Produced by: Dutchyyy Backstory:   ACT I: Long Story Short, there is no short way to unravel this backstory so buckle in and let's time travel a bit because this journey isn't linear. "Set Your Intentions" was the last song created for "Traversal", the song title is very specific and symbolic in nature (pun intended) . The album's creative life span started as early as 2013 while still living in my first apartment in Los Angeles.  The creation of "Traversal" would run parallel to the creation of "Chill Gawd, Chill" and more significantly, "The Uproot".  Spanning multiple states and multiple environments / situations that all inspired these sessions in very different but equally profound ways.  After leaving Los Angeles abruptly in early 2014, I jettisoned back to Tampa, FL to be met with extreme heartbreak and disappointment, quickly reminding me when I moved away in the first place.  Fate would extend it's hand in the form of a long time fan & friend of a lot of rappers in my immediate & extended family tree (Demigodz, AOTP,  etc) reaching out and offering an escape hatch to NY to get off the couch I was surfing on in Tampa and come stay a few months in #Yetiville where I would have my own room and access to a studio upstairs. The condition was that I have to write & record a song for his album/mixtape. https://samthesleezbag.bandcamp.com/album/sleezbagmekalektape  I agreed and was on a plane to NY a few days later.  It was dope living in this multi-story 5 bedroom house on hill surrounded and secluded by trees (Lord Digga named that house Yetiville because it was hidden and only accessible by a long narrow dirt road)  Keep in mind, at this point (spring/summer 2014) I had not released an album as Dutchmassive since 2008.  I was not rapping,  I was in my producer bag and that bag wasn't always typical boom-bap beats either.  I make a lot of music and I'm not always trying to make "beats" or at least not ones that traditional 90's hip-hop fans would care about.  I was also at the peak of my trauma & anxiety from what happened prior in LA & Tampa,  So I wasn't really in the mode of the "Dutchmassive" that all these rappers on the east coast remember as,  The over-confident, call em out, battle rapper from the Mid/late 90's was not in building to say the least.  On top of that,  I evolved from that version of myself shortly after releasing my Debut album "Junk Planet" anyway.  My sophomore album on Rawkus "Crush Your System" was crafted with more humility and responsibility so even If I wasn't shaken up by traumatic events.  I don't know how or why anyone expected me to channel that younger version of myself.  Over the next few months, I did song's with Lord Digga,  started an album entirely produced by Apathy (Demigodz) all while taking moments to myself to escape and  hide while having existential crisis and channel that energy into what came natural to me, making beats.  I made "Lua Cheia (f/ Kaelin Ellis)" on my laptop,  sitting in a lawn chair, hidden in the forest.   I made "Analysis Paralysis" outside on the front porch at like 4am during one of the only times in Life I ever thought about taking my own life just to stop feeling this extremely heavy weight I couldn't seem to shake.  In other words,  while trying to be the Dutch all my Hip Hop friends wanted to be again,  I had to sneak time to make the genuine and unconventional music I really desired to create.  Late summer, at the turn of Autumn.  My Pops who I had not really had contact with for well over a decade reached out since he saw I was in NY.  He wanted me to come visit him for the weekend a few hours north of where I was living..... ACT II: Long Story Short.  I've covered a bit of this Arc in previous backstories on my records on Catalog Works so to condense this a bit. This Article will fill in some of the blanks so I can bring this story to its neatly wrapped up resolve. https://mecca83.com/2020/05/shawangunk-stomp-the-story-of-dutchyyys-uproot/ ACT III:  Everything is connected and has purpose, even the Chaos In spring of 2015, my secluded mountain, return to nature healing Arc came to a close.  I had to once again return back to Tampa Bay after a Year of peace of self discovery in a magical place I never wanted to leave.  When I arrived in Tampa,  it rained for 32 days straight......  and I mean non-stop.  So all I could do was create in doors,  back on the same friends couch I jettisoned from in the first place.  Thankfully my friend, while not a musician himself, shares the same love and taste in music as I do.  So I was able to create minus any pressures or judgements allowing me to continue experimenting and pushing my limits.   I already messed up "The Uproot" by removing 4 specific tracks intended for that album and throwing them on "Chill Gawd, Chill" and what was originally intended to be A Double album "The Uproot / Traversal" ended up with a different fate.  The laptop I created most of The Uproot was destroyed by water damage.  So I held off on releasing that album and decided to release just "Traversal" and release it out of the intended order by releasing it first.  I had too many songs stacked up,  So I knew I could only fit one more song but knowing that.  I really wanted to create the last song with intention, when the energy felt right.   On July 7th, 2015 I opened up Ableton.  I knew which sample would end this album,  I did the normal boring prep work, finding drums, getting the sample ready and something felt off.   It was ridiculously hot & humid and there was no way I wanted to end this album attached to Florida summer memories. If you are confused about this sentiment,  I invite you to let me explain further in form of lyrics: https://dutchmassive.bandcamp.com/track/ajar-produced-by-redacted-2011 Did you listen to the link above?  Make more sense now?  If not, it's ok I'll continue anyway. July,  August,  September,  October...   months and months go by and global warming is a bitch.   It felt like Autumn would never come.  Then on October 24th 2015,  The first chilly breeze was felt.  It was now time,  Opened all the doors and windows and embraced the fresh air and then I opened up the project file I started back in July.   The cool weather didn't last long but I was already committed and on October 29th 2015, I Finalized and Exported the track. So why the elaborate backstory just to get to a song I waited for a specific season to create? The Theme of my life and fueled by specific parts of that story is,  I began creating music in the mid 90's.   I was birthed from Golden Era HipHop & Jazz.  It's what a very large portion of my long term fanbase expects and wants from me,  but I'm not just a Boombap lover.   I spend more time listening to Video Game Ost's,  obscure library music than I do listening to hip hop or beats.  It's harder to tell who inspired me more,  DJ Premier or Portishead haha..  So Traversal has a lot of music that doesn't fit that classic hip hop vibe that I know people expected from me.  So I wanted to end the album by creating an ode to an Era and expectations, with love, sincerity and optimism,  I had to Set my Intentions while completely freeing myself from that day forward of anyone's expectations.   and thus "Set Your Intentions" was born. *****Anyone who bids on this auction will receive a link to my master cloud based vault "Dutchyyy vs the Algorithms" of nearly my full released and unreleased discography.  *****