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death or evolution

by Gruff Lion

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1.
Hello, i'm growing sick from civilization I can close my eyes and still see every station I can feel my phone buzzing when it isnt on Because i know they calling me and getting aggravated If i could only find a five charge I say If i only had fiber optics I say My imagination could download at compatible speeds To keep my twitter feed clever enough to seem fascinating Ain't that a way to value me?! Fuck physical needs I got digital wants I dont speak in tongues i use fonts Ain't that a waste of faculty And talk about a waste of resources I got a 3G and a 4 and a 4S and a 5C in my closet at home I don't use em but they still work.. The point? New world wars as the old growth dies and we close our eyes to all this The earth can't breathe in the turnt up heat Let us lay out hearts to rest And even when we look we only watch screens When they scream you scream we all scream Thats what happens when youre dreaming And as i begin " mightily, voluntarily dissembling" my physical form frame and wiring I feel my spirit tiring dying to change it's carrier But i'm so vicarious! I bury it and turn my stereo up Gone It's tuesday and i'm not in the club But feeling some sort of way As i listen to this song high Streaming a rave and moshpitting mom's kitchen Microwave dinner spinning Live tweeting my life i way I might someday Say the right viral thing And claim my sixteenth spiteful second of winning Then mid bite salisbury steak i start twitching And that distant voice rang 'We've been watching you We've been waiting for you boy you're unconscious though Then i felt a sudden void growing topical And that voice kept wringing as i vomited And lost control
2.
Clock Oven 02:35
Again, you're not unique at this My friend you've lost the frequency Your senses soft still weaking Go plant a garden in the spring and see what brings Do you even have ideas? Or do you just like and share Did the bright lights ensnare and strike you barren On the spot sights scared of your ites inexistence In babylon fear shadow Wear saddles when you ride PUSSY You'll get bruises on your thighs And feel bad for yourself afterwards Probably brag about it and try to restore pride. Oh the masks we wear in this masquerade And that tasks we place importance on then pass away (Now listen very closely, child, to the fucking kazoo) First there was light then there was form and it was good but we threw it away Then there was dark That brought the night That which we needed to teach us awake Then there was love And it was good And we had choice but we threw it away
3.
Sweat lodge game Mystical mind unhinged Unchained Cauterizing singed pine Sage smudge the desk rot by despot decrees of you away A cesspool of ex-pats and sex hunters Come unlaid The sea sucked you instead Took you back to your maker Slapped you with nature Seems you're way up past your ankles In how to survive here And make ends meet, mend ways I sense change but never chase it I only shepherd it to graze And try to raise it I hope you recognize the days us people wasted On debating others' bases I LIVE in New York I don't live in new york I'm serious god this shit is a sport We pity the pauper and pay her no mind Then we stand in line lauding To pay the pied piper more IT PISSES ME OFF I wish we could be evolved Not be in this war And i'm all for the cause There's no other recourse But what of human pride says fight For something we've lost While the spirit i inhabit says SOAR! Set sights for other shores Find like minded souls and build a boat Make it biblical, or better yet This time make it work Warren s Britt: I'm feeling so lost while the city stay attacking me Feeling so lost while they drag us by our hands and feet Tortured and aborted why the forces stay attacking me? Eliminating families the outcome is embarrassing carrying a torch for the lost and underprivileged who have never heard the verse but still finish every sentence freezing in the winter fall asleep and never wake used to rock the jewels by Jacob now we stop and frisked by Jake can't escape we're out of bounds paranoid the walls are closing in losers ain't supposed to win refocused goals with frozen skin win without a body vibe deep inside the mind pop the shackles that would stop your travels tackle and revive watch them pterodactyls fly spread threads and learn to levitate pay the toll on burning coals you'll earn your soul and bless the great I rep the devastate where the devils play city people wanna visit but I don't suggest you stay blue shield murder spree no delay don't even pray grey clouds pouring on you Forever until you break it don't matter your age the sharks gonna chew your ass out suffocate you straight til you pass out your glass house glimmering shimmering when we enter say we place an earthquake in your cake and tell you dinners ready the rents too high, the rooms too small got the nerve to complain some people don't have walls living free on the sunset fields down in Brazil out here parents go without meals so they can feel for their loved ones Planets circulate the sun politicians run for office office got us on the run we're under the gun pressing every measurement with seconds twisting clocks bending blocks nothing left to give so I give a hand and I give thanks give Web this verse and say sorry for the wait find those like minded souls to build your boat make it biblical and then make it flow fa sho!
4.
Googie What's all the fascination? Use your imagination Love the masses hating We rub it in like its bacitracin Don't need the affirmation The rats are racing For the wine and cheese party As blind as steve harvey Wonder why i say that? Guess We living for the city And we ain't doing shows Unless its chosen by committee Get as pretty as iggy azalea Without the makeup on Just say youre wrong and Continue writing your facebook song Look, i made it mom Your son's a rapper now Toss the cap and gown Tassles n backwards clowns Whether black brown white or puerto rican We all asian the same And i'll be blamed before the weekend. Reekin of recon i'll tikka masala that ass Hurt as jonathan cash With nine inch nails and a collagen mask Follow the path or create your own Read a book or watch game of thrones Holmes There's only so much i can say And only so many ways to play this There's only so long we can wait Until we're gonna have to face ourselves There's only so much i can say And only so many ways to play this There's only so long we can wait Until we're gonna have to face these Harsh realities. I lost my salary Car's at the salvage yard Parts for the gallery And peanuts in my pocket for it I'll either walk or iron horseback it To the park bench where my valor be Scattered like Talib tribes Or more specificallyThe ballad again of power over stepping power lines But us cowards just cower about Cows and swine Waiting for the bell to ring us in Chowder time! Then we get our cup And we huff it down And we're all still hungry but nothing's left When I think of al the money i've made Then i think of all the money i've spent And i remember all the food that i ate When i couldnt keep my budget sound I feel like i could
5.
I did it again, cause it's all I know Circle round the old chip, dipping in the Pocket holes Head deeper than the ostrich goes Generally sad, fix it but keeping bitching through the obstacles Take care wisdom, learned through the stub Toe . grand scale, most keep it in the sub Surface what you learned you did probably make it up Scale, cause most out here are sinking in the muck My dear my dear my dear You do not know me but you know me by my smell and you can tell that I just farted there I'm sorry I've been working on my body control but I got distracted cretin on the C train steez these too shall pass I've been endearing at times and I get mysterious too I've torn through street food in strange countries ended up parasitic with a delirious flu but kept Munchin You can't teach me nothing got to learn it for self I'm reinventing wheels here journeyman gruff your pointed question met with Dull shrug sometimes I don't feel care or think that words could say enough if I did to make them worth coining I'm pouring ointment on my wounds to make them feel important I'm dealing deep in some dark matter to fill the void And in my head I hear my momma saying 'listen boy I ain't angry I'm just disappointed' I'm pouring ointment on my wounds to make them feel important I'm dealing deep in some dark matter to fill the void And in my head I hear my mom is saying listen Adj I ain't angry I'm just disappointed i hit a gruff patch My ways my ways my only ways i've ever known They give me comfort they make me feel important And i'm not gonna give em up! You can be sure of that My ways my ways my only ways i've ever known My cars my crib my clothes my identity my race, religion.. Leave me alone you can’t tell me what to do. fuck the truth. some stints of youth. stuck in my roots and i’ve soiled my immortal coil spurting oil and my blood is confused. i’m glad that was touching to you 'cause i can’t feel it back. i lack compassion. that’s why i’m gnashing my cavities into gravel while i'm passive but happy enough to nap. Feels best to just shut my mouth and keep quiet Sleep through the struggle take siestas 'stead of riot kind of cowardly, the lion would never it cosign it "you better get your ......." shitstorm umbrella. get it all together. Time to muscle up the gumption and hold your breath stay alive for seconds surmise and do the chest bump the bellows won't work when there's no coals left.
6.
7.
Animal 01:41
I'm a motherfucking animal Deer bone crunching in my mandible Fresh off of a hunt in the enchanted forest Damn i'm full Now i gotta sleep it off I got a den down in the hollow With a bed of creeping moss And i'm leaking pheremones From my breeze felt balls Trying to see where she went Cuz she smelt RAWWWW! Gruff getting flustered Ditch the rest Sniff the scent trail Gotta fuck! UGHH! I'm a glutton for a furry lioness I'll go off on benders I'll be gone 'till november Some destitute endeavorer And never take my mind off sex This is our creed! I kill my own food I fuck what i please I'll kill me own brother If he's fucking with me Animal creed Woof! Loins drained I stumble out of the bush Point blank kill, i gotta take it What else!? I've already gorged But i'll keep gorging It's mid-morning Besides which, i'm bored I've given a half Of a leftover carcass To shock a flock of condors I find it amusing How they hobble around I chew some leaves I know will make me feel strange then I loumph around for days karma kids this is how we..... Animal creed
8.
Simple, social currency selling our selfies accruing hearts I liken it to prostitution I'm lying in a mushroom patch in a moose field I LickPuss (BK) for the mouthfeel And drove south cuz i had wheels and couldnt sit still I sit still as i levitate on couches Off pot laced chew things And dabs with butane As i amuse bouches Then soak alfalfa sprouts doe seven hours And juice ginger I'm soup dumplings for dinner Doup Sumpling to women Bright jacket and a long spliff drooping Got a strong wind brewing And a lil sumpin to rip off My pop's gave me a complex Teacher Alien i'm adrian adonis upon this I'll bob saget your moms tit For the karma Aggravating calm with common sense Only problem? I'm a shot of Evan Williams away From being really drunk And i'm a coors 24 apart from seeing this reservoir sound womb kitchen floor Up close and personal You hurt me! None fuzzy Give it to me gruff and rugged I wanna see you love me ugly None fluff Give it to me guts and blood I wanna see you love me ugly MC Eleven: up next it's the lucky contestant funky ass fresh and i'm dressed to get death wishes flexing, with my Mexican Cola stretched across sofas as I'm watching these Western flic's and i'm blocking these mentions talking to these exes and i best just get over her yea it's best i just exit best i get Headtrip he's an excellent chauffeur get your funny bone broken bees in the trap like a honey comb open nah sonny's home broken scoping for a token and he's hoping that i could bum a smoke or something i'm like eff it i was once bummy so i get's it Dunny's can't test me can't test this dummies can't get me i'm the message run it like a dress made of necklaces pass undetected past the detectives mask on a mask and it's still up for question suspect. something like a trust fund some day i'm a trust someone but it's not yet some day i'm a drop all these habits i'm a quit i'm a stop it something's got to give something like a pot head come in my apartment we'll spark it underground head that can run it like an ostrich running out of options cautious, trying not to walk in to dog shit, worried bout the cops on a stop frisk dodging, worried bout the stock market and i'm nauseous, watch this, something like a plot twist cross-pollination get them swapped switched rawest of raw like the mix when it's not mixed oly oly oxen shit get your hip hop fix i'm oxygen within toxins funky fresh coughing to the death, to the coffin off him!
9.
Who took the pickle? right off of the middle of my plate While I was in the bathroom busy getting filled by my date Huh? Who stole the last scoop of stuffing? I'll throw kucks, commence the ass bustin quick fast no discussion out and broad day bloody sixth Ave over luncheon who's got an opinion spare us you're embarrassing your lineage dum dum you're ensnared up in some petty pussyfootin bullshit suspicion it some sucks! go out and get ........ all I care thumbs up brahhhhh well he was acting kind of strange and approached me a weird way answer the one question you know she wasn't that drunk and she practically begged me like answer the question well I wasn't being mean but to speak on my beliefs is the American dream right? You're such an ignorant Bush! you beat around it kid you see the how get up off your knees and be about it stop being childish you should be doubting what your doing see it your grief is tireless but 'grief does not change you, Hazel it reveals you' patience is a field trip ethereal and soundless you should try it sometime when you're finished pouting and everybody's got an asshole oh, you've heard that before? fast forward to the chorus then I'll fight the bar on my ninth kind of grog but I don't give a fuck what your opinion is... it's wrong, communist! condom on your father could've prevented this Romulan apocalypse that we're embodied in I'll take my Bonnie on a Clydesdale off into solitude To never hear yours fart again Asshole.. (Hook) fuck you say about a bitch?
10.
Numerous illusions came forward and bore fruit to him He couldnt deduce or choose which fruit would reduce him To the simplest of human forms That which he wishes to endure That which his fate had incurred hassling an anthill A dog collar on man's will A brute brooding in guilt swilling these damn pills My glands so swole! You only live once bro! Fuck a homeopath clapping his handle Lathering soap Passing placebos like casual dope In the hopes of catching egress Conjuring tinctures common wisdom of the ancients That relieved us of the need to be Treated for these diseases We're just All for the antibiotics Send the doctor my trust and a body I don't understand like custom Ferrari repair Then celebrate when they cure It's More bravado for the narrative Imperative for sales and it's marvelous work But glaringly absent Is any emphasis on our preventative worth If that shit was tapped into Damn it'd be blasphemous Half the industry would be retired from sport That's out of sorts and out of pocket And that's expense the pharma CEOs would kill to avoid Now administer this boy an anesthetic dose of horse tranquilizer And commit him to ward Keep me healthy don't make me healthy Help keep me healthy don't make me healthy i'm strong Get your hands off my body help Keep me healthy don't make me healthy am i wrong Help keep me, you don't make me Gion Ra Almost reached my limit But there's a certain distance when you got your heart in it Hark on from huffing carbon dust and cartilage Pardon if i wanna be charred in my Gods image You got disregard for that dawn Circadian suplex you're starving and low fat high ego If it went back to nomad You'd die before Gaining knowledge to gnaw in it Something raw! Your ma shoulda stuck to her maw I wonder why youts being born more mawger Mercenary mealsmen More than a morive to mangé with The motive to masticate Makes your eyes bigger than your stomach Listen to your guy The genre/Gion Ra of your gastronomy's gotten to gruff Well here's a soundbite to much when you chuff Once you get a taste it never is enough
11.
Googie Lil lolli molly pop with the candy flip Panty grip edible sugar coated the laffy taffy Good n plenty nasty Licorice twizzler twist the swedish fish And snicker In the milky way watchamacallit It's baby ruth Oh Henry Dead teeth for 85 cents and errbody high fructose rainblows to chico sticks Twix to charleston chewing bazooka joes 8 dozen for 4 Bodega prices Life savers and sour patch kids Looking for a payday Hundred grand mounds tha almond joy You butterfingers in crunch time Im watching for the peppermint patty wagon cuz cavities happen Its mr goodbar, goog skor all hallow's eve The starburst out spills the cadbury creme Black cherry warheads we all cornfed Couple chicklets at the peep show Break me off a piece though C Write Crills Pussy popping on a hand stand Popping contraband grands Coppa's read Miranda's Vagina monologing M night shamalan'in Think I see the signs Her Breast manifest heartbreak by design Went from free humps To prenups We don't trust these hoes Keep a condom on tight Expedite the clean up Plan a plan b Plan peace see ya later Apples don't fall far and my pops Was a skater I might Ollie off ya hoe At the narliest show fiji's in the green room Where artisans flow Thirsty hoes posted Moisture loiters in the lobby And it's obvious they dying go So tough, with glow like sho nuff, No filter co-signs my shine Call Puff, I need a bent with a dime That can fuck suck and swallow Shop and strut designer Mop and cook lasagna Freak and speak with mama Holla! When our arms end up in their arms And ammo from our land gets carried in their hands Then buried in our heads Decadent war stances- plans that don't make sense Of solving a cycle with no end In relative sight crosshairs brush cover of elegant nights lover get plugged with a light shelling but no clam! that's no meat for the belly and so the meek become embedded with no chance Selling us hope in cold cases of cans without nutrients they pull strings for confetti and roll bands on a blue moon once in a while to spread vile and lies 'cause who's telling the truth if you can't? Food shortages and stampeding hordes of use to be foragers now clanking this metal panned metropolis, blood sausage, curtled esophagus throat clot lined born again carcasses garnished with lime and white sand, like think of the beach! dream of the one week you're afforded as your calendar spans you're not wading through layers of utility bills where the rent is way too damn high we slave wages And vacation with pictures to post and save faces at least book us a table to look cool as we can we stand... dangerous mine fields courage and blind faith to make a quick meal for the wolves of the highland Gruff
12.
Trouble isnt meant to be sought after. We're living here Trouble isnt something you gnaw on and dribble bitch Kibbled bits of kimberly west of the playing field And a leftist guerrilla swinging from a tense vine of the militant Left eye bruised blue Pigging pen catch giggle shits Feed em the slop! Seventh-month fermented counter intelligence Murs scented encounters of the next kind Urge em off of mountain cliffs like we dis the last tribes With their miserable-ass lives But keep their wives There's hope for some but most will Suffer and eventually die Yes, trouble isn't meant to arise Unless there's something wrong But if it does and it's you then we cut you off You're dead to the tribe When it's death or evolution Survival SKECH 185 Loose lips speak the language of the drowned... Now thats the sound of America!/ Hounds bow to Alpha growl sounds drummed up amidst slum traveling hum of the trained.. numb..breathing from stop to stop/ With these evenings seeming like dress rehearsals for purgatory/ Seasoning seasons with the burnt edge glory of a face weathered under the weight of the sky, in lockstep with pigeons admitting we're all made of stardust/ Since when did that ease breathing like break pads? There's madness in the "lake effect"/ It makes dads in to great Dams and breaks bad down to wire transfers for birthday Jordans/ Trojan horse infested with love lost or lost love with giving a fuck/ Exit speech of a catfish or janitor depending on where you pay taxes/ The axis makes tears heavier than fears levies will burst and disperse tiers/ Lurch further to being Atlas... while making thickening skin a practice/ Everyday we're almost royalty then we clock in/ I measure sadness in checklist or static in the week thus the plot thickens/ In pot melting religious relics and helmets, zealots, hellions, rebellions. The failing system unveiling villains, impaling conventional wisdom/ And we pay rent for this?! I sketch out my dreams and they look like money orders/ I grew up near Muddy Waters, young fathers and sullied daughters of Jim Crow
13.
14.
Bloom 03:41
I met a woman from nantucket She told me her ancestors were the first settlers I looked at her incredulous and asked 'So you're a wamponaug?' She didn't blink. She didn't get it.. She said a whaaaat? I turned around and walked it off I gotta vent, i'll write a song Maybe somebody it listens to Someday might strike a chord There's a land where every child woman and man could be loved But that land's so far away And it's too easy- in these lives we repeat to forget where we stand As we toil away the days I guess this life was too much of a gift for us We're like a kid at christmas with a wishlist Convinced real quick that the world was ours And we could do away with ease anything we deemed misfit I mean, look what we did to the world at a distance From a plane i see plagues spreading The physical rash of a so-called civil existence Shit, i wonder what the birds think But nowadays they don't know any different That water been poisoned Boy what you keep sippin? See The sick bitch is ingrained Ever since that first pinhead Had the idea to get his way over others. oh druthers the technologically more advanced gained the advantage and clinched a cold death grip fist and never gave a hand they only took them, only stole them from their native lands and histories there's no forgiving unforgetables there's only living with the fallout regrets and all but stop repeating the misdeeds I hear my brother shottasay 'it's like we are in the 60s' unpopular war spaceflight again And oh you thought we were through it we're race rioting And that hates wired deep in us but it's harder to see still there, just not as apparent as it used to be and if you thought it otherwise most likely you're white but we were wrong maybe averting our eyes maybe it hurts to imagine and it's hard to describe we won't ever know how it feels to live life marginalized so white privilege apologists it's not about apology It's an acknowledgement Empathize. see I could never wear your shoes but I could recognize the care you take to move in them and I could stand in solidarity and move with you and I can feel the pain you feel because we're all human and the conversation needs to ignite until we all feel privileged to be alive There's a land where every child woman and man could be loved And it seems so far away But it's so easy- if we all could agree to reflect where we stand See that land is ours to break And it's so easy-if we all could agree to reflect where we stand See that world is ours to make

about

This world is what we've made it -- the devastation of our potential; destruction and hope dichotomized, codependent; a simple race of confused complexities placating chaos only to create more. What's done has been so with no revisions to be written, and in our narrative, destruction looms.

The idea of evolution has been abandoned in favor of dominance. We conquered the food chain behind a consciousness that set us remarkably apart from other beasts. We claimed the world as our dominion and built civilizations, each one grander than before, but never wiser. We waged wars against our planet and fellow man, perpetually falling into the same internecine traps, failing to see that we've forsaken a higher being for a life we cannot sustain.

This project examines mankind from nature to nurture and the cultures that each beget. We have our choices to own and nothing else. Every decision has consequence, often far beyond our comprehension. There's no excuse for what we've done and noone to blame but ourselves. It takes an entire tribe, but either we evolve, totally, to reevaluate the gift of consciousness, or we die, completely, so the Earth might breathe again. There is no middle ground, just the wasted lands we continue to create. Make your choice.

death or evolution


Gruff Lion

credits

released November 23, 2015

Produced, recorded and mixed by Headtrip in Karmastoria

All cuts and theremin by Samurai Banana

With tribal wisdom from (in order of appearance):
Samus
Shotta
Premrock
Sara
Hype Wonder
Dennis Nedry and the Marlbros
SKECH185
GDP
The Gent

Mastered by saged consultant A.M. Breakups at Reservoir Sound

Cover photo by Mike Petrow

WeAreTheKarmaKids 2015

Released in conjunction with Reservoir Sound

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