Open windows and closed doors
All the pretty lights and sounds to open up the night
Friends, they come and go
That's okay, I'm kind of bored
Let's go hard, get drunk, and travel down a rabbit hole
- Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorious, Mary Lou Williams, Ron Carter, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller
Stephen Bruner (born October 19, 1984) is an American bassist, singer and songwriter known professionally as Thundercat. Bruner would grow up apart of a musical family with his father in particular being a drummer for artists such as Diana Ross. Bruner himself would join a boy band called No Curfew in his teen years and the punk band Suicidal Tendencies with his brother Ronald Jr. playing bass for them from 2002 up until 2013. Bruner would also play bass for acclaimed musicians such as Kamasi Washington, Erykah Badu and Flying Lotus during this timeframe, building his reputation as a groove-heavy bassist with diverse roots in jazz, punk and R&B.
Although he would release two records within the 2010s (his debut record The Golden Age of Apocalypse and the critically acclaimed Apocalypse), what would send him into mainstream audiences minds and mouths would be his noted collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on his seminal record, To Pimp A Butterfly. This album had him contribute vocals and bass to various tracks, most notably "These Walls" for which he was awarded a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Performance in 2015. He would then release an EP entitled The Beyond / Where the Giants Roam, which would yield "Them Changes", a song based around a drum sample originally from The Isley Brothers that would end up being one of the most noted tracks from his solo output.
He would later release his third album, Drunk in 2017 with varied featured appearances from Mac Miller to Michael McDonald. A chopped-and-screwed version of the album (done by OG Ron C and DJ Candlestick) called Drank the following year. By the end of the 2010s, Thundercat had added to his session credits with contributions to albums by Childish Gambino, Mac Miller, Janelle Monáe, Danny Brown, and many others. He would enter the 2020s with his fourth proper album, It Is What It Is, featuring contributions from Ty Dolla $ign and Steve Arrington.
You'll probably also pick up from the numerous anime references in his lyrics that he is most certainly One of Us.
Discography:
- The Golden Age of Apocalypse (2011)
- Apocalypse (2013)
- The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam EP (2015)
- Drunk (2017)
- It Is What It Is (2020)
Nobody move, there's tropes on the page
- Bookends: "Rabbot Ho" and "DUI" on Drunk both use the same melody, making the record structurally-circular and implying that Thundercat is starting his drunk escapades again.
- Casanova Wannabe: The music video for "Dragonball Durag" shows Thundercat trying to impress Quinta Brunson, Kali Uchis and HAIM, only to get rejected by all of them (save for one of the Haim sisters), which also ties in with the song's lyrical theme.
- Day in the Life: "Captain Stupido" focusses on an evening routine that the singer is stuck in and constantly feels "weird".
- Dark Reprise: The coda for "Is It Love?" is a more somber reprise of "MmmHmm" from Flying Lotus's Cosmogramma, an album in which Thundercat prominently featured.
- Design Student's Orgasm:
- The interior sleeves for the vinyl box set of Drunk are adorned with images such as a vortex of multiple copies of Thundercat's face, an ominous image of a car covered in bloodstains, a cat's head in the middle of brightly-coloured waves, and a kaleidoscopic collage of eyeballs, false teeth, doritos, T-rexs, drones, AK-47s and viagara pills. And that's just the outer sleeves.
- The 10th anniversary vinyl reissue of The Golden Age of Apocalypse redesigns the cover to add a shiny lenticular 3D effect to the logo, surrounded by a set of shiny debossed rings of smaller versions of the logo.
- Down the Rabbit Hole: "Rabbot Ho", the opening track on Drunk, uses a rabbit hole as a metaphor for intentionally getting disoriented through alcoholic intoxication and drug use after feeling "kind of bored".
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: Thundercat is fond of eclectic outfits consisting of a seemingly random mishmash of various anime shirts and merchandise
, headwear that he found in the garbage, flashy statement pieces from expensive brands like Gucci, and lots of jewelry. - It Was a Gift: Before Ibanez began offering a mass-produced version, Bruner's iconic bassnote was hand-made for him by master luthier Mike Tobias, and given to him as a teenager.
- Location Song: The first half of "Tokyo" is devoted to all the things he wants to do around Tokyo. The second half takes a more depressing turn, even referencing Aokigahara Forest.
- Lyrical Dissonance: No matter how chill and/or funky his songs tend to be, that won't stop the lyrics from being incredibly depressing:
- The second half of "Tokyo" revolves around his despair over a failed sexual encounter, how guilty he feels after that, and how his obsession with Tokyo (and Japanese culture) started at an early age and "ruined" him.
- "Them Changes", for all its effect-laden grooving, still contains lyrics relating to heartbreak after a toxic relationship (and the imagery in the music video helps in that regard too).
- Mile-High Club: "Overseas" has Thundercat suggest this to someone, followed by the captain of his flight noticing him, and then recognising him from his chains and durag.
- Ode to Intoxication: "Oh Sheit It's X" is one concerning a particularly memorable New Year's Eve party after using ecstasy.
- Remix Album: Drunk received one in the form of Drank from OG Ron C and DJ Candlestick.
- Samurai: Two samurai show up fighting each other in the music video for "Them Changes", as one of several visual metaphors about a toxic relationship.
- Shout-Out: He's fond of referencing anime, video games and cartoons of multiple kinds.
- An obvious one, his stage name references Thundercats, with the opening track on The Golden Age of Apocalypse sampling Lion-O's catchphrase. His logo even resembles a front-facing variation on the Thundercats insignia, especially when coloured red.
- The cover art for Drunk was designed to replicate the aesthetic of Charles Bronson movies.
- "Friend Zone" on Drunk namedrops Mortal Kombat and Diablo.
- Apocalypse has a song named "Evangelion" with lyrics inspired by the show's major themes.note
- Single-Stroke Battle: Downplayed with the two samurai in the music video for "Them Changes". They do end up trading blows before one manages to decapitate the other in a single strike.
- Stalker with a Crush: Played for Laughs in the music video for "Dragonball Durag". Thundercat's constant attempts at seducing women from afar involve him making greeting gestures while on a scooter sipping a Capri-Sun, awkwardly moonwalking up to someone while they're trying to take a phone call, dancing outside someone's window (even as she calls 911) and jumping out of a dumpster. The latter seems like it nearly works before she gets casually pulled away by her other friends.
- Stylistic Suck: The music video for "Tron Song" would not seem out of place in a Tim & Eric show. Appropriately enough, it was directed by Eric André.
*fart*
I think I left my wallet at the club...
