With his AllOne project, Long Island-based rapper, slam poet and songwriter Bruce Pandolfo is on a perpetual quest to up his game. Having immersed himself in the craft of slam poetry and MCing since high school, Pandolfo sounds like a finely tuned athlete on the mic, the ultimate embodiment of the term “lead instrument” in rap music’s answer to gunslinger musicians like Eddie Van Halen, Victor Wooten and Buddy Rich . The coffeehouse/poetry veteran understands that the heartbeat of creativity is found in the moment, where you have to go for broke and risk falling on your face. And he wants you to go out on the limb with him. Pandolfo views the performance spaces as informal flash-mob studios, an opportunity to encourage others in the act of unleashing their inner artist in real time. And over the span of 8 albums and 5 EPs, he has broadened the definition of DIY so that it no longer stops with the artist and you feel nudged to go out there and do it yourself. With the eighth AllOne album Emotionauts, Pandolfo takes inspiration from hip hop icon Rakim ‘s love of jazz giants like John Coltrane and Bird. Alongside the Conscious Robot production team, Pandolfo steps into the challenge of positioning himself within the music instead of just volleying against it—the latest forward push in a career defined by headlong leaps into new creative territory. -Saby Reyes-Kulkarni