Derrick Hodge is a bass player, arranger, conductor, and he’s worked with a TON of huge artists, at the highest level possible. I recently posted a video on Digging The Greats breaking down Common’s album “Be” - Derrick played that bass intro on the album and arranged the strings you hear.

Other artists he’s worked with: Robert Glasper, Jill Scott, Mos Def, The Juneteenth Celebration at the Hollywood Bowl, The Oscars, Q Tip, the list goes on and on. We talk about his work with all these artists, his approach to music in general, and his most recent album, The Color of Noize, and his current tour.

We first connected a few years ago because he did arrangements for the orchestral performance of Nas’ Illmatic, playing bass on the original performance at the Kennedy Center. As a current member of Nas’ band, this is a show I’ve played many times since, so I sent Derrick a message a few years ago the first time I played it, and now here we are, nerding out about music and the bass… this was such a great conversation. 

Follow Derrick Online: 
https://derrickhodge.com/
https://www.instagram.com/dhodgeworld/?hl=en
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1jvBVqm4g5Jk8tEmKoYoes?si=WPL4WL-wTRat77RMlsFocg