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Charles Mudede on why rapper J.Pinder left Seattle:

What starts to emerge in our conversation is the feeling that Pinder never really connected with or was very close to the scene he was an integral part of, a scene that first learned his name on a compilation released in the mid-'00s by Sportn' Life Records, a label that launched almost all of the current leading black rappers and acts in Seattle—Fatal Lucciauno, D.Black, Spaceman, and Dyme Def. It is this sense of disconnect or distance that is captured so beautifully, even hauntingly, in "Three Words." He loves the city, but he is not a part of what he loves. Pinder drives across downtown when all of its streets are empty.

"I feel like the resources in Seattle are very, very limited when trying to do things that I do. And also, there aren't many people outside of Seattle who are checking what's going on in Seattle. I mean, there are more people talking about Seattle now than ever, but they just have a rough idea of something that's going on—they don't know what is really going on. So the scene is growing, but there is still a point when you just top out. And you have to leave."

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