No Kings

by Doomtree

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about

No Kings is the second all-crew release from the Doomtree collective, the prolific pack of Minnesota musicians known for their explosive live shows, their ferociously DIY ethic, and their blatant disregard for the conventions of their genre.

All seven members of Doomtree have built solo careers as rappers, producers, or DJs. (Roster cheat sheet: P.O.S, Dessa, Sims, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan, Lazerbeak, Paper Tiger.) Individually these artists receive press from outlets like The York Times, NPR, Spin, Rolling Stone, and The Utne Reader. When they take the stage together, they’re an unstoppable storm of knuckle tattoos, fedoras, high-tops, and sensible flats—they’re funny together, desperately serious together, and their loyalty to one another is evident to everyone who’s seen a show.

Doomtree has a well-earned reputation for aggressive, innovative production that spans genre and era—borrowing from punk, classical, obscure rock, experimental, and foreign styles. Even for Doomtree, this new project is bold. If No Kings were a movie, it would be a cross between The Lost Boys and Tron. Or maybe a Quentin Tarantino take of Lean on Me: youth and innocence with a surreal and futuristic, pulp twist. Lyrically, the record rejects the youth culture of fashion magazines, and replaces it with stories and images that might be better set at an anarchists’ summer camp: escapades in subversion and free thinking. Contagious synth lines spike and dive, layers of percussion create a constant forward motion, infectious melodies loop on horns and distorted guitars, sub-bass hits your chest, then your gut, then the residents of the apartment below you.

Ultimately the title, No Kings, is a call for both rebellion and respect—obey no monarchs, seek no thrones. There are 808s in Neverland. There are no kings in Minneapolis. And Doomtree continues their ascent the same way they began: one city, one club, one show at a time.

Doomtree will tour extensively in support of the album—with a grueling North American routing, a SXSW showcase, and potential European and Australian dates.

credits

released 22 November 2011
All songs written & produced by:

Cecil Otter - Rebel Yellow (ASCAP)
Dessa - Dessica Rapshit (ASCAP)
Lazerbeak - Legend Recognize Legend (ASCAP)
Mike Mictlan - Deity for Hire (ASCAP)
Paper Tiger - Skip Steps 1&3 (ASCAP)
P.O.S - Half a Kidney, Half a Lung (BMI)
Sims - Sims is a Business (ASCAP)

Additional drums all over the place (plus a little marimba):
Joey Van Phillips

Additional guitars/keys/backing vocals/you name it:
Dustin Kiel

Recorded at:
Stabcabinwisconsin, Stabcabinminnesota, The Birdcage, Humans Win!, & The Hideaway

Engineered & mixed by Joe Mabbott at The Hideaway

Mastered by Bruce Templeton at Magneto Mastering

Design & layout: Eric Timothy Carlson
Photos: Kelly Loverud

Executively produced by Lazerbeak & Cecil Otter

www.doomtree.net

General inquiries: info@doomtree.net

Booking: mollyfitzgerald@theagencygroup.com

©2011 Doomtree Records L.L.C.
P.O Box 8777
Minneapolis, MN 55408

THANK YOU. NO KINGS.

DTR-032

tags

tags: hip hop hip-hop/rap indie rap doomtree Minneapolis

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about

Doomtree is a collective of seven friends who live in Minneapolis and make music together. They’ve earned acclaim for genre- defying recordings, explosive live performances, and their fierce loyalty to one another. Members include P.O.S, Dessa, Sims, Cecil Otter, Mike Mictlan, Lazerbeak, and Paper Tiger. The DIY outfit has built an international fanbase one city, one show, and one song at a time. ... more

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Track Name: No Way
CECIL (Hook)
We got cracks in our armor / Got cracks in the ceiling / and this axe that we’re wielding will react when we’re feeling that / Crack / Attack / Attack and we’re on you like a Mack truck Your Honor / We are that fucking filthy

SIMS
It’s 2000 and self destruct and everybody’s yelling that shit is all fucked / Yuck / I never liked the construct of that square wheel / Like “money ain’t real” / …wait…but that ain’t real / ...Oh, now I get it / We could take it all and split it / Give it to the village / Doomtree villains / out for the killing…no kidding / Good man but I went a bit bitter when they took a little bit of the dinner off my plate / High stakes / Okay / I’ll play / but it ain’t your game / and it ain’t your rules cuz it ain’t your world / and I brought my crew / We some dirty lip fuck your rules living ugly goons / It’s no kings / No way / You’re so vain / you probably think it’s about you / Well it is and it ain’t / and it ain’t, but it is / I go so fucking nasty no restraint / Well I get props and I play it off / I see em hot but I fade em all / Hello world it’s L.O.P. / B.T.Z. / Keep your ring / Move out my way, let me do my thing / let me do my thing / Imma do my thing

MIKE
Friction lock rivet / Goonish as all fuck / Prudent to all stunts / Proving the laws of logarithm / Like the wag of a dog’s tail / Bark back / Woof! / Light the rag on your cocktail / Spark that / Champ on that slang chop / Chump on that chomp rap / Prolly a stomp sack / Man gimme my prop back / Hold your tooth to my non dap / I ain’t no Diddy boy / That Beni know we go scrimp dance / Dougie don’t stop that! / Señor Frreal Z 3 R zero / None other, who’s kooler / Hoola-hooping thru bank 0’s / Hewlett packing, loogie yacking on Don Hero’s / Bomb appearance / Nights in Paris / raw dogging cross limos / Toss demos / Snot rockets blow up the sub-labels / Long tables / Calling shots on a crowd potato / The slang mongrel with fanged tonsils / We slay goblins / Gayngly gayng violent / Wrangling fake monsters (Hook)

STEF
What’s up? / No kings / No love for your made-up things / In the paint but it ain’t no game on the wall with a little complaint / Leave that stain / Weave through cities dodging rain no thing but an open door / It’s yours / No lie but you gotta get dirty man fix your pride / We some preach em real, reach em, steal em from low ideals type dudes / with a stepped up set of skills and an ick style so kill that wills update daily / No frills or pilled up babies / No posture phony just rock solid unfuckwitable dropped knowledge / No love for the bull horns give em / Thorns get em in / Swarm, let em make friends with a storm / Buddy up get close to the war / Insides out, no love for the boring / Naw, bored / and I bet the hearts off and beating under hardwood flooring / Poor man’s Poe (Hook)
Track Name: Bolt Cutter
STEF (Hook)
My girl gave me a bolt cutter / We love to break in / We claim all the spaces they forgot they had taken / and all this is ours it’s gonna be what we make it / If only the stars were close enough we would paint them

SIMS
They said we couldn’t have that / Square in the eye right back and said yeah, yeah / We gonna take it anyway that’s that / Anyway we don’t feed out your hand / Look what we built with a grain of sand / It’s the end of the golden era / We don’t buy terror / We define terror / Me and my girl we on the run / but we shoot back when the lawman comes / Hard to sleep when the darkness creeps / We won’t quit til the job is done / We were trying to be quiet / but you incited a riot / Conquer divide it / We learned and applied it / Arrogance, audacity / Your love is from a magazine / My love loads a magazine / and she be shooting all you motherfucks / Duck

DESSA
You know, I’ve seen a little glory / and your trinket isn’t it / Save your voice, I know the story / man abandons sinking ship / I heard you did your dissertation on the rise and fall of man / said the golden era’s over, but we’ll rise and fall again / We lost some ground, we lost some time / Man, look alive, we lost enough / yeah look around, we’re finders now / clean that shit up, you’re losing blood / this ain’t Kansas, show of hands / if you said your prayers / now put em down if you got answers / This place it takes the faith of a mantis

MIKE
She wants to spend the night in graveyards / loves fair, plays hard / but that’s for keeps / yeah that’s for keeps / She’ll break my skin with a needle / I’ll break my hand in the face / that ever questions her equal / Yeah that’s for creeps / There ain’t no ground where I’m looking / We climb up twisted stairs it’s funny / cuz I’m so high / I’m more twisted / than when I see her running / We’re going up to the top / She wants to see our city / dripping in electric pedals / It’s crazy but kinda pretty / She told me ”Watch your step, I’ll follow close / fuck it if we get caught” / The strongest links in a chain are the first to get cut / Together til we all fade / keep the blade in the gut / They kept us in a cage too long / to fake they care about us (Hook)

STEF
The sign said something easily forgotten clearly / and time is not my problem she reminds me nearly hourly / I notice til I don’t / All rules respected less with every step neglecting lessons about trespass / Passing old plans / Lost to the rent /Laugh til we sick, passing a twist / So savage we nag at your standards and spit / With a generally messed up view, says who? / That handle is safe / And we typically don’t give too much weight to a life with a worm’s eye view / We play like birds prey / Anyplace warm stay / Love it / We own our space / Roam home / Any place aimed go
Track Name: Bangarang
MIKE (hook)
Doomtree Bangarang / All these rappers sound the same/ Beats? / Sound the same / Raps? / Sound the same / Wings / fan the flames / Teeth / with the fangs / 10 years in our lane / Doomtree Bangarang

STEF
When it breaks... / When it breaks we’ll know it’s time / We’ll know it’s up to us to fix it / When it aches to make its mind we’ll pick it / Til then we’ll steer it / Get us near / we’ll swim the distance / Fear after persistence / Kin by cuts with all decisions lived with / Can’t live without by now / that’s why we shout so loud / Couple down / All respect allowed the rest could never doubt / Options offered often / Toss em to the chop em block em hostile dodge em / Keep watch what I been rockin / Whole team with a grip got it / No polish (Hook)

CECIL
Now underneath this canopy / crumbling insanity / Bellies rumbling hungering for the fantasy / Had to see something come from them / Had to be crushing savagely / Not your average everyday / Nothing short of a masterpiece / And the tortures of the past are like a fortune for the future / We’ve been fortunate enough to know no borders / no rulers / No schools are out of session / no school’s out of the question / No tools will go unused / and no fools will go unmentioned / And there’s a tension in the air we’re breathing / We breathe heavy / we breathe largely / Release the levy / Feel the tension in the air we’re breathing / and breathe heavy / and breathe largely / Release the levy (Hook)

SIMS
They hate, they petty / They say we too heady, too heavy, too many, too much punk / much too drunk, too much luck, love too much / Yup / But we earned it all / All work til the curtain calls and our time is up / They ain’t got enough / and it burns em up / Before tour and First Ave it was Dillinger 4, Triple Rock, Toki Wright, I Self Divine / Way more than I’ll name drop / but I got y’all when I see y’all / and I’ll keep y’all when the beat stops / I built more than a rap career / I got my family here / But some punks want to jump up / with a sharp tongue and their fronts up / like we got here by dumb luck / but they just want to become us / but that’s what’s up when you come up / I move like a dump truck / Too long on the road and I earn what I hold / but if you want it let me know I can burn your flow liiikkeeee whhahhattt? (Hook)
Track Name: Beacon
DESSA
I took it for a kiss, but it couldn’t have been, could it? / I see now what it is, we were just biting the same bullet / You called it in the air / it landed it on its edge / when the crowd gathers around / you turn tail / I turn heads / Shavin down the puzzle piece / tryna make a clean fit / Take what is lovely / leave before the rain hits / It’s a heartbreaker for starters, as you age not too much changes / practice doesn’t make perfect, just makes the game more dangerous

STEF
Start repo / negative sleep nauseous / barf party for sure / intelligent creep stalking awkward / Flush flustered rush for doors / advance fire-plan / handy with the way out / routes explored / Cover catching up / careful with your care / We don’t go there, naw / We keep locks and keys steadily swallowed / never be followed, none of em dare / Channel up your anger leave it here / kindly disappear / Mind your mannerisms / I can’t be flattered back / The patterns the concern / lessons prolly turned to fact / By now you’d surely drown yourself before you’d help me with this sail / I’m in the wind / crossed fingers for the win / Up to ten til they hammer in the very last nail / Challenging like every last stalemate / Deal with it / No mission ends / Precision lack of friends / Happily recommend nothing to no one, ever

CECIL (Hook)
I know, I know / I know wake up, wake up / But I don’t go there, go there / She knows the way home

CECIL
You know your way home? / You gonna be all right? / Yeah, but I had faith that you’d see the light / and ride with me or kiss me goodbye / Now you got me feeding kites into the night sky / Covered them with nightlights, like, did you see the beacon? / I swear I let those kites fly around all weekend, no? / Well someone must have cut the lines or something, no? / Or maybe something, oh, you weren’t looking / Ok Plan B just panic / run up the stairs and shut the door to the attic and don’t come up for air / until you’re torn from her fabric completely… / and just like magic, you’re all in one piece again / But, I’m nothing like I used to be… / elusive and reclusive / Now I’m just both times a hundred…exclusively / Truthfully, I was blind to the deep end / until that piece of us went and died that weekend (Hook)

SIMS
Then it flashed forward, but I asked for it / Rip out the doubt, I’m way too south / I gulped it up, I laid back / peeling off the layers / the mantra saying “fear can’t stay here self see you later” / Fire chakra dissolve to ether / I have to meet her, I know she knows the way / I’ll have to die twice, no novocaine / See the Eye of Horace, I am Osiris / I meet the devil, it ain’t the first time / He kills me quick like I am nothing / Scream St. Peter, I need you now cousin / I see the owls coming, they float me safe / I learn their grace, they help me heal / I’m under stars peeling off my skin to rid my scars / it’s the first time I am reborn, but I am not me / No identity, and I am finally free / I am my brother, I am my father / I am the sun, I am the water / I am an ion, I am everything / I am the vapor, a cloud of smoke / I am a cheap laugh, but I get the joke / I am a brief flash, the abstract
Track Name: Punch-Out
MIKE
Ring around the squared circle / side stepper repertoire / Blind sider gut splitter butt splatter weapon paw / Second guesser predecessor hidden stressor / Set it off / Second in command commanding power with the reckoning force / Double 0 ten / larger than Kelly Robinson / You getting knocked out harder than Danny Donavon / Doomtree Blowout winter for your wonderland / Willing to only cut a man bullies will never understand / Wooly mammoth Minnesnowta / Murder Maker Mike Mictlan / Hoodie, parka, Nordic, mitten, muzzle, skully, get it on / Sims and Cecil, Mike and Stef (and Dessa and Paper), Lazerbeak the legend god / Wings and Teeth teaming up, feeding on the lesser parts / Uptown to Peavey Park / West Bank to Powderhorn / Doomtree / Captains of the rapping Liberal North / Sovereign township on some Watership Down shit / The Bangarang Gang / Style over everything!

SIMS
I try to stay cool, let the assholes be assholes / but they’re pulling on my last hopes / Yeah they’re pulling on my last cord / Anymore and I might give them something to die for / Call 911 last days in America, the primates won / At the mouth frothing like troglodytes / I’m on a zombie hunt, yeah it’s on tonight / Put out an APB, all these silverback gorillas on the trail chasing me / Man, I should just move to the sticks / and let these alpha males roll in their own shit / But I ain’t giving into you / I’m a citizen too, who’s trying to save who? / On a big white horse in a pale grey suit / so I move with the moon / I’m like ready, aim, shoot
Track Name: Little Mercy
CECIL (Hook)
Now the candle’s in the window and it’s open / We watch the flames duke it out with every gust and we’re hoping / no, it must just burn to the bottom of the wick / It’s the bottom of the 5th and that shit is still burning / We’re still turning every table when it’s needed / Not laying there defeated, no / We draw our bows back repeatedly / Then off with the arrows, and the Gods and the Pharaohs / From the bottom of our hearts we’re from the bottom of the barrel / Now, peril knows no bounds / terror won’t slow down / but there’s a whole low down of beauty to be shown now / We broke ground / and broke our backs stacking bricks / We never broke our promises; you’ll never know just half of it / We’re adamant on building every wall and stair sturdy / and when our work is done, then we’ll call our shares worthy / In this land of milk and honey, we’re too shy to say we’re thirsty / We just make a little money and we… / we buy a little mercy

CHANNY (Hook)
No more / my lord / No more / my lord / Lord I’ll never / turn back / no more / my lord

CECIL (Hook)

DESSA
If you welcome every trespass / then every tramp’s a guest / Give what they would take from you / then every theft’s a gift / Hold too tightly to what’s in your hands or in your chest / and the future it won’t open, palm reader’s can’t work fists / Broken bones are stronger for the breaking / No, the danger’s in the bending / those concessions that you never can take back / Curl you round a cane / you’re still in tact, but now quite lame / better to grit your teeth, ready the cast and let it snap / We’re always first to come in / we’re running when we hit the ground / We never do leave early / stand sentry at the lost and found / We just make a little money / and we start that long walk into town / where we buy a little mercy

CHANNY (Hook)

CECIL
So no more talk about the backfires / this time we fire back / Light a match and light the past up before it catches up / We’ll raise a mast and cast off / Yeah, we’ll break some legs and mend em / and then we’ll take our casts off / Now, we’ve had our losses / We’ve had our victories / We’ve sat across from every victim of their misery / That pounding in our chests was just a symptom of our sympathy / We’ll lay ourselves to rest with both our winnings and our injuries / We’re so hungry / We’re so thirsty / I’m gonna hunt until it hurts me (and it hurts me) / We’re aching (aching) / We’re so thirsty / But, we’re gonna make a little money / …and buy a little mercy

CHANNY (Hook)

CECIL (Hook)
Track Name: The Grand Experiment
DESSA
It begins with a flash / I know they say it ends the same / bit of skill, bit of chance / now every player guess the game / we start with these planets waltzing through the darkness / tip the axis, that one’s ours / zoom the camera in, cue lights up, dim the stars / We shape the stone / paint our pictures on the wall / we hunt alone, plant in spring / learn to harvest in the fall / and we choose a king, mine the metals for his forges / to better wage our wars and all of Olympus is laughing / until we go and split the atom

SIMS
Push that metal on down the road, we built this city on coal and gold / Money that trickles out, fill up that cup and sip it down / from the salt in the sails on down the rails / Everything’s for sale is the golden rule / including…well, I’m no fool / They get in a rush in a haze but I get out of mind, out of body, out of pocket / I don’t mind putting on a bit of mileage, but I won’t auto pilot with my eyelids shut / I’m still gunning, but I learned what’s worth hunting / and I learned what’s worth nothing / saw it / read it / outdone it

STEF (hook)
There’s no escape / They always looking for that easy out / but there’s nowhere to go / There’s no patience / They always looking for that easy out / but there’s nowhere to go

CECIL
Now all the parts are running, sparks are spilling out the gears / Over some thousand faces waiting years to see this work / Aching cause they need it first / Patient, but they seem berserk / Craving for that feast of merch / Yo! Save a slice for me and her / Isn’t it marvelous…just darling (it’s the newest thing) / It’s totally harmless, but it’s charming (it’s the cutest thing) / But, it bites…not hard…just hard enough to break the skin / and your bone / and your back / and the bank / But wait, it comes with a warranty / for a week, and that’s respectable / It’s cheap and it’s ethical…well, it’s ethical…well, it’s magical really / See, you put the cash in the till, fill in the blanks and that’s it / For my next trick I’ll need your password and an exit / and then poof / cue the fog machine (Hook)

MIKE
Modern man / out of hand / motor mind / off the line / automate the operator / Can you hear me clearly? / I’m gonna live forever / give me guerilla arms / sling shot me into outer space in hyper colored glitter bombs / We’ll make our mark huh? / They’ll put no stops to us / We’ll leave our footprints on foothills and dance the Megatropolis / pushing evolution faster / catching continental drifts / Desperately Seeking Solutions to problems we know we’ll never fix / In the belly of a robot / out the valley of a microchip / Dialysis in Wonderland/ Apple Z the viruses / I’ve never been myself, there is no human experience / you can’t Apple S yourself / this is The Grand Experiment (Hook)
Track Name: String Theory
DESSA
I travel with a lungful of music, doesn’t weigh a thing / reed’s built in, breathe through it every time I sing / and I got pockets fulla my own hands, head fulla back-up plans / temper walks beside me, a gift I guess from my old man / History: lines on my face / Future: lines on my palm / they say heaven’s guarded by gates, damnation don’t care much who’s calling / but I don’t fall for that line, only one I walk is mine / I carry what I can and I’m still makin good time / Bones are hollow, that’s where I keep marrow / This quiver in my lip, that’s just where I keep my arrows / I fold up my ideas I pack em neat inside my skull / I got this string theory: doesn’t work to push, you gotta pull / so I’m pullin for me, and I’m pullin for mine / and they’re easy to read, but you can’t trust the signs / Eyes blur in the heat, heat curves all the lines / try to keep up, speed up, get your feet up / and match mine

CECIL (Hook)
We’ll wait til the dawn / And when dawn breaks we’re moving on / We’re raised by the laws / But the laws gonna break when we’re moving on

SIMS
Gravity I never learned / I'm in the air stretch it out spaghetti western / I make it glow then let it go, no effort / That attachment only kept your flame sequestered / I just let it how the ember in my chest burn / I wasn't in for the fame or making profit / I just came to scrape my name into the cinder blocking / Now they're flocking because the feather's same / I just burned the oil, toiled, man I fed the flame / You better aim before they tame you, boy / it's a wild world they're coming for your pelt, young boy / They're tolling all the bells, Tolstoy / it’s war and peace, beast came to eat, old boy / oh boy (Hook)

SIMS
Gravity is such a pesky thing / makes every weight in sight seem like it's worth measuring / makes every step you take so tentative / but if you don't stride with purpose then there's no benefit / I know, only on this surface til we float / but why wait? I pull for you and throw your hand a rope / I know, you can take time or take time by the throat / so tell me when it's time to go (Hook)
Track Name: Team The Best Team
STEF
Think love / and think drugs / and they’re the same thing inside / And we struggle / or get enough / but it’s the same thing / Burn holes in the Moleskine, bout it / Been friends with a pen, gave trust to the page / Turn in when the time’s up earn that age / know-how learned in spades / They exist in the outros / in the fade outs / and in the background noise / I wouldn’t wish it on my rivals / I got no enemies / We all fall for the decoy / Sometimes it slides right by while we’re trying to decide / Don’t lie to yourself / almost ain’t good enough / and there ain’t no extra lives / Leave em alone / How we livin? / Very own road and it’s so, so driven / In the freezing cold, y’all keep chillin / We’ll leave tracks you can follow in / Bold, less fucks given / Team The Best Team / Doomtree citizen / We care like it’s cool still / but we’ve risen from close to sting to post-everything / How y'all livin? / Very own road and it’s so, so driven / In the freezing cold / y’all keep chillin

SIMS
So I do it for her and I do it for me / and I do it for the word / Kill it for the hunt of the beat / Kill it for the hunger that will not sleep / And you can stay miserable all your life but what kind of difference that make? / What, you ain’t had enough of that pay, ain’t had enough of your way? / Live from the Haunted North / in the woods where the fire roars / You fell for the Trojan horse / Who want it more? It’s already yours / Live from the Haunted North / in the woods where the fire roars / You fell for the Trojan horse / Who want it more; it’s already yours

CECIL
Draw blood, paint life, sculpt that clay, build that bridge (suffer and pleasure) / Got love, gotta write that way and filled that book from the gutter to forever / But we’re still gonna suffer / we got burnt / we met our match and struck first / Suckers should have known better than to let us head our own search and destroy / You would’ve been better centered at home / Remember that road we’d take? / I swear the devil’s backbone would break / We made it our home and it’s great and it’s good / it’s the same as it ever was / We came, we saw, we came back / We played em songs we made quick / We went back home just to fill those pages to the edges, and it’s aces / It’s all coming up roses / Closes may come and we know this / No risk, no fun, no way, nobody’s gonna break my stride, no sir / Those days look like these days / except for maybe these grays / But that’s just my salt and pepper, my heart and soul won’t live forever / Whatever…
/ It’s gonna come some day, so come what may and I pray it comes / We’re still gonna run like strays, purr like kittens, and bang a gong / We’ve sang our songs, we’ve seen the war, we’re living that and more / Knowing even the greatest dancers in the world are bound to leave the dance floor

DESSA
So shake, shakes, shoot / it’s like win, draw, lose / cause dice kept cooped up / just bring bad luck / man is made to choose / Yeah, mixed media: flesh, electricity, bone / we rent, we visit, but we’re never quite home / cause the river can’t know when the levy might go / so, draw your arm and throw

MIKE
Bottled all in, battle with a broadsword / rule with the iron cutter straight to the vital cord / Lean on a land alive / freed men in enterprise / Does it mean you seen the sign? / See what you wanna read / eyes in the seams, not what it seems / A better part of me will not let it be / instead it seethes / Does mean I believe a lie? / Let it dead, let it crawl / let it all count when you bet it all / Say it like you mean it, just say it / never better if you never even said it at all / Head em off at the neck, set it off / Ready for whatever with machete on the leather comrades with a letter on the wall / steady head, heavy guts and a set of balls / What I really gotta know, huh? / How to rock a rhyme that’s right in line? / With the beat and ride / wide to the feet, wise to the weak / Why? / Why we pray on the meek and pry in the speak of the “why’s” and the “we’s”? / We don’t know why / why we speak with a slide of the cheek / Hide / Chopped in the seams / Stride / That’s live and unique designed / flight for seats, fly in the cleats / Grind / Lines in the sheet / Slice / that’s all we live for / Polish poison plot loss / free and got a lost cause / Holler if you hear me shooting / Hollow Bodies High / Cower salted, high exalted, colicky and alcoholic / Call it when I see it all divide / Hollowed head to follow tired feet disqualified / Able of the cognoscente disabled from a solid mind / Hollow Bodies High
Track Name: Gimme The Go
CECIL
Put the pistols on your sides / the hood, the nickel-plated knuckles / duffle bags with our disguises (no surprises) / Just a simple way to pummel, rumble, mosh with human nature / Step in the fog and view the carnage / Labors of bloodlust / We combust / We’re sun struck / No room for dumb luck / she’s not my lady tonight / You pay me the price; we’re taking a life, like right now / We’re ravens of the night prowling / howling with the wind / and yes we’re moving in, in on the kill / Definitive thrill rides / We’re living unlimited til time… takes us from the living kind / We’re anxious and we’re gripping time / by its throat and choking every minute we can squeeze and bleed from it / Feed our needs and eat the keep we reap from it / slum it / and plummet into hiding (Hook)

So with the fog at our backs and your gods on retreat / We’ll release you from your struggles like… / Gimme the signal, gimme the go / There’s no odds to be stacked and no law to be seen / It’s just us and nothing but the cold / Gimme the signal, gimme the go

SIMS
Manipulate yourself up out of this one, how persistent / You speak with venom but nobody is around to listen / No coexistence, give your death some sound assistance / On a mission turn the king into a pile of crimson / Soaked ground / Your ghost float around / You won’t see the round unseat relieve you of your crown / Vermillion spill out brilliant slow / You took the jewels, I’ll make that ruby glow / Save your cash / Wasted breath, I’ll take your last / That’s not a note in this bottle it’s gas / That ain’t a rose in my hand it’s a match / I’ll take what you can’t take back / make the kingdom ash when the vapors pass / Melt down crown in a crucible / Make a carmine mist, no funeral / I will flush king heart if it’s suitable / and paint the town with his red, make it beautiful (Hook)
Track Name: Own Yours
STEF
When’s go? / I’ve been sittin here / I been plotting on the world / waiting for the right right now / Waiting for the minute when I can get all the way in it and make mine now / Flip that low life round / strip that crown / take down heads trying to wear that dead / Yeah, let me kill that / I hit it running, ain’t nothing catching me, that’s that / Matchless / Match to the mattress / restless / dreaming / I never believe what I’m seeing / Own world / Own yours / Phone home, own up, get unstuck reeling / Sights high, eye-line low / I might crow (bangarang) / Let it go / But I’ve been sitting here / I’ve been watching / Come close caution / Cut throat, get a rope, lost em... / As if you had him in the first place / I’ve been a rat but I ain’t never seen a cage in the worst way / I crave days where the work’s play / but I can’t seem to satiate, or get away, or get it straight, or get okay with okay / No way / Let me demonstrate / Other shit, own way, loving it all day / Coming with the content / Coming with the nonstop

SIMS
Coiled in the grass blades make blood boil / Sling snake oil singing these are the last days / These are the things that will ease your pain / These are the keys to the pearly gates / Trade your wage and he’ll learn your name / Earn your place, all it takes / They set the stakes with loaded dice / shout on high that the end is nigh, but I don’t mind / I don’t deal in fear, I’m so right here / so right now, they got no idea / They over-blow the slope then throw the folk a rope to cope control the soul like dope / They’re comatose in warming glow, froth and foam / I can feel the storm forming though / Fate and time is all a made-up line / It’s all a made-up line, it’s all a state of mind

BEAK (Hook)
And the roof caved in and the porch lights froze / And the woods lay thin and the torch light grows / You may find yourself in a corpse-like pose as you go / And the tombs spread out and the birch still grows / And the fumes head south and the earth will slow / You may find yourself on a search for gold as you go

MIKE
And it ain’t October/ bak’tuns and roses stolen with bare hands will touch back / Crosshairs to hooked snares a tough catch / Got a breath if nobody else sees it / Gonna starve if nobody else eats me / Dead in the water got my knees to the gut rot / Rings in the fire just a breeze to a sunspot / hmm / And it ain’t all over / Nights are longer before them days get colder / Run home, little soldier / This ain’t the war you’re fighting it’s the Red October / Ughh! / And you don’t have choices / We don’t either cuz we got these voices / But I’m scared when I yell / I’m selling em all poison, broken toys, bones and raw noises / So I hold my own / Hold my word, keep my sword in stone / I swear I’m getting it all wrong / not the end of the world just the end to this song

CECIL
And it goes… Thanks for the invite / Thanks for the memories / Thanks for the insight / We pray that you’ll never leave / We’ll tell stories by a maglite (never leave) / We’re gonna pick up on a fair fight (never leave) / And every morning, noon and midnight / we’ll be torn and bruised from fistfights / May be the oldest news and dissed right to our faces / …so lets take flight / We’ve been a part of the chain for so long / Been a part of the spark of the flame that goes wrong / We’ve been a part for a day and wrote songs about / and we could go on about it / But, the long and the short is… / we got no shortage / We got our pain on payroll / paint on the canvas with the face of an angel (Hook)
Track Name: Fresh New Trash
SIMS
I’ve been making my story while they’re waiting on glory / They speak with strays and got a lot to blame / Alright okay / You’re still yelling out without nothing to say / What you trying to stop the rain? / It won’t let up / it’s no set up / it’s only meta /
Alright okay / Strictly for the flame, I’m like fuck the fame / When it all comes tumbling down / the man built with rubble while you fumbled your crown / Hey, alright okay / because everything is that way, okay?

CECIL
We share the road with a mutual lack of shame / We share our souls that are suited for laughs and pain / Dancing for acid rain / Fanning the flames underneath us / Hoping it’ll reach us / Coping with the teacups fulla storms / Mean mugs fulla hate / We trudge through the storm / We love to relate / Affiliate / Fake? Never, no way / We shake out of our skin and make the great escape / But, wait… / I need a little less in my headphones / No, wait… / I need a little more in my headphones / No, wait… / Man, I think I’ll just head home / Headstrong reciting every word on my headstone

STEF (Hook)
Let it go / Let it roll on past / Don’t hold back / Understand it’s over before you know
And I’m feeling like fresh new trash / Top of the can, out of the bag, and scattered all over everything / Nothing can last / Beautiful, dash our pursuit of a path / Clear of the garbage hardly / Boss me soft / Watch me scoff / Toss me I just laugh / heavily cough / Stop never / ain’t no shaking me off / I chainsaw walls / Laws for the rich ain’t for me yet / Til it’s warm, we in the corner writing warnings, making bets / You by your lonely making threats / Let you scar my open arms / Try and teach my open head / How you turn yours / Burn more / I just keep the floors full / Unlocked / No score kept / No bullshit

DESSA
I been boom / I been bust / I rep Doom / til I’m dust / and yes this ship rumbles and rusts / but the engine still runs / it’s all friends here, all love why don’t you roll with us? /A passion, a purpose, a business / it’s personal, witness the cursive it’s written in / crossed t’s and dotted i’s / not allotted lotta time / gotta try to get your lines right / don’t mind that sinister sky / just let the spinnaker fly

MIKE
We get our songs out / and what we got is what we got / No amount of food is falling out the side of our mouths / Rhymes come out / and the food goes in / If we flop then we don’t win / the label takes an L / This isn’t indie rap / This is 10 years / stress and tears / sweat and fears / Acceptance from our friends and peers / and everything that’s brought us here / It’s written on my face / you can see it when I close my eyes / and sing a Dessa Darling line / the realest thing I never wrote / Quote me anytime / “It’s win, lose or tie” / Still Doomtree til I die / even after death and dirt / Let em know who said it first / and put it on your favorite shirt / Rap Won’t Save You / Sell em absolution with a verse (Hook)