ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

Los Angeles rapper/producer TerraceMartin shares the break-up storythat inspired his latest EP, Here, MyDear.My idea came from the Marvin Gaye recordHere, My Dear, which came out in December1978. He had gone through a crazy divorcewith his ex-wife, and the whole relationshipwas just crazy. He did the record [under] anagreement to give his ex-wife the proceedsand the publishing from the record.I was going through a crazy relationshipmyself, so basically I patterned the wholeproject off of that [idea]. It was a very publicrelationship and it was open to everybody inL.A. Everybody knew about me being withthis crazy girl and everybody had witnesseda lot of bullshit throughout the course of therelationship. One of my friends that witnessedsome of [the bullshit] is a girl named DeviDev [who is also a radio personality]. That’show Devi got involved, ‘cause she came tomy house one night like, “The girl you’re withis crazy. She’s causing scenes. You’re gonnaend up doing a record like Marvin Gaye ifyou continue on with this woman.” Anyway, Igot back with the girl, but when we broke upagain, I went through a crazy ass depression. Ihadn’t been doing any music and then I calledDevi, like, “I want to do my own Here, My Dearproject.” It was the first project where I reallypoured out my heart on the project. It’s verysincere. I did it not caring about radio, not caringabout politics, not caring about niggas orgirls or what anybody said about me, just notcaring and really doing music that hits me inmy spirit and my soul.player in the world. He’s the one that put meon, and he’s a huge guy in L.A., so he’s playingall over the project. A good friend of minenamed Mr. Kenneth Crouch, who is a part ofthe famous Crouch family, is on the record.He’s a famous producer; he played with EricClapton, B.B. King, Mariah Carey, everybodyyou could think of. I wanted to reach out toeverybody cause I was trying to mold thisproject after a lot of Quincy [Jones’] records. Itwasn’t just Quincy producing all those records,he had a team. And that’s what I wanted to do.The biggest ego in the room on this recordwas the music. I reached out to other producers,other keyboard players, other horn players.I just sat back and put the pieces of the puzzletogether, and we have Here, My Dear. It was abeautiful process, ‘cause I also learned how todo a whole body of work, and try to appeal toas many people as I possibly could.[My ex-girl] called me after she heard theproject. There are a few songs that are aimedat her, ‘cause that’s how I felt at the time. Andthose are the songs she said she was extremelyhurt by. And there were other songs thatmade her smile, ‘cause at the end of the day, arelationship whether it’s good or bad, to me,once you come out of it, we all learn something.I like the fact that I learned a lot aboutmyself through that relationship, through her. Idon’t like a lot of the other bullshit she put methrough...The rest of this interview is featured in OzoneMagazine Issue #85:The whole project isn’t about this one girl, butthat kicked off the whole thing. At the end ofday I believe God put that person in my life so Icould take a closer look at myself in the mirrorand learn some things about myself that I’vebeen running from, as far as insecurities, anda lot of other stuff. So I really did this wholeproject as in Here, My Dear, saying I’m givingthe girl this last conversation. I’m giving myold management this last conversation, andI’m giving the old Terrace Martin this lastconversation in this body of work called Here,My Dear.I put hundred and five million percent [into theproject], and this was the first project where Ireached out to a few other musicians. We haveMarion Williams that played guitar on almostevery record, we have Andrew Boucher, heplayed with everybody, he’s my favorite bassOZONE MAG // 29