Hip-hop favorite J. Bu$h explores his own ‘Heartland’ with ‘Tanasi’
Anybody who knows Jarius Bush knows he’s a guy with a big heart and a brain full of big ideas. Performing and recording as J.Bu$h, he’s a bright light in the regional hip-hop/rap scene. A member of the late, lamented Knoxville act The Theorizt, and a founding member of the music artist association The Good Guy Collective, he’s become a familiar and welcome face and voice in East Tennessee.
While he’s always been known for quality projects, his new album “Tanasi” is another step up in his journey as an artist. It embraces his place in East Tennessee and his connection to its geography and history.
“It really challenged me as an MC and a songwriter,” says Bush.
It’s a little bit of a revelation. Hip-hop is not generally associated with themes about rural areas or hiking – as one of Bush’s incredulous friends insists in a phone call that Bush included on the track “Outside,” that’s “caucasian stuff!”
Bush, however, has no shame in claiming his piece of the Smoky Mountains.
“I felt like hip-hop formed more in the Northern areas, but this was about where I’m from,” says Bush.
Bush is no stranger to heavy, personal topics. “Tanasi” is a follow-up to “The Shape Up,” which was about Bush’s trip to San Francisco to try and find his brother, who was suffering from drug addiction, and trying to convince him to come home. Just as Bush arrived in a state he’d never visited before, he found out that his friend Alonzo Rodgers had been killed. All that, plus a reappreciation for his hometown after visiting California, figured into that album.
“Tanasi,” though, is more elemental. Bush dedicates chapters in the album to Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Spirit. And there’s a familiar and surprising voice that pops up throughout the work: Bill Landry, host of the beloved WBIR program “The Heartland Series.” Bush grew up watching the series and was captivated. The features ran from 1984 to 2009 and presented histories of the mountains, the Cherokee, moonshiners, craftspeople and all manner of just plain rural folks.
“I thought it would be cool if he’d done a feature on the ‘hood,” says Bush.
Landry’s work stuck with him and came back when Bush started writing the songs that became “Tanasi.”
“I wrote a lot of it while hiking. I’d hiked a bit but never went any deeper. Then during one hike, my son and I were going up to Mount LeConte, and I just heard Bill Landry’s voice. We got to a [lookout] spot, and that’s when the idea hit me.”
It was on that LeConte hike that Bush wrote the song “God Water.”
“In the ‘Air’ part, part of it was written at the top of Max Patch,” says Bush. “And I wrote a lot of it while watching ‘The Heartland Series’ [episodes] about the history of the Cherokee. On the song ‘Nativez,” I had a lot of Native American voices.”
It was the Cherokee who named Tennessee, which they pronounced “Tanasi.”
“It means ‘where the waters meet,'” which I think is really cool,” says Bush.
He found that a lot of Cherokee history and culture was adaptable to the history and culture of Black East Tennesseans. Cherokee references are sprinkled throughout the work, including the Cherokee story about a raven bringing fire to humans.
All this seems unusual in the hip-hop world, but Bush says it’s right in line with how the genre developed.
“Young people would cultivate this artform by taking their parents’ records, and then they’d chop them up and make something new.”
Bush wanted to create a work that truly represented where he was from. He wanted to capture what it is like to be in the mountains, the spirituality and what he felt in the places he considers home.
“Authenticity. That’s what I love about art in general. That’s always the goal.”
Bush says he thought he was done with the project a year ago, but his friends in The Good Guy Collective suggested that he should release it in sections throughout the year. During that time, he came up with an entirely new section, “Fire,” which is one of the most powerful and personal-sounding sections of the work. It’s only this month that the creation can be heard in its entirety.
“Tanasi” is filled with musical guests, including Kelle Jolly, Black Atticus, Jorden Albright, Lane Shuler, Mr. Kobayashi, Alli Bradley, Drew Drake, Michael Deon, Melanie LaFoy (of Nightjar), Benji III, GeterDaSinger, Sonata Lee Cantata and Esoess. The instruments on the album include banjos, Native American flute and all manner of samples. There’s as much sung vocals as rap, and Bush’s bars can be so smooth that it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference. And themes flow through the album, recurring here and there and making it feel like a journey.
Bush says he hopes listeners find some inspiration in the work.
“I hope people feel rooted or grounded with where they are – right now in the present. I want people to feel at home in their own bodies and know they can become a better version of themselves.”
Bush says his next work will not be as conceptual. “The Shape Up” was about grief, and “Tanasi” is about “elemental self-transformation … The next will not be as high-stakes. I look forward to making music that’s more fun.”
One thing Bush does plan to continue doing is hiking. He and his friend Bill Murrah, one of the people who helps run The Birdhouse, where the Good Guy Collective meet, hike regularly, and Bush is convincing skeptical friends to get out in the woods, as well. He says getting away from digital media is particularly important right now.
“In this digital world, we’re so concerned with what’s on the internet, but it’s all in the past. Whatever we’re looking at is something that’s already happened. This is about being present.”
What: J.Bu$h with Mr. Kobayashi, Jorden Albright, Lane Shuler, DJ.Drewskii, and more
When: 10 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 13
Where: Barley’s, 200 E. Jackson Ave.
Tickets: $20 advance, $25 at the door
