Chorus:
We don’t rap inside a vacuum, as if
My momma was chilling out in the back room, and a
My daughter was sitting up in her bedroom, gotta
Take some responsibility for actions, ‘cause a

Yo, you think you can escape
You think you can rape
You think you can use duct tape
You such a flake
You really don’t get it
You left a trail of forensic evidence
(Let’s see what we)
What we can see
Is that these people out here just want to be free
And what do you do?
How do you help?
You act like kelp!
Dragging me down into the undertow!!

Chorus

Yeah, you thought you had the jazz
You thought you was Bird
You thought you had the word
You thought you was the nerd
But you had to learn
You’re like a curd
In the yogurt
So, no go, Joe with your shirt
Tried to pull it off
In the gymnasium actin’ like King Kong
Tryin’ to lift 10,000,000 pounds above your dome-a
It don’t work - go home-a - domi-cile
You might smile
But instead you’re not the bright child
You go buck wild and fuck side-ways
Crazy days
These lays are like chips
You think you’re gonna cash ‘em in, you flip!

Chorus

More About This Album:

My first album of (almost) entirely beatboxed material ("All I Know" has a lil bit of electronic drums + bass added.)

I'm def pretty damn happy with this album. Just for sheer inventiveness, it has no equal from my early period (ie, everything prior to "My God!".) I knew from early on that this album would be coming (hence its position as 3rd,) as I've always loved beatboxing / singing beats. The only surprising thing is how long it took me to put together the idea of beatbox-ifying pop songs that I hit upon for Somaphone 2. That idea was nowhere near my mind when I was putting this thing together. I was still focussed on making a strictly hip-hop kind of statement with this album (tho, listening to it now, there is a surprising amount of singing on it...)

The whole thing was recorded by me on Digital Performer in my little Ravenna home in Seattle, WA somewhere around 2000 - 2002. Mixed / "mastered" by me. "Cover art" (such as it is, or isn't) by me.

For those who can't imagine what's going on here, essentially what I'm doing is recording myself beatboxing (making noises with my mouth intended to sound like live instruments) and singing into a microphone. I will go through and record a track of, say, just drums, then I might add a track of bass sounds, then a track of treble sounds, then perhaps some singing or rapping, or maybe I'll double (record a 2nd copy of) one of the earlier tracks. And I'll just build the song up like this, track by track, until the song is done.

"Souvein" and "Innuendo" were recorded "blind" (that is, recording takes without hearing any of the other takes.) I'm pretty sure that I discovered this approach and its benefits while making this album. The benefits are (believe it or not) greater intonational fidelity, as well as greater expressive courage, both for the same reason, viz. if I hear the other tracks, I am devoting energy towards listening (and the attendant accomodation that comes along with it) that otherwise would be going toward expressing; if I "hear" everything in my head, this detriment is avoided (the added bonus of showing off my perfect, or near perfect, pitch fell out later.)