Page 4
December 26, 2018
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserve
Rapper 3rd Twin was at low point of addiction and depression when he wrote “Honesty,” a rap song
that set him on the path to improving his life by raising awareness of the perils of opioid abuse and
gang culture.
Transcended by ‘Honesty’
C ontinueD from f ront
“With recovery is freedom,”
Moore describes. “At first you’re
uncomfortable and scared and
then angry. As your mind begins
to quiet, that feeling of freedom
strengthens…I felt like the new
me. I felt like I was given a second
chance.”
Written and produced by local
filmmaker Juston Gaddis, the mu-
sic video is told from the perspec-
tive of a man who commits suicide
and finds himself in a purgatory
between life and death (the suicide
is represented symbolically, with-
out using blood or gore). The vid-
eo features stunning and inventive
imagery of a pale-faced Moore,
streaked with gun powder, rapping
amongst cloaked figures who try
to usher him into the after-life. At
times, when Moore raps, a beam
of light pours from his mouth--the
only glimmer in the darkness--as
he pours over the painful events in
his life that fed into his addiction.
Acclaimed Oregon comic book
artists and filmmakers Jacob and
Arnold Pander, known commer-
cially as the Pander Brothers, di-
rected the music video.
The Pander Brothers took Gad-
dis’ initial treatment of a man in
limbo and fleshed it out even
more, utilizing some of their Hol-
lywood connections to up the pro-
duction value of the project. They
enlisted special effects technicians
from the locally filmed “Grimm”
TV series to create powder explo-
sive effects.
“It started off as story boards
and here’s this concept. And I was
thinking, well there’s some real-
ly amazing visual opportunities
here,” Arnold said. “I wanted to
give it an allegorical feel—“
“Break it out of the literal and
take into the psychological or
dreamscape that could touch you
deeper,” Jacob added.
The Pander Brothers also work
with 3rd Twin on marketing and
redesigned his logo.
The song “Honesty” represents
the first time the artist confronted
a tragic memory of his friend be-
ing shot in the back seat of a car
C ontinueD on p age 15