Armand Hammer – RACE MUSIC : LYRICS
Hatchet Job
(Woods)These the beats they play for ghost detainees
weeks with no sleep I’m living the dream
Crabs/hit em with the Old Bay Chesapeake
Steam
At high heat/repeat/red, gold and green
Marcus Garvey/crumbled fronta/Jamaican Rizla
Spanishtown/back to basics, the Spanish Prisoner
Kicking kitchen spanish looking like Sizzla
London Blitz airhorns
He spit that Stalin vs Hitler
(Elucid)so goth i was born black
son trapped within a crux that endorsed crack
dirt nap before 21 be the forecast
flown flag half mast
crass paths ventured
lucky if you just got stabbed
limp ginger, flesh wounds still tender
picking scabs
block too hot, triage care expensive
post grad, head of my class expensive
sessions extended
reality bites butjakes pinching
old co defendant, new solo mission
head spinning
short glimpses
all city
(Woods)Staged shooting/Praise God they missed me
unsolved mysteries/started from the upper middle
closed the gap quickly
sold soul to the devil replete with hidden fees
you fucking with a gypsy
white man handshake/twinkle in eye
you caught a bad break
two half-truths but not one lie
The new guy got my spidey sense in overdrive
Dog, in the grand scheme I was just a cog
Lawyer said forget about getting off
it’s about damage control/ so hot he stop drop & roll
yet the pack was sold before he copped
King of All Blacks/the new Pac
Chorus:
Had to cut ‘em off, I aint have no option
They the type to come back with the choppers choppin’
(Elucid)From apprentice to kingpin
basshead pipe dreams fenced in
pinched tims, ends scampi, barely noon reek of cheap brandy
baggy suit church food pantry
assembly line, hand to hand
worst fears, out here a grown man selling candy
teddy grahams
rubber band reup
astronomical scale flipper
make that fetti fan
fifty fluttered fitters
fuck a fair one
full frontal flared
banned from tv scanned discreetly
unseemly means, justified extremes
(Woods) Nosy neighbors/Rear Window
Rodney Little played by Delroy Lindo
memories fade like Memento
when someone threatening your kinfolk
Played out/ Super Nintendo
Shylock how he weighed out the super endo
keep it 100 like loosies
fishscale raw/ Bolivian sushi
bargains driven harder than hoopties
Pillar of the community/Kente cloth on the kufi
Liberal white friend played by Donald Sutherland in the movie
hit Cannes with tanned groupie
Palme d’Or!
exuberant applause
but I still came back for my money like Mookie
Black Ark
(Elucid)
WHEN SPACING OUT DONT HIT ME WITH THAT BASIC MATH
CATCHING HIM BREAKING FAST WHERE THE ANGELS LAUGH
BOARDING ANCIENT CRAFTS
BURN YOUR GOLDEN CALVES
NOTHING SACRED
LAST CHANCE
ESCAPING NATURES WRATH
GRAVITYS GRASP
MEGABLAST
SPLASH
FOREVER CAST
CLASH
PAST PRESENT
MASS TRANCE
SUGGEST A METHOD
SLEIGHT OF HAND
MAGIC A TAD RECKLESS
LESSONS
MATHEMATICS
TRANSGRESSIONS
FLOOD THE PLANET
FEELING MANIC
PLAYED WAY OUTTA TUNE
MANY SUNS MANY MOONS
WHIRLWIND PYRAMIDS
SOULS SPARK FILAMENT
ONCE DARK SYMBOLS
BORE FAMILIAR RESEMBLANCE
LIGHTBODY BRILLIANT
RHYTHM AND VIBE
STRETCHED WEIGHED MEASURED
DISCIPLINE TO ALIGN
LORD OF THE RHYME
STRANGE CHORDS FOREWARN MY ARRIVAL
ALL EYES ON CAIRO
KNOTTY HAIR GROWN IN BLACK SPIRALS
SMOKE BELLOWS FROM WIDE NOSTRILS
TURBULENCE
TRUE APOSTLES
SPACESHIP EARTH
MOSTLY COLD AND HOSTILE
AWAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE
EXERT PRESSURE
LORDS NEVER WORRY
Chorus:
DESTINED
ALTERED MYTH
ALL IM LEFT WITH
ECLECTIC
HEADTRIP IMPRINT
RELEASE THAT TENSION
I SPEAK ON POTENTIAL
(Woods)
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred
Lunging/the cables jerk
Elevator plunging/black faces in black cages
Fire in the Earth
Four kilometers of cold dirt
Exodus/breathe dust/dance with death
Her cheeks blush
Finest gown at the ball/sirens call/legends of the fall/crushed
Velvet inside the coffin
Heavy metal particulate coughing blood often
Sent home to your orphans dead walking
TB/Houses In Virginia/scorching
Gulp air in shaft/the gas burns sky blue
Theirs not to reason why
Die whether you don’t or do
Cross-legged in catacombs/Jules Verne sent to break stone
Fumes diesel
The world turns, bones picked clean
Intelligent boll weevils
Smiegel yearns/by all neccessary means.
Precious, older than evil
Earth quakes/Fire rages atop mercury lakes
Alone together in the darkest place
But Lord’s never worry
Shark Fin Soup
(Elucid)
Home is a place inside myself
Not a physical domocile
Love hate indifference in this space we all float around
China doll crystalline
Financiers And Cappuccino raw cinnamon
Lines drawn i fill em in
Illin since
Rubin and simmons splitting sicilians
Unlikely affiliates lemme Tell u how it really is
Living off experience
Closet reptilian bitches be my achilles
Earth girls easy though mostly inferior
Turning Brilliant corners
Pitching quarters
Put ya money on it
i break em down in Installments
Periodicals and volumes hoarded
My footsteps haunted
dead mans ballys im sporting
Flawless
Georgia red clay complected
Crossroads
Gatekeeper posted at the intersection
Coined flows to Keep it interesting
My pen arresting
Apex predator sole profession
They vexed
Stunted developments
20 year cycles
Raw deal no embellishment
Im a young old nigga tryna remain Relevant
Core elements
Chalk it up to my heritage
They stare incredulous
Tryna Get the scoop like pelicans
You j.v. niggas better off Pouring beverages
Kick my feet up ‘fore im settled in
Chorus:
Pump tapes out the trunk
Too short
The product sell itself like newport
Or Al Sharp
Thats new york
The soup shark
Dumplings pork
Mott street noodles out the mouth when i talk
(Woods)
Last call, she poured mine on the house
December 25th, he’s the Grinch, I’m Oscar the Grouch
Magic 8-ball, “all signs point to no”
Chasing waterfalls, his grand summation
“the bitch is a hoe”
What does one say to that?
I sipped the yip with thoughts black
a bad trip like you gotta take the bus back
wishing he never fucked with it like crack
But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride
and I wouldn’t be here nursing this sucker
thinking bout getting high, motherfucker
if you nice like that then you better do it live
dusty loop
heavy bag drums
I’m not from Brownsville so never had a problem when it came time to run
Rabbi and the Golem
base clay left to harden in the sun
Mobutu Sese Seko
Kill em all without touching a gun
house made of legos
throw all the stones you want
Play the wall like they playin techno
regs in a Phillie blunt
Slaughter Rule/chop the heads off fools who refuse to punt
duel with the beat
words measured then cut with teeth
unspooled into the city’s last payphone
A young Larry Merchant, perched
on the ball of my feet
Sunni’s Blue’s
(Woods)
Lion of Judah/tree sparked him like Buddha
Freedmen in Liberia/Back to the Future
knuckled down/came back with some shooters
shakers and movers/Jump-Outs/crack paratroopers
carpetbaggers blend with the looters
Crazy Baldhead Lex Luger’s
dreaming Prussian Blue
Pleading with the sherriff that you just passing through
Wandering Sephardic Jew
Cant Stop The Prophet
panhandling apocalypse/posthumous
Wallace Fard Muhammad forging documents
then into the ether
Nasir out the speaker
Z York and Charles Taylor taking flicks on Monrovian beaches
secrets need keepers/finders get found under the bleachers
April 21st, 66, Kingston see the Black Jesus
dreamin’ feverish/demons fiendish/reached my zenith
withdrew the penis
Agent Zero Gilbert Arenas
finger guns outside the court appearance
smoke & mirrors/Jim Jones/hint of brimstone/scale of the lizard
NGE is the schism
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Smoked out, stabbed or sitting in prison
Philly’s Finest dynamiting your building
Guernica how they learnin’ ya
Titanic/rearranging the furniture
Freeway X James Harden
Final Call moving slow in the new white Harlem
bean pie and St. Ides MMM I was starving
Chorus:
3 days the body lay in the weeds
Tall grass wet leaves came back
Anointed as a G
(Elucid)
Guns germs and steel
Scripture civilize these savages
One true gospel
Hazardous
Post radical
Plastic explosives level tabernacles
Children mangled
4 little girls
This cause admirable
Scaled global
Words manifest
Infallible raw
Suspended by time
Defended in war
Tricks of the mind
Please Hold ur applause
Pressures applied
No room for the torn
Sworn assassins
50 lashes
Take the kingdom by force
One accord
Whats the law
Blood’ll further my cause
False gods
Great satan
Locked with Babylons whore
Whos report will u believe?
Leave no room for distortion
Heart on sleeve
No reprieve for Oppositional forces
Fatal fundamentally flawed
logic reborn
Godbody With a face just like yours
Crown of thorns heavy carry the cross
Sharpen machetes on the jaws of the lost
Vengeance is mine sayeth the lord
Called from the womb
No choice but conform
Storm Heavens door
Purest intent
Real cause for alarm
Divine arms Hold the Righteous
Obedience is priceless
12 lost tribes
Compromise be non cipher
The hate that hate produced
Pathologically ill
Liberation theologian
We’ll destroy and rebuild
Frog and Toad Are Friends
(Woods)
Unpublished but ghostin’ for Fredrick Douglass
Trust/, I could write your whole album
Eazy-Duz-It
Raiders snapback with the Jheri Curl
gats inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl
they pulled me into this world
Into the light C-section Poltergeist
Hold Northern Lights like polar nights
respect the classics
Dutches mastered
Your titles got an asterisk
stats is juiced/push into hotel rooms
Orenthal James
If the boys come, steadily maintain I was framed
Chapter and Verse, heal the sick and the lame
Dawn to Dusk, man have fe cut cane
leg chained
Babylon a use dem brain
Suggest you do the same
Left on that note
English Channel
Backstroke
The whole family had high hopes
I was hoping to get high/the kick was wide
So begins the time of sorrows
Night of the Long Knives/we gon ride through your sleepy hollow
The lynch mob gathers; fire in the eyes, courage borrowed
(Elucid)
Woolrich vintage
No socks in his oxfords
Gold bond copper
Tryna hold the funk hostage
Blotter acid in his headband
Wavy New York City wetlands
Mindful where u step
No respect
Come correct fam
A hexed land held in blessed hands
Hell inna handbasket
Im packed
Good bread meat cheese
Old grapes and cloth napkins
Nothing lavish
Rocking duck cloth trousers trimmed with flecktarn camo
Check me out yall
Downtown southpaw swinger
Plugged her 5 fingers
Sweet nothings whispers on me member
Return to sender
Free and independent baby
I wont hinder
Only jewels i lent her
Are u stupid
Or just Assume the symptoms?
Bitches brew u let em stew With vengeance
Play the fool
4th and inches
Smashmouth
Cliqout and Hash clouds
You already know
How this Hardware got passed down
Passed out
Woke to fresh juice eggs and hash browns
Dont ask clown
I Laugh now might not get another
Turn my baby to a single mother
(Woods)
I dont mess with Swishers
My pops was the type to be like
“One of these days, right in the kisser”
Never quite got my father figured
not sure it’s worth the hassle
like getting high at my mom’s house but i’ll do it if I have to
Nice with rooks and knights/too lazy to castle
that’s how Troy got gaffled
keys to the kingdom
perpetrator play the victim
she stripped straight down to raw ambition
this year, it’s no honorable mentions
Unify the belts, end all dissension
108-mic Pulitzer prizefights left the crowd wincing
as is customary, he paved the road with good intentions
(Elucid)
Goatmouth rappers pinching onion powder for you peasants
Cruel recession
Morsels rationed there’s barely seconds
Closed sessions they rant and rave without connections
Lost all the recipes, necessities quote code of veterans
Arresting
No concession
Even triple low remedials of all complexions
Fuck the dumb, need return on investments
Fresh chicken szechuan on corners of Cedar and Sedgewick
Every scroll penned like last will and testament
Rode hard on a horse named pestilence
In the business of soul collections
Stretched weighed measured
Tallest tales, unspoken legends
Shhhhh
Don’t get popped in ya lip
Breathe deeply ahki
Third down its probably a blitz
Bruce Smith round the end
Full frontal impact square in the numbers
Forced fumble picking turf from ya facemask
Looking dejected and pitiful
Willie Bosket
(Elucid)
sometime i feel like im somebody else
emotions running having conversations with myself
they say he present but nobody’s home
look at this lil muthafucka acting like he grown
shackled to a future via padded room
me and my attitude
me and my attitude
Underpriveleged overmedicated
Short attention court decisions left em vegetative
(Look how they do me)
In case i might not make it
These feelings Complicated
actions without explanation
Why they build me up to break me down
Really I just wanna make my family proud
What i gotta do to make em understand
I need ur prayers but maybe i should give this shrink a chance
Transferred outta school new alternatives
Teacher scared to death Nobody learning shit
What security? Still sneaking blades and burners in
Disturbed but we just need a proper turn to vent
What i do to deserve this type of hurt im in
Point the gun at myself I bet they hear me then
No not again promise me youll make it right
Where i done been you check ya soul to Pay the price
Chorus:
sometime i feel like im somebody else
emotions running having conversations with myself
they say he present but nobody’s home
look at this lil muthafucka acting like he grown
shackled to a future via padded room
me and my attitude
me and my attitude
(Woods)
Early
crack of dawn
730
dirty
crack stem palmed
herky-jerky
If it’s the bomb?
Feets is working
Jitterbug, Lindy Hop
The Roger Rabbit
cut a rug/the room is padded
mumble to hisself cant tell him nothing
and the shit he say?
You hope he bluffing
seen him round the way/niggas you never seen before
oh word?
seen him smoking/what it is you aint sure
oh word?
ashamed to say it but every night you lock your door
Witching Hour/Son appears just like a ghost
You call the cops, they come in pulling fucking toast
Take him to the hospital, docs just let him go
Going gone off that water, water, we call it boat
still going strong off some wet he smoked a week ago
Every day is fourth-and-long
What a Niggy Know?
Every day is drama, mr. zone 6
credit the embalmer, zone blitz
got him zoned out on the couch
you’re living in a crypt
Chorus:
sometime i feel like im somebody else
emotions running having conversations with myself
they say he present but nobody’s home
look at this lil muthafucka acting like he grown
shackled to a future via padded room
me and my attitude
me and my attitude
No Roses
(Elucid)
Shouting from beneath the surface
I stated committed but i wasnt perfect
Was it worth it?
Mostly indifferent but served her purpose
No roses
Hairpin curves the roads frozen
Oh dip
Watch him disappear
Beneath her nose
Unload then roaming Castle Hill at 4 am
Spent and Foggy threw up in ur lobby like i wont be back again
Cleaning up my act hat left by the mantle
Next to 90s r&b cds and Tea candles
Fuck it
Keeping Lies Straight no yaki
Wonder if she really put it past me
Heart committed wasnt hardly perfect
Second guessing this aint really working
Moments played out
Sudden urges
Weak
Speak of the devil
Wetter than last remembered
Repeat offender
Whats it take to make me reconsider
Swear she aint Playing second fiddle for another winter
Her baby boy getting big
First met him in his mothers womb
That aint mine
She let me splash Inside
First time raw
No balloon
I come thru tell her no perfume
Consuming my bassoon
Blue cheese moon
Blowing sour boom
We got history just a chemistry thang
Peeled outta Memory lane
Man i know i Been changed
(Woods)
Like it was yesterday, sitting in the waiting room finally out of things to say
No fear in your face replaced by something I couldn’t place then
nor articulate roday
Scales weighed gave way to beds made, closed eyes,
holding your hand felt like a lie
Clenched till you ground bone & knuckle
Came home bombed, tried to live in the rubble
though it would be enough that I loved you
maybe I didn’t love you enough
While you slept reached for the crutch
no woods in your hood made do with a vanilla dutch
Stalked through Hell’s Kitchen, torch cuffed, eyes peeled but
strangely, didn’t give a fuck
42nd, swept in the crush, human tides under blinking lights
thinking about the device, the life unchosen
the unknown price paid in that moment
empty words, earnestly spoken, copper tokens on debts imposing
Cops hopped out the unmarked whipe, said they seen me smoking
aggressive patdown but the L is down a strom drain floating
radio’s crackling, fresh action
One clapped me on the back “don’t be out here when we circle”
The blood was black-purple
tiptoed inside, cupped your stomach from behind
were you really asleep or was I just that blind?
Duppy
(Woods)
Woke to blood on the gate
Witchcraft whispered by maids
the fear under the mask/my father’s face ashen
hands grasping/held us back
we were kids laughing
A few months later the hearse had him
graveside
women clutch white napkins
black magic
rumors it wasn’t no accident
state funeral/uniforms and acronyms
eat with the dead pour strong spirits
we Africans
yeah, me and my sister,
we never really laughed again
It’s obeah we come for
and paid good money
last weapon of the poor
for this children went hungry
blood on the door
buried charms
paw of monkey
Macbeth palms
Dry-eyed in the Beloved Country
burglar alarm/reach for the heat
find nothing
Die quietly in your sleep
they still say your wife did something
Upon your house a pox
A fortnight, body in a box
don’t believe me, just watch
Chorus:
I see fire in a dead mans eyes 4X
(Elucid)
once upon a lynching
rank fumes of incense
root workers herb mixing
graveyard dirt pinching
intention imprint
fragrant oils holy waters
sacrifice for those who fell before us
retreat to the forest where the moon don’t shine
and the sun barely sweeps the floor
4 corners
crude shrines
brick dust outlines
marooned
psychic ties
humbly we commune
perfumed resin
laws of attraction
bats blood
black arts
conjure man incantations
fireside divination
don’t forget to feed the loas
when the spirit leads
tell my horse ill ride sidesaddle
star charts and dream books
papa la bas live from the botanica
all white attire with a mugwort amulet
third eye pierce
geode chevron amethyst
nature my cathedral
backwater crossroads talisman
gypsy woman with a fever vision
destiny altered in this land of the living
elders still whisper
listen in the stillness
Chorus:
I see fire in a a dead mans eyes 4X
HAND OVER FIST
(Elucid)
MOP THE DECK
RING AROUND THE COLLAR
A PROPER SWEAT
ILL FITTING
POLYESTER POLOS
FADED SAVE FROM YA MEMORY
WITH YEARS AVOIDING PHOTOS
ROCKING MOHAWKS IN ‘04
THAT BOY GONE
MASTER KEY A BLOW AND SO ON
LET A NIGGY KNOW
BLUES AND REDS
BUILT LIKE MO VAUGHN
POKE A LANE BRYANT THICKUM BUT I AINT MAKE IT THROUGH THE WHOLE SONG
CROWN FRIED
DEADEYES
AND CLAMMY FLESH
AS SHE SLEPT
LIFTED TWENTY FROM HER PURSE BEFORE I LEFT
CALLED ME IN LIKE AN HOUR
THAT WAS FOR MY BABYS LUNCH
YOU AINT ABOUT SHIT
WHEN I SEE YOU IMMA…
CLICK
LISTEN MY TRAINS A COMING
SILVER PEAK SHUTTLE OUTTA PEEKSKILL
PURPLE DAWN RISING
REEK OF SOUR MASH REFILLS
EPILLS
GRIND DOWN MY MOLARS I CANT KEEP STILL
GRIMY NIGGA RAGTIME
BRUSH MY TEETH WITH HEINEKEN
SLOW DOWN TO CUT A HALF LINE
RED WINE AND SHIT BROWN BOOMERS
NO.7 ESIASON BLITZ
WILD EYED FRESH OUT THE LIONS DEN
HIGHER SCIENCE
BLEND WITH SUICIDAL TENDENCIES
AN ILLUSION BETTER LIVING THRU CHEMISTRY
Chorus:
Well known offender
Lords never worry but pussy respect pressure
(Woods)
early bird gets the worm
fuck that weed shit son
I aint tryin to burn
What’s the word?
Let me hold something
Aiite, then fuck it
Let me roll something
I need that doe cousin!
tight than a mug
fuck showing love im on that
jerry maguire
bitch said she sick and tired
Bitch you singing to the choir when
all a nigga really need is his shirt ironed
bout to see my P.O.
apply myself to these applications but
if i dont get a j.o. dont say nathan
when you see me going in the basement
knocking Sports, Drugs & Entertainment
Food in the dark
I aint trying to read for Mr. Magoo part
bullshit glengarry leads
Cadillac Eldorado
second place is steak knives
In the streets its talented kids but
they corner only teach em how to take dives
Ima take mine like a date rape on Valentine’s
dressed to the nines
flower in lapel
just goes to show, you never can tell
(Creature)
Kufi on in a crack house losing his religion
truthfully gone blackout out of commission
smelling like a sewer system you would diss him
came home after four days the eulogy written
ghost in the snap shot a shadow of himself
lost hope on the bad block a battle for help
four children and wife depend on him
ignore feelings despite the stench on em
eyes the same color as damu’s flag
son cried ashamed not you dad
judge mental life’s never budge or bent you
could use a hug gentle in dark light resents you
day break time to get right with your maker
stay safe what you invite can take ya
where the sun stood still on the darkest corner
numb can’t feel like a heartless mourner
Where The Wild Things Are
(Elucid)
First fight came home with a bloody nose
Second fight same day pops like dont step back in this yard if u dont take control
Or deal with me u need make it known
I aint raise a punk U better hold ur own
I walked back slow and snuffed Rahmel from behind
Closed my eyes Still swinging hard fire welled up inside
Power bitter to the taste
Swollen my face felt fried
Winded tell me got this
Learned to walk with my pride
Must Earn your right to survive
Rite of passage
What was foreign grew familiar with time
Too young to process particulars
My views unrefined
Innocent mind
Before neighbors was truly ready to die
Dyno bmx spoke chrome cycle kept spinning
Acts of violence im a victim and a wide eyed witness
Block Yellow tape ballistics
South jamaica 88 fever murder rate statistic
Growing Older higher stakes been normalized by repetition
Fall in line late for the wake
Henny pour it to me straight
Moms reminded me im different
From these Miseducated henchman
Murdering my brother not gangsta but mostly desperate acts of submission
Throw ur hands up in the air
Strays Whistled from a distance
Scratched serial standard issued
All night prayer, tears, pass moms a tissue
(Woods)
Dumb out/stupid nice
Waiting For Superman
classroom fulla criptonite
Juvenile Hell
The Trife Life
Ossie Davis been dead
now they hand you gun and knife/said
Do The Thing Right
bannana in the tailpipe
eyes squeezed tight squeezing off
on a-alikes with the Armalite
born yesterday but hey
they was up all night
looking for niggas only found theyselves
pulling on triggers
spot Enemy outside his home
let fly like Predator drone hell to pay
like predatory loan
Rule Of the Bone did the Regents off the dome
studied the streets
prepaid the phone hand a lil’ nigga the heat
you don’t really want to know how it go
like ground beef
a mother’s grief
overdubbed on top some hot beats
shots cheap/foot chase in Rock Creek
I’m wired
can’t sleep behind a fade someone caught last week
King of the Wild Things
made it home for supper
You should see the other kid
he’s a dead motherfucker
Renaissance Garments
(Elucid)
2 for $20 denims at the Busy Bee
Massapequa
This was 93
Ill take the mustard and the hunter green
Surplus fatigues and klan conehead hoodies little “C” patches on the chest and sleeve
Cleaned and pressed
Steamed starched with creases check
never forever fresh
fall and spring School shopping Money stretch
U dont work u dont eat
Kids Odd jobs raking leaves
Some friends would graduate to theft
Herringbone gold drape they neck
I would beg for J’s(jordans) and reebok pumps
Turn the page
Eastbay catalog
Highlight fly shit every month
Air mowab
Jansport backpack hella colorful tags
Most my gear second hand passed in pathmark shopping bags
Off brand
Tommy hilnigga
Guess crewnecks bondooloo leather logos
Long face rebeca lobo
Coulda had a polo shirt
Bo knows
Splashing cool water on borrowed claiborne
Oxblood chukka tryna be that fly mufucka
Chorus:
Aint what u want baby
Its what u need baby
Aint what you want baby
Its what you neeeeeed
Aint what you want baby
Its what you need baby
Just come see me
Satisfaction guaranteed darling
(Woods)
window shopping
Merry-Go-Round to Chess King
Knowing damn well you can’t buy a thing
A peasant/ Wandering int he Valley of Kings
thorough niggas fly through on Avirex wings
post-up, pick and roll like basketball teams
Charlotte Hornets warmups
Carhart jeans/ Butterscotch Tims
admire the attire aspire with your friends
wait for bus silent
Thinking how the fuck to get ends
Eddie Bauer Ralph Lauren
dye packets on the Starter jackets
Hardaways and the black Shaq’s
Kid
Imagining holding talisman shine halogen
lime skin New Balance the girls gather in
gassed like paraffin
caught the vapors in zig zag papers trying to be men
dreading weekends in Marshall’s dressing room
thin skinned in Russell Athletic
acid washed Levis Mom dont get it
and if you said it out loud sound pretty pathetic
Cloisters
(Elucid)
tripping balls on the bank of the hudson
earth rumbling
reevaluating my function
tongue tungsten
melting down they assumptions
i got a hunch
they acting out of need of some substance
after grilled pepper shrimp
i hiked my hand up her sundress
vivid gradient sunsets
12 steps
start at zero
fear no
sacrificial lamb in a gyro
here go
fresh out the roach coach
my beard long
try not to impose on folk
and clones alike
beholden hype
imma show u right
sound of mind
one way boarded flight
twinkling lights
over my city
unlike any
bust my hump for these nigger pennies
it been deep
like sinkholes for repent freaks
under mi sensi
feeling extra sensory
grip slippery
citrus piffery
400 year old trees whisper how they sent for me
kush school of mystery
if u cool ill waive the entry fee
knowledge reigns supreme
over nearly everyone
peace scientist
zions lion
I’m on 12fifth (125th)
(Woods)
Nonstop to DC free wifi
far removed from the days of New Century
Chinatown Bus lines
weight in the duffel weighing on my mind
things change
bag full of laundry now been a long time
Red Line train get off just rained
smells like mulch and pine
let myself in moms sleep
cut the light pull the covers under her chin
kiss her cheek
she still with the Camry 96 take it for a late night
slide past spots where we used to get right
spill cigar cuts in dark cuts tip 40s under porchlights
But it’s houses where those woods was
strange faces
kinda bugged my peoples gone out the hood
Up county in bracelets over drugs
or got a job, a wife, up and moved cuz
respect due
certain point you gotta stop eating baby food
night breeze the trees whisper truths I breath green
knock the cherry off on my shoe
parked at the park for old times sake sittin on the trunk
wishing you was there to watch for Jake
NEW MUSEUM
(Woods)
Dropped to no reception
empty exhibition white walls silence deafening
negative space stretching
the internet every couple seconds refreshing
the same couple mentions
merch boxes in the closet
out-of-sight-out-of-mind but paid outta pocket
couple friends at ya show them other niggas got a mosh pit
day job in the morning just the thought makes me nauseous
(Open Mike Eagle)
Don’t put me with the rottweilers
Walk me in with the show dogs
Fool, I’m Nikita Koloff
So committed I never break character
Forget the fucking marketplace
I’m an installation, now where’s my carpet space
Jerk this lever, click my media
Do my own cuts, wik-wik-Wikipedia
(Elucid)
10 curated commandments
Lessons live from the Schomburg
Critic acclaim Hard earned
Full body knob turns
Enthralled blond birds
Hypnotized like farnsworth
Milquetoast served by futurists in pom pom skirts
Fog Smoke and mirrors Give em something to talk about
Lukewarm rap wizard behind the curtain be fizzled out
Far from the source
The isolationist
Close Shave against the grain
Came full circle but what he saying?
(Busdriver)
Observe the piece to right of me
completed in the late nineteen hundreds
It saw no praises from contemporaries
and generally had all the enlightened flummoxed
It cradled notions of art as crime
and developed wildly, set apart from time
But when buyers make decisions along the party lines
so harvest mine, they tarnish your shine
hang like a varmints behind
(Woods)
Bottled mineral water live sampling bird calls
back to the audience brass on the balls
politiely inquired as to the loot
the Talented Mr. Smalls notwitstanding
trailer to the video on Vimeo
Grandstanding
Instagrammed Wired covers got me backstage
Gladhanding
If you can sing a lil something might soften the landing
have the fans American Bandstand dancing
(Elucid)
Murse ratchet
Flanked by wing dykes u cant hack it
Bass akwards
Short of cult classic With kings Rations
Voted Most consistently average
big budget mastering
Squandered passion
Pump action but still banging flaccid
Npr think pieces
Ex conscious rappers laid Out to pasture
Blowhard circle jerkers chatter
Broad strokes from hands of irrelevant self described masters
Fractured patterns
Crooked paths to look back and laugh at
(Open Mike Eagle)
Wish I could eat offa brownie points
Who’s the next messiah the spectacled crowd anoints
Put my dirty drawers in the glass cases
Make gasfaces at typos and backspaces
Get it right the first time
Micromanaging this class of interns
Hire docents to meet the required quotient
and keep your greasy fingers off my kraftwerk
(Woods)
Sip cafe-au-lait kaffiyeh, hoodie and tims
Knightsbridge pied-a-terre, friends of friends
Richard Wright in Paris status
damn right I wear my sunglasses at night
Hobbesian Savage
egg white omlet carmelized shallots
Stockholm Syndrome
Cote de Rhone cleanse the palate
checking account check the balance
shelltoes and rope gold all he told the stylist
bitter like old-timers when they hear that looped soul behind us
(Busdriver)
Murky depictions of dead pigeons
given red ribbons at the local gatheri-opening
I gasp at the earnings of a Cold Chillin’
even though I’m supposed to be sold for millions
cause I’m more Jesse Owens than Owen Wilson
cold chilling
On a placinated cell wall Bell Palsy body language
my deadened gaze is a tell all
And I’m not art, until I’m seen here
sentenced for killing every turn of phrase during my teen years
The Rent Is Too Damn High
(Woods)
Section 8
but hall plush with piff and sour grape
wet cough through thin wall
keep me up late
the man in 3C is dying of cancer
told me straight-up
I admire his candor
sent him to his fate like Taliban commander
They sell death off my steps
necromancers
woodwinds play for the local Jo Jo Dancer’s
woods in the wind
plastic cups Seagrams & Fanta
till police shut down the Party
Black Panthers
retreat into the jungle
I watch through peepholes on the humble
like I got points on the bundle
true self secret like Rumple/stiltskin keep it
every man for himself when the long arm reaches
cassette tape Nkrumah speeches
face-creased
streetcorner preacher screeches into loudspeaker
Chorus:
I can hear my neighbors fucking
calling on jesus/Christ
radiator cold as ice but outside
the heat stay on like pilot light
they grew strong outta spite
(Elucid)
modest brownstone sad ghost in the hallway
I’m doing the right thing all the wrong ways
more haze crushed as the song fade
breaking dawn
im plotting on long range
change came
broke niggas
affording pain
lean protein stashed in parka pocket
fishers market
down a couple on the humble kept his boots polished
full time college
loan mileage
still vibrant
5 bill black barrel jerk chicken down on prospect
hogs breath
red and blue
6 pointed stars and suwoos
crude jewels
can’t tell who’s who
platoon move
i’m thru and thru
acrid fumes
blunts pipes and burnt spoons
aunties uncles cousins thrice removed
for whom the bell dings
12 string guitar gently weeps
supreme kings
wayward out outta reach
Black jesus on the main line
give a ring tell him what u need
seed crackle brown tree steams
fiends vanish scene when that caprice sweep
indeed indeed
Chorus:
I can hear my neighbors fucking
calling on jesus christ
radiator cold as ice but outside
the heat stay on like pilot light
they grew strong outta spite
Shunned the beast and kept the old ways like Mennonites
Kanun
(Woods)
At the end of the day/only wanted what was mines
Now the whole town gots to pay/the piper’s pied
and nope/I dont have a fuck to give, sell or tithe
In over your head hoping he throws a line
but son just waved like roll damn tide
the Mind Plays Tricks
we’re Violent by Design
base alchemy Metro-North turned nicks to dimes
leapt from the balcony with John Booth lines
serve mine cold
alongside a bottle of fortified wine
Number One Chief Rocka so its no shocker
when you see him in San Sebastian with Serge Ibaka
Alive with Pleasure
under pressure chopped and screwed
weighed measured
as a child refused to mind my betters
but a belt at night will have you standing at breakfast
bitterly thinking, when I get big we gon’ see who the toughest
William Woods to the white courtesy phone
white bleached bones on the throne
crown on the dome/rakishly tilted right
you aint about that life/presidency
Late nights drawing up lists of enemies
double space typed death is the penalty
human sacrifice/fled the scene Ted Kennedy
My kingdom for a horse
but your loss I savoured like warm Hennessy
(Chorus)
Follow me if I advance
Kill me if I retreat
Avenge me if I die, there won’t never be no peace
(Elucid)
ran out of cheeks to turn
slow boil over steady heat
fool me twice shame on me
you’ll burn before you earn your keep
mark your stripes
the kettle screams
troubled waters belly deep
hardly too far out of reach
just when you thought its peace
creeping while u sleeping
what they sow shall reap
season of the vic
highest treason
feeding lowly base desires
famished valleys
no survivors
the devil is a liar
hired gun beside em
what jah provideth
no man to minus
underline
end time skies of fire
space rocks spit across horizon
covenant backsliders
tent revival
pick the sty from my eye before i spoon out yours
hysteric cries of a child scream from behind locked doors
who’s checking score
keeping short accounts
transfer barrel in his mouth
overdraw then bounce
cashing out
calvarys march
thorned crowns
mouth wide
silence be the sweetest sound
prayer cloth
wipe my brows
good and faithful servant
fuck ya life the bitch deserved it
spare the rod
getback was certain
heretic verses with deflowered virgin
lay down your burdens
this is righteous murder
a public service
may u burn eternal
my hell is here
Nosferatu
(Woods)
Drink first, drink deeply
From sleeping to writhing beneath me
weakening/it aint easy
while she gone barely breathing
the money comes back greasy
good pussy don’t come cheaply
open her veins drink again
bottomless
the dick is drained the bitch is trained
I get hunger pains riding around looking at things
sliding in shadows
put the glass slipper on a young hoe/moon eyes
sucked the pussy dry left her more dead than alive
Don’t act surprised/nothing lasts forever
from turned out on the dick to name on the whip to
burned out on the strip/we’ll be in it together
bloodied her lip buried the treasure
triple x marks the spot
forget-me-not’s and black roses
Palefaced/handon her throat/stolen moments/
choking/out of pocket get broken/black moon/
I gotchu opin
riding and smoking spit game wide as the ocean
hypnotize minds mindless devotion
Watch you put on lotion while I light the drugs
flesh by the pound but not a single drop of blood
Chorus:
slept all day heavy curtains drawn
her head on my chest heart in the palm
i could make a fist but the night is young
(Elucid)
the dick dont come cheap
your soul to keep
crown of her head, sole of her feet
touch tease, no other but me
pussy seize throb and cream
invest in my dream
hallucination machine
pyramid schemes
for whosoever believe
ask and ye shall receive
slip on outta them jeans
ass gleaming
lebanese cedar sheen
shes a keeper, portishead out the speaker
earthly pleasure strung out begging for extra
free to drain
aint nothing here in my name
start to pester?
second thoughts
on to the next one
she bluffing dropping bread crumbs back to the rest, son
lost one
forked tongue in both holes
heart froze
toxic lows
somehow keep coming back for more, sadistic
casualties and statistic
eating cold eels thinking distant thoughts
absurd
jack johnson minus purse and furs
she’s hooked
he’s got much nerve
hardly invested standing on the verge of leech and lover
stubborn
keep her white knuckled in our throes of pleasure
whatever
cant purge the kid
your curse is his
White Lies
(Woods)
Some said, he did it all for a fat gold rope
or was it at the mall over a fashinable coat?
Speculation abounds
Was he really broke?
word around town he getting pounds of that okey doke
and you know how that go
I just heard that though I don’t really know
interrogation room Utz chips cherry coke
Mentholated smoke
that’s that New Negro
W.E.B. du Bois in the peacoat
H.B.C.U. keynote/speaker/rewrote
History only to find the future bleaker
Black Orpheus
My girl eloped with the reaper
Throw the next bitch down the well
if she float thats a keeper
in the lab white smoke bubble out the beaker
hunchback jump when I yell eureka
Love don’t cost a thing
but I’m looking for something cheaper
Chorus:
No more space to hide
Tell me Who gon change my mind
I felt all wrong Inside
How to make it right?
Someone told a lie
No more space to hide
Tell me Who gon change my mind
No more space to hide
No more space to hide
(Elucid)
To the corner sat a Wide eyed youngin in the rear pews
Rev. kept his timepiece flooded
Many mansions what i’m heir to
Kingdom kid with an Apocalyptic worldview
Fire from the sky into oceans swirling like whirlpools
Moms talking abt don’t have me look for you behind the gates
Can we all just die now i shouldn’t have to wait
Maybe when im older i’ll have Half her faith
Give or take
tell them rich niggas pass the plate traphouse of the lord where Some would traffic weight
Hid Under covers of the cloth
Statutory rape
Touch That Old rugged cross
Sung his Highest praise
True we all fall short most disguise their pain
So you can talk that talk make it seem less staged
Snatched down off that horse how u see no shame?
What he call divine law made me look both ways
Twisted messages relayed
I didn’t come back the same
Chorus:
No more space to hide
Tell me Who gon change my mind
I felt all wrong Inside
How to make it right?
Someone told a lie
No more space to hide
Tell me Who gon change my mind
No more space to hide
No more space to hide