thundercat’s glum ‘king of the hill’ reflects our days

No, the next Thundercat album is not yet on the horizon. But the man born Stephen Bruner has never been one to sit around twiddling his ring-heavy thumbs. So, here you go — new soft and groovy sounds that encompass everything you love about the extraordinary bassist and soulful songwriter with the sugar-toned croon.

“King of the Hill,” is a brand new track featuring Thundercat’s LA BFF Flying Lotus and the hip-hop-loving Canadian jazzbos, BadBadNotGood (whom you may know from collaborations with Mick Jenkins, Earl Sweatshirt, Danny Brown and other rappers that AFROPUNK readily stans). It’s taken from the upcoming compilation that celebrates the tenth anniversary of Brainfeeder, the Los Angeles label that FlyLo (aka Stephen Ellison) founded to put out music by his friends, and which subsequently helped reshuffle that city’s independent music scene. (Don’t believe us? Dig the roster!)

The track finds Thundercat squarely in the mode he tweaked to perfection on 2017’s Drunk: a hair away from the sensuousness of jazzy Quiet Storm vibes, a pinch too tough for pure Yacht Rock schmalz, and accessing both through the focused lens of serious-music compositions. It is a story of life’s never-ending rollercoaster rides — “You know, ups & downs, strikes & gutters,” is how Bruner describes it. Sounds familiar, yet new and lovely.

Check for the Brainfeeder X comp, full of great new and unreleased music by the label’s roster (and friends), on Bandcamp; it’s officially out on November 16th