Justin Davis (aka Jdav), recently dropped his own spoken word album titled The Leftovers on his birthday, February 11th, 2024. Yeah, pretty badass, right? The album is a follow-up project to an album him and I released in 2022 called The Funnies, which is a beautiful combination of my mellow harmonies and Jdav's eloquent lyricism. While struggling to decide upon the opening track, we elected to go with a piece dubbed Impoverished War Machine, which holds an interesting background and a Jdav-esque nature.
While listening to a popular radio station around the DMV, Magic 102.3 ("the real sound of the DMV"), I miraculously got a call through to speak my mind on a topic that was being discussed adamantly by a reputable radio host, the legend himself, Mr. Donnie Simpson. Donnie spoke about the injustices within the United States and the widening disparities among income and resources invested into other countries to fuel war while simultaneously defunding policies and programs poised at supporting and building a sustainable economy on their own soil. Due to the monstrosities, Donnie often referred to the US as an “Impoverished War Machine.” After discussing the unique transaction with Jdav, inspiration hit, and the rest is history.
Another fun fact about Impoverished is the background of the production. The opening guitar loop was sampled from another talented musician named Kojau. Kojau created the cover art for The Funnies and The Leftovers and is also an amazing producer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. The remainder of the song after the introduction was produced and spit-boxed by the randy man himself, Tom Smulowitz (aka Smully), who kindly let me sample and mix the production. Smully is a wizard on the instruments whose had his hand on a plethora of projects over the years, creating classic collaborations such as Soldier, Smoke & Instruments, and Valley Lights, and even other tracks throughout The Leftovers like The Right Way. Therefore, it was, dare I say, The Right Way to include Smully in the incredible music video for Impoverished, which was created solely by a true artist who brought the imagination of Impoverished War Machine to life… the one and only… Tory Van Dine!
With regards,
B.o.n.e.