * Focus...: additional vocals (7), all other instruments (7) *

: piano (14), Fender Rhodes (6) *

Andrew Gouche Andrew Gouche (born May 27, 1959) is a gospel bass player and the godfather of gospel bass players. Career Over the years Gouche has performed and recorded with: Rev. James Cleveland, Walter & Edwin Hawkins, The Winans, Yolonda Adams, BeBe & CeCe ...

: bass (8, 13) *

Tiffany Gouché Tiffany Gouché (born September 20, 1988), also known as "TGooch", is an American singer, songwriter, and producer from Inglewood, California. Background Tiffany Gouché was born September 20, 1988 in Inglewood, California. Gouché comes fro ...

: additional vocals (14) * Terrence "Punch" Henderson: additional vocals (14), executive producer * Trevor Lawrence: drums (15) *

Josef Leimberg Josef Leimberg (born November 29, 1972) is a producer, lyricist, and trumpet player from Los Angeles. He contributed to Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy Award-winning album, To Pimp a Butterfly, and is currently signed with World Galaxy, the jazz imprint ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

(1) * Javonte Pollard: additional vocals (1, 8, 10) * Problem: additional vocals (4), additional music arrangements (3-4) * Tone Trezure: additional vocals (12) * Wyann Vaughn: vocals (Interludes, additional on 6) * Derrick "D-Loc" Walker: percussion (15) * Marlon Williams:

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

(1, 3, 5-6, 8-10, 12-13, 15), music arrangements (15, additional on 5, 9, 13), executive producer * Cabraeb Martinez: mastering * Jose Cervantes: photography * Black Ostrich Marketing & Design: art direction, design

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2013 debut albums Albums produced by Terrace Martin Albums produced by 9th Wonder Empire Distribution albums