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If you’re going to take, take a moment for yourself. That’s alright.
If you want to spend, spend your days in wonder of the beauty of the night.
If you’re going to lose, lose yourself in her or him, whoever they may be.
And if you have to leave, leave your mark upon the world. Make a memory.
And if ever you feel like jumping, you should jump for joy for the fact you can feel.
And if ever you long for something. let it be no longer for things that aren’t real.
This is the only life you get. You can live it if you want to.
This is the only life you get. How is that not your mantra?
If you’re going to cry, cry out loud into the dark, and be a light.
If you want to rage, rage against the cold machine inside your mind.
If you’re going to break, break these chains that hold you down. Set yourself free.
And if you have to go, go for broke and take your chance. Let whatever be.
And if ever you feel like falling, you should fall in love; it’s a wonderful ache.
And if ever you learn from something, let it be from what comes of the choice you now make.
This is the only life you get. You can live it if you want to.
This is the only life you get. How is that not your mantra?
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2. |
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I see a burning wind
And it’s kicking up the dust that settled on my skin
Beyond the cloud and smoke is where I find
Something to remind
All my fingers are trembling
And if the conversation lags, then I can always sing
I can feel the sun inside me start to shine
But it never feels like it’s mine
Then in an instant it came to me
A thousand countless moments of missing memories
It took eternity for me to come around
Oh, I bet my soul is in the lost and found
Can anybody tell me my name?
I never had a mind to believe it would never be the same.
I’m falling into something I cannot explain.
Can anybody tell me my name?
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3. |
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Fate is just a word, and when life insists I must remember this.
Whenever it occurred, it was I who put upon a pedestal the precipice.
Creation is a curse. I burn something down to foundation to build another edifice.
Another lesson learned, another turn of phrase to find the artifice in all of this.
All I need is a moment here to breathe, and just be.
Everything will come together after this, I promise.
Patience is obscured by the nervous sting of the urgency of things.
Another vision blurred, from the shift in my eyes, to the one pulling my strings.
Before I find myself immersed in a sea of slings and arrows, throwing fists
I take a moment first, all the while I persist I must remember this.
All I need is a moment here to breathe, and just be.
Everything will come together after this, I promise.
Fate is four-letter word, and when life insists I must remember this.
A concept so absurd, it was I who placed upon a subtlety the emphasis.
Regret is something worse, the way things turn out confounds all your efforts to the opposite.
I take a moment first, take time to exist. I must remember this.
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4. |
Tick (Tock Mix)
04:30
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I don’t feel as old as I am. I don’t think I ever will. I still try all that I can. I still cannot sit still. I won’t reel from holes in my plans. I make some for the thrill of it. I still give all that I have. And I will, I will get myself a taste for a little bit of sin, some fun ones that won’t hurt anyone or anything except my silly sense of time, and my need to fill it in, for I have lost my innocence and I haven’t missed it since.
I’m over giving up. I am all out of giving in. I just found out I’m all about giving myself a second skin to cover up the one that’s mine with one that has never been. So now I’m shedding it to show how this all ends where it begins.
There’s no time. I know I can’t fast-forward or rewind. No time to stop and think, “Where the hell does all the time go?” so, I just go with it.
I might make a few mistakes, that I know I could avoid, just to say that they’ve been made, because chaos reigns the void. And I know ours are the hours, days, and decades of our lives, but it only took a moment for me to open up my eyes to see I measure out my life in such tiny increments, so I hope every second counts itself as time well spent, ‘cause I’m no longer keeping track, except for tallying my laughs, and all the time I take for that, because I know it doesn’t last.
(chorus)
I take time to stop and take a look around myself. I’ve found myself in this.
There’s no time. (We made it up, time, we gave it up.) I know I can’t fast-forward or rewind. (So wasted up, you can’t save it up.)
And I don’t care to know where the hell does all the time go, I just go with it.
I take time to stop and take a look around myself, I’ve found myself in this.
And every time the time I take takes too much of me, I remind myself of this.
There’s no time. (We made it up, time, we gave it up.) I know I can’t fast-forward or rewind. (So wasted up, you can’t save it up.) No time to stop and think, “Where the hell does all the time go?” so, I just go with it.
Where the hell does all the time go? Who knows. Just go with it . . .
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5. |
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The light hits me, and I need to breathe life, and so I proceed to inhale, let me take it all in.
On the verge of a revelation, on the edge of my destination, I exhale, and I fully fall in.
I evened out around the equator. Took the time I’ve been saving for later. Surprised how the change in latitude caused a change in attitude. Now I burn for those solar moments, and turn with the urges they foment to realize my rebirth, my connection with the Earth.
Give me some of that warm and bright sunshine
To release me from a cold and darker time
To relieve me every fear and doubt of mine
And break me off some peace of mind
Let it ease my mind
Into the blue of the ocean, and out of the bluest emotion, I give me whole-hearted devotion. Sweet thing, could pass me the lotion? The light hits me and I blink, and everything is bright in my sight, and I might take flight tonight if I drink, feeling like I am all kinds of alright.
I need to my feet on white sand. I need to sip this glass in my hand. I need someone out there to understand how much this man standing here needs a suntan. I want to take a fast car to a fast plane. I want to take it past far, change my last name. I want a taste of the good life, good times with a twist of lime, now give me some of that warm and bright sunshine . . .
The light hits me like a gift, an ever-present lift and I groove to tidal rise-and-fall of it all, and I don’t ever want to move. I feel like anything is possible. I feel like everything is optional. Get over me, it ‘sthe only obstacle, and get myself a little bit of tropical.
The light hits me and melts away the stress I had from before, makes me need to feel what I felt, and I’m a fiend who always wants more. So I’m in this state planting palm trees, in my head ‘til the dread is beyond me, with my head full of zombie, I want to feel it fall upon me.
Give me some of that warm and bright sunshine . . .
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6. |
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With Similarities To Singularities (Sqwerty)
We were like when worlds collide,
Annihilated by the impact.
I could see it coming for miles,
But never a thought crossed my mind to react.
Now we’re like when stars collapse.
Explode into nothingness,
Fade to black.
Like the circles in your eyes, and
In them I see the event horizon.
(Chorus)
Whether you
weather me or not,
still we storm.
We are on a faster path.
So what comes after that
Is nearly over.
Within me,
Without you,
Will my soul
Wither
In the aftermath
Of my fit of happiness,
Clearly over?
And like when the planets align,
We were perfect in the disarray.
But only for a time, and so it passed.
Everything turns out that way.
Everything moves along its path.
Prediction is easy, just do the math.
You’ll see what we are with clarity.
A singularity, and
Whether you
Weather me or not,
Still we storm.
We are on
A faster path.
So what comes after that
Is nearly over.
Within me,
Without you,
Will my soul
Wither
In the aftermath
Of my bit of happiness,
Clearly over?
From what we create, a constellation aggregates.
Its outline traces the shape of my own private universe.
Be it physics or fate, we begin to separate.
The space between us expands, and the energy is dispersed.
You ever wish you could erase the past?
Sometimes just slow it down just to make it last
And in these relationships we all break our backs
Sometimes it’s really hard to grin and face the facts
So we both keep pushing like the same old same shit
We swallow pride even though it sucks to taste it
Face it, somehow we complicate this
And basically waste all this goodness and gracious?
It used to be faceless
It's got a name now
Now I understand
It’s all pain
How easily it seems to me that the scenery changes
I can’t believe it but you know that I gave it away
It’s a high price for the love and the hate
It’s my right to consider it waste
If I write my life
Nobody gon’ be filling your place
It’s been forever and it’s still a disgrace
We were like when stars are born.
All that matters begins to coalesce,
And heavier things are formed,
When all of the right elements acquiesce.
Now we’re like when stars collapse.
Explode into nothingness,
Fade to black.
Like the circles in my eyes, and
In them you’ll see the event horizon.
Whether you
Weather me or not,
Still we storm.
We are on
A faster path.
And what comes after that
Is nearly over.
Within me,
Without you,
Will my soul
Wither
In the aftermath
Of my bit of happiness,
Clearly over?
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7. |
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I dream, and sometimes I don’t want to wake up, ‘cause I’m in love with everything in my head.
And in the mornings I am sad to see them go. I’d rather stay in bed instead.
Give me five more minutes of this peaceful sleep. It will make the alarm sound like music to my ears.
Just five more minutes in a world I can control gets me through the years.
‘Cause I dream, and each time it’s just amazing. I’m in love with the things that I see.
And every evening I just marvel at my mind, even the things that frighten me.
I need five more minutes of this wonderful sleep. It will make the alarm sound like music to my ears.
Just five more minutes in a world of my design gets me through the years.
It’s my nightly escape. It takes me far away. And I’m in so deep I could lie here forever.
And I know I’m caught up, but I don’t ask for that much, just a little more - I will feel a lot better.
I feel so much better.
And I dream, but most times I don’t remember. I can only tell you how it made me smile.
And I love the little flashes of it later that take me back to where I was for a while.
Give me five more minutes of this beautiful sleep. It will make the alarm sound like music to my ears.
Just five more minutes in a world that’s all my own gets me through the years.
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8. |
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Now, if I start to cry, I swear to God I might lose my nerve
It’s all traces of me, inside shadows and blurred
I’ve been travelling for too damn long now, recognize home is where I stop and fall down
If it’s close to Waldbaum’s, train runs regular, nature of the neighborhood is liberal and secular
Armpit of America, every day measure of where I should be and where my rhyme book never was
Yeah, I’m trying to exceed the local, take the dope vocals make the focal point global
Avoid going postal with a .22 and trench coat, walk around this oval with a blank stare and headphones
Welcome to the dead zone, and moments are taken, everybody shuts down like their souls are forsaken
Getting harder to breathe with arteries that are breakin’
I should take mine and leave but I sold them to Satan, its where I live
From the outside in, I break through and under your skin
But no matter how I extend I always end where I begin
Moving out from within, what I give, you take everything in
Still I end where I begin, I find myself home again
It’s getting dangerous, and maybe just I could believe an angel is over my shoulder, laziness holding me back and saying this.
Tragic, the world is baby-less, raising themselves atheist, I pray its worth saving, the planet was once apes and shit.
Nothing ever changes. It all stays so stagnant, painted in the corner ‘cause I chose to back in
Relaxing, I’m feeling like the only lone horseman, proceed with caution, live life like I’m lost when
I should be an abortion, parents were divorced and people treated me like a red-headed little orphan
That’s why every so often my coffin is visualized crossing into the skies
Ryan lived once, here lies Verbal’s physical
Walked around with mortals, now I’ll show’em what my spirit do
Peering through panes of glass, living on sinner’s time
Steering through blades of grass until the finish line. Yeah.
From the outside in, I break through and under your skin
But no matter how I extend I always end where I begin
Moving out from within, what I give, you take everything in
Still I end where I begin, I find myself home again
Now it’s easy to say, harder still to achieve
Every piece of me is screaming this is where we should be
Yeah, it’s sometimes hard, and nothing’s coming for free
Take a knee is not an option. It’s not an option
Now I’m watching as the days pass, smoking from the same stash
Unaware of life until the day those two planes crashed
Gained fast perspective, way past respect, it was reverence in the form of strong steadfast reflection
And now my anthem is “live life now”
Stand strong behind words I say and fight proud
Observe with a watchful eye and write down
Spit it back over tracks ‘til they turn the lights
OK, get the game out, I read the rules, got a piece
Trying to skip jail, straight to GO, Mic Monopoly
Understand what’s not for me, manage money properly
Probably I’ll find the right route, that’s how it’s got to be
From the outside in, I break through and under your skin
But no matter how I extend I always end where I begin
Moving out from within, what I give you take everything in
Still I end where I begin, I find myself home again
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9. |
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(Submitted for your consideration, the instrumental version of "Note To Self" . . . )
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10. |
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Pugnacity
(Verbal)
Yeah, I know, it’s like a struggle just to find some space
Travel alone with your mind through this time and place
No regrets, never wish I could rewind the day
Hand in hand, know together we ‘gon find a way
They say it’s easy, but it’s not always
Just believe me that when you need I’ll be there all day
Back to back, standing tall in the center of it
Here I am and this man is just never budging
It’s all or nothing, I’m giving till that well runs dry
Until the stars fall, it’s our world, until we die
Till the bell rings, till that fat lady is humming the tune
Not for nothing, something keeps me running with you
Say the word, book the flight, doesn’t matter if it took all night
If it’s wrong or if it’s right
As long as the song stays filling the air
Never alone anymore, ‘cause you’ll be feeling me there
I’m like, I’d do anything and everything for you
It’s us against the world
Me and you, whatever you need, I got that
You only have to ask me to
I’d do anything and everything for you
It’s us against the world
Anywhere, I’ll forever be there
Just say the word
I got you
(Be)
And if I ever fall back, you go that
You are the friend who I depend on
The one I rely on, and I know this much is true
So I got you, forever
And if I ever may slide by the wayside
I hitch a ride on your wings and glide on
I’ll say it three times to make it true
You know I got you
My mind is made up
Remember me, the one who gives and never gave up
The one who fights for you endlessly
This kind isn’t the kind you pay back
‘Cause me and you we go way back
And anyone can see
What I do for you, you would do for me
So, I’d do anything and everything for you
It’s us against the world
Me and you, whatever you need, I got that
You only have to ask me to
I’d do anything and everything for you
It’s us against the world
Anywhere, I’ll forever be there
Just say the word
When it’s harder to stand tall than fall
When my father don’t man up and call
When I’m only buck short and a day away
When it starts and, of course, when it’s too late
I got you when you’re laying it all on the line
Since back in the day and always
Until the end of time
And our ghosts will haunt these hallways
From homeboys to grownboys, diapers to boxers
How these tables turned, now we turntable rockers
This shit here is for my crew
Put your glass in the air, say a prayer, salud
In the now and then the hereafter
Until I take my last breath
And it will be the sound of laughter
And I will be the last one left
I’d do anything and everything for you
It’s us against the world
Me and you, whatever you need I got that
You only have to ask me to
I’d do anything and everything for you
It’s us against the world
Anywhere, I’ll forever be there
Just say the word
Now glide . . .
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11. |
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12. |
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Let it free your mind
Come on by
Let me bring it one time
My word to all mankind
You've got to catch up
Before you fall behind
So, let it fill your ears
We see you move
And the groove is severe
Let's get one thing clear
You like what we do
When we do this here . . .
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13. |
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14. |
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Time cannot erase the promise I'm making to myself to rise above the everyday . . .
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The Twin Paradox New York, New York
THE TWIN PARADOX - a virtual experimental hybrid electroacoustic band.
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