1. |
A Poem Called Here....
05:46
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The name of this poem is “Here”
The name of this poem is Haiti
The name of this poem is Palestine
The name of this poem is America
The name is Flint, Michigan
The name is China
The name is South Central
The name is Minnesotta
The name is Johannesburg
The name is Panama
The name is Belize
The name is Here
Here is a strategy
Here we can’t run away from we
Here needs new imagination
There’s nothing performative about Here
Here has no guestlist or RSVP
We are here whether we want to be or not
Since I been here I’ve been reminded that freedom is health now
Freedom is breathing now
Freedom is not hating your roommate
You know the simple shit
Like a good meal*
Here is the re-examination
The doing of the deep work of the unavoidable
An inventory of the soul
Here is An everyday choreography of the possible
Dwelling in the wounds
Dwelling in the wounds
The deconstruction of fiction of the stable
Here in messy entanglements of empathy and apathy
an assemblage of a fragmented people
Here
We water dancer of the mundane
We wake up
scribble scripture
scroll a lil bit
like a picture
sip a tincture
made a smoothie
watched a movie
and let the stillness really move me
we living life
through cell phone
accept cookies
before ourselves though
We laugh at meme’s but fear stuck to us like velcro
the world is so different
the veil has been lifted
this show is unscripted
but the camera’s are still rolling now
who’s hand are you holding now
Restless in the wreckage
We
unravel
undoing
entangled
unfolding
All in the open now
Here
we can see what your hairline REALLY look like
How much your mouth really do
Unlearning silence used as survival tactic
Here is a current event
Here theory takes place at home
This is what we are at play with
Imagining new playgrounds
Here we must move the people while staying put
The revolution will be collaborative
Here the urgency in which one must express themselves,
an urge
that one must remain artist even without an audience
*The threat we face is invisible
A virus can’t vote
Can’t enslave
The virus has no age
The virus has no borders
The virus is here
the virus is a mirror
The virus is racism
The virus is much like vibration
Although you can’t hold it you know it’s real
You know it’s here
When yourself threatens to smother you,
You will open your mouth
not to yell or to scream, but to find your way to song
Some way of breaking
Some way to upheaval
Some form of magic
Some form of music
Melanin filled resilience
Here We have to imagine what we are if we are not producing products
If given a break
Here we break
Here we sanctuary new forms of family kinships used as resistance
Here is a form of improvised connectedness
New framework in a place of isolation
solidarity is a weapon
A support immune system if you will
If you won’t that’s fine this work here is as necessary as much as it is invisible
*Here we chorus,
swarm
ensemble,
mutual aid society
Louder than the endless record of struggle on repeat ready to be sampled, and resampled and resampled over and over
meant to be passed on like generational mixtape
Here is soundtrack to a history that hurts
Here
we chorus
In concert
We blueprint
We work song
Collectively Calypso
Organized Orchestra
Techno spiritual
JuJu apparatus
We move here in stillness
The best musicians listen more than they play*
Here we Black noise finding a listening in one another
Today is what I have
Here is where I am
Today is where I am
Here is what I have
From Here
Me and my mother hug from 10 ft away
Sighs filled w/ working from home
Me and my mother hug from 10 ft away
Eyes look like levy’s
Hearts weigh glaciers
Hunger for touch
Me and my mother hug from 10 ft away
cerfuwed into confusion
Letting a smile peek through the uncertainty
Me and my mother hug from 10 ft away
Mouths miming I miss you’s through facemasks
Longing for a time not so long ago
Me and my mother hug from 10 ft away
Like
Like
Like
last week
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2. |
F L O W E R S
02:15
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:: [ hook ] ::
(Eye wanna) Give flowers before you Nipsey
Memories before you miss me
You know the water than the glass is never empty
Eye splash get nothing on me
no no ain't got no worries
Eye know that It’s above me
Eye know that It’s above Me
:: [ verse ]::
How is your pulse today?
How did it go to today?
How can we grow today?
My ears are yours today
My heart is open face
We gotta cultivate
My soul is a solar ray
I need my folks today
Put that on Cimarron
This is a marathon
That’s such a holy phrase
We gotta organize
This is a (w)holey rage
21 21 it’s been A lot
As thick as the plot
Masks on our face
running the block
From the top of our lungs
Abolish the cops
No kumbaya
We don’t need no new Jordans
I’m reading up on June Jordan
Need a new day w/ a new morning
My eyes wet but I’m
through mourning
Home grown in a war-zone
Warden’s vs poor folks
I be on my grown man
I be like let’s own land
That’s a capitalist cadence
I am just saying
Fist in the air like Angela Davis
My newest ability that’s vulnerability
Skin come w/ history (yea)
I don’t need a black out
That’s telling me you tapped out
I am not a hashtag
I am gonna live loud
All up in the mix now
the Violence is so loud
Sirens cant silence this
We Living a shift now
By door like Spook like
Eye see ya shook like
we move by moonlight
We live through verse like
:: [ hook ]::
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3. |
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[Def Opening Verse] ::
Third eye my birds eye let’s look around
sunrays my hand raised i trace cloud
hood raised me Crenshaw my windows down
Land scapes my dna you see it now
12 steps I’m addicted to the kick drum
While ya out here Posing like you Bikram
That’s the vibe that I’m really sick of
Had to cut it off hit em w/ the nip tuck
room small the vibe is ginormous
Need a whole pie chart not a portion
Standing still but my mind still touring
Nothing really matters at all like Lauryn
Once I know what the songs about
I kill it like a victim of a haunted house
I’m not rapping actually I’m thinking loud
Annabelle break it down
what I’m talking about
Annabelle [HOOK]::
Something to round the city’s edges
Let me float away
To another place
Where I’m not just chasin feathers
Best stay away from all these ledges
Predisposed to play
Wanna liberate
But I should be safe for the better
Lafemmebear [Fire Verse] ::
Feels like we lit tha flame,
let the sun ray down on da melanin,
so good when you in your lane ,
feel fly dis life sometimes its greatÂż,
let it free u just let go, its a vibe its a feel your feet they know,
its cool boo do it da beat said so,
it on time it dont cmon lie lets float
Annabelle [HOOK]
Outro ✨🌳🌍
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4. |
STRUCK!
04:55
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5. |
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It took till my mid 30’s
To get what don’t water me
Only makes me thirsty
hung us like jury
Spit Jewelry
Dipped like waves w/ the murrays
all my enemies
and my mini me’s
keep taking an L
I’m sure you’ve seen em
they ain't taking it well
like bad casting director they playing themselves
how you looking for love that you don’t display to yourself
Hmmmm
Are those actions or just captions
Hmmm
Are you balding or just capping
Oooh
I like my currency w/ accents
Bring the light to the Aperture
Some niggas out here cancerous
We ain’t from the same diaspora
Twerking w/ the devil Dance w/ it
We just reaping what they sew out
we grew like a grow opp
collectively like a co opp’s
This is one for thee griots
we grew like a grow opp
collectively like a co opp’s
Verse 2 ::
things got heavy w/ my ex
I mean real real deep
It was heavy on my chest like Miskeen tee
Miss
Missing me
That’s Birds eye third cc’ed me
Divinity ain’t dividends
Learning how to forgive again
European standards
Sure are limiting
Ever forgot you were powerful
Resent who you handed power to?
Went from time be malleable
To time being valuable
But Money gives the illusion of choice
I’m the reflection that you trying to avoid
The importance of presence the importance of poise
I ain’t trying to bootstrap niggas but success is a choice
Verse 3
Middle passing you the message
South Central I gotta rep it
Know my minds a lethal weapon
We aint buying what they sold to us
Done w/ the hip hop homophobia
Listen
Black liberation mean no transphobia
I’m really bout that freedom bruh
Don’t let it go way over you heads like Yamukkah over dreds
Like top bunk over bed
I said
if we Black Lives matter then we really gotta live
if we Black Lives matter then we really gotta live
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6. |
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[ Opening Mantra ]
Let me see you move if you really on fire
if ya in the air let me see you get higher
Let me see you move if you really on fire
if ya in the air let me see you get higher
let me see you do it when you twerk art
it seems automatic work that hard
[ Verse 1ne ]
shake what ya motherland gave ya
I don’t know what you came from
every morning I wake up
do a dance that I made up
I show love my hater
Aren’t you tired of enslavement
wake up get you some paper
wake up get reparations
(put the rhodes here)
from the roof to the walls
to the roots to the flower
from the feet to palm
from the few to the all
from the beach to the shore
seed important
from to the world to the tour
from the heat to the core
from the free to the war
all thee kids say ahhhhhh
let me hear you say ahhhhhh
[ Hook ]
from the rain to the dance
let me yo hands
where the universe expands
we aint never gonna land
x2
It’s a revolution
it’s a revolution
Hook Again
from the rain to the dance
let me yo hands
where the universe expands
we aint never gonna land
It’s a revolution
x2
Let me see you move if you really on fire
if ya in the air let me see you get higher
from the roof to the walls
to the roots to the flower
from the feet to palm
from the few to the all
from the beach to the shore
to the world to the tour
from the heat to the core
from the free to the war
all thee kids say ahhhhhh
let me hear you say ahhhhhh
[ Hook ]
from the rain to the dance
let me yo hands
where the universe expands
we aint never gonna land
It’s a revolution
x2
Verse 2wo:
and thee beat so healing
I just want you to feel it
go dumb with thee dumb dumb diddy
aren't you kinda done w/ thee hum drum living?
float w/ your vibe open
No parachute get ya mind open
Show up
shine out
Liberation
Liberate
[Outro a Word by Cooper Moore]
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7. |
iSaid What iSaid
01:40
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Verse:
I’ve been moving at thee speed of life
This stillness got me thinking like
Does a black body ever die if it’s never seen as life ?
That’s as dark as my skin is
This theory is lived in Fam
I’m human plus I’m hopeful
My Momma used to homeschool
Driving 45 min just to get us all to Whole Foods
I would trader Joe’s it all for
access way more local
I said what I said
Office hours is set
Lil Def is Little X how I’m speaking direct
A chef how I do letters
I feed em through food desserts
My timings a new measure
No leaders lets do better
A word from the meek I
merchant w/ speech I’m
serpentwithfeet
Who
learned to believe*whew*
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8. |
GELATO
02:19
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Put you phone’s down and pick yourself up
I wrestle w/ how I’m so restless
been quarantined for 2 months I don’t know why I’m dressed up
i feel mess up
i gotta get it like i have no choice
i spit truth till i have no voice
feeling good eating great compassionate flex
2020 so crazy I can’t ask what is next
I’m living in the midst irrational mess
just Trying not to collapse in my flesh
when all I can see is an invisible threat
but holding hands with love
feels like an elaborate yes
the only piece of gaffer tape my life got left
I’m from the place where them things blow
from same concrete where them things rose
Heavy as a continent my conscious is
thinking bout how I’m in the game don’t always know what I want from it
I’m just done being broke like a promise is
but who are are we as a society when money ain’t a part of it
What are your raps about?
what do your goals look like
how can we map that out
when
everything is ocean of uncertainty
when
everything you penned w/ so much certainty in agenda and planner
everything that’s in your platter
feel like gelato
tasty but really don’t matter
feeling good eating great compassionate flex
2020 so crazy I can’t ask what is next
I’m living in the midst irrational mess
just Trying not to collapse in my flesh
when all I can see is an invisible threat
but holding hands with love
feels like an elaborate yes
the only piece of gaffer tape my life got left
I give everything I know
Everything
Everything
Just know you're not alone
Just know
You’re not alone
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9. |
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Are we
Products of product placement
or dreams we chasing?
Mother Nature is obviously ovulating
only god can judge me your honors waiting
your honors waiting
we starve for sacred
vibe heavily
wanting more and more of everything
telling you
telling me
why you mad?
scribbling penciling
what is black?
literally
what is that?
figuratively
what is that like?
are you awake
what’s this life?
a series of adjustments
seriously be hustling
seriously be hassled
seriously we something
black boy
blues
black boy views
black light
high light hues
we get slain
thats not news
we in pain thats not new
who they say
thats not me
thats not you
now picture a ppl w/ vision
a ppl not pressured
no fear and oppression
religion or gender
they poison thee water
religious agenda’s
we not buddits of muslim
or born again christians
we upping thee annie
we aint thee systems
feel all these feelings
and live in this moment
my beautiful brothers
not tragically colored
we are thats prayers unspoken
thee few that are chosen
thee distance created by difference
a race no one’s running who’s winning?
who’s winning?
i’m tired
on fire
consumed w/ thee music
thee noose has been loosened
I got you
won’t drop you
i love you
this moment don’t loose it
this moment don’t mute it
[ A Word from They Davis ]
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10. |
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Opening Mantra:
this is church w/o religion
flirting w/ this feeling
worth in my persistence
this is not earn or our decision
This is pure destiny
new testament
old recipes
VERSE 1:
Jehovah holding down drums
Allah grooving on keys
Elohim is on bass
we all groove to one beat
super infinite on those instruments, all live inside me
keeping time outside of time
We keeping up at god speed yea!
we mixed it down lost thee message
everybody got an edit
everybody wants a credit
everybody just a remix
everybody got thee best one, everybody gotta hear it
everybody gotta love it,
everybody got thee truth, but some like it autotuned
Jimetta Rose [Hook]:
I know there’s gotta be a way for me to make it over there
If only I can fly
Maybe I can fly
Spread my wings
Be who I wanna be
Free as I wanna be
Brown as I wanna be
VERSE 2:
I’ve seen Strangers Things
I’m so 11
never stressing
effervescent
broke thee record for being broke
thats a broken record I don’t hear no more
fear gone he ain’t here no more
so gone I aint here no mo
fear calling i hit ignore
unsubscribe unsubscribe
new vibe who dis?
I’m a better person when my phone dead
w/o a purpose we all dead
everybody is so dead, you’re so funny I’m so dead
oh this party is so dead
look at them they so dead
look at them
finding signal when my soul drifts
been whole since I been homeless
spent nights explaining 2 grown friends and they judgements
what living out your dreams is
when your pockets down to three cents
how you got luggage but don’t trip?
You don’t trip!
Favorite substance called abundance
I aint running from it
I am running to it
got the data in me and i never lose it
wipe your trauma on me
I would never never do it
WE BE GOING THROUGH IT
we be glowing through it
my catalogues
got catalogues
I slay like i'm santa clause
thats arrogance in thee air again
[Hook]
losing count of what i'm counting on
you be on that yada yada
your monologue that hour long
that blah blah
that shit made me hell yawn
Sierra Neoné
It’s never too far
It’s never too
Sierra Neoné
It’s never too far
Sierra Neoné
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Def Sound Los Angeles, California
Def Sound is an Afro-Caribbean transdisciplinary artist. born and based in South Central LA. Def is a non binary Grammy Award considered contemporary hip-hop artist, producer, published poet, and award winning academic. Def is currently teaching Hip Hop Critical Theory & Practice at the California Institute of the Arts. ... more
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