1. |
The Fountainhead
01:46
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Okay, easy to want something you can't take. Easy to jump ship still half baked.
Keys to the red room bend and break. Needs of the dead, bones lie in wait.
Means to an end when you demonstrate. Bleed for the leechers, roots too late.
It's easy to do jack shit these days. Stay in place in a cloudy state.
Rest in peace to the games I played. Stuck on a level where I can't be great.
Cash to the devil and you can't create. Next of the people to sign and date
approving siphons mentally. I'll move to blow up naturally.
My mark ain't a line in a factory. Real life remembered after me.
If you're asking me, gradually I had to see. I let myself atrophy.
In the past I'd sit there happily, my plates staring at the tapestry.
Don't learn, live life savagely. Consume, don't earn. Self-tragedy.
Each day same thing was maddening.
We had just got started. Self-harm in the life of an artist. Tattooed on my face was a target.
Still knew that there was no market. Back then, whole crew's on hard shit.
New to the game, but not to the hardships. Lived life tryna die, no martyrs.
Stayed high and coulda tried harder. All bullshit drunken parties.
Numb to the pain, solved nothing largely. Fuck dead, I'd rather be tardy.
At the end, good things stayed hardly.
Figured out what's worth it. Try hard, don't gotta be perfect.
Work all day under the surface. You care, that's why you're nervous.
Don't fuckin' think you're worthless.
Every day I write with herb, shit. Mind is berserk like a wordsmith.
Waste time, run it back. It all fits. I want this, will accomplish.
No crime no need for accomplice. Milled around with empty pockets, and I promise
Evil Key be honest. This flow astonish, come through already the bombest.
Drop heat and every day, progress.
If I believed in shit I'd say "God bless."
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2. |
Save Face
02:41
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Life don't keep score it's
like a void or a boros
waves circling the source is
like a core chorus pouring more out
like a thesaurus, poor important artists
recordin' thoughtless borous all fake boarish
and off base, corny takes for fuck's sakes we mourn this
the state is gourdless like Bryonia that's genus not genius
but I'll brief you, I see through the keyhole like evil peace ruses
tie up your nooses you losers if you're stuck too late for a lozenge
good luck we're fucked no trust communion is bust
like a drag off a butt it's borrowed time, no mind you can borrow mine
my astral chain is cut loose you robots got no credit due
tryhards farmed on subreddit /woosh
these fake dudes are fake news
wanna shape you with lines
wanna shake you for dimes
pocket lint droppin' hints not all is right, they played you
run to the money let them pay you
slide into the norm like your idols spayed you, fuck.
Quit pretending, whether flexin' or faux depression you lose connection
truth is stressin' under too much strechin', people 'fessin they ain't
messin' with the present they presence is pressing every session LIE
ich sage nein, like nine I bless these mess hosts, ain't impressed by
asbestos collect no sex hexed hoes or chest puff bro's
every time I step up I send it
outbox stocked full box of lessons
Offended 'cause I went in, my words that extend attention every one
I meant and not to be pretentious I'm spendin' my time with bendin'
your mind like psilocybin in a silly side bitch why trip on a lie sis?
Less time for wild'n
Sailing in time I'm the lieutenant, they just a tenant, your power I'll end it
render you sent to the bench played out like a fender
shootin' vox like a orange box kick rocks
populi take shots, fuck stocks, fuck crocks, and fuck a filter
The idol's a lie though, the Midol. I'm highball on a low road
with my own flow, been a while since I've cried or cracked a smile
but it's wild the style in asking an idol.
Fuck false motives, we stay real. Evil Key just has no chill.
Fuck false motives, we stay real. Evil Key just has no chill.
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3. |
Ersatz
01:48
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Nice you made it, but I'm isolated. Might be fated my homeworld's raided.
My mind is gated since I've been jaded, this world I've hated. It's all related.
The game, I've played it... been dead for days, shit. The joystick's veinous but
not quite sated. The inevitable fate is indoctrinated, but I'll stay faded.
This awkward state is not operating.
Apocalyptic rock from an oft-seen angle, laugh as the top just can't get handle.
Apocryphal thoughts of an unseen anger, promising flash and copacetic answers.
Forced hazards, bastards ask for a venerated planner. Masters pass in a penetrative manner.
Ass on camera, educated banter. Oh my lanta, dark art hat trick Rose saw Abra.
Lantern weak, put the dead to rest call me Doctor Sleep. If you overlooked ghosts
don't live best after... don't wanna think, you don't fuckin' have to.
This ill-fit dot on a spectrum or stop where we still shit rocks
when a blip or thought not in line will vibe with lots
this pill we got makes frill look hot.
We rot and send out to our end.
We were never really worthy.
We were never really worthy.
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4. |
Arcane
03:00
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Woke up today and my neck was killing me. I mean... day in day out, smoke clouds billowing.
Regiment slipped for a week, seems silly yet here we are and I can't look fully left.
Stealing time from a bong, that's just petty theft. Don't move a muscle you'll end up penniless
Like M without money, word is Bond. No ferry, ain't a river I'm a tributary.
I'll deliver despite feeling wary.
Rap, I never planned this. But here I am, a savage. Ebb so sick you gotta sanitize the package.
Well, not like that shit. My bad, kids. Off taste joke about this bat shit.
The fact is, this rap is an exercise in semantics. Lexical madness, every ornate passage expands
to lavish branches. Fantasic. My trepidation is post-mortem. Once my work sorted, intent ordered,
I'll be dead. They'll be like "oh THAT'S what he meant when he said, 'this equivoque ain't meant
to feign woke, meant to provoke and enthuse. Embolden the bloom. Form your verity if you
preserved sincerity.'"
When they lay out my lines, they too late like Zambada.
I ain't gettin' paid, I'm sippin' cheap java.
They never got me, never had no armada.
Maybe played myself... like Erik Estrada. But hey. Ask me, I'm happy.
Successful plans, not in stacking.
Outside the norm, my hand in every art form. I'll try it all, save for maybe... porn.
Sorry for the visual, sorry I'm cynical. These cats chase tails, life in cyclical.
Dense, but far from clinical.
I'm not tryna be prophylactic, let's unpack this. Evil Key and all endeavors everlasting.
Hear them out, is all I'm asking. Buttons, strings, singing, fucking rapping.
People kinda suck, but we still consist of magic.
Manifest some mortal mess, immaterial presence. Life's a paradoxical lesson.
This equivoque ain't meant to feign woke, meant to provoke and enthuse. Embolden the bloom.
Form your verity if you preserved sincerity.
Key is that mean hippie rapping hesher, no less.
Abstract nectar, conceived by beholder's jest...
Rational belief, existential nexus. We're all together regardless of acceptance.
Mug is empty, morning thoughts might perplex.
Time to get up and put an ice pack on my neck.
Cool, I'm back with a rollie and some tiger balm.
Raise but not fully, necronomicon.
Running 70 percent like omicron.
Decipher life like a light side holocron.
Never ending story, go and ramble on.
Repository spitting cryptic allegory, mental inventory scattered.
This monologue of banter... endless decanter. Fireball first, questions after.
Apologized too many times for being myself. I take it back, getting this out is good for health.
Each day rediscover sense of self... don't send help.
Words deep, ineffable. Hard to express, but always felt. Words deep, ineffable. Hard to express, but
always felt.
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5. |
Double Exposure
03:13
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I'm not saying fuck the world, but fuck the evil
key faded into outer realms and every one I see you.
It's that double exposure. Yeah.
You know I love you, sometimes I just dissociate.
It's hard to talk when you feel shit in the day to day.
I tried to escape and take turns from the grind,
feel the pull in my chest to leave the burden behind but it's
only in the night time I find my peace of mind.
When the air is still and grips loosen on time.
I can spend lifetimes set in your eyes.
The thrill of the chance seemed pure. So sure to obscure the
trouble that I left behind. You can instill the will the survive.
You did it to me. I stand here and bleed words out of the ink, through
grimaced teeth with intent of going hard with naught but a grin.
I been through it and I reset myself and went through it again.
Learn and re-learn. Last run to go in. No more Wonderland.
No more going back to pretend.
Look what I begot from my hands and my soul and my pulse.
My life is presented in acts, save face and attack, bared loose.
It's that double exposure. Yeah.
Nobody seems to be on the shit that I take. This flow and these beats fresh. Self-made.
The ripple spreads until it ain't. Nobody seems to be on the shit that I take.
There I go again, I'm far away. You know I love you, sometimes I just dissociate.
Through teeth, no sense in asking. Now we tracking and I'm stacking wax to pack in and
hit it up, spin a cut, roll a blunt and pass it up.
Ideas in flow. Blowin' smoke. Evil Key is on a roll like mayo-naise and I ain't make it
yet, but I'm gettin' paid, and never fake a set so I'll never fade, never buttered up,
not a slave to the game. Controller in my hand, never a damn front.
Grand plan, put in work, level up, with my party everybody get a cut, no need to front.
Life essence on hunt but respect the process. Nat 20 roll and I'm tracking progress
on my sheets. Like Lucy I'm lucid on these beats. I'm fluent. Straight congruent.
Passing through these thoughts like I knew it.
Thoughts passing me seeking truths like...
Thoughts passing me seeking truths like... oh. Wait. It's that double exposure. Yeah.
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6. |
No Way Out
02:13
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Sometimes I feel that I'm not that. Where we at? Why the fuck did I even try to rap?
Why'd I plan to tour as the world gets fucked? Am I a fool or is it just more bad luck?
Why can't I heal from the things I've done? Even though I face what I'd like to outrun.
Why I gotta live with the memory of pain? Why'd I say I'd hold on? Said I'd maintain.
Why I gotta live in a mausoleum of no change, surrounded even though I'm not the fucking same.
Why'd I choose a path that'd break my heart? Why each night do I feel I have to tear at these scars?
Why am I convinced honest work will get me far?
I'd rather be stuck than a liar.
I'd rather be unsure than admired,
for something I'm not. Despite the fact that I'm tired.
Cue the laugh track before I'm expired
Remind me this waste of breath is a game, I'm wired.
If I feel there's hope for the rest or even decades, I'm inspired.
Why do I waste my time trying to please when the world is burning?
Why's it so hard to express the desire to still be learning?
Remember when we were young?
Young was your late days.
Remember when we were young?
You found the only way to escape.
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7. |
I Am Error
03:04
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I lived a life full of dying in high rule
own knife to my throat, drew blood to remind me
Wish friends didn't die chasing highs, too.
No link to a realm no tears to be hiding.
Entangled, either end of the spectrum. My thoughts, a blood moon. Each form unexpected.
Gilded experience, circle back until delirious, step back stripped of materials,
back from the cosmos old facts seemed serious, but you're only small as your blinders big.
Finding peace is a tricky thing. Mind over matter, yet part to whole.
Unexplored inner space just may explode.
Holding a mirror up. Interior was fucked.
Cut off from love, it's tough until I detached and all was one but all was naught.
I met the god you thought you saw, he was just a shade from a higher place or
maybe the lower one. Eyes open, both sides were in the box connected by Schrödinger's thought.
I was in a hurry for the journey but the journey is the destination. Bodies high from spinning
without creation. Dropping without reflection. Melting into section, missing the lesson.
Not facing tension. Maybe it was destined to walk up to the ledge. Stare into the abyss.
Everyone falls in, did they get their wish?
In a better place, free of this shit? But that's just it. To think, to not think, get numb.
Escaping every moment none can outrun. Did they ascend? Are they done? Are you nothing?
What have you become?
Not a new perspective, but all perspectives. To be apart from the collective.
It's subjective, 'til it's stripped down and objective. Yes, a paradox of a message.
But sorting out the mess is a test few pass until the very end.
One foot inside and flirt with the event horizon. Waves are the tonic, I'm subatomic.
Top quark boson, close to the reset. Maybe strings and frequencies yet, from which we still draw breath.
If the source is divine, it's undeath. The way to see that everything. Pick apart from the nothing.
Perceived 'til we love it or hate it, need to escape it. Embrace contradiction, make your peace and
listen. Surrender to the river but I live in the ripples that spread. I would never be alive if I wasn't first
dead.
I am error. Fuck Evil Key. I fake existence or maybe I'm just a dream.
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8. |
Escape Fate
02:28
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We are who we are and I'll be just a conduit.
Waves follow me and you're free to try to follow it.
Fuck a fake ass but nothing like some sodomy, stay home if you ain't
lobbied on this shit, honestly. Honest level fuck that hollow shit, apologists.
Watch this.
Life shine through this vessel, it's a prism. Focused in a fracture, individualism. If I ever lay down, sure enough I'll roll up to break out.
I find the mind is a prison, or the mind doesn't listen. Smoking kind so mine slows down for the rhythm.
Quiet type like "Drive", but the mind is alight
I'm high key driven. You can't run away but you can change your rhythm.
They beat you, be cool. Adapt as you listen.
Be yourself, don't ever be see through.
We all hit a weak mood, world could end in a week, too.
But you need to face you. Do like the beast do, stay true.
Howl at the moon and cut through. I know I shocked you,
I can't help I'm flowin' through these bars like it's T2.
Keep it a thousand 'cause that T like life won't let you escape.
You can hit a bag and try to numb the pain but keep it plain.
It is what it is until it ain't. Try as you might, but you can't escape.
A hole in fate to numb the pain, old waves in pace.
No will to stay still, I must escape.
There's nothing like it. It numbs the pain.
I've seen a lot of my endings but I got a lot of fight in me.
Seen some fights ended but I hold some light dregs might envy
Sights pending in the rest of my mind.
I'll confess I'm depressed half the time, who the fuck ain't?
Though you can't escape fate you create your state, let it inhabit you
chase the white rabbit, cut your teeth, be a savage who speaks
instead of choosing the weak.
I'm rabid and I eat every bit of the beat.
If it's average, then it ain't Evil Key.
I rose from the peat, fuck a defeat.
Life is hard to take, but until you escape.
Everything is every breath that you paint
If it is, then it is and you can't
escape
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9. |
We Are Nothing
03:13
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In the wake of adversity, we try to save face.
Until the ploy is up, we even try to escape.
It only matters because we are nothing.
Stardust. Neurons. Breath. In, and out.
In the end it fades away. A blink of a new start.
Synapse in flux. Means everything to a beating heart. Full, bleeding, scarred.
Sometimes it's hard to release. When there's time there's no peace.
Some dishes are spoiled in this empirical feast.
But at the very least, we eat. We see.
You are less than a bag of meat, but you are the journey.
That's still everything.
Some days tides on my beach are warming. Sometimes I forget how to be.
Even when the weather is stormy, to have clouds is a beautiful thing.
Without this we are nothing.
When I see my faults, I'm sorry. It's not me, it's just the biggest part of me. Dreams into ashes, ashes into dreams. The pulse is still around, amongst the life of fiends.
Sometimes light finds no means. Sometimes light shines right on the sins.
Sometimes I let them in. When the light around me dims, I'll still smile.
Even if the end comes and it's all because of me.
I'll let it begin again. Let it bleed. Let me feel it. Let me see.
Let me dream. Let me cut my teeth. Let me be released.
Let me try to find my peace. Always searching for the missing piece.
Without this we are nothing.
In the wake of adversity, we try to save face.
Until the ploy is up, we even try to escape.
It only matters because we are nothing.
Stardust. Neurons. Breath. In, and out.
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Evil Key Syracuse, New York
Evil Key, beat producer and rapper.
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