BadBadNotGood - III (2014 Original US Innovative Leisure 2LP Gatefold)

BadBadNotGood - III | 2 x Vinyl LP - 2014 Original US Innovative Leisure Gatefold (IL2019, Stan Ricker Mastering / Rainbo Records)

• BadBadNotGood's third album and first record of entirely original compositions
• The album that established BBNG as a compositional force — moving from their earlier reputation as interpreters of hip-hop classics into original jazz-funk fusion with krautrock and electronic production textures
• "Can't Leave the Night" became the opening theme for the Netflix series Lockwood & Co. in 2023; the album was longlisted for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize

BadBadNotGood — Chester Hansen on bass, Matthew Tavares on keyboards and Alexander Sowinski on drums — formed at Humber College in Toronto in 2010 and spent their first two albums working through hip-hop source material with jazz musicianship. III, released in May 2014, was their first record of entirely original compositions. The shift is audible immediately. The nine tracks move between jazz-funk grooves, lush balladry, electronic texture and modal improvisation without committing to any single genre frame. Frank Dukes, who would go on to produce for Drake, Kendrick Lamar and others, co-produced the album at Revolution Recording and HalfPad69 Studios. Leland Whitty, then still a guest contributor rather than a full member, appears on saxophone, bass clarinet and violin on "Confessions" (B3). Additional contributions come from a trumpeter (T. Moffat) and a string player (T. Paxton) across the nine pieces.

"Can't Leave the Night" (A2) became the opening theme for the 2023 Netflix series Lockwood & Co., bringing a late audience to a record that had already found its listeners through jazz, hip-hop and the intersection between them. The album ends with "CS60" (D9), a closer built around the Yamaha CS-60 synthesizer. BBNG would go on to collaborate with Ghostface Killah on Sour Soul (2015), with Arthur Verocai, and with Kendrick Lamar, Charlotte Day Wilson and others; III is the pivot point where the compositional ambition became clear. The lacquer was cut at Stan Ricker Mastering — Ricker was known particularly for his half-speed mastering work — and pressed at Rainbo Records in Los Angeles.