Essentially, a song about being an artist and what that entails when art provides fulfilment but not enough to support the artist. I will always remember where I was when I sat down to write some raps that struck me as amazing. As luck would have it, I will never find the paper they were written on, but I knew when writing them that it was something special. There’s a sense of loss with creating things, hoping they get past the idea and into some form. By the time they reach said form, whatever they are and mean then becomes the domain of the recipient. The joy of making things is what drives me and I wanted this song to represent what is universal in creative fields-the sense of craft.
This song was named by my 7 year old during a song title brainstorming session in the car.
lyrics
Time to turn all these loose papers into dope raps
Crumpled ideas by the pocketful of hope’s salve
The creases tend to eat my lines and make it difficult
To recapture what was written, citizen who’s cynical
Hidden in the interval is ink poured for sacrifices
A measure of time spent and that’s the crisis
Making time to get it right cause otherwise
That puff of pride is long gone and nothing thrives
In the dead of night, fatigue is fought
And if inspiration dies, well indeed it’s lost
Got me screaming from the top of my lungs
Cause when I wrote it, that was going to be the best that song that I’d ever done
Now it’s gone and all I’m left with is the could have beens
Another crooked conclusion caught upon a look within
Brushed under the rug with the elephant tusks
Making something for them and then they sell it as us
Make it catchy for the trust fall and zealots erupt
Enveloped in inelegant lust I’m telling them,p.us
So cop the freshest that won’t fade with obsolescence
No gobs of weapons, just dope phrases, stop and reckon
Some sought the essence and donate a thoughtful message
My man Jake’s got the gold chains, I’m off the record
See, I walk with a talkative ethic, hip hop in its essence
topical or getting into awesome preventive
Dominant medic embedded my exoskeleton
find my rep and connect the deffest of embellishments
Ego next to swell against the walls that this world assembles
Curl the tendrils and hold me close to the pure essentials
My burden’s mental, booming system with a nervous central
Found inside it, when my thoughts get deep the ground is highest
Tobias sound messiah with proprietary flights that vary
Traveling, or just a passerby
If you think it’s all about the dollars, you’re dead wrong
I don’t do features, I drop raps on friends’ songs
Mutual respect, not shoot me a check
Couldn’t make me bat an eye with aluminum threats
Who are you to impress, the stress is ruinous, yes
Subdued human with a movement direct, beats are Rubenesque
Thick and beautiful, my gloomy days depict a funeral
Elicit musical ways to freeze the state of usual
Utilizing suitable tools until my mood arises
Elusive prices paid for usage of a gruesome crisis
A noose suffices for a truth replacement, true amazement
Building fallen kingdoms coming in pursuit of Vegas
Peruse the pages that I’ve drowned in blood from many fallen pens
Divining purpose in the passages I call intent
For all the gems taken to make the streets the foolish gold tread
I hold threads of dreams, arisen in a cold sweat
While most slept, the mold crept and overcame
Cracked earth burning midnight oil the hope of rain
A chosen name weighed against the birth certificate
Is the curse to see it all or simply worse to live in it
Determined juggling cynical thoughts and idealism
The more I know, the less I care for this surreal prism
Determined juggling cynical thoughts and idealism
The more I know, the less I care for this surreal prism
Started following Juga-Naut upon hearing him break down life and rap relating to Kool G Rap on Crate808 and I've been a fan since. Wordplay, skill, the dope backdrops, what's not to love? Sankofa
Album of the year. In a fair and just world, they would be headlining festivals with this one. Big hooks. Vivid verses. Fingers-crossed, the instrumentals will get the vinyl treatment. Goodwill Hunter
