1. |
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Speak
Verse 1 Coda:
Welcome. Wherever you are out there, right now, I'm glad you made it here.
Verse 1:
I kneel to the earth
to clutch a fist full of sand
in my palm I see patterns
forming words in my hand
born to understand and comprehend
what my diction lends to sin
and channel through the enamel
that unravels my travel, because
along the strobing halogen bulbs
I walk forever shunned
to rub the rare and untouched
perchance, I was sucked
into a universe that held me too much
or not enough
drugged by superstition
and ignoring intervention
your vision's often tempting
but following instruction
is your function that caters
your deduction to a stunned outcome
And, if these words are my last words
and you fail to reply
know this is not where evil lived
but where (my) humanity died
your world has lied
been a liar, lying to life
living a lie, supplying mankind
with wrong and right
a plight that must suffice
as I blitz into the night
seeing God's face in ink blotches
his vices enter my glottis
The artist lends an ear
Vincent Van Gogh
let this man go, untold
and be brilliantly fused
where my pain becomes a room
ripping me inside out
you often call it rap
word up, no doubt
with your wax people
with wax thoughts
in a wax world
drifting into space
what a wax waste
it is only on these rainy days
that I could only wish for sun rays
to make all of my wax problems
just melt away
Chorus 1 (x2):
So, speak
without losing control of tongue and cheek
dogma harbors Hell
and Hell is used to harbor weak
Weak
Weak is the result of many lies
that they use to program dreams
on the retina of your eyes
Why
Why won't you believe my warning sign
being brainwashed is not the way to healthy minds
Verse 2, written by Ralph Prater
Invention
concrete evidence of comprehension
illustrating optimal potential of a nation
lifelines were used to procreate
and gather food
but often separated
by the lesser minds of fools
and everything a new discovery
should probably teach us
is often desecrated
by the interfering leeches
filter out uniqueness
individuals are dangerous as any virus
that's supposed to be contagious
to target market ages
the young and the impressioned
barricade the lie
and vaccinate contamination
I hope this message sinks in
I only have a pen
and every attribute
of any healthy human being
yeah, I can help you reach it
but only if you see it
I can grab your flesh
and hope my music grabs your spirit
impervious are lyrics
made to live beyond
even after songs are done
kaleidoscopes of hope
scriptures of elixirs
applied to hollow wounds
by means of painting mental pictures
Chorus 2 (x1)
Outro Coda:
This is my life. This is my story. This is where More Die of Heartbreak.
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2. |
Behind Her Eyes
03:13
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Behind Her Eyes
Introduction:
There's something about now
that’s got me laying low
waiting on the high rise, fam
my heartbeat drops
and I feel it in the night
it's the feeling of the lost being found
I've been drinking brown liquor
mind spinning since the sun went down
I can feel it in the air of the city
singing to me gently
the pressures of the day
her love couldn't see it my way, okay
Verse 1:
Her sadness feels like rubber skin
make up, lipstick, summer trends
like plastic shells of mannequins
she's pale and thin as porcelain
with black, stone eyes of lifeless dolls
her hair is frayed like balls of yarn
her frail and useless, mindless arms
motion as if not in charge
stringed like puppets
owned by Gods, unsure if men
should own their minds
recalls this life, as it was, sometimes
no pills to trade the lows for highs
inside a tangled soul unwinds
with nothing real behind her eyes
there's nothing real behind her eyes
there's nothing real behind her eyes
Collision:
There's nothing real behind her eyes (back harmony) (x4)
Nothing (back harmony) (x8)
Verse 1 continued:
There's nothing real behind her eyes
when her mother visits she cannot cry
but deep within she wants to die
deep within she wants to die
deep within she wants to die
so deep within she wants to die
deep within she wants to die
Verse 1 coda:
Imagine the emptiness, the loss.
Some things we can't come back from.
But what if we could?
Verse 2:
To say goodbye year after year
almost nothing reverse her tears
but imagine brief, a winding gear
pulling back, where nothing's real
rewinding life like movie film
a ghost beneath is lifting limbs
free from strings, untied by will
out her mouth fly fluorescent pills
land in palms, return to rims
of plastic bottles, prescriptions filled
xanax, valium, vicodin
her blackened eyes, find life again
hair grows bright in flowing wind
the plastic shell of a mannequin
now tender flesh, still transient
damaged veins from heroin
go purple, pink, and heal her skin
An apartment filled with clueless kids
watch backward words from moving lips
reverse the sounds that once convinced
their minds and hearts
that mother's scars were wounds
once healed by magic wands
afar they call like saddened songs
she ignores them all
backpedals halls
a room of steepened, darkened stairs
that appear to lead her to nowhere
emerge atop a building roof
and out into the summer air
I'm drunk and hurt
and consumed with self
the words I say are deeply felt
before they escape my angry breath
I reverse a step, she comes to me
an index finger in my chest
pulls it back and
kisses me
turns around and faces out
where the sun once down now rises up
did she tell me time was up
before I knew my time was up
I'm still on top that building drunk
staring out at the setting sun
we're still on top that building drunk
staring out at the setting sun
End song
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3. |
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All I Meant feat. Cole Jonique
Chorus 1, Cole Jonique
All I meant to do
is tell you I'm listening
tell you I hear you
now, forever more, I'll be
I'll be on my own
And, all I meant to say,
every reaching
every healing
now, forever more, I'll be
I'll be on my own
Verse 1, Chuckie Campbell
Maybe it was me
maybe it was you
maybe it was everything you knew
So, let go
Maybe you're my angel,
epitome of faithful:
is all beauty painful?
I don't know.
Looking through our pictures
with so much to remember
I know that if I love you
I'll tell you
move on.
No one here can fix you.
No one here can save me.
You're hurt and I'm angry.
Still, we hold on.
Images of making love,
becoming one, I'm wondering
if covenants and promises
uncover it –
just two –
colors in a spectrum,
broken and reflective,
nothing could be separate:
it's in you.
What happens when the passions
of two people in attraction
end up hurting one another with
their actions?
Sometimes,
people bring out nothing
but the bad in one another
even when intentions are
nothing but good.
Please, look.
Chorus 2, Cole Jonique (x1)
Verse 2, Chuckie Campbell
There are moments in our lifetime
open as the skyline,
meant to show us time in a pinhole.
Let's go.
People want to be in love.
Do they know what love is?
I seem to only know what it's not.
I know,
Love is not bickering.
Love is not arguing.
Love is not always in a fight.
One time.
Love is not controlling.
Love is not hoping
bruises get easier to hide.
Two times.
Love is not crass
or bringing up the past
or yelling just to hurt the other back.
Three times.
Love is not mad,
doesn't talk with its hands,
and it doesn't always get another chance.
Four times.
Love is not wrath,
revenge or payback,
trying to replace what it had.
One love.
Love is not lost,
doesn't always come around,
and before it loves another,
it must first love itself.
Chorus 3, Cole Jonique (x1)
Coda:
Just under the starlight,
on the face of the water,
she dreams only but half asleep.
Dying on the tide, in the cool summer breeze,
all my love, I'm afraid, is beneath.
I imagine in a sliver
of time where I reach
that she also reaches out to me.
My heart is a yolk in a thin hollow shell,
praying for a moment of relief,
a ghost in a stampede
looking at its body,
hovering above a cold street.
I'm waiting for the pain
to bleed into my eyes,
my love running down my cheek.
Chorus 4, Cole Jonique (x1)
End Song
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4. |
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How To Know When feat. Willie Breeding
Truncated Chorus, Willie Breeding:
I owe it to you
Verse 1, Chuckie Campbell:
All the feelings come back at the same time
and I never quite know what it all means
I've never been much for the big signs
to believe what's seen in a big dream
to believe in-between the besieged
or beneath, the benign or bereaved
to be-seek and bequeath, I would
bleed on the beat just to be there, now
wrapped in the rain and the pain that I found
I'm always fighting fear that I'm letting you down
(be)cause all I ever wanted was to make you proud
I'm peeling back labels on a beer bottle
thinking of my goddaughter, Josee
I'm always on the road and she barely even knows me
I do it for the fam, but what about my choices
a bar full of people and I feel lonely
songs come out like one big story
and everyone thinks they know me
and maybe they do much better than who
should have that attention devoted: devotion
my brother who saw me through struggles
impoverished, stood by me regardless
when times were the hardest, remained
in my corner -- I owe it to you -- to disclose it: JQ
Chorus 1, Willie Breeding:
Yes, I know I should stand
it's been hard knowing when
Yes, it's true
I owe it to you
I owe it to you
Verse 2, Chuckie Campbell:
At eleven years old
on my way home
voices behind a building
there was laughter, talking
a circle of people
but also sounds of screaming
a Zippo lighter, heated up wire
twisted up hangers in letters
I was young, naive
and entered the circle
thinking a better position
would allow me to see
and know what I'm seeing
I regret that fateful decision
two black children held by adults
facing the concrete pavement
white men burning letters in skin
the first one started with N
Growing up, I reflect on the blessings
we never were rich but invested
not in money but the kind of investments
that gave us truth in perspective
never rich but we were wealthy
in friendship you were family
coming up in the south that was
special, no doubt, many more still
think we're kin, with same last name
and different color skin
there's so much more than pigment --
transcendent, I see it in your wife and kid
I admire that from my distance
and wonder if I'm just too distant
Chorus 2, Willie Breeding (x1):
Verse 3, Chuckie Campbell:
You're my brother for life
If not by blood
I'd spill mine, saving yours
and I'll forget how to know when
Some moments are etched in stone
At eleven years old
I walked away with guilt and privilege
lost my innocence
witnessing hate no man should know
I kept it a secret, afraid to reveal it
The silence has ate my soul
As close as we are
embarrassed and torn
I have never retold this story before
The shame is too much to afford
I hope it gives license to others
with stories, for we owe it to tell them more
I awoke to rain hitting my window
in the eve of the afternoon
My mind burning through time and space
writing this song for you
Life’s too short to censor our words
We become what we consume
so we must speak or forfeit our power
to the voices of others who do
At the expense of youth, we pass on our legacy
humanity lost, reduced
Right or wrong, the views are heard
and work to construct the truth
but whose truth
Chorus 3, Willie Breeding (x1):
End Song
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5. |
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Synesthesia
In a field of bluegrass
a green stop sign
pouring black rain
glowing gray skies
tiny white lies
a black wedding dress
a world of white rappers
and black presidents
boys wearing pink
girls wearing blue
hot with Technicolor
and incandescent hues
sodalite blues
over silver black seas
skies of lavender
atomic tangerine
kaleidoscopic dreams
in cream-colored rooms
slaves locked in chains
of red, white, and blue
shades of faded freedom
burn sienna through the sunset
this house is built of goodbyes
and needles under swing sets
broken hearts and fake friends
PTSD war vets, pushing politicians
backing hate crimes and racists
sign posts in language
and overdue mortgage statements
liquidate a family's assets
to satisfy housing payments
throw away a life of savings
a single mother's investments
send her children off to college
a chance to be something better
now they're packing up possessions
in cardboard boxes whatever
staring blankly out the window
still moments in their perception
Chorus 1 (x1):
In a field of bluegrass
a green stop sign
pouring black rain
glowing gray skies
tiny white lies
a black wedding dress
a world of white rappers
and black presidents
Green doesn't mean go
Red doesn't mean stop
How we learn color
all depends on what we're taught
So we walk between the lines
stop and go with flashing lights
in a world full of color
all we see is black and white
Synesthesia
Bridge
Red, Blue
Left, Right
Us, Them
Black, White
Christian, Muslim
Wrong, Right
Push, Pull
Death, Life
Verse 2
I toss and turn in my sleep
during dreams of my childhood
remembering dark streets
and friends that the night took
blue ribbons and purple hearts
black panthers with white guilt
words written in white ink
a Jesus with black skin
exists where the dead live
sleeping walking on pain pills
white powder in dollar bills
tornados in nostrils
divisions cannot heal
until people can see clear
where cultural common sense
meets colors of one's skin
our nation cannot heal
until patterns in how we think
see it's us against us
not us against them
colorless lost lives
of colorful lifetimes
should not leave us colorblind
but show us where color lies
Chorus 2 (x1)
Bridge
Rich, Poor
Old, Young
Gay, Straight
Hate, Love
Hearing, Color
Seeing, Sound
Tasting, Words
Lost, Found
End Song
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6. |
Father's Hands
03:31
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Father's Hands
Truncated Chorus (x2):
Men carve hate in the hearts of men
Feeling how it feels to feel again
Verse 1:
We didn't have much, but we had us
For some, it would never be enough,
and we had love, though I grew up rough,
I learned what it meant to be a man -- thus
my father's hands, calloused and tough,
would teach me how to throw a punch with
the very same hands that the very same man
once held his new born son
I would never know love without pain
To me, they were one in the same
Maybe that's true, and I really don't know,
how I really want to deal with the hate
I disintegrate, break it into parts,
sleep in the arch of his lifeline
In the pads of his hands are the maps of a man
that could hold my heart for a lifetime
Chorus:
Hands on me
Men carve hate in the hearts of men
Pleasure and pain
Feeling how it feels to feel again
Hands on me
Men carve hate in the hearts of men
We go numb
Feeling how it feels to feel again
Verse 2:
My father's hands instilled mistrust,
obscene but tender, coarse to touch
We called our fist fights arguments,
silence deafening, bruises, cuts,
palms like leather, knuckles blunt
How children sometimes learn to love:
learn from us what was taught to us --
patterns, cycles, violence
And, he never laid a hand on my mother once
She told me he was never really taught to love
Although he never said it, that he loved his son
Now, we try to talk at least twice a month
I participate, break it into parts,
on the other side of the phone line,
In the pads of his hands, the chance to understand
and heal in the course of a lifetime
Chorus 2 (x1)
Verse 3:
And, I woke up calm in thought
led by scars and the beat of my heart,
and my hands feel large and wrong,
stained by pain I could never wash off,
and the nights are long, because
I’ve been both in physical assault --
the helpless victim and person at fault
and both only involve loss
I hurt everything that I love
A piece of me feels I was taught
Maybe that's true, and I really don't know,
how I want to deal with it all
I rehabilitate, put together parts,
staring at the arch in my lifeline
In the palm of my hand
is a promise to my dad
to break this cycle in a lifetime
Chorus 3 (x1)
Truncated Chorus (x1)
Coda:
We are men who were pushed away by their fathers,
whose only hope for true human connection
lives in our detachment
End Song
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7. |
Seasons
03:28
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Seasons
Coda:
Some claim that our lives are only seasons
I used to know these two brothers
They’d walk up to the basketball court like every day
The old one had a scar on his chest
and no one called him by his real name
They called him Hank Gathers
Verse 1:
A friend who I grew up with
had a hole in his heart
For years, I struggled with that image,
playing sports in the park
It was cold, maybe march,
shoveled snow off the asphalt
I remember how the winter
made the day feel soft
Damp leather in my palm,
sun lost behind the gloss
of a calm long and heavy
like the spring was the fall
On the court playing ball
with jeans and our hoodies on
played for hours without asking
even what was the score:
barbed wire, brick walls,
chained nets, steel backboards
The game was something sacred
something more than a sport
We dreamt on that blacktop,
dissolving in the backdrop,
handles and a jump shot,
a reason to believe
The day would prove deep
The kid fell to his knees
At first, he couldn't breathe,
hunched over in a corner,
then collapsed on the court
holding tight to his shoulder
Eyes pried wide open
Mouth stuck in a square
Hands moving to his chest
still gasping for air,
and he lie there, pupils rolled back --
all white --
body still and catatonic
in a fight for his life
Some moments make you notice
tiny patches of time,
details that otherwise
might've fell to the side
The world magnified,
birds chirping in the distance,
like God was trying
to find out if I was really listening;
dreaming real life,
sirens yelled into the evening
filling up spaces
and bouncing up off of buildings
He wasn't breathing
He wasn't breathing
By the time paramedics arrived,
he wasn't breathing
Adults in the street lights
talking to policemen
negotiating vengeance,
narratives, contradiction
I recall dribbling,
walking home with a feeling,
taking all the same streets,
but somehow they felt different:
glistening, intimate,
musty with lost innocence,
thinking dark images
of surgeons and apprentices:
taping shut eyelids,
sawing through his flesh,
misplacing instruments,
clamps and forceps
vanishing in depths
of bone beneath his breast,
hidden in his body
as they sewed up his chest
Chorus 1:
I imagine darkness, thick enough to touch,
flawless, hate as perfect as your love,
I imagine what many cannot fathom in us
to imagine what happened that day in '91
Verse 2:
A kid bullied on and battered,
they called him Hank Gathers
His brother was Bo Kimble
'cause he shot left handed
They hooped in New Balance,
low tops and high fades,
walked together to the park
almost every day --
in collegiate starter jackets
and oversized jeans,
played dice on the side
'til we picked up teams
Hank was wiry and long
no older than thirteen,
and Bo was a bit slow,
so he followed Hank's lead
It returns in my dreams,
sometimes on dark nights,
reminding me that people
move in and out of our lives
I struggle with the whys,
if it happens for a reason,
to reconcile the cycle
if our lives are only seasons
I remain humble, grateful
I am breathing,
lost in the current
of superficial existence,
but I can still feel it
in the cold of the winter
It sits in my chest,
while I'm lacing up my sneakers
On a brisk, march evening
walking off into the distance,
tracing back steps
through alleys and over fences --
walls of graffiti, vacant lots,
broken glass, I dribble
down Main Street and Madison Ave
Chorus 2:
I imagine darkness thick enough to touch,
flawless, hate as perfect as your love
I imagine what many cannot fathom in us
to re-imagine what happened that day in '91
End Song
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8. |
Deus Ex Machina
04:14
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Deus Ex Machina
Chorus 1:
I chart this crooked path
telling stories of my stories
and stories of my past
inside still lies a man
turning back on what he had
sometimes, just what he has...
Verse 1:
All the rumors here are true
even if they didn't happen
even if they lied to you
in that lie still lies the truth
maybe from a different angle
maybe from your point of view
what was filtered through
your senses came out different in hue
colored by experience
how that mind often consumes
Now, I shudder when I pray
say how art will be thy name
southern accent painting pain
on every word in which I frame
maybe I deserve that hate
like a bad man in a good way
looking for my place to turn that bad
into a good day
I open broken notions feeling like I don't belong
even strong and driven people
tire out of being strong
Bridge:
I think back and pause but it all goes
back to back, and packed in a raw dose
deep impact, overlapped in a combo
joy and pain, everything that follows
Coda:
My mother always told me everything would heal with time.
The darkness nearly took away my life.
Verse 2:
I grew up where they pitch ‘dem drugs,
throw ‘dem fists, raise ‘dem thugs,
up from kids, lock ‘dem up,
they go dumb, they go crunk
drank that drank and smoke that blunt
all night in that hidden cut
dime piece in that black out truck
sixteen, nearly black out drunk
spread her legs for pills and weed
give up her virginity
to someone almost twenty three
young and caught up in the scene
many pass on, passively
'til someone stops them actively
and tells ‘dem what they 'sposed to be:
kings and queens and majesty
Imagine me, just trying to breathe,
out with crew and shooting hoops,
when changing my trajectory
led us both to introduce ourselves,
and nearly stand aloof
connection deep as family roots
had us making power moves
friendship can powerful
A mentor in my shattered youth,
who molded my bad attitude,
exposed me to my altitude,
scriptures, rap, and platitudes,
a master who was masterful,
each one teach one, afterward
pass on what was taught to you
and we have one less, amateur
chakras, auras, anima
I listened on those summer nights
so close, in fact, it felt as if
he almost read my mind
free-styling under buzzing lights
until sun lit up the sky
I wonder if we live our lives
or earn the right to die
Chorus 2:
I chart this crooked path
telling stories of my stories
and stories of my past
inside still lies a man
turning back on what he had
sometimes just what he has...
Verse 3:
Ralph Prater was my mentor
a friend consider fam
one summer he would spaz
after moving to Seattle and
shortly moving back and
something didn't match, man
something not intact had
left him fragile and disjointed
let down and disappointed
a poignant moment opened
A wall of cold emotion
A wall of cold emotion
Some kind of strange psychosis
Some kind of strange psychosis,
and then his anger burst
That’s when I was assaulted
He’s wailing hard and throwing
and then my jaw is broken
I couldn't fight him back,
not even lift a hand
A sense of calm came over:
I wasn't even mad.
I would've died for him
That night I had my chance
I'm on the pavement, holding
teeth inside my bloody hand
He left me there to die
but something called me back
that night, I saved my life
but now, relive my past
inside the looking glass,
I can see my face
My jaw still held together
by metal plates
And, that's how we would separate,
walk off in our separate ways,
a phone call then a legal case,
details merge, evaporate,
stories move and take the place
of truth and time to calibrate,
tales I could not calculate,
only half way speculate
what happened in that darkened space
doctors and physicians pace
wires and some metal plates
wires and some metal plates
said I'd never rap again
wires and titanium
here I am in rap, again
but we would never rap, again
If you can hear me, brother
I'm calling out your name
but this would be the last time
there's nothing left to say.
Bridge:
I think back and pause but it all goes
back to back, and packed in a raw dose
deep impact, overlapped in a combo
joy and pain, everything that follows
Coda 2:
The man who changed my life
tried to take my life,
but if I had the time,
I'd say and do what's right
March 2011, you committed suicide,
and there's nothing I can say or do
to move against that tide
and nothing here can bring you back
no matter how I cry,
so I do the only thing
I know to visit --
I rhyme.
End Song
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9. |
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Against The Grain feat. Cappadonna, Block McCloud, and Solomon Childs
Truncated Chorus, Block McCloud:
It seems it doesn't matter how hard I try
I'm thinking it's love but getting paid
I don't even know the reason why
I'm thinking it's love but it’s a game
Verse 1, Cappadonna:
Can't live without my money
Can't live without my weed
Can't live without my seed
All these haters that dealing with greed
Yeah, fuck y'all niggas one time
thinking y'all niggas gonna stop my shine
Nigga, I'm too far into my grind
Y'all niggas gonna remember my name
'cause all this money and all this fame
Nigga, I ain't never go against that grain
What you niggas know about this pain?
Bang, bang, bang!
Y'all m'fuckers better stay in y'all lane
Bang, bang, bang!
Y'all m'fuckers better stay in ya'll lane
Bang, bang, bang!
Y'all m'fuckers better stay in ya'll lane
Chorus 1, Block McCloud
Seems it doesn't matter how hard I try
I'm thinking it's love but getting paid
I don't even know the reason why
I'm thinking it's love but it’s a game
Seems it doesn't matter how hard I cry
I'm wishing for sun but getting rain
I don't even have the will to fight
It's not even worth going against the grain
Verse 2, Chuckie Campbell,
From the dying of the light, let it all manifest
scrolls unfold from the bones of the dead
no man here is safe from the curse of the flesh
words unsaid in the fog of your breath
believing in the wisdom that I kept in inner-visions
interfering intervention that I felt -- press
on into the psychic premonitions in my lyrics
was it ever for the love and respect? -- yes
I rep for the air in my esophagus
'til I die mummified in a sarcophagus
resurrect just to rise in a metropolis
with a hologram of Tupac as my accomplice
hypothesis: if you go against the grain
forget about the money and the fame
write it for the love and the pain
you might just blow and get paid
but more go broke and get played
and more die here of heartbreak -- falling
victim to the vivid dualistic propositions
propagated dream sequence,
hero/villain way of thinking,
sleeping with the sheep 'til they wake
I nod to my audience, bow on stage
give my heart to the few who remember the name
giving back to the culture what it gave to me
with a heart built to go against the grain
Chorus 2, Block McCloud, (x1)
Verse 3, Solomon Childs
I'm 'bout to book it
ducking and dodging the pigs
I can't afford to do them bids
I got this work on me
My momma need money
meanwhile the feds on me
fuck-boys is plotting on me
chopping bricks like karate
pushing narcotics too tight
hustle all day and all night
or to the break of dawn
or to the dawn break
young kingpin
money like I hit the sweepstakes
hard knock life
feel these high stakes
Chorus, Block McCloud (x1)
End Song
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10. |
Ancient Astronaut Theory
03:12
|
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Ancient Astronaut Theory
Verse 1:
Dreaming of decadent times
stories, elaborate plots
Eden to Shangri-la
lands exotic and hot
hips that move and then stop
love discovered and lost
imagine and travel beyond
open up, follow along
I'll bless you with spirit and song
the moon and the stars
you know who you are
energy, power, and force
rethinking the popular form
and passion it takes to perform
in rapture, expanding upon
a planet of mediocre
hipsters with music awards
cool kids with nothing to say
I'm really the opposite thing
and rhyming for positive change
an Anunnaki autopilot astronaut
riding the wave of lovely aesthetic beauty
so rarely contained
Chorus (x1)
I'm focused feeling energy
expanding out of broken light
and wisdom of the temple
deep within its patterns, entering
streams of creativity unknown
to Gods or deities
swimming tranquil through beyond
and back within infinity
sound that I concocted
on the tails of burning comets
riding rhythms dancing awkward
on a universal spiral
we are stars advancing brilliant
in the oceans of our nothing
shine bright, release, be free
Middle Eight:
This music raised me, gave me something to say
and maybe it saved, when there was nothing but pain
in a pair of headphones, the world drifted away
so I do this for the culture, giving back what it gave
Verse 2:
I go
I (x2)
I goes in
I (x2)
Go!
Rolling mad fly, flipping smooth on them boys, huh
going hard, exposing all those phony decoys, yah
I been on my work, though, someone shoulda told yah
gifted here to separate the music from the noise, bruh
Chorus 2 (x1)
We are
We (x2)
We are made
We are
made of stars
What are we afraid of? -- sliding off into the either?
stars burning out into the nothing
I can reach them
What if we fearlessly, saw potential, put energy
into concepts and imagery,
penmanship, creativity --
What if we ventured out, thought outside of the box?
Discovered no limitations: only people with thoughts.
Chorus 3 (x2)
End Song
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11. |
A Moment In Time
02:36
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A Moment in Time
Coda:
Yeah, sometimes, you just got to feel blessed to be in the moment.
C’mon
Collision:
And, I walk on down
that lonely, painted road --
And, I walk on down the road.
Chorus:
We can never go back,
once it came, it elapsed,
rearranged and collapsed,
hate I can’t evacuate,
ventilates and contracts,
inchoate in the past,
formulates in the lap
of a God in the form
of a man in a mask
arabesque looking back
how it all came apart
in the cave of my heart
universe in a thought
and a man made of stars
written on the walls
of a moment we paused
in time.
Verse 1:
Everybody throw it up, if you love the sound
If you got it, show us love for the underground
We do it for the music, so we rock the crowd
Yeah, we do it for the music, so we rock the crowd
I got it on lock, so I lock this down
with the power that I gather from my diaphragm
come to life like a Coachella hologram,
so that you can get the picture, like an Instagram
In an instant I can instigate
the inner state of inner waste,
meaning from an inner place
to incubate my inner hate
in order for the interface
to enter place and entertain
I innovate in such a way
impossible to imitate,
an infinite but out-of-place
area of outer space
an infinite but out-of-place
area of outer space
never-ending Neverland
of serenade to narrate
to separate the music
from the noise,
let me simplify –
Back in the day, when nobody had cash
on a cardboard box, b-boys break dance
as the boom box blast, we would all kick raps
you ain’t get another chance, if you said something wack
when the DJ scratch, yo we all get down
no digital DJs clicked on a mouse
wrote letters to the senator with Krylon cans
rebelled against the system by sagging our pants
But time goes on and we all evolve
Days turn to night and the earth revolves
The music ain’t dead; there’s change involved
Learn to adapt or you’ll all fall off
Yeah, learn to adapt or you’ll all fall off,
and if it happens that way, it’s fine by me
As dope as it was, what this world don’t need
is another rendition of Run DMC,
Tupac Shakur or another Jay-Z,
so I’m tell you, like a brother told me
MP3s will replace CDs like ton of wack rappers will replace emcees
Ayo, that’s deep, but there’s something more important
We make music, so we can push it forward,
Yeah, we make music so we should push it forward –
It’s about the culture
Collision (x1):
Chorus (x3):
End Song
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12. |
||||
More Die of Heartbreak feat. Erin Breeding
Verse 1, Chuckie Campbell:
My mind drifts on colorful currents of dead winds
reminded of times that proved to be timeless
listen, I'm here to fight for this
if it breaks me, I'll take that risk -- feel this
It's been a while since it all made sense
and now, I'm in a space to think
reminisce over you, my God
I've lost so many friends
succumb to the darkness, hate, and violence
I watch from a distance outside of myself
pour a drink for anyone who's left
I'm a mess --
put my hands to the flesh
of the woman I love
and I ruined any chance at her trust
We live life once, so nothing could be enough
Some things we don't come back from
I repent to a slum of drugs and fake thugs
I wonder if we've come undone -- one love
These are not lyrics, these are letters to God
We can't fall unless we rise to the top, so
walking to the beat of one singular heart
the first step is to do your part
Chorus 1, Erin Breeding (x1)
And they tell us not to dream
things will never change
everyone who tried failed
and they lost their way, they say...
that just more die of heartbreak
Verse 2, Chuckie Campbell
If the good die young, I may live forever
never claimed I was some kind of angel
My whole life, I've been living this album
words that speak louder than actions
My theory became practice, breath of my beloved
beneficent unsummoned, benevolent uncovered
covenant, my brothers, we walk for our justice
even if that means the team is just us
I stare into the sky and dream of another time
a place where we could make things right
burn and freeze like ice, be brave enough to question why
in the face of a faceless lie
These are not lyrics, these are letters to God
We can't fall unless we rise to the top, so
walking to the beat of one singular heart
the first step is to do your part
Chorus, Erin Breeding (x2)
End Song
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Chuckie Campbell Buffalo, New York
Chuckie Campbell is an American hip hop artist who lives in Buffalo, NY. Campbell commonly performs with a live band (drums, keys, and a full horn section), to make for a dynamic, powerful, and eclectic approach to hip hop, filled with fluid instrumentation, lush musical arrangements, and heartfelt poetic nuance. ... more
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