Throwback: Happy Black History Month: Thundercat

Today is the fourth day of Black History Month. Because the current administration is racist, fascist and wants to deny the existence and histories of anyone that isn’t cis-het and white, there are some important things everyone should remember during this month — and every single month: 

• You can’t love Black artists and their work, and not see them as people 
• Black lives — and Black art matters 
• Black culture is American culture 

As we go through the month, I’m going to talk about a collection of Black artists. It’ll be fairly comprehensive and eclectic list — although it won’t be a complete list. So far I’ve talked about the following: 

• Big Boi, who celebrated his 51st birthday on February 1
•  Rick James, who was born 78 years ago on February 1
• Sudan Archives, one of the most talented and dynamic artists performing out there today
• The Temptations‘ second and longest tenured lead vocalist Dennis Edwards who was born 83 years ago on February 3

There are very few artists i’ve covered more over the course of this site’s 15+ year history than the critically applauded, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, bassist and JOVM mainstay Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner. Along with equally acclaimed label founder and head Flying Lotus, Thundercat has been a Brainfeeder cornerstone, releasing four commercially and critically successful albums, 2011’s Golden Age of Apocalypse, 2013’s Apocalypse, 2017’s Drunk and 2020’s It Is What It Is.

During that same period, Bruner also established himself as a highly sought-after collaborator, contributing to Kamasi Washington‘s 2015 effort, The Epic, Kendrick Lamar‘s 2016 Grammy Award-winning effort To Pimp A Butterfly, as well as working with the likes of Tame Impala and a lengthy, still growing list of others.

As an artist, he deftly pairs wit, humor, wry observation and Jaco Pastorius-like musicianship. Simply put, my man Thundercat is dope.

I’ve photographed the JOVM mainstay once: Thundercat with Channel Tres at Terminal 5 11/6/21

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The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 15+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have. 

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