Thundercat

As a solo performer and sideman on music projects by artists as diverse as Suicidal Tendences, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar, Los Angeles-based bassist Thundercat brought virtuoso music skills and an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz, funk and R&B to such chart-topping albums as Kamasi Washington's The Epic (2015) and Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly. Born Stephen Bruner in Los Angeles, California on October 19, 1984, he hailed from a musical family: his father, Ronald Bruner, Sr., was a prolific drummer who had performed with R&B greats like Diana Ross and the Temptations, while his older brother, dummer Ronald Bruner, Jr., was a jazz prodigy who had played with Kenny Garrett and Ron Carter. Thundercat's instrument of choice was the bass, and as teenagers, he and Ronald played with fellow high school jazz aficionados Kamasi Washington and Cameron Graves in a quartet, the Young Jazz Giants. During this period, the Bruner brothers also played in the venerable Los Angeles thrash-punk band Suicidal Tendencies before Thundercat began collaborating with the influential funk-R&B-hip-hop trio Sa-Ra. Through them, Bruner became an in-demand session player for artists ranging from Snoop Dogg and Bilal to Erykah Badu, who tapped him to play on and tour behind her acclaimed New Amerykah (2008) LP. Thundercat's fluid, fusion-influenced playing was also a key element in a trio of albums by the critically acclaimed rapper/producer Flying Lotus, including his 2008 record Cosmogramma and 2014's You're Dead!.; Flying Lotus returned the favor by producing Thundercat's solo efforts, beginning in 2011 with The Golden Age of Apocalypse, and issuing them through his own label, Brainfeeder. In 2015, he teamed with Washington to perform on his hugely popular The Epic LP before joining him and Flying Lotus to help craft the sound of Kendrick Lamar's chart-topping To Pimp a Butterfly album; Thundercat was credited with introducing elements of '70s jazz fusion to the album's sonic landscape through his bass playing and bringing Sa-Ra's Taz Arnold, who produced three tracks on the album, into the mix. Thundercat returned to his solo career with his third album, Drunk (2017), which featured the single "Show You the Way" with vocals by yacht rock superstars Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald. The album also featured cameos by Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington, and Wiz Khalifa, as well as production by Flying Lotus.