Biography
Before gaining wider recognition from his contributions to Kendrick Lamar's platinum-certified, Grammy-winning To Pimp a Butterfly, Los Angeles trumpeter and composer Josef Leimberg already possessed an extensive professional background. He first surfaced in the early '90s as part of the short-lived rap outfit Mad Kap, a King Tee-affiliated crew counted among Loud Records' earliest signings. Following that group's lone album, Leimberg moved into session work. Through the balance of the '90s and the start of the 2000s, his playing appeared on projects by Volume 10, Busdriver, Freestyle Fellowship, and Snoop Dogg. His profile rose in the late 2000s and early 2010s thanks to striking contributions on Erykah Badu's New Amerykah, Pt. 1, Sa-Ra's Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love, and Shafiq Husayn's Shafiq En' A-Free-Ka, as well as several Robin Thicke releases. Subsequent collaborations with Big K.R.I.T. and Funkadelic led to Leimberg co-writing, co-producing, and performing on "How Much a Dollar Cost" and "You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said)," two standout deep cuts from To Pimp a Butterfly. The following year he assembled fellow To Pimp a Butterfly contributors Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, and Bilal, plus Jimetta Rose, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, to record his debut album, Astral Progressions. Issued in October 2016 on the World Galaxy label, the set blended spiritual and cosmic jazz with soul and hip-hop.