"Rush Hour '98" ("I've Been Thinking..." THOUGHT PROCESS Series 8/12)
“I've Been Thinking...” behind the
songs “THOUGHT PROCESS SERIES”
My latest full length album, “I've Been Thinking...” released on the Savannah based label Dope Sandwich Records and Tapes May 3rd is a collection of
concepts and narratives that I've written over the last few years
featuring instrumental contributions from coast to coast and outside
of the country as well. Looking over the collection I'd opine that
it is some of my finest work to date (one would hope). What have you
been thinking? Over 12 days I'll be releasing a behind-the-music
sort of blurb for each track! If there are any questions or comments
regarding the songs please submit them and I'll do my best to answer
and fulfill them! I hope this series is of interest and that the
music does something for you!
"Rush Hour '98" is the shortest song and the only reflectively, entirely truthful narrative on the album. The instrumental was crafted by Oxnard, CA producer Wise1. Wise 1 and I have collaborated on two other songs, one unreleased narrative, and another for Wise 1's project which I put out as a limited edition release for my 27th birthday. I liked that Wise 1's instrumental made for a small vignette, a simple backdrop with, what feels to me like a bit of a traditional hip hop and maybe nostalgic feel.
As I mentioned in the "Zoned Out "write-up of this series a couple of days ago, working outdoors with my hands over the years has often provided me with a lot of time to think and has helped me to work out a lot of ideas. One one such laborious outdoor day in autumn of 2013, while I was evicting vines from bushes of an estate on the Nissequogue River and my mind was "wool gathering" I had a distinct memory from elementary school, when I went with my friends and cousins in theaters to see the Chris Tucker//Jackie Chan classic, we went back to school and throughout the day, and at recess everyone would hangout on this big soccer field and so we hung out and to impress our friends we repeated all these funny moments and lines we remembered to make people laugh. The key/wrong scene that got repeated was THIS POOL HALL SCENE and replicating the use of "the N word" no real understanding of why at the time. The whole memory was very vivid and played out new in my mind. I was entirely lost in the thoughts and feeling guilty and thinking about how impacting this experience could have been (must have been) for that young kid. It brought up a lot of ideas, the "loss of innocence", the power of subtle things, the power of words and being careful how to wield them or knowing that they surely are something of true weight. How small moments can turn dark and influence and possibly haunt people/inform their decisions and interactions later in life.
I ran over to my car and got my notebook out and the words to the song came very fast to me, so I moved to my phone to catch up, and I jumped back and forth between the two and I finished the piece that day. Then I reached out to Wise1 after hearing some of his work on the internet. I sat with the song for a while as I worked on other projects as I'd initially saved it for the non-fiction concept project "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" that I brought up in the "Roamer" write up yesterday. I started performing it around at shows and so this is probably the song with the most performance mileage on it as far as the album goes.
You may wonder why I chose to change the project and release this song now? The quicker answer was that I was antsy and it and felt bad that Wise1 contributed an instrumental to a song that seemed to immediately get vaulted. The other part of the story is that when my friend and Dope Sandwich figurehead, Dope KNife came around on tour to Long Island with Miggs and D.o.drent October 2015, I had already been invited to work on an album (which clearly became "I've Been Thinking...") for the label. I performed "Rush Hour '98" at a few of the shows while they were here, and the guys really seemed to like it and commented as much several times. Their flattering sentiments and the poignancy of the song's racially minded message given the horrendous influx of everything the internet has been showing us (that has most horrifically and assuredly happening all along but the cameras and the social media spread this information more surely) with the heightened murderous danger and racism among cops and just the social climate of prejudice of all sorts in general even outside of the black community and issues of race, issues of gender inequality and the baffling abundance of intolerance of the LGBT community.
As for tracking the song, I didn't want to do any overdubbed vocal layers, any in-studio punches or fancy approaches or mixes. The song is just one unaltered take, you'll even hear my voice breaking a little bit from being scratchy from shows and other takes that weekend. I wanted this particular song to be straight and vulnerable and "casual" or to feel exactly as real as it is, just a man reminiscing and telling an important story.
Be careful what you say, you never know what it might mean to those listening. Hope I've said something of meaning to those of you who continue to listen. Love one another. That is all there is. We are all one after all hm?!
With love,
-Bruce "AllOne" Pandolfo
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO "RUSH HOUR '98" or stream it on the embedded player below:
PLEASE ALSO ENJOY THIS LIVE PERFORMANCE OF "Rush Hour '98" FEATURING Megan "MC BEATS///The Beatbox Queen" Costa and my new performer in crime DJ BMO
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