Song Exploder - Busdriver - Worlds to Run

Episode Date: May 24, 2016

Busdriver is a rapper from Los Angeles, and since 2001, he's been releasing albums with a signature hyperliterate, intellectual style. But over a decade later, Busdriver has found himself reaching for something more intimate and personal. In this episode, he breaks down the 2015 song "Worlds to Run," along with the track's producer, Kenny Segal. It features guest vocals from Anderson Paak and Milo, and you'll hear how their contributions shaped Busdriver's vision for the song.

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirwe. This episode contains explicit language. Bus Driver is a rapper from Los Angeles, and since 2001, he's been releasing albums with a signature, hyper-literate intellectual style. But over a decade later, bus drivers found himself reaching for something more intimate and personal. In this episode, he breaks down the 2015 song Worlds to Run, along with the tracks producer, Kenny Siegel. It features guest vocals from Anderson Pack and Milo. And coming up, you'll hear how their contributions shaped Bus Driver's vision for the song.

years and has been my engineer since 2008 or nine. I first heard the beat for Worlds to Run in Kenny's studio. It was just playing us something that he was working on. And it was pretty simple and it was really just elegant. I'm Kenny Siegel. I initially just kind of like looped up this little acoustic guitar loop. I added the drums that night. A group that I work with a lot called Penthouse, Pennhouse. They came over to record a song for themselves, and that day, we plugged my friend's guitar into the SB 404. The SB 404 is this little sampler, and it was like this crazy aha moment, because it made the guitar sound like this old sample. So I added the drums, and then I was like, what's the next element to add? I raided that session I'd just done with Penthouse, Penthouse, so I chopped up a bunch of those guitars from that other song,

and that kind of lays the backbone chords of the whole song was those chopped up guitars of Mike Parvizi from Penthouse-Penhouse playing through the SB 404. The beat, there was just like a depth to it that was suggested in like this dustiness that kind of had an emotional longing in it. At the time I was doing a lot of songs with Milo, a rapper from Milwaukee. They had a really good chemistry.

Someone like Milo, he tends to give songs and emotional root. I tend to put a lot of information in songs, so I like to work with him because he allows me to take the same idea and go on the other end of it. We heard the beat, and then Milo wrote his rap, and he did it right then.

It's slack jaw, mealy mouth, I mumble when I'm round the house, I'm trying not to do no chores today. Crying in my underwear, I lost my sense of wonder there. No, I'm not Milan Cundera. Though this lightness is unbearable, the feeling is indelible, I'm wishing I could teleport somewhere. And once Milo did his verse on it, almost like instantly, it formed just a bed of this just like broad, emotional context that you can draw from.

When he laid his verse, it definitely informed what I wrote. That refrain, I can run the world from my mama's house. I can run the world from my mama's house. I can run the world from my mama's house. I can run the world. It was really kind of drawing from Milo's sentiment when he comes in to the song, or at least what I interpreted as the sentiment.

Just the feeling of it. Crying in my underwear, I lost my sense of wonder there. Crying in my underwear, I lost my sense of wonder there, just kind of this dealing with very personal matters, you know, holding things close to the I'm, chess. I know the only thing I can think of was my mom and trying to make things happen in agency. I was trying so desperately to like find like the heart and something that seems so declarative and tough. Like I can run the world from my mama's house. I can't, you know, like I can do it if I try,

you know. I can run the world for my mama's house. I can run the world. The first thing that we wrote was the deep in the raw part that I sing. When you deep in the raw, there's only so much truth you can keep in your jaw. When you deep in the raw, there's only so much truth you can keep in your jaw until it bleeds through the wall. I was thinking of what kind of metaphor I can use, you know, just using like jaw and mouth and using all these corporal metaphors of just the body. I'm using raw in that way, deep in the raw.

I think I was reading about film editing and someone referred to the film stock as the raw. And I was like, oh shit, that's amazing. Let's get deep in the raw. I was like, oh, wow, that's it. You know? So I just went with that. I asked Anderson Pack to kind of help and interpret what we were doing. And he interpreted the head that I wrote and did his own version.

When you deep in the raw, everybody wants to get a piece. of your heart, there's only so much truth you can keep in your vault. Speak your peace, but was it too harsh? He's such a good studio guy, he got it instantly, you know, and was able to take my seed idea, and make it his own and, you know, make it way better. Anderson Pack was never in the studio with us. I was just on the phone with him. And he's like, how's this? And I'm like, oh my God, you're brilliant. Having Anderson Pack was a huge asset, you know, for that chorus,

chorus I wanted the chorus to be big and dynamic and anna's sympathetic really leaned in with some amazing vocals it was just and I never structured a chorus like how we did in worlds to run we were going to replace my part with his part just jettison my part but when we heard it all we're like oh all this kind of complements everything let's move these parts around and there are all these moving parts and we kind of swirled them around Keep in the raw. Everybody wants to get a piece of your heart. There's only so much truth you can keep in your vault.

Speak your peace, but words are too harsh. There's only so much truth you can keep in your job. I'm what you're saying. I can run the world from my mama's house. I can run the world for my mom's house. So the chorus is really alive for me. You know, it's not really like, here's the hook. Copy and paste it.

Copy and paste it, hook. I know I'm getting older. I know this is going to come to an end, but it's a good state of mind to filter in through songs. But yes, my daughter is old enough to vote, so I put that in there. Driver old this, my daughter, old enough to vote. My daughter, old enough to vote.

Just kind of, once again, like a boast, like I say it in a boastful way, driver old as fuck, my daughter old enough to vote, rap songs blowing up on the coast. Like, what? What? cool. So you got an old-ass kid?

Wait a minute. I guess that's our writing style. Aggressive bravado behind ridiculous things to say. I'm talking about my mother and my daughter. I'm touching on the core of my existence. And I wanted to be personal and personable and reveal something about myself because I thought the song was so beautiful. It needs something.

But getting personal on songs. is uncomfortable for me. Like, I try to make sure people don't know it's me. You know what I mean? Like, that's how my act started, a stylistic mask. But my writing style has changed,

and I try to put more heart into it. And so I try to bleed it out more. And I was really focused on home for the song. That was really a thing with me. And I guided the song, but there's a lot of beauty on there that I didn't prompt. Like, I didn't tell Mr. Carmack what to play.

He did that with Kenny. They did all the horn stuff. It was just one of those songs that all of my musician friends that live with me or like come and hang out at my house, everyone wanted to kind of play on it. So my roommate, Mr. Carmack, he heard it. And I think the actual melody was just something he heard and came up with. It was just one of those magical music moments. That's the type of stuff that people often don't associate with rap music, like moments.

Like there's a moment here It's a musical moment too It's like oh Sometimes people Not people I mean me myself also I don't know The limitations of rap

Seems so daunting It's like you can't do this It's like The truth is You can do whatever And now here's worlds to run By bus driver In its entirety

It's slack jaw milly mouth I mumble when I'm around the house I'm trying not to to do no chores today. Crying in my underwear, I lost my sense of wonder there. No, I'm not Milan Cunderra. Though the slightness is unbearable, the feeling is indelible,

I'm wishing I could teleport somewhere. Trans-molecular rise through the secular eye. I remember when Vegeta stomped Bardock's neck into prayer hands to the heavens, good Lord bless him. I was a broke slob watching Ghost Dog writing post hoc. If I could muster just one good throat chop And honor my shidosci Cause dem mock means death touch

I bin Spock, I've been clutch And thin socks I'm butt hurt Impervious pervert With niggurish fervor Crashing your Linux server Who didn't change his laundry over Who needs to buy toilet paper Indie rapper sort of faker

Because I couldn't afford a mortgage Orrsteude a baker Because I couldn't afford a mortgage Over stewed a baker So the stink lunacy My roll the rings and sink But the jinks that I have me sink The moon in the sea.

Who is he? With a silent cleaning tray. Yeah, I can do this my way. Find out more about bus driver. Visit songexploader.net. You'll find all the past episodes of the podcast there too. You can also subscribe to Song Exploder on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you download podcasts. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th.

It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full ink. And this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh, Her Way. I started making songs. Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby,

Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Robe. I'm going to be on touring in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Malina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs were out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co.

Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. Next time on Song Exploder, Old Crow Medicine Show. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent creative podcasts. Learn more at Radiotopia.fm, and you can find SongExploder on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. My name is Rishi K. Sherway. Thanks for listening. The service went the way it should have gone. No one talked too loud or cried too long, except your mama's new boyfriend.

He went on and on while they laid you in the ground. Radiotopia.