While promoting the recently released Jimmy The Burnout in Japan, Nocando caught a rush of inspiration being away from his home in Leimert Park, Los Angeles. These things tend to happen to creative types. It happened to James Joyce when he left Ireland. It happened to Dorothy in the land of Oz. For Nocando it was in Osaka.
On “Osaka” the Hellfyre Club founder muses “I’ve been all around the world / so I know there’s no place like home”, noting his roots run deep in Leimert Park—deeper than phony legends like Dom Kennedy (rappers love refuting this self-anointment). Built on the backbone of a jazzy bass line that would fit into a rarities collection from Tribe’s Low End Theory, “Osaka” inspired the jet-lifer Angeleno to dedicate a track to his people reduced to statistics, who are working hard to pay the rent, feed their families, and keep gas in their cars.
Nocando’s Jimmy The Burnout is out now on Hellfyre Club.
