PORT TOWNSEND — A North Olympic Peninsula man has recorded a rap song commemorating the Seattle Seahawks.
Unlike fellow Port Townsend musician Brett Pemberton’s “We Are the Mariners,” Rodney Just’s “12th Man Stand” won’t be heard at CenturyLink Field.
But it is available online at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Seahawks-Rap, where it is tentatively titled “Seahawks Song.”
The two-minute 23-second slow groove is not a fight song and would not be appropriate stadium music fare, and there are no plans by the team for its use, said Just, a grocery team leader at the Food Co-op.
“I sent it to a few radio stations, but it’s not really going anywhere at this point,” said Just, 33.
“But I put it on my website so people could hear it.”
Just is the second Port Townsend resident to write and record a tribute song for a Seattle team.
Pemberton, who is both a musician and a model, became involved in creating a Seattle Mariners’ theme song when the team’s management approached Queensryche guitarist Parker Lundgren, who also hails from Port Townsend.
Lundgren in turn contacted Pemberton who then recruited local musician/producer Pete Lack to create the beat-heavy “We Are the Mariners,” which will be played as background for in-stadium highlight reels during the 2014 season, Pemberton said Friday.
The song was previewed at a Dec. 20 event in Port Townsend, which also featured a performance by Just.
After some final remixing, the song will be delivered to Mariners’ management by the end of January, Pemberton said.
Just wrote the rap song in a few hours, blending his interests in sports and music, and recorded it himself using a computer and rap effects.
A sample lyric: “We are the best in the West/ go and ask the 12th man and if you don’t believe them go ask San Fran.”
Just has been to all of the home games this year except one, the 17-10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Dec. 22.
He attended Saturday’s game against the New Orleans Saints, which the Seahawks won, 23-15.
Just, who graduated from Port Townsend High School in 1998, was bitten by the football bug when he was in eighth grade and the school team played one quarter of an exhibition game in the Kingdome.
His first job in high school was as a bag boy at the Port Townsend Safeway.
He left town after graduation and explored the country while working at different grocery chains and moving up to management positions.
Throughout he has pursued music as a hobby, releasing four albums on his website, www.MezziahRecords.com, under the name “The Lyrical Mezziah.”
The music falls within standard hip-hop parameters for the initiated, but the message is more positive than many popular artists, Just said.
“My music is pretty much all positive and uplifting,” he said.
“I want to do hip-hop as it once was, to embrace positive changes and be a little more calm and methodical than other artists.”
Just said he doesn’t listen to a lot of hip-hop and can’t provide an answer to the inevitable question about his influences the way that people expect.
He prefers listening to indie rock but likes to perform and record hip-hop because of its lyricism and literacy, along with the challenge of rhyming words and beats.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
