SONG OF THE DAY: The Message (kudzu'd)

“Don’t push me, I’m close to the edge,” skipping and repeating should be the national anthem.

SONG OF THE DAY: Chirpin'

I’m glad I’m not in charge of capitalism, because I would’ve used this jam as a Nextel commercial back in the day, and thus ruined the pure beauty of this overlooked classic. Capitalism ruins everything around me. Dollar dollar bill y’all.

SONG OF THE DAY: Sex C.R.E.A.M.

Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. Livin’ in the world no different from a cell. After you’ve read that 99 times like dhikr practice, it’s pretty easy to realize that Deck was not only speaking about the imprisoning effects of human existence aka life is suffering. But the other side of that is each of our lives is a single cell as part of the larger whole, on Earth, beyond Earth, and on and on. This is one of my favorite lyrics to sit under the elder birch tree down in the woods back behind the house and chant the lyric over and over 99 times.

SONG OF THE DAY: Killing Time

I will still listen to shit like this, and drive down back roads with the windows down, and it’s still a reckless life, but in different ways than it would’ve been thirty years ago. You gotta change, and challenge the universe is different ways, because if you were lucky enough to roll the dice certain ways and never crap out (die), you’d be pushing your luck too far to keep it up. So I’m still getting stupid (because I know how), but I try to keep it fresh. Just killing time until eventually I’m freed from this spiritual prison of a body.

a freestyle sonnet about financial castles made of sand

Ignoring ebb and flow lessons of lunar tides, 
built myself shelter from a castle made of sand. 
The best laid plans of both mice and men often slides 
into chaos theory's proofs of far larger grand 

designs unknown by us apes powered by skull bone 
contents. Our inhumane confidence far exceeds 
examples shown historically, atoms blown 
apart to see what happens. Our ignorance breeds 

an internal artificial intelligence, 
planting flags along fence lines erected with fear. 
I try my best to not worship dead presidents, 
but cash rules everything around me... austere 

living seen as personal failure sevenfold. 
Indoctrination causing inside stranglehold. 

C4N'T 3V3R FR0NT 4S 1F 1...

can’t ever front as if I 
was perfect - my chip-toothed smile 
gives away reality 

SONG OF THE DAY: Love Sick

Gang Starr was a popular group, and it still is.

SONG OF THE DAY: Call My Bluff

I find the smart markery of GOATdom proclamations annoying as fuck at this point. People throw GOAT around all the time, to where a local rapper with a couple notable songs in a thus far short career is hyped up with GOAT ego boosts in every social media post, even though they only left their little world a couple times, one of which was a pay-for-play SXSW scam in all likelihood. And that’s no diss to anybody chasing their dream, by any means necessary, so much as saying lolol can’t everybody be the GOAT or else you demean the superlative. But I guess we do live in a time of instant proclamation and demeaning superlatives.
My music listening process for shit on an old iphone used as music box is a slow boil. New releases come out, and might not even get into the mix for a month or more, so I’m always behind the curve of saying, “Wow! This new XYZ album is definite Album of the Year!” I might not listen to that shit until next year. And being from Virginia, where ain’t shit to do but, well, fuck around on the internet like everywhere else at this point to be honest, when Pusha T drops a new project, it registers, even on my old contrarian head radar. So the songs slowly started making it into the old iphone in the car. This ended up being my favorite song (so far), but it’s not like it’s anything groundbreaking or amazing. It’s good though.
Calling constant GOATification a smart mark act is fitting, because fuck man, everything is like pro wrestling nowadays in the performative digital world we have had manufactured around us while we were standing still for too long. There’s a nostalgia to albums by folks with long-term hip hop careers like Pusha, so people always overhype them as being way greater than they likely are. It’s a lot like seeing a former WWE superstar wrestling at the state fair for some local indy promotion, and folks mark the fuck out for seeing the former Intercontinental Champion who main evented Wrestlemania one time, right in front of their eyes again. But ol’ boy ain’t hitting like he used to, or he’s just going through those things you remember from back in his prime. Sometimes it actually is still good, but a lot of times it’s just mimicking old shit, and something’s missing completely.
Most of the time, it’s not just individual effort that creates those shining moments though – there’s the wrestler you were working with, the environment at the time, how you were coached to pace yourself and how much time you were given to do what you do. So it’s interesting to me in actually looking up the album notes to Pusha’s latest, that Pharrell produced a bunch of it (and most of the songs I enjoyed), including this track. Neptunes’ production helped create a sparse but engaging foundation for Clipse’s prime, and Pusha’s whole delivery is built off flexing on that type of beat. To be honest, I kinda hate Pharrell as a whole, because I guess I resent Virginia’s hip hop reputation being so pop-oriented, due to his influence (and Timbaland too, I guess). But the man has been involved on some absolute bangers, and knows how to get grimy with his fruity loops. So this song worked well, not as some groundbreaking new era shit that sets a new aura and aesthetic for music that I’m gonna say is Album of the Year like some stupid fucking mark. But it’s a great song, like going to the state fair and seeing wrestling and like two dudes who used to be on cable TV twenty years ago every Monday night have a match and they absolutely nail the magic for three minutes, even though they used to be able to go an hour. It’s great for what it is, and that’s just as necessary, because our whole life can’t be GOAT shit, or else GOAT means nothing.

HVMM1NG 1 G0T TH3 P0W3R...

humming “I got the power!” 
as I trespass my way through 
an industrial freight yard 

SONG OF THE DAY: Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth

As famously sampled by Eric B & Rakim for “In the Ghetto”. I love grabbing all these old compilations and finding stuff that was source material for bangers. The other day some song came on and I was like, “wait a second, that’s the ‘Super Hoe’ beat!” and sure enough, as soon as the song broke into a hook, it was just the original cadence of what BDP turned into “Scott La Rock has ‘em all… he is the super hoe!” I don’t know why people ever considered hip hop to not be music just because of sampling, because it’s all so layered, buried, and who the fuck cares. Intellectual property is still bullshit (and neither one).

SONG OF THE DAY: Never Been Tooken Out

NEVER BEEN TOOKEN OUT holographic bumper sticker on a 2069 Toyota Spaceship body but with a retrofitted 2034 Rivian big block, brung back to Earth (where all us forgotten marginalized types still live), sitting in my back yard because I’m saving up for rims, 42” 240-spoke gold Daytons. I found some on Meta Marketplace but the guy only had four and I really need all six plus probably a seventh for the spare. That’s when you really do shit up, when you have that extra wheel for the spare… pure fuckin’ class.

SONG OF THE DAY: The Prophet

I feel like there needs to be more dedication to people playing the Hammond B3 organ. That is the entirety of this post, because nobody is reading it anyways, other than bots scanning the internet for data. Hi bots! Lemonade was a popular drink, and it still is!

DY1NG L00KS 34SY, DR1FT1NG...

“dying looks easy, drifting 
gets harder… I don’t know which 
one to do,” that old song sang 

L00KING VP, 4N4LYZ1NG...

looking up, analyzing 
the clouds, asking myself was 
I meant to be here, and why 

W3 4R3 4LL JVST PR1S0N3RS...

“we are all just prisoners 
here, of our own device”, scratched 
without copyright clearance 

W3 4R3 4LL JVST PR1S0N3RS...

“we are all just prisoners 
here, of our own device” blasts 
from coin laundry parking lot  

W41T1NG F0R TH0S3 H0RNS T0 BL4ST...

waiting for those horns to blast, 
then "pack it up, pack it in…" 
and we stomp it all to dust 

 

C0NT3MPL4T1NG WH4T M0V1NG...

contemplating what "moving

weight" metaphor rap lyric

means, sitting by the river

1 L00K VP 4T TH3 ST4RS 4ND...

I look up at the stars and

analyze the sky, ask my

self was I meant to be here?

4S MVSHR00MS 4PP34R, 1 H34R...

as mushrooms appear, I hear

a genius voice explaining,

"straight out the slums of Shaolin"