In what might be the ongoing adventure of Marsellus Wallace’s soul, Fredericton’s UnderDogg Alliance have created a video for their song ‘Feels Like (On More Time)’ that makes Saint John’s Partridge Island look like a perfectly reasonable home for the idealogical successor to Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
Directed and produced by Devon Murrins and Chris Macintosh, the video makes use of the island to give a sufficiently eerie backdrop to scenes of violence. People are bound and beaten by a gang of rapping Guy Fawkeses, all for the sake of the mysterious contents of a briefcase. Is it in fact the soul of Marsellus Wallace? Perhaps it is something as mundane as immigration papers. We will never know for certain.
Partridge Island has a long history of simultaneously being a place that everyone wants to go to, but no one wants to get stuck. Once an immigration landing point, quarantine site, mass grave, and military post, the now abandoned and officially off-limits island is only accessible during a few windows during the day as the harbour’s breakwater functions as a haphazard bridge during low tide. In spite of the challenges of getting to and from the island, and the largely ignored issue of illegally trespassing on the Department of Fisheries and Oceans owned site, the location is a big draw for misguided youths and budding photographers. It’s practically begging you to film your next DIY music video there.
Benjamin ‘Benzie’ Boudreau, the beat producer and mastermind behind UDA says that coordinating the shoot meant getting a full cast and film crew over to the island, but they made efforts to be mindful and respectful of the island’s history, while working within a very short window of opportunity. “There was a three week period before we shot the video to get the idea all written up and timed out with the song, so we have some kind of guide while we were over on the island.”
Three years into their project as UDA, Boudreau says that their music is being well received within New Brunswick, and that there’s a growing appreciation for hip hop within the province. “There is a strong following for good catchy, fun time music. I think that well produced high quality hip hop music is taken well. No matter what it is, people can tell when you’re putting in work. I have people tell me all the time that we have something for everyone. People that don’t even like hip hop like our stuff. I mean Classified just sold out at the Harvest Jazz Fest.”