I Can't Call It: Drunk - Thundercat

So my dude gets at me the other day like “yo...you heard Thundercat’s new album?” And I’m like “Thunder who? My dude…did you just say Thundercat? Like the cartoon Thundercats? Come on fam.” And he’s like “nah…Thundercat the bass player who played on Kendrick’s “To Pimp A Butterfly.” Now, anybody who knows me, KNOWS that telling me anything or anybody from Kendrick’s “TPAB” will always get my attention.  But I’m still trippin’…dude’s name is really Thundercat? Welp, neither here nor there cause like I said if you had a hand in “TPAB” then I at least owe you the courtesy of checking out your music. No matter how weird your name is or how strange the album cover looks. And the album cover looks pretty fucking strange by the way.

“Drunk” sets off with “Captain Stupido” which has me wondering what the hell my dude has me listening to. Thundercat is singing “I feel weird comb your beard brush your teeth/still feel weird, beat your meat go to sleep” over a bassline that’s reminiscent of 3 Stacks’ “Spread.”And all I can think is what the hell is this dude talking about? But the crazy thing is that by the 2nd time he says it, I find myself  singing a long with it. And the even crazier thing is before you know it, I’ve played this weird ass song 6 times in a row! “Uh Uh” is a straight up funk jazzy cut that has Thundercat losing his mind on the bass, “Bus In These Streets” has Cat breaking down our addiction to technology, “from the minute I wake up I’m staring at the screen, watching the world go insane/gotta stay connected so I know what’s happening in these streets/thank God for technology cause where would we be if we couldn’t tweet our thought” and “A Fan’s Mail” is dope as hell and has Cat talking about he wishes he was a …cat? “I wish I had nine lives, I bet it would feel real nice/sitting in the sun, letting the rays wash over me/no one watching over me, I’d do what I want/everybody wants to be a cat, it’s cool to be a cat” while pieces of Mountain’s Long Red float in the background. “Lava Lamp”  and “Jethro” are both dope & has Cat singing about lost love while “Walk On By” is bonkers and has Cat telling us that “no one wants to drink alone, while K Dot drops jewels, “from my eyewitness binoculars to Argentina and Africa,we mastered the pressure/hazardous, harassing us, you laugh at us/more accurate at bagging dimes, now we bagging rhymes/body bags, price tags on your forehead, nine times out of ten, young niggas are nine or ten/when the line becomes thin, be a killer or fireman, fill up the lavish pen if I needed to right my wrongs, I can’t deny sin condolences through these palms.”

 

“Tokyo” speaks on Cat’s love affair with the country, “Friend Zone” has Cat telling a shorty "don't call me or text me after 2am unless you plan on giving me some" while "Where I'm Going" will remind of the bassline of Mary's "What's The 411" with Puba for a hot sec. "Drink Dat" slows everything down and invites Wiz to the party to, "the night is almost over but we still wanna party, ain't no one in here sober the weed I'm rolling gnarly/these b-tches love Sosa, these niggas want some molly, I'm just chillin gettin' high as fuck looking boss in my cacalli." "3am" has Cat dealing with the fact that he can't go to sleep "cause the streets are still calling him", the album's title cut has Cat talking about "drowning the pain, til I'm totally numb/sometimes you want to feel alive, but not on someone else's time" while "The Turn Down" featuring Pharrell deals with everything from pollution, racism and classicism to race, sexual preference and all lives matter vs. black lives matter. "Hi" featuring Mac Miller ends "Drunk" & I'm gonna keep it funky with ya'll...I have absolutely no idea what these two are talking about. Like, I REALLY have no idea...at all smdh. But when it comes to my favorite banger on "Drunk" we're actually talking about two songs, with the album's first single "Show You The Way" and "Them Changes." 

Now for "Show You The Way" the first time I heard it I was trippin' cause after his first verse Cat says "tell 'em how you feel Kenny...Kenny Loggins." Hold tight, did this dude just say Kenny Loggins? Like "This Is It" Kenny Loggins from the 80's? Nah, this can't be THAT Kenny Loggins. Then the next thing I know Cat says "ladies and gentlemen, Michael McDonald." Hold tight...now did this nigga says Michael McDonald?!?!? Like Doobie Brothers Michael McDonald? Nah...this dude really gotta be drunk and doing some damn good impressions. But come to find out this dude really does have Kenny Loggins AND Michael McDonald on the same track and it's bonkers! And when it comes to "Them Changes" it just flat out BANGS! Jacking the drums from the Isley Brothers' "Footsteps In The Dark" gives Cat the perfect canvas to break down heartbreak in one of the illest ways, "nobody move there's blood on the floor and I can't find my heart/where did it go did I leave it in the cold, so please give it back cause it's not yours to take/it must've fell when I lost my mind, deep in the cut drowning in a pain/somebody help cause I can't find my way, nobody move."

So, just how dope or how weird is “Drunk?” Well, for starters it sounds like someone recorded it while they were drunk, no pun intended. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hell, I know artists who couldn’t make anything remotely dope while they’re sober so maybe, just maybe Thundercat is onto something with this whole drunk thing. The crazy thing is that no matter how crazy the album cover looks or how crazy the music sounds, “Drunk” is a solid album. Now, I won't hold you even though the average song is only 2 minutes, 24 tracks is a helluva lot of tracks and by the end of the album I am kinda all "drunked" out. But the best way to explain “Drunk” in my humble opinion is to use the immortal words of the Beatnuts and Eric B & Rakim, in that it’s a musical massacre. But massacre in a good way…like “not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good” kinda massacre. Get it? 

3.5 outta 5 mics