1. Jonathan

Lyrics: J. Rayfield

​

Doc Watts, Uh, Jon, uh, Jonathan...

My Name's Jonathan

​

When I get ready to put word to song

Got my head in check, ledger set

herb is strong

take a heavy hit, then draw upon my truth

Doc Watts on the signature my nom de plume

Write a fair simulation of the thoughts that pour

out my mind, stimulated by provocateurs

spent time chasing crumbs but I lost the source

Thumbs out tried hitching but I'm off my course...

Limped back, then I changed it up

Linked up with Daywalkerz and we made it STRUT

Creativity sparked, Ronesh stoked the coals

Flip flows got a brother turning hope to goals

I'm in the moment and the focus grows

Cut a track and I'm like "Oh this goes!"
Cut, print, we go promote

'What's your name kid? the tracks is dope!'

​

Doc Watts, Uh, Jon, Uh, Jonathan...

My Name's Jonathan

​

Sit back give the rhythm a go

give slack to the rigmarole

they too taught, they taught bull

scatalogical plots pulled

and spun it to the flock as gospel 
(Ooh, soft wool)
I don't knock creeds I'm not rocky

I'm not Big Shaq yo I don't spit hot tings

We not steeds don't need no jockeys

I rock PT so I don't get locked knees

Watts beam bright raps that's not shocking

I show gratitude so I don't get cocky

One drawback, as you feed your ego

it's key to success but can keep your fees low

it's a tough stretch breaking from the have-nots

enough stress to twist your guts in bad knots

But I'll be dusty stitched up with my last fuck

I tucked it in my sock for fast luck

Catch up...

 

2. Henry

Lyrics: J. Rayfield

​

Streets of elgin was watching him, Him and his twin
Broke black same story told again and again
Grew up fast at only 16 losing his pops
Couldn’t think back to a time his father’s movement had stopped
Pop had hustled to provide and hit the road gigging
Mom had a dozen kids and all of ‘em had provisions
Kid grew up and tried to rock but he had no rhythm
Dropped out of high school had no job and no vision
Copped a job at KFC but it was no living
then he messed around and quick tore up the whole kitchen
Stepped to trade school, then he found his soul’s mission
Bringing happiness to all with his composed dishes
Blessed enough to find a passion that fulfilled his life
And yo this cat was lucky check this out one random night
New years eve he crashed a spot and he spied
A girl he’d one day ask to be his wife, and she’d be for life

Father to son taught him how it was done

Settled down and had a daughter he’s a father of one
When his little girl was four years old he fathered a son
Promised that he’d never do the things his father had done
Loved his kids above his life and didn’t bother to front
Moved to Evanston and made it home living the dream
Worked each day to bring the bacon home, literally
Hustled hard and kept the lights on
Slept thru most of the day, most of his nights gone
didn’t see the fam as often but he had to work
And he was faithful to his wife but he just had to flirt
Charming devil at the ready with a laugh or smirk
The brother only ever had a happy heart
Time slippin’ away, how many summers past?
Yea he Went thru some drama (that’s another track)
Then in 1999 his daughter had a son
And he smiled as an enduring legacy had sprung

Father to son showed him how it was done

you died six weeks before my wedding day
No forgetting you I think about you every day 
Carry you in my middle name, check the legacy
think about you every time I cook up anything
I’m also just as dedicated to my inner circle
Pretty stubborn and i haven’t figured out how to work slow
I’m devoted to my wife but i’m a little flirt 
Some people say they see you in me when they see me smirk
I know you were proud of the man that I am
I also know that You were my biggest fan 
I’m grateful for that year we got to be a team
I’m proud I got to help a man support his dream
I miss casino trips and chillin’ up late
Shooting pool and stressin’ bout slingin’ lunch plates
Rest easy pops, I’ll see you on the other plain
Henry Rayfield, that was his name
Love you dad

​

3. Alienated (Interlude)
 

4. Grind

Lyrics: J. Rayfield, Defcee, G. Maximo-Gomez

​

WORK, EAT, SLEEP REPEAT (the grind)

​

Wattson:

What difference do days make 

If they’re consistently the same shape?

Noses on grindstones which we condone to play safe 

It sets a tone morale is low but that’s a play fake

Stuck in the matrix hit reset and watch the game break

It’s easier to say than do, but that’s the game stakes

Just gotta lean into it and live up to your namesake

Our ancestors left traces for us to be great

Their voices guide us affecting Choices that we make

Think of ourselves as polite but we’re confused

cuz violence is in our cells

So we fight everything that moves 

including the ones we love, delighted as we abuse

Even when provided help... 

We politely refuse to even admit we’re stuck,

keep lighting the fuse

Hoping that the drums explode, Before igniting the fuel

If it’s YOLO than I might be pining to make moves

man you ain't grinding you ain’t got them diamond-tippin’ tools

Bout that

WORK, EAT, SLEEP, REPEAT

​

Defcee:

Smiles on the devil face

your pension they collection plate

pound cake hella base, money off that chef 'n bake

wolves in tailored suits at confessions to keep the shepherds safe

and they gon stretch yo debt until the end of your measure tape

Cash rules for older gods in moneymaking hours

Oak-panelled offices with affidavits and catered flowers

whip up foreclosures and never needed no baking powder

pocket full of stones, politicians and banking power

Shark skin suits giving weekly loans

the differences between thieves and the CEOs

Are the resumes and the getaways

Tonights summer houses made of cellophane

where they be keeping rocks in the trebuchet

they pox spreading, the cure is invisible

the only assurance is spiritual, praying the hand of God slip

Juggling a surfeit of miracles, end of the line is predictable

clear as curtains while surgeons working to finish you

 

WORK, EAT, SLEEP, REPEAT

 

Iowa Rockwell:

Looking out the window,

5 in the morning lighting a slow burner

no word about new arrests for these old murders

Say her name I'm talking Brianna, or Tatiana,

I'm talking Sandra, Gotta formulate a plan bruh

We gotta protect our black women

We gotta protect our black men

Raise our black children to never hide from their black skin

The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice...

The longer the struggle the deeper the roots...

Can't no hoe strike me deep in my soil

take your leaves to other trees then watch this loving unfurl

Take your time as you navigate the evils that stand

I'll be damned if I ain't battling the evils within

Throwing hands shadow boxing with the best of myself

Giving everything I got until there ain't nothing left

You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

I ask that of all my prey, just like the sound of it...

WORK, EAT, SLEEP, REPEAT....

 

5. Overtime

 

Lyrics by R. Ghoshal, G. Maximo-Gomez, J. Rayfield

 

Ronesh:

The devil working overtime, angels took a day off

treachery promoted but integrity got laid off

justice won a few games, but couldn't make the playoffs

hope turns to spitefulness when righteousness don't pay off

the powerful and wealthy get forgiveness in abundance

but if the poor and desperate make mistakes they must be punished

no money for homes, got plenty for drones

bailouts for wall street, no relief for student loans 

you on your own

it's been the American way, 

where your bank account gets seen as a character trait

where FOX and CNN keep the dumb convinced

that one day they'll be part of the 1%

Billionaires

love using terms like self care

but when they vote they won't support universal healthcare

people thinking that the old chickens flown the coop

until the birds come home to roost, and drop a duece on your suit..

​

Iowa Rockwell:

x2

The devil working overtime

I seen him in the gym

He was putting shots up

Sweat was Dripping from his chin

Doing windmill sprints

getting ready for the last shot

people out here dying

he's the motherfucking mascot

 

Wattson: 

I’m a say it plain and clear fuck the GOP

Goons Out Perpetrating crimes like casino chiefs

Giving Over Power to the few who think they kings

Global Over Population so we see no peace

Graft Overt Propaganda serve it up as news

Galvanize Our Paranoia we don’t trust what’s true

Gutting Our Programs now we got some fucked up youth

Got Older People deciding between drugs or food

G’d Out Predators as candidates with no damn shame

Gave out pardons in exchange for dough for more campaigns

Gerrymandering Our Precincts so they keep their seats

Thinking God Overrides Politics so they can cheat 

Gripped Our Paper in the Senate then threw us some scraps

Grossly Overrepresented Pricks their deck is stacked

I Give Our President no credit for cleverness

He’s just another scab on the devil’s dick

​

Iowa Rockwell:

Chorus x 2

​

6. How I Feel

Lyrics J. Rayfield

​

x2
I want to feel the way everyone says they feel

Most of ‘em are either lying or been fed a pill

See their faces wanna go home where my shell can peel

Dip in the cut and see what of my self is real

​

Home base, get up out the work clothes post haste

Flannel on, flip on Amazon, hit the bowl and waste  

The precious moments i’m awake

Most goals aren’t reached if you don’t give ‘em attention

But it goes both ways

Used to check ‘em off the list at a pretty bold pace

Then a second off the effort, and the city ghosts fakes

And then you let inertia hold weight

eight years the whole chrome on the manifold flakes

for a while i thought my voice had no place

Wrong upbringing wrong temperament, no bass

Then i stared into the glass and beheld a grown face

And i started making choices that suited my own taste

A Spark wake the engine from a cold state

Got the fuel flowing freely (seriously RO THANKS!)

A little rusty and don’t handle so great

And it don’t stop, with them squeaky old brakes

 

x2 

(Just how he said i’d feel) 

Thought he was prolly lying or i’ll be fed a pill

Get help and then go home to where my shell can peel

Dip in the cut and see what of my self can heal

​

knee high memories get mad blurred

I was Sensitive back when it was a bad word

saw how men did shit and in my heart i couldn’t be that

felt my feelings raw and knew that everyone could see that

push the stress down deep and I could calmy react

But then that one straw would hit the dromedary back

Snap the surface tension, WOH now the tears come

heart racing loud beating in my ear drums

Then the breath quickens feel my mind just start to spin

blood drain out of my head my vision darkening

Thoughts thickening not sure if this is how it end

Only took one attack for me to call it in

Same day i started reaching out to therapists

Thinking I could fix this on my own is arrogant

An intervention on the trauma is imperative

It’s intergenerational inherited

 

x2

You bet I feel

Anyone who says you shouldn’t has been fed a pill

Face your struggles and you might not need a shell to peel 

Love yourself first and see what of yourself will heal

​

7. Never Disconnected (Interlude)

​

8. Bridge The Gap

Lyrics by: R. Ghoshal, J. Rayfield

​

Ronesh:

94-95 started playing the sax

96-97 started writing these raps

around the same time I first got the solo in band

improvising over whatever instrumental I had

Before I ever kicked an off-the-dome flow

or rip the microphone yo, I was getting my bag

but my interest, in my instrument

it would soon get switched

to a pen and pad

keyboard and Cool Edit trying to get my beats phat

made a couple slaps but it was something that they lacked

In order to go forward I had to look back

digging in the soul and the funk and the jazz

Now I'm both a student and a master of my craft

and I'm never disconnected cuz I'm bridging all the gaps

practice time travel on a two way path

and I'm standing right here between the future and the past...

​

Wattson: 

Growing up all of my idols had been dead for decades

Feeling like I’m lost tryna chop thru a hedge maze

Peeps was reppin’ MJ and Scottie Pippin

I would fucks with’ Cannonball Adderlay and Johnny Griffin

Mingus, Ellington, Thelonious monk

Bebopping through the hallways exploding the funk

Dreamed of melodies that would drive the genre berserk

Dragging three horns around like Rahsaan Roland Kirk

studied music but I couldn’t commit, went to college

Hated practicing my scales, and perfecting my pitch

And then one day we was just messing round jamming with cats

Took my lips up off the sax and I slid in a rap

give big ups to the Sac

a band ahead of its time 

I’m pretty good at sax but I know I’m better with rhyme

Overshare facts but I show I’m clever with lines

Build tracks from the root up your head in the pines

Keep dividing sub-genres, I’ll get in a slice

Or maybe fuck around with Ro and just develop a pie

Heavyweight kid camped near the edge of the ridge

The best way to cantilever the bridge

​

9. Stop Signs

Lyrics by: J. Rayfield

 

I’m always spitting stay focused... 

now it feels bogus

Started life in passing lanes now it’s like I’m slow motion

Trying not to kick rocks wond’rin why I’m struggling

dapper rocking silk socks working while I’m juggling

Scrollin’ through todays news, Won’t ever chase away blues

Knowin’ black and brown brothers always gonna stay bruised

Few signs of Hay-zues, Or any god that you pray to

Just Hoping for change is like sleep-walking up K-2 

it’s open range and propaganda’s gonna schill swill

Double Speak through forked tongues

they curse you with their ill will

Call me kiddo one more time and I’m about to Kill Bill

Got my Hanzo I’m bout to throw them chill pills

folks is in their corners waiting for a "what now?"

Used to be that taking knees was only after touchdowns

the act distorted to attack a perverse angle

While every black death is justified because they weren’t angels

 

Chorus x2:

And yo it’s not fine… And yo I’m not lyin’

The intersections only civilized with stop signs

And if we work to change, people may stop dying

Our generation's greatest sin is that we’re not trying

​

Our core belief system is we the best

lets just prep the whole semester so we beat the test 

we get it done and brag about how we don’t even cheat

Then disproportionately fund the schools that need it least

Add a few different kinds of sugar like we feedin’ yeast

brew up concoctions of diabetes and heart disease

Pollute until intoxicated and its hard to breath

watch all the devastation wrought from a spark and breeze

Sprinkle in a gun per person and its to the races

Prepping for the end so dig down or go to space

the surface is irradiating yeah we gettin’ lit

Politicians behaving like they don’t give a shit

So then you have to stop and question how they benefit

They’re certain that they’ll meet salvation at the end of it

And if you just thought “nah wattson i’m not buying it”

Just read the news then google Christian Zionist

 

Chorus x2:

​

I’m out here hustlin’ for recognition, Call it likes

I got confined into an echoed prison, all was right

Had no respect for my own health condition, Call it spite

Hoarse in the throat from yellin’ yolo and, Ball is life

Expecting any day to pay for all my past mistakes

terrified wondering which breath will be the last i take

Why do I stress that truth is cast as fake

Forget the water level, We don’t even agree how the glass is shaped

Discouraged that our conversations have no grasp of faith

There’s no trusting opposing views and so we’re past debate

So obsessed with what we might lose that we arrive at hate

Never considering you cannot have and eat the cake

We look at things in terms of how we divide

But we can make a bigger pie and give an option to thrive

If we cooperate we ought to survive

As long as everybody Stop at the signs

​

10. Library of Babel

Lyrics by: J. Rayfield

​

(Slow Pitch)

I sit in silence resting tenuously in the clearing

fatigued conserving energy til enemies appearing

Silence interrupted by the ringing in my ears

set the goal of conquering my fears

​

Everyone want to be in the lights, Why shouldn’t i want it too?

Even just a teeny tiny bit? I promise to stay calm its cool

They say to truly test your character make power moves

Forge the gauntlet in the dying star and then go run the jewels

Then go in for daps, ya shoulder collapse,

ya whole metacarpals are cracked

But I hold in the snap, I know that I’m trapped,

it felt like I charred a synapse

What even happened there my memory is lapsing scared

Flipped through volumes only to discover missing chapters teared

...Torn... the pages disintegrate when they detach from the tome

…Warned… enraged by the din that it make in the back of my dome

...stormed… involuntarily i pressed record

All the words are missing but I never will forget the chords

 

(Slow pitch)

Step by step I must creep further in the murky depths

Eyes adjusting to the dark the shadows keep dispersing breath

These Melodies creeping from the corners of the distant past

Filling my heart with dread but I push forward on the twisted path

 

Always anxious did my best to fake it but it manifest

In ways I didn’t plan with panic stress and pressure head and chest

Pain accumulated now I say I’m anxious and depressed

Unaddressed it fester til I can’t ignore the damage left

focus on creative outlets got to keep my blessings fed

Piece together captions of some long forgotten lessons read

The shimmer of recognition gleams when things seem hopeless

I’m actually certain that I wrote this... 

​

(slow pitch)

I’m on the trail… crawling like a snail

But you’ll still find me nipping at the tail

I’m on the trail… bracing for the hail

If I don’t catch me slipping i can’t fail

​

break:

​

Coulda woulda shoulda but you can’t or won’t or shouldn’t 

I don’t know your cop out yet

I just know I couldn’t be the man I am

if I didn’t get the courage up to rock a set

Rather be a prophet than to turn one 

Ampin’ up the wattage til it burns up

Slicing up the product like a surgeon

Gettin’ on the docket cuz it’s urgent

Wishin’ up to god it doesn’t hurt much...

Keepin’ vigil watching for diversions

Distractions ubiquitous now

And when your world becomes a fucking circus

You tend to get sick of the clowns...

And elephant shit,

It feels like a race to collect some irrelevant clicks

Watching as everything breaks to the point

That we’re all gonna be in a Hell of a fix

 

(slow pitch)

I shut my eyes Optics burning from excessive lumens

Steeled as I embark on the next chapter of this quest that’s looming

Sometimes the road less traveled leads people to nowhere

I guess i’ll never know until I go there

​

11. Destiny

Lyrics by: J. Rayfield

​

x2

Mon amor, je taime

my raison d'etre my reason to be

I ain't going nowhere

my girl you are my destiny

​

Man fuck Paris

We bout to fly to St Tropez

And take in the breeze

We'll laugh and have nowhere to be

Then slip over to Greece

I'll book a suite in Mykonos

Even get on one knee

So I have a chance to re-propose

​

x2

Chorus

​

We'll take the world...

I want you right there next to me

Love's just a word

We've realized our destiny

Mon amor je taime....

 

12. Out of My Mind

Lyrics by: J. Rayfield

 

It was one of the most peaceful times in a century

But then it all ended with a presidential tweet

(Appalling)

language degrades to distrust and memes

I get to the point I feel I must be dreaming

But i can’t sleep not for a second not today

They want to exhaust all my effort away

The most effective populace for blatant fascists

Is mollified by fear or just innately passive

Stoked the smoldered embers of our racist past

we smoked out the alt-right trying to ‘take it back’ 

The country that is, like it isn’t theirs

Like they shoveled a spot out and set out a chair

Never look to see their neighbor struggle never care

Take the the effort to point out that they have better hair

Go on Dig out all the coal that doesn’t need burning

you should be much more concerned about machine learning

 

Chorus:

I can’t seem to get you outta my mind

Everything I do, you just seem to keep staying on my mind

When i look at you, i just see the blind is leading the blind

It’s because of you, got me thinking that i’m out of my mind

 

The information age, it almost sounds sarcastic

Especially when you’ve get your stats gripped

And it’s your burden to fix

trading our datas a biz, 

Monitoring charge is the rip

i’m out here reporting fraud like a snitch

I’m not just talking financials, it’s all intermixed

The articles you end up seeing, the products they pitch

They know that you’re discerning, but not in a pinch

And shit you’ve already given the inch

So now the hail mary pass, pressure on the defense

Something i really hope you will intercept

Think about it a sec. That’s really it, not even lecturing

Just think about it for a second, really question everything

outrage is so addictive, it releases dopamine

Take a second, use empathy, see what it’s supposed to mean

If it really still push you over the edge

Just Know that now they know how to tip you over the ledge

 

Chorus:

​

in 2043, theres no more majority,

Now you see why they be checking papers accordingly

Looking for any reason they can deport a g

I been native back to when they still imported peeps

Inevitable but they cling to authority

Acting like the systems can’t be led by minorities

So committed to regressing ignoring the script

How can you roll the ball backwards and score a hit

And why do all these “fine people” cry for more of it

And why is media repeatedly reporting it

They paint a world where the hatred is inordinate

Got me wanting to Rick and Morty through a portal quick

But yo I love this country, down to the core of me

The nations taken plenty hits to the torso we

Gotta see how we heal, whether we stand or kneel

Afterward Turn to our neighbor ask ‘em how he feel

​