Cecil: We work the mics and rehearse the lines that life furthers / and curse the vines that you might have heard your rumors from / like it’s me verse a vice or vice versa / then I returned to the life that christ nurtured / come come now / You’re feet first in ice water / we’re feet first in fire / we reversed the modern and earned the checks / from the check one-two’s / the three-four-fives / and the right to watch the sun on the eastern seaboard rise. Mictlan: Pack up the bags, eat / sleep for a second / then it’s back in the van / listen to beats for the record / Feel like it’s all that I ever knew / convenient procedure / all for the revenue / leave at my leisure / So coming soon to a college town near you / DTR here we are / holla atcha rap group / Incorporated so of course it’s hated / Write it, record it, order it, re-order it the more we make it. Dessa: This is not a promise it’s a threat / the cigarette to your balloon / cue the gossip roll the tape I rock the room / say it’s a nose job / as in she got it cause she knows somebody / I’m paying dues in red blood and borrowed money / Son me if you can / lemme see your grand plan / a low-budget production bandada glamour on a handcam / Here let me sign your poster strike a poser / sleeping in my armour while you’re sleeping on your holster. P.O.S: It goes get money waste / rather take money from a thing we need to a thing we see / Jake honey nothing’s free True indeed / open the seam / scribble the bleed / agitate seed to leaves / conceive Doomtree / Blood brothers / close shutters / they don’t need to see this beast / Prose sputters free / those other Joes peddle cheap / and shody work’ll bruise your body purple / Some folk’ll never lose a toe, but then again some folk’ll. Sims: You say that hell is human / I say you break it you buy it and make the shell-toes move in on self-improvement quicker than you could sell the movement / Make the circuits mash across this circus act / two-thousand-something moving circa that / turn of the screwdriver / ghostwriter for hire / tie up the wires / I am the fire supplier of inspired rap / burn the empire back / it’s Doomtree live through the wiretap.

Mictlan: Hardliner (streak), crack the felt-tip / Clock-winder (tweak), patch the velvet / Cap-gun Air-Soft electric / Eat the face off a centipede / I’ll Metroid your section / A bitter cold heart from a bit of slow start / Pivot on a shitter shitting out a Wonka Gold Card / Inka-drinka bottle of Aquanet / Hock a loogie at lookie-lous / And you? Jockin’ it. P.O.S: Promise of stressin’ out / Them long days could snap / then split wrists with style like slap braclets / Stack cases not murder raps but cases / fulla MPC’s, guitars, basses / drum machines, pedals, and crap to murder rap / Yeah, I don’t take a sec to breath I ain’t heard of that / I’m just here to press though / continue to rep Doom / and splinter mess from blow up the spot to wreck rooms. Sims: Sims hopping in / mid-continent occupant / cold spot non-stopping it / from the stock locked old cops cocking it / who works for who is so obvious / So bend the barrel back / send the Herald that / Nothing but news for the numb with the thumb on snooze for the young / booze for the rest just to keep on pressing / You’re looking fresh but who you impressing? Hook: Relax, ease back, breathe fast, read maps, breeze past speed traps / We don’t want that / We don’t take that / We don’t need that / save that act / You play the part, we play the blade / We scrape your heart / We came to take the mark. Sims: And it seems that the heart is the heart of the problem / You want the view from the roof / don’t want to build from the bottom / Truth is we got ‘em / brick by brick over fist with or without ‘em / The road is slick but I steer through / push the pedal with the red-and-blues spinning in the rearview / Top Ramen jar-sipper, bar-ripper / I dig to build, they dig to fill the sifter. P.O.S: We’ll prolly never grow up into a Cosby sweater / Hobby better / yet ever quit / well prolly never / This is not a switch This is in my blood simple as spit / Never rich, never stressed, never poor, never sick / when’s that? / Prolly never / I’ll stick to simple shit / like the beat never left I’ma walk with a little bit of rhythm in my step. Mictlan: We pocket the Polly, sully, then ollie the ox / rocket the broccoli probably obvi’, we didn’t poli’ the cost / Poppin’ off the collar? / Chilled heat / Call me Sake Bomb / Holla for hobby, all for the offer, now talk to me calm / The Boom-Diggi-Doom / the groove’s in me so move / If you with me then prove / break bread fam / Who emptied the room? / We brought plenty to move / We were too heavy for wombs and cracked diaphragms. Hook P.O.S: From the frost-bit center of America’s map / a couple cats tryna get a couple hands to clap / Tryna eat, tryna live a little / Gander back / From the frost-bit center of America’s map / a couple cats tryna shake a little stress with rap / but hold up / We don’t breathe enough / Tryna beat these days but they’re creeping up.

Dessa: I’ve got this music in my head / I’ve got this hole in my chest / I’ve got this bird in my hand that looks like it’s been crushed to death / But it’s a player’s game / ante up and pick your token / keep one beneath your tongue for when your best gets broken / I swallowed my tongue / I bided my time tryna get just this one thing right / by the book but the hook descends I’m shook / God knows I’ll always bite / Cause part of the fun is the road rash / feeling the gravel go past / and I don’t care what they say / there’s no such thing as a clean break. Sims: You’re too smart to say what you think and I’m too real not to say what I feel / But when it starts to sink I grab the wheel I keep on steering for you. Re-route the end if I could / She wants revenge and wants good / she wants my head up on wood / lop it off the chopping block / Should’ve stopped and watched them red flags coming / now the red legs are running / all these heavy drops to the the floor / I’m locking the door / then that’s it / Don’t let her in / old veteran hello though / the l-o-vogue in bold lettering then I’m back in her bed again / latched to her skeleton / old friend relax and just settle in / enjoy that bad medicine / Push it to the limits / good beginnings are the toughest ones to finish. Dessa: Well I found your pale-faced blue-lipped god / beneath the kitchen table / starving and eating paper / He told me what you wrote and what you’d asked / Love nothing can live on prayers like that. It’s not vengeance / it’s not bloodlust / justice is just a rule of law / so hold down the magician / the beautiful assistant should get her turn with the saw. Sims: Percocet, gauze / she’s working the claws / only purpose to draw more bad blood / That’s a sad war love / You know that though / you know those chains were self-imposed / Your words must sting your molars / sing it slower cursing while your world is sinking lower. Dessa: Rewind and watch it go backwards / from last lines to first words / The flash goes back in the camera / the flask back in the handbag / Don’t ask how after one phone call / he hit two lovebirds with only one stone wall. Sims: Valentine’s day at the dead letter office / looking for my girl like Yellow Ledbetter 2-14 / She said she left to find the meaning of life / whatever that means / I wonder where she’s sleeping tonight.

Hook: We’re playing ghosts in the graveyard / float / frozen in eight bars / choke / now you’re hoping to make ours / cry for you / If i were you / I wouldn’t hope / We’re playing ghosts in the graveyard / hide / frozen in eight bars / die / now you’re hoping to make ours / hope for you / If I were you / I wouldn’t try. Mictlan: I splinter these wood teeth on a silver tongue / Sing hymns to sinners and sit in when the dinner’s done / Dirt on the collar / butcher / blood on the cuffs / My good foot’s in a grave / the other one’s a leg-up / No lady o’ luck / I ain’t stuck in her “lap of luxury” / No fast tracks or slow ones either / detached from suffering / The mask is under me like the past is under me / My own conscience will the first and last thing to fuck with me / The Boy met the Man and the ways of the World ain’t it a peach? / Nah, dig deep, it’s a pearl / Sold on solitude like my soul is solid gold / We told them soldiers to hold / but never showed ‘em a common goal / Don’t follow robots in a suit and tie / and don’t trust robots on a soapbox with a “SHOOT ME” sign / I see they drew the line / bang bang / I walk it like Cash and all you do is divide. Sims: So I see you’ve got your war paint / all suited up / shoot ‘em up / You drill it until the core breaks / chew ‘em up, use it up, then you move the rub / So leave ‘em like the people in your life / the Desert Eagle is your life / Your pride drives drove you to nowhere / now you’re stuck, feathers ruffled in the cold air / Another scuffle / bad company / can’t cut it clean so use the hollow tips / pass the poison and swallow it with glass / followed with a laugh for all the holograms that passed as real / Now all that solid land has got a plastic feel / so take another drag of the smoking gun and bolt / Your story’s fabricated though you spoke it under oath / gameshow host. Hook Cecil: Twenty-five / medium well-rounded with a working man’s halo / I served five years in the circus / and I’m about to land pay-roll / But some swear I’m hell-bound / along with the serpent and the rainbow / but I ain’t working for the devil / or searching for no angel / I’m working all the angles in this book of human languages / I let the world I know graze the lips of that palm reader / She’s calling me the crying uncle / saying I’m so blind that I’d cuddle / with a serial time-killer who leaves her victims with a sign of struggle / I might get shuffled in to that haunted house of cards / but I’ll just sit there / playing with the queen of hearts / It’s no different than being in a crowded bar / saying “you play the wounded fish, and I’ll be the shark” alligator / half man / getting back to nature with an eight-track Tascam / Task at hand / I mean flask-in-hand / leaving one set of tracks in the sand / and no tracks in my arms. Hook

Dessa: I’m on a vision quest at the Best Western / the best-dressed wreck in the hotel lounge / found out that message in the bottle’s the booze / that my braid is a fuse / but I’ve get shit left to do so / So keep waiting / So just be patient / I’m not sure when or how or from whom / but I got this funny feeling I’m in for big news / Took a walk to cool off to come down to collect clues / Sky rests on the overpass / cracks the foundation / passersby’s faces / they don’t look like mine to me / though I’ve been told that we’re related / that we’ve got the same fear of death / the same basic debts / that we’re branded with a secret in a language we can’t read / on the courting spirals of a coupled double helix. Panic in a phone booth / love in a parked car / broken bottles like corpses of the fallen stars / and valets are the only ones that in modern America / remember how to run. Hook: It goes Delta / Epsilon / Sigma Sigma Alpha / Is there anyone there? Dessa: Distress message comin from the city kids / I read it in the smoke signals from their filtered cigarettes / it’s all boredom and bitterness at the Ritalin pill that does a legitimate business makin kids keep still. P.O.S: But still ain’t motionless / Test the restless hands for shakes / and see the flutter when the patience breaks / I keep time Keep my step with the crickets in 4/4 and gangster lean / sirens in 3 / the trouble speaks beats. Dessa: The double dutch sounds a bit like dots and dashes / I sit for a minute tryna understand the pattern / But that’s not Morse code man / Y’all just double-handed. P.O.S: Trouble landin’ tricks so roll / fuck it / whatever gets your blood up / Rip that sidewalk sounding like a click track cut up Wind speaks to wall makes the frame creek / Ghost in the house wakes the baby / Math. Hook P.O.S: Never better / Thick skin, thin sweater / spinnin’ grins at a dirt whistle wetter / Flirt / this’ll get her / hurt / this’ll sever worth / stop pop lock the fuck out / Duck ain’t got a buck / like the luck’s out (dang) / Who makes a living giving plasma? Nickle-thin kids spilling smoke up out the asthma / Anyway who paves the way / when you can save your slave / and make a dollar out your veins / He times it by the weeks / Patterns for the sheep / sleepwalking to the beat / Keep talking to the loose leaf / Silence to the creeps / violence from the beef / teach tryna find a new leaf / Science of time defined by / climb up and recline / Speech / Fine / whatever / Ain’t nothing but a rumble in that belly / but your starving’s what you’ll tell her / Me? / Oh I’ll be on the corner eating nothing a la mode / staring at the stoplights trying to break the code. Love in a phone booth / panic in a parked car / static in a signal / scars a communique / All day / in every witch with sitcom wit / handle the sitch hit the switch / It goes. Hook

Mike Mictlan: Welcome to the future! / Rap won’t save you! / Can you hear that? / RAP WON’T SAVE YOU! / You want the truth? / You can’t handle the truth / You want Phantom sun-roofs, Armadale 80 proof / From shake to shook to shuck / from cake to cook to cluck No hustling backwards / that’s the labor of luck / Gander back / holla front / Fuck a Mack of the Month / Where the Zag? / Roll the blunt and chill the fuck out (chill) / But you better / chunk ‘em up doggy / sweep the leg Johnny / what it do whoady? / Hit ‘em up homey / Get ‘em up off me / Walk away talking shit and acting cocky / He ain’t gon’ harm me / Bob Marley / better off kicking rocks with his army / Wet ‘em up OG / simmer down Rudy / settle back mommy / saddleback booty / I’m a Dogtown b-boy / low on the see-saw / from the shore to the sea floor / De la Doom (huh?) / from the Tree (oh!) / oak medallions (what?) / No bling. Youwentthewrongway/downaoneway/Onewayout/onewaytowin/Gobigorgohomeboy/Goallin/Ahhhyeahget ‘em riled up / Game over / Game over. It’s all this coke, it’s all that liq / it’s all the fame / It’s all been done, it’s all been fixed / it’s all the same / I got no time for games, lames or dames. / Time. Time for some rearrangements / Take the Independent Railroad / we gonna get ‘em out the slave whips / til they’re wireless and chainless / Are those the Faces of Death / or just stages of being famous? / It’s the monotone, monosyllabic mono-stereo solid zone cold static / Malachi York looper / Stuck on Lucifer Big Boss Koopa/ Super Downloader Bros. down low / Until the suture opens / choke on hookah / turn the cheek / and make a nuclear war head / arm-legga-legga-arm-head-lock / suicide smart bomb I say my name “Mictlan” like an “X” in Islam. I got no time for games, lames, or dames. It’s all this coke, it’s all that liq / it’s all the fame / It’s all been done, it’s all been fixed / it’s all the same / I got no time for games, lames or dames. Youwentthewrongway/downaoneway/Onewayout/onewaytowin/Gobigorgohomeboy/Goallin/Ahhhyeahget ‘em riled up / Game over / Welcome to the future! And if you’re sick of the world / well I’m sick of the wording / and I could be sick of it all / but I’m just sick from the earling / If you don’t stick to wall / you better stick ‘em up early / If that ain’t stickin’ at all / then just stick up the birdie / like hush... It’s all this coke, it’s all that liq / it’s all the fame / It’s all been done, it’s all been fixed / it’s all the same / I got no time for games, lames or dames. Rap Music.

Dessa: Just another story of the CC / trying hard to drown on dry land / That way they say is easy / but when day breaks she’ll wake on the sand again. Like a fish out of water that’s pumping music through her gills / like a fish out of water. There’s blood in the water / money on the table / the poolsharks take the bait / hook line / sinks her eight ball on the break. Cecil: She’s got that porcelain drunk doll face / and a taste for the girls / just want a cup of confidence kept confidential / so remember to keep ‘em coming / Up and up she’s rushing orders in order to crush the torture that weighs her down / She’s cut off then off she goes to cut the corners / boy she’s taken now / Loud with lust and trust issues / but she’s bound to bust into a crush with you / Must have been through a thousand loves that loved to move / and loved to move alone / She loved the story when it started / but the ocean was the author. Both: And the end came as a cold shock / to a pocket full of rocks / to a mouth full of water. Dessa: She feel asleep with a pen in her hair / woke with ink in the sheets / fell asleep with a name in her mouth / woke with an ache in her teeth / both soles of her feet still wet / third time this week she’s dreamt of a drowning death / A drowning death She was baptized in bourbon / she would capsize for certain / Took a pull off the bottle / wrote a note in her careful cursive and let go / of a love letter written in ash and broken English Cecil: It’s better to let her message alone. Dessa: They say everything floats but it don’t / bottle broke and we sink like stones. Cecil: Angel fallen starboard into the drink / last call comes quicker than she thinks. Dessa: The water weighted her wings / feathers like anchors and she / let go of a ghost and a burden / they float so close to the surface / she knows, knows... Cecil: better than betting that heaven is sending a life boat now Dessa: There’s no use charting courses / the current forces where the small ships go / and it’s always the same fortune pulling petals off the compass rose. Cecil: She was cut off, off the cuff / cut down, down enough / couldn’t amount to much / wasn’t aloud to love. Both: The water weighted her wings / fathoms pass by in a blink. Dessa: Like a fish out of water / that’s pumping music through her gills. Both: Don’t touch or you’ll ruin the reef. / Catch just what you’re willing to keep.

Sims: I read the New York times in these LA times / Doomtree fly them pirate flags high, hang ‘em dry / Ride with them rough bass lines while you’re trying to keep up with the cut brake lines / Kill the king leave the crown / spill the drinks on the ground Can’t you see the flames feeding off your sleeping town? / This city is oblivious / plugged in punch drunk / everything electric and hideous / Hollywood babies baby built on mass diversion / slash and burn the self-worth / children visit plastic surgeons / Live bait or so the signs states / we went from primates to inmates of the mind-state / But I sense a set-up through the bent antennae settling / federally approved amphetamines Ephedra peddling / Who works the levers and who dances for metal rings? / Which one working your strings? / How does that pendulum swing? / The condition of things fall apart / a call to arms / protect your neck / pull your head out of that shopping cart / My name is Sims I push the pins in your leather heart / pull the thread and stitch together all your severed parts Hook: This is the life / this is the free nobody else gets / Scared that this is the life that you be left without / left behind / pressed aside / This mess was left it’s / lockdown 48 states wide / Just try / I don’t laugh cause I’m past the fear / I hassle masses that trade they rights for a life they hold dear / And this is real right here / And I will laugh in the face of anybody who wastes they one time and place / right here right now / There’s gonna be an accident. P.O.S: When you feed the hungry guns / and knowledge of our funds / and suck up whatever runs / and power leaves ‘em with none / they pick up when you were done / with knowledge of our guns / and towers rumble to crumbs / You think that was an acci- dent? / And when your people seem shook / as you freely cook up the books / make ‘em greedy for second looks / stay deceiving and leave ‘em took / No retrieving ‘em off the hook / Leave ‘em bleeding on foreign soot / Keep ‘em reading whatever meaningless media you can rook / Well / there’s gonna be an accident / for the practicing passionate / Trap has been latched / kids are in it Menace and villains / The cynics don’t do nothing but climb up in it and whine / do they time / ready and chillin’ Hook

Dessa: Oye cierra la puerta / la luche esta afuera / Puede esperar una noche mas / Baila antes de que te vas / Vale baila antes de que te vas. Let’s douse the fire with our sweat / don’t get tired on me yet / you can rest when you’re dead / all hands to the deck / let’s make this send off go correct / Toast to the end of the world / ‘sposed to be soon now for sure / So kiss the bottle spin the girl / I forgot but reconfirm that life can be fine if you make sacred / maybe it’s a sermon a prayer / a folded note beneath my chair / but ready to go? / Never gonna know from over there / I’m sick of the sound of my voice / kickin around in this noise one of the boys says / I don’t know what you got but baby it looks bad / I don’t know what you got / but baby it looks bad Hook: If there’s a damsel in this dress / she’s too far gone to save / out of time / And it don’t get better baby / you can’t talk me down from this decline / you haven’t got a chance / But you can ask me to dance / you could ask me to dance ask me to, ask me to dance / You could ask me to dance. I need a drink a doctor a DJ / a shrink a locksmith a replay / to clean it up / seven second delay / or I’ll never get any radio play / Like pass on the right in a shiftstick / pass you a mic fulla lipstick / flash you a smile before I rip shit / this business’ll kill us / hope you’ve got other interests / Hold hands til the ship goes down / slow dance til the band gets drown / romance had it in the past / but I couldn’t make it last / so you best check lost and found / I’ve been here before / I know where it goes it goes down / So lost my mind my faith / found my voice my way / lost some friends some fights / found that that’s alright cause a little bit of melancholy / never really did hurt anybody / Even if it is a sickness / I’m oddly convinced at least it’s honest / When life gets so tragicomic / a mattress with no sheets on it / the fact is you have it / the task is to want it I’ve been here before / I don’t know what you’ve got / I know where it goes / it goes down. Hook

We be / all in the struggle, man / Grind hard / twentyfourseven, man / Need more leveraging / Down for whatever, fam. I Self Devine Finely diced in the cut chopped up / Stir fried in the wok like mock duck / “Whateva whateva” we say in the mornin’ cause whatever gon’ pop without warnin’ / Peace to myself cause I need help / Hold a piece to the rich cause I need wealth / Blue collar shit / a few dollars spent / Violent product of my environment / Young G’s fiends to blow trees / Young teens with nails and hair weaves / Only build with the leaders / Check individuals hard without heaters / I believe in me freedom or death what I said to police / I’m the true and living ruler kicking jewels in the kitchen / I’m too driven. Hook Sims Waking up to the head buzzing / blood pumping / No time for using the snooze / flip on the news / nah fuck it unplug it Time to view something new / something to loosen the screws / no time for that / got to keep the mind intact / 40 hours of the spinal tap just to keep the spot I’m at / but that’s just how is goes / so the motto not just another spoke with lottery hopes Working man, dirty hands, sturdy plan / crush it through the hustle / trudge / I‘m a slow moving train / y’all just stutter-step don’t use your brain / I pass another test / I lend another hand while the rest would let ‘em fall like the other man / I take the upper hand / I’m calling up my fam / We’re taking over on the other hand / snap that rubber band / 1982 to a hundred grand. Hook Mictlan It was a map and a hash pipe / a half-lit matchstick / One hand on a gas pump / we blazed til we passed out / The Blues and a Mag-Lite / a half-way highway patrolee / “Two hands on the dashboard slowly!” / I’m used to the downright no-good outlook / A few good men look out for the bad bunch / If only looks could kill / “Look ma’ no bag lunch / just a body bag and a magnum” / “Have Fun!” / They lash out and you whip your lashes / Another day, another kid, another campus / another human-interest story for the masses / cause to the rest of them it’s just subhuman madness / Take a deep breath The Struggle is indefinite / Take another breath / Our freedom is so irrelevant / but we don’t ever forget / that we won’t ever regret / that we all in it / We live, we die, we rise, because... Hook

Hook: It’s been a long time coming / Lock stock / coming for the livestock / Running for their lives. It’s been a long time coming / Lock stock / coming for the livestock / Running for their lives. It’s been a long time / It’s been a long time / It’s been a long time coming. It’s been a long time coming / Lock stock / coming for the livestock / Running for their lives, walk. Metal to metal / the medals of honor pierce his chest / Kettle to kettle man / his heart is black and bleeds for the death / To all the rebels living off the laws that fear suggests / he appears a mess / but there’s a message he’s decoding / And he’s the envy of the unknowing / but all-willing to picture it all perfect / He talks into this mic with nothing in mind / the image is all worth it / No worship in his blood / no curses worth believing in / He’s up and he’s leaving a love for reason and / he’s making his rounds / He pounds his chest and hits the streets / He’s bad to the bone with bad bones / but won’t admit defeat / Visits the meek who inherently speak / from a well-oiled machine of a heart that won’t back off / Comes from a back-log of lost and tough luck / he’s completely punch drunk / but too exhausted to touch love, but / it’s kept tucked away with a new fade-proof innocence / that’s under-age and over-paid-attention-to / And since he’s destined to live without a destiny to rest into / he’ll just search for recipes from entries to exit-wounds / Sets the moonshine down and writes another victim’s tune / then washes the blood from his hands with drinks until his fingers prune. Hook He never had faith in god / only trusts the custody he seeks / and he’d just love to have you judge him by the company he keeps The company of wolves / customized and cunning / up, up and running “wild in the streets, running, running” / He’s cutting it close / He’s luxury class / He’s up in the smoke and ash of habits that had broke him fast / He’s crass, so don’t cross him / He’s wild in his sorrow / but he manages his emotions and lights another Marlboro like... It’s been a long time coming

Hook1:On and on and on down the line / you got ‘em strung on a vine but you’re living a lie / I said on and on and on down the line / you got ‘em strung on a vine but you’re living a lie. Still I’m Sims: Looking for a sign of a pulse / Sit back until the bridges collapse and watch ‘em play fault / They plot it all out / get the story holding water but forgot about the bottom dropping out / So don’t come running ‘round here when your sky falls / What goes round comes back round / one two three / Every day same waltz Mictlan: One two / and if that soft shoe fits dance til the stage falls / With your lies in the background / truth in the forefront Two-step to the safe house / sweat when the storm comes / But we don’t do that step no more / God bless the dead and arrested war. Hook 2: You sowed it so it fits you / And you know how low it get’s you / But you sowed it so it fits you / No matter what you do / it comes back to you. Mictlan: And you know Bamf is ready / Yeah, that’s a given / The bastard’s in me / City slicker slip through the cracks of your city / I won’t sell my dreams / I keep the livestock fed / Clip the leaves before they turn and burn the field when the crop’s dead Plant feet / chop heads / to the vocal cord / You are not the tale-teller / this is not folklore / The Shape of Rap to Come resembles an open door / We’re wondering what the rest of the country had closed for. Sims: I say that to say this / You can act innocent / fill your glass to the brim / with your back to the wind / but sooner or later its going to catch up / It all adds up / breaks the scales / you don’t match up / Parasite-like feeding off the others / then fighting for your life to keep what you stole / You hold yourself as the self-keystone, huh? / It’s a one-way road / Everybody pays what they owe. Hook 2, and then what the hell, Hook 1

Mictlan: I don’t fight just to bleed / I won’t / I wear my stripes on my sleeve and keep my heart where it’s supposed to be / I know my enemy / Me / Only let my friends close to me / Cleared my head / awoke myself from your broken dream. Dessa: It gets hard doesn’t it / like love and war is redundant / both demand strong hands strong stomachs / I rock brass knuckles over my kid gloves / like you wake up with busted teeth but know you felt real love. Hook: You felt real / you felt real love. Mictlan: She’s got that swagger now / dagger in the back / Flashdance / and frantic answers to questions of fast cash / The face of an angel with the eyes of an alcoholic / Lookin’ for love but always drunk when it’s callin’ / Got that last call chasing a dream weaver and that’s all / Those lips look like love to lip readers / but up close it’s the worlds deadliest venom / Girl playing woman swimming through men / liquored up to the linen / Daddy’s little under-ager, undercover agent / aging under the covers of a hundred lovers’ faces / but let’s face it / That make-up is wasting her beauty that’s basic / Filling a void, but evasive and vacant / I tried to avoid / but she stays patiently naked / crying wolf to this pagan / until her Maybeline faded into her necklace and bracelet / It made her painless and jaded / I hated to chase her / hated it more when it came to dating / I rock glass fronts over my bare teeth / like you wake up with broken dreams but no you felt real love. Hook Dessa: Babe it’s work to whistle / if it’s love it’s labor / I’m the first to issue an admission of my bad behavior / I’m a mouthy little drunk / and I’m a tyrant when I’m angry / clumsy with company / careful with family / Break bones before promises throw stone before towels / I get nervous at parties but I’m like bedrock at hospitals / So fuck my birthstone / what’s my blood type? / Let’s do this thing with a little bold nerve and a little foresight / ‘course I expect the shit to get rough cause it always does in life and love / Best you can do is try to find other survivors / take flight or get fried to wire / they light the briar but I got your back when you’re feet to the fire love. Both: Real recognize real like counterfeits rejected / Come correct or kindly leave the table now / Fold your hands but your pocket’s not protected / It takes one to know one and two to double down. My blood is thicker than liquor / Your skin is thinner than money / I’ve seen a ghost in every picture you’ve taken / This love is hidden in scripture/ My pen is splintered and bloody / I hear a ghost in every record I’m making.

Hook: We don’t even talk no more / Never seemed to really anyway / Just repeated single-serving interactions / Best wishes on your way / Can you see how we speak right through each other? P.O.S: This scene is scenic but I’ve seen it / These scenester cats seem pleased to see me / dreamy eyes through Beam / so I don’t think they mean it / So I don’t blink I’m leavin’ / Right on the brink of heathen / Waiting for life to fuck me up so we’ll be even- Steven / Blowin’ my chest out screamin’ / my broken throat box bleedin’ / Logic and reason is a ghost / I feel just like the machinist / But in my chest it’s beatin’ / I know it’s there but where / I just picture puncture / So messy just life just leaking just everywhere. Sticky on every surface / A purpose a point that cuts cause I’m not / hardened I bleed when I’m got / Sharpened I’ll eat when I’m not / Starving I’ll sleep when I rot / See this is a little city / so twisted this village be / it’s a wonder nobody ever just told you to leave me be / See the misery feeders / keep us so comfy with company / we stay clumsily drunken / bumpin’ them guts but not loving ever / Hugging that pride like it’s safe / Funny how lonely ways can help us save face / but conversation is out / We don’t speak without that drink in our mouth / Oh messy lives. Hook This scene is scenic / scenery vivid / Dull it / sip it, strip it, lean it / Tippin’ on something / quick to Visine / Speak up you’re mumbling / Clean it / Meaning keeps crumbling / Oh tumbler talking / I’ll tell that story choking / sorry / Walking away / stop when I’m skating / Hell’s frozen-est lakes / Broken like damn / check was in braille / You could feel the stakes rise / See but this time this guy nose dives / The check’s in the mail I swear / Numb that sensation / social KY / Slide into conversation say hi Focal point scattered over same ol’ same ol’ patterns / Battle the battered bloody / She say she loves me but the Valium rattles so I don’t trust it / To me it’s fuck it / stay busted / adjust to the rusted hinge / Oil the squeak / sleep / Enjoy when the week ends Sleep / mend / sleep in / sleep it off / We too lost to give off nothin’ but shove off / Now get lost. Hook

Sims: It’s time you tied the knot around the rock / we not in sync / Got me to stop and think / you ready to die for that link? / Is that check worth the ink? / Spell the word emergency in burgundy / next to the dishes in your kitchen sink. Mictlan: With a short breath but a deep lung / I’m talkin’ each four bars when the beat come / How come he comes with an outcome / and other ones talk to hear talk / Huh? / Can you hear? / Who’s that? / Speak up / Voice that violence / Opinion is not choice / So choose your shhhh... P.O.S: Chilly through every season / Silly crew breathren beefing / Killing this midwest region / spilling my breath and leaving / My thoughts on a page hot / Talk’s cheap / No sleep til the pen drop / reap til the beat stop / til my heartbeat stop / til my feet stop pressing on. Crescent Moon: Yeah, lay me down lay me down / down with my pride / In a crate of instrumental demo tapes as proof that I tried Better not forget my / my true love / put her by my side / throw my guitar in the back / before we ride. Sims: When noone’s hearing it / Lost in the gloss and the mirror / get caught up in appearances / You thought you heard the truth / My god you must be hearin’ shit / In a new suit / you knew who’s year it is / Three cheers for the spiritless / Still talkin’ but no one’s hearin’ it. Mictlan: What? / What about me? / Sail this asphalt like the Black Seas / Pontius Pirate / Hide this cross in the backseat / Black sheep / hand me the bad blood laughing / That’s sand in a bath tub / No man is an island / and there ain’t no message in that bottle it’s hollow / Exactly. P.O.S: I’m talking but no one’s listening / Pissed and put off and whispering / stuck distancing self from a life with a lot of love Gotta hide from a lot of trust / Need a guide through the rust / liable to bust / Style of a child gotta hush / Just need to push Never been the type to shush / just brush dust and walk. Crescent Moon: I’m talking ‘bout different times / I was a different man / Five brothers, different skin colors / whatever’s the plan St. Paul kings tagged in a Murderap taxi / Hit the brakes in D.C. / and we finally crashed in Cali. Sims: To a blank page / just filling in blank space / Why do we depend on these relationships to fill in that blank space? / I hold the weight up for ransom / I take it cause you take it for granted / Pull the leaves until they’re breakin’ my branches. Mictlan: I came, I saw, I played Contra / You sang the song / we saved the saga turned opera/ The world is off-beat / My heart is right-on / but the beat don’t stop me / It goes on the backbeat / Born to the concrete / Watch me / keep walking. P.O.S: Yelling, screaming / demons leaving / Needing release / so please let these expelled appease / Telling / treating life like reading / Needing release so please let these expelled appease / and give a shout if it’s hell you see. Crescent Moon: I’m talking right now to the all night / my boys around / While the midnight oil burn down / and the beat ain’t gon’ get turned down / Wine bottles, magazine models / and records on the ground / Four minds collide get a mic up to the sound. It goes on...

Dessa: Pose with a cigarette just to see who lights it first / Aw love you didn’t think the pirouettes would lift your skirt? / On the phone with a close friend who’s name you don’t know / Something bigger came up baby / so sad you can’t go / It’s amazing what they let you get away with in dim light / and it’s crazy watching you go pale in stage lights / The handbills the fan mail / the photos that they shoot / you show up just to look at them lookin’ at you / You’ve got that gold touch / you’ve got that mad rush of the bored and over-lonely / adored by young strangers / a stranger to old friends / you came up quick and now you’ve got the bad bends / Can’t remember which houses you live in which ones you visit / Business is different than what you envisioned, isn’t it? / All this cause and not an effect yet / just gauze and Percocet / Bump the set til God can hear it / and quell this fear that I’m feeling that heaven is quite deaf. Cecil: And all I hear is king me, love me, watch me / did he love me / honey kiss me / is she off me / naughty you’ve been naughty ladi dadii move your body / Or use your body language / A: because it’s easy to read / B: because you’re stuck in anxious-ville C: you don’t speak easily / Yeah, we can be mind-fuck buddies or the beast with two backpacks / You just got to trust somebody after you suck somebody into your laugh track / Your audience is crying / and I know you’ve noticed / You’re focusing in circles dear / I see your lips moving but all i hear is / Does he still love me? / Why don’t he know that I’m in pain? / Why don’t he still need me? / Why don’t he know that I can change? P.O.S: Take steps like I don’t wanna wake ya / Not a sound from the floorboard / four more steps to the door / don’t look back don’t get shook / don’t crack / don’t act so took / Don’t tack another sorry on / time is gone for that just go / Maybe cause the time was wrong / up in the head but the heart’s a strong one / That’s what I shoulda said / Woulda coulda but the door still creeks Just leave / please just don’t speak / These dreams need sleep and I woke / to a need to relieve not cope / Hope don’t float hope sinks low / Hope breeds free with the demons below / Faith is a razorblade you can raise to the face of any hangman that gives you the rope / Just go.