Pushing Against the Darkness

Thundercat is serious about never losing his sense of play, and his new album is both virtuosic and fun.

- CRAIG JENKINS

MANY OF THE notable hip-hop, soul, jazz, and funk records of the past decade and a half share a fingerprint. The nexus joining the intricate grooves of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and DAMN.; Kamasi Washington’s Heaven and Earth and The Epic; Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah diptych; Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer; and records by Mac Miller, Flying Lotus, Childish Gambino, Travis Scott, and many more is the fleet six-string fretwork of bassist, producer, and singer-songwriter Stephen Bruner, a.k.a. Thundercat. Thundercat plays notes like pregnant clouds spill sheets of rain. His songs are virtuosic but also playful in the same way that classic funk marries elite musicianship with carefree moods and relatable themes. I met Thundercat on a crisp February day on the Lower East Side—back when you could do such things—to talk about his new album, It Is What It Is. What followed was a conversation about comedy, loss, sobriety, the then-looming threat of the coronavirus (his tour with openers Guap dad 4000 and Teejayx6 is among the long list of cancellations), and the wonderfully weird future of swag rap.

Last year, you toured and played on a few records. What else did you get into?

I took some time to revamp and look at myself and turn things into something else. I stopped drinking. You know, just life changes.

How did ditching alcohol change your life?

Immediately, I lost a lot of weight. It was kind of scary for people who were friends of mine, because they thought I was on drugs or something.

I wondered if, on some level, Drunk was about having a little too much fun.