1. |
'64 World's Fair
02:47
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Oh my, how the tables have turned/I had to make my return/
I have to say it's absurd/Why would I play what y'all heard?/
I'd rather take what I learned/And put my pain in my words/
Congratulations/You still got imagination/
Well since I had to explain it/Wasn't quite as entertaining/
But hey, that's just the way it go/Nowadays, I suppose/
Back when they'd say that my flows/
Would get me up out my momma's/
But I did that on my own/Feel like I'm finally home/
But y'all keep tryin' me though/I might be likely to blow/
Born in the wrong era still/Wonder what y'all scared of/
I'm from where the young brothers/Get carried by pallbearers/
And with that weight on my conscience/How could I not be aware of-/
But let's get on with the show/That's what you came for/
But let's get on with the show/That's what you came for…right?/
But let's get on with the show/Let's just get on with the show…/
Don't get lost in your feelings/This ain't the time to panic/
Even though the money low/At least the crime is rampant/
Sleight of hand tricks/
Pull it right before your eyes and vanish/
While y'all sit and deny it/Just 'cause your pride is damaged/
There's bigger forces at play/That's tryna remind the planet/
How and why we got here/No, your purpose is not fear/
Wish I could rewind the clock/To back before y'all got weird/
Or just maybe, I was just/Crazy the whole time/
And all the world is a stage/That plays in my own mind but…/
But let's get on with the show/That's what you came for…/
But let's get on with the show/That's what you came for…/
Right? That's what you came for/
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2. |
Pulp Fiction
02:19
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Y'know if i ain't know any better/
I would say this was a set-up/
Well, guess what...?/
Probably best if you watch your step, huh?/
Know where you at..../
Don't you dare relax/
Wide angle with the vision/
Gotta watch who you starin’ at/
Can't explain it all/
Trust I would if I could/
One of few that's built to survive/
The hood and the woods/
Many faces will turncoat/
Henry David, I'm thorough/
I don't take you for your word though/
I'ma light the flame/
Let it all burn slow/
(Kesey)
Uh, we went wild for awhile
We went wild because
We'd been caged up for 50,000 years
We went wild and found out
That there was more than we
Had been led to believe…
Life is too short/
'Specially when you live dangerous/
If you seen the way we came up/
Stuff nightmares are made of/
Might say I'm flyin off the chain but/
My third eye say it's time to wake up/
I'ma shake the table 'til I'm gone/
I'ma ride the wave that I'm on/
Y'all don't take the blame when you’re wrong/
Not afraid to put your name on a song/
Gotta learn to practice discernment/
Comin 'round wolves acting nervous/
Lights cameras action, lift the curtains/
Lookin' like some clowns in the circus/'
Bout to catch a case in a minute/
Run up with the thing if you slippin'/
Heard 'em say there's just certain games/
You don't even know you playin’ 'til you in it/
Is it political or criminal?/Put it that way/
Can't say the difference/
Cynical but it's pitiful/
Think its all a big mistake but it isn't/
Sometimes the truth is/
Really much stranger than fiction/
(Kesey)
And now, unless we start finding
The little piece of it
That we can cull the reigns
It's gonna get away from us
This doesn't necessarily mean
You stop taking acid
But you stop repeating the trips
Every head knows…that, uh
He takes a drug…
To eventually stop taking it
And I think that it's, uh…
Time for a great number of them…to stop
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3. |
Hide 'n Seek
03:24
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(Intro)
Don't you lie to me/Don't you lie to me/
Whispers in your ear/Lets play a game of hide & seek/
I know who you tryna be/Who you tryna be/
But you and I know that you will/Never find the key/
I am speakin' through the veil/Shifting metaphysics/
Just to see you fail your mission/You can tell I'm different/
Now you see no goin'/Back to the before times/
Let it slide too long/They pullin' war crimes/
Drive you mad and dial/Back 'til you can hardly stand it/
From the social engineers that/Brought you Charlie Manson/
If you really wanna/Persecute the Unabomber/
Maybe your first/Clue should be his alma mater/
Lone terrorists you/Blame for them attacks/
Really just experiments/Escapin out them labs/
Ain't no theory 'bout it/Ain't no gettin' out the game/
Now it seem like all your/Agents wanna come out to play /
(Chorus)
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
See the devil in disguise/Don't you lie to me/
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
Hope they listenin'/I'm prayin for the blind to see/
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
When they come for you/Don't you come and cry to me/
No, really
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
The clock been tickin'/For a minute now it's time to see/
This is not for the uninitiated/
This for the counter-culture/Legends unappreciated/
When the target is suspicious/Never double down/
Infiltrate and you can/Dictate the weather underground/
Cultivate the cult leader/Watch it implode/
Tried your best but your/Utopian was Jim Jones/
Clandestine operations that/Ruined lives/
To answer one question/
Can you break the human mind?/
Never fail to pay the plug/This your brain on drugs/
The great psychedelic/Trick that you played on us/
The great crack epidemic/From the 'caine y'all slung/
Turned our families to dust/To this day, no love/
No justice, no peace/On our own streets/
Destabilize us at home/Like you did overseas/
Spooks playin' in the/Shadows while they puppets dance/
Networks behind the/Curtain of your wonderland/
(Chorus)
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
See the devil in disguise/Don't you lie to me/
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
Hope you listenin'/I'm prayin for the blind to see/
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
When they come for you/Don't you come and cry to me/
No, really
Let's play hide & seek/Let's play hide & seek/
The clock been tickin'/For a minute now it's time to see/
(Outro)
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4. |
Do I Sound Crazy to You?
02:47
|
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(Chorus)
It's always funny 'til it aint/
But back to what I was sayin’ before/
Y’all bout to get what you deserve though/
You wouldn’t believe me if I told you/
Nobody gonna see it til it’s too late/
But back to what I was sayin’ before/
You think I don’t know I sound crazy?/
It’s always funny til it ain’t/
You wouldn’t believe me if I told you/
Y’all bout to get what you deserve though/
You think I don’t know I sound crazy?/
Tell me how you feel now though/
I been sayin' the quiet part loud though/
Live from the underground flow/
Dostoevsky writin’ down notes/
Keep ya eyes open and ya mouth closed/
Playin' with fire, now you out cold/
Y'all better hope it's all a sick joke/
I'ma smash the Overton window/
When your pen is a weapon/
You know your mission/
Every single word is your own resistance/
They Soviets in sheep's clothes with it/
In my soul I'm Solzhenitsyn/
In my mind I'm Ken Kesey/
In my heart I'm Brian Wilson/
If the medium is the music/
I'm Marshall McLuhan/
But back to what I was sayin' before/
(Chorus)
But I bet you gon' miss me/
Going off the grid like Kaszinsky/
It's lookin' real funny in the light/
The rabbit hole's gone deeper/
I ain't saying he was right/
But he wasn't wrong either/
I'm just watchin' all the angles/
Hangin by a thread but it's tangled/
What it was ain't what it will be/
Y'all better figure out/
What you really fear/
How can anybody kill me/
If I was never really here?/
That's a whole different story/
Y'all aint got nothin' for me/
I must be outta my mind/
So y'all can ignore me/
But back to what I was sayin' before/
(Chorus)
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5. |
||||
I pressed the issue/Crossed the limits/
Never lost the vision/I guess I wish you/
Thought to fix it/If you wrong admit it/
The cost is risen/It's too late now/
You ain't wanna listen/But when I'm gone/
My intuition will haunt the livin'/
You stay the same but/
Claim you want it different.../
Where does the music go/
When the song is finished?/
I just wish you/All could witness/
Instead of hinting/I'm off my hinges/
I saw the hidden hand/
And on the wall was written/
A raw depiction/I spoke with conviction/
And y'all dismissed it…/
Such is the/Life of a prophet
Time has forgotten/
Without a righteous accomplice/
Knowing my mind is God's gift/
Know that the eye is watchin'/
Provoking a violent conflict/
In hopes you/Deny ya conscience/
While owners lining they pockets/
And sold us lies/Disguised as a promise/
Behind the profits/You bought it though it/
Defies your logic/By design, put you inside a/
Box and define the optics/
…and you too blind to stop it/
(Chorus)
Sometimes you just gotta/Know where you're goin' to/
Sometimes you gotta/Recognize who you've grown into/
Sometimes you just gotta/Know where you're goin' to/
And sometimes you just/Know a little too much/
How many of us had a father/Never saw his face?/
Grew up feelin' like our/Lives were mistakes?/
Funny how the universe/Could turn the tables/
So completely/Seein what y'all believe in/
It made me grateful to be me/
You naively see/Reality on TV/
I'm from where the/Show is live/
But no role is scripted/You better know the difference/
Tell ya ‘til I'm blue in the face/But who could relate?/
I'm losin' my taste for/Proving my case/
To folks who won't/Do what it takes/
The concept of/Truth is at stake/
Keep denyin' what you/See with your eyes/
I'ma live free or die/
As for y'all, whatever/Helps you sleep at night/
You threaten my trust/We ain't gotta settle a grudge/
I said what it was/There's really nothin' left to discuss/
I'm empty and numb/But good at still pretending it's love/
No weight on my/Conscience from the way it/
Ended with us…/
Best of luck but know the/Rest is yet to come/
Man, I tried to tell'em…/
(Chorus x2)
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6. |
Behind the Doors
02:54
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(Foster)
So in the end, my understanding is that
We are organic life forms, in the flesh
Animated by electromagnetic signals,
Broadcast over a complex network of
Circuits in a central nervous system
That dictate our actions, all while
Caught in a constant state of perpetual motion
(Verse)
Tryna say what's on my mind/Would take up all my time/
Frankly I just never been the/Type to fall in line/
Late nights wishin/Debating why am I different/
Pay the price of admission/And pray it's the right decision/
Nevermind explaining the game/Find your position/
You say I'm isolated/I say I'm minding my business/
Only child, I used to/Dream and wonder how music work/
Breakin down concepts/Deconstructing the universe/
Mostly that just alienated/Me from my peers/
Like we been speakin' different/Languages all of these years/
Most the time I put my faith in/Others, I been let down/
I see between the frequencies/But have you ever pet sounds?/
Analyze the physics/But you can't deny specifics/
You sanitize the science/I'm defined by intuition/
It's never up to us to know/What anything becomes/
‘Cause everything is nothing/And it's everything at once /
(Foster)
A series of moments of conscious interfacing with
Waves and particles in a representation of the physical world
But knowing, all the time, that there's this astral dimension
Just beyond the veil of the perceived frequencies of light and sound
In this form of space, time and matter
Where most are just floating, like empty ghosts…
(Verse)
If you still hearin' my voice/Quotin’ my lyrics/
I left this behind so I'm still/Technically here in spirit/
Speaking through the airwaves/Did it with no airplay/
I never could've did it this way/If I did it their way/
Spend all this time chasin’/A high that's high maintenance/
That type of life don't/Resonate with my vibration/
My motivation was writin'/Rhymes, making you question/
Stop prayin’ for signs/If you not payin’ attention/
Gotta make up your mind or/They'll try and change your perception/
Sell your soul a little each/Time you make an exception/
Break your moral compass and/Tell you change your direction/
I embrace the connection with/Even greater dimensions/
See the layers as separate but/Woven between the fabric/
Know there's a deeper magic in/Focus than we imagine/
I was speakin in code but that's/Growin' to be a habit/
One day you'll understand/I just hope that I see it happen/
(Foster)
And where demons and devils are running wild but
Every now and again, there's a chance to
Catch a glance from a stranger you've met
On the other side of the looking glass
And slip 'em a reminder with a wink and a smile
Like a callback to some great, big, cosmic inside joke…
As if to say, “who knows if this is the last time our paths might cross
But when you hit the trails, either way, I wish you well…”
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7. |
Tie-Dye Skies
02:54
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(Chorus)
We could hit the road/Just drive, if you wanna/
We could find a mountain/Just to climb if you wanna/
We could tie-dye the/Whole sky if you wanna/
We could tie-dye the/Whole sky if you wanna/
Starin' out the window/While the sun sets/
Open road ahead/We goin’ out west/
Where the light fade/Slow but it stays gold/
Paintin’ colors on the/Sky like its Day-Glo/
Somethin’ changes in you/When you see it/
The beauty of where we/Live is like a secret/
Growin’ up in the/Hood is like a cage/
Where you can't see the bars/’Til you make it out the maze/
Now I been all around the States/
Seen places I swore I would never/
The heart of America/
Rainforests and deserts/Made for some adventures/
I had a lifetime of pain/Before the pleasure/
Comes in handy when you/Out on the road/
I built a habit making/Nothing feel like a home/
I hit you askin’ if you/Wanna tag along/
Take another crack at/Livin’ like some vagabonds/
(Chorus)
Slidin’ thru the Badlands/
Screamin’ out the window/Livin’ like it was your last chance/
Hang the camera out the/Window, catch a snapshot/
Grand Tetons know/How to paint a backdrop/
I'ma get some sleep on/The way to Olympic/
Wake me when you see/The waves on the Pacific/
Whew…Death Valley/Burnin’ up the road now/
Down the strip, Vegas/Lookin’ like a ghost town/
Miseducated in Jersey/But now my mind on/
How I found the joy of/My world out in Zion/
Life on the edge/Take the plunge in it/
Pick a canyon, Grand/Bryce or the Gunnison/
We could climb the/Rockies or the Smokies/
Find ya mountain man/You gotta reach your own peak/
How you take a picture/You been starin' at your whole life/
Never recognized it 'til/I saw it with my own eyes/
(Chorus)
We could hit the road/Just drive, if you wanna/
We could find a mountain/Just to climb if you wanna/
We could tie-dye the/Whole sky if you wanna/
We could tie-dye the/Whole sky if you wanna/
(Kesey)
The trip…became more important
Than the destination
Nevermind where you're going
It doesn't make a difference
Where you're going
The whole notion of "The Trip"
To take an "acid trip"
Came out of…that summer
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8. |
Further
02:54
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(Intro)
Time don’t stop along the train tracks/
Get lost but always know the way back/
It’s a big world/Play in it before you leave it/
Don’t sleep through the ride/
You wanna see this/
Nothing lasts but/Boy, was this one a blast/
Missin’ answers to questions/We ain’t know enough to ask/
Like switchin’ places in time/Picture the frame of mind/
Visions in space collide/With a shift in nature's design/
In this game of life/Takin’ a risk, shakin’ the dice/
Sometimes a simple twist of/Fate can decide/
Synchronicity startin to/Link the mystery/
The universe is one voice/But it sings a symphony/
Wonder who the conductor/Whenever the truth discovered/
If human understanding add/Up when you do the numbers/
Love your life before you/Wish you did when you was younger/
Like catchin’ lightning in a bottle/’fore you lose your thunder/
Might get a little loud/Until we find some middle ground/
Your energy’s a signal how/It all ripples out/
But here’s the riddle now/
If it’s all an illusion/How can we ever really know/
What it meant to be human?/
(Chorus)
How much further can we go now/
There's way too many of us to hold down/
Play the game the only way you know how/
But how much further can we go now/
x2
Oldest mistake to under/estimate the threat of evil/
I'm getting to the point but/First I gotta thread the needle/
Never see you as less than equal/But check your ego/
Spent the last couple years/Losing respect for people/
No hard feelings but it's/Time to start healing/
Let the chips fall when you/Know how the cards dealing/
...How do I say all I need to/Before I leave you?/
My stroke of genius moment/Where I seek atonement/
For everything that I said as a/Child I didn't mean to/
Now I choose to speak through/The speaker to reach you/
Nobody else get it but we do/
Guess you just had to be there/Don't be scared but beware/
Life is a lot of things/But I promise it won't be fair/
Whether you stuck and confused/Or suffered abuse/
Now what you gonna do?/
Sometimes where we think it ends/Where the new beginning is/
I'd say this where we finish/But for now we'll put the pin in it/
(Chorus)
(Neal Cassady)
We are actually 4th dimensional beings
In a 3rd dimensional body
Inhabiting a 2nd dimensional world
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9. |
The Great American Novel
04:10
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This might be my/Great American novel/
I'm comin back in my prime/The Kerouac of my time
Still tying up a few loose ends/I thought were true blue friends/
‘Til I flew over the cuckoo's nest/
Don't deny, y’all pretended/Like I lost my mind/
Got you lookin’ like you/Dot your T's and cross your I’s/
Now it's undisputed/Before it was just confusion/
The truth is up for review/And you claim I jump to conclusions?/
Wait for proof of the danger/I'd rather see it sooner than later/
I'm used to strangers/Misunderstanding what's human nature/
All I know is I've had it/With being gaslit/
By the average folks/Who couldn't fathom the half of it/
Surrounded by people/Used to respecting orders/
I'm from a hood that/Taught me check my corners/
‘Fore you get extorted/So don't expect decorum/
I’ll tell you how it is/Right on the spot/
Whether you gon’ like it or not/
Can't empathize with/Impressionable minds/
We don't conceptualize/Time the same/
I done lived too many lives/
Plenty wise with the/Cards I was dealt/
O.G’s said he rhyme/Like he got knowledge of self/
Never bought into college/Still a modern David Foster Wallace/
Pennin’ works provocative/Like Kurt Vonnegut/
I had no other options/I turned documents to/
Hunter Thompson/Journals I must've jotted/
I've come full circle/To cover topics/
Removed from the utter gossip/
Reality got your stomach knotted/
Wait until they run your pockets/Now who gonna stop it?/
In the land of the weak/Home of the slaves/
Y'all dance to the beat but/Never know what to say/
The hidden hand of the beast/The devil showing his face/
We had a chance to be free/Now we ‘bout to throw it away/
Those are the stakes/Nothing's what you thought it was/
Never trust a prankster/
You either on the bus or you off the bus/
(Bridge)
Where does the story end?/
Everything we left unsaid/
Songs stay stuck in my head/
Rewind, we right back to/
Where we begin/
Thought I heard your/Voice in the wind/
Thought I might/See you again/
Before the words slip away/
Let’s turn the other page/
I set fire to the blueprint/
Consumed in this/Empire of illusion/
A reminder why I do this/
Writin’ my manuscript/
While I'm dreamin’/Penning my thesis/
They tend to question my reasons/
Have yet to mention my genius/
Leave it to the prestigious who/
Complete degrees in academia/
Or at least the ones/Repeatin’ ‘em in media/
Institutions designed to/Manage perception/
And damage your reputation/If ever you stand against it/
Manufactured consent is/The standard path of events/
Reality is whatever the/Camera capture on lens/
Shadows on the wall of/The Cave, in allegory/
I'm standing on the shoulders of/Great thinkers before me/
Don't place me in categories/With rappers, they rhyme sloppily/
Honestly, I should be a/PhD in hood psychology /
See I lived it so I can/Express it clearly/
They read it in universities/Never testing the theory/
Tellin’ you how to float when they/Never been off the boat/
How can you change a/System that benefitted you most?/
And so the beat goes on/Who am I to complain?/
Left my mark on the music/Won’t lose my mind to the game/
Every verse is a page and/Every song is a chapter/
Put my book on the shelf/Maybe when I'm gone it'll matter/
Like Salinger, this my/Catcher in the Rye/
I'm Holden Caulfield/Guess I never been surprised/
Might say I'm cynical but my/Skills of observation are critical/
Remaining analytical/Of the blatant subliminals/
If you seein’ it too, then/I'm speaking to you/
Shine a beacon of truth/They don't see in the news/
Or teach in the schools/Where they treat us as fools/
Knowledge is an ocean/Some never deepen the pool/
If I told the whole story/You probably wouldn't believe it/
I'd write it in a book/But you'd probably never read it/
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10. |
Merry Prankster
03:17
|
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(Kesey)
I think you only come through this movie once
And if you don’t get something
Rewarding out of every minute you’re sitting there
Then you’re…blowing your ticket
(Chorus)
I know a place/Between here and the other side/
They said it's not your time/Come back in another life/
The world's gettin’ stranger/It's in our very nature /
Until we meet again/Who wanna hitch a ride/
With a Merry Prankster/
Through the mind of a Merry Prankster/
(Verse)
Deja vu as I/Flashback to the present/
And capture my adolescence/
On wax, actin’ a menace/
In fractions of seconds flat/
You asked for the facts? Check it/
A master class in the question/
The last laugh is the lesson/
The rest is mostly showbiz/Pretend I'm only jokin’/
Blessed with the holy/Ghost in my pen/
So you know who wrote it/
If death a lonely ocean/Well I guess I hope we floatin’/
The moment is cinematic/But tragic as its unfolding/
Knowing the past is frozen/Behind the glass of a broken/
Fragment in time, where/Everything that happened in life/
And every person you met/Turns to a blur in the end/
‘Til you learn to accept/There's a road further ahead/
Leave nothing but footprints/Take nothing but memories/
See ‘em all in my dreams/Can't explain what it meant to me/
...and yet it's all part of the recipe/Every piece of the story that/
Led me where I was meant to be/
(Chorus)
What good is lifting your/Voice when you missin’ the point?/
Take opinions on your decisions/But you live with the choice/
Never finding harmony/When you listen to noise/
Follow your heart or the/Money, now you flippin’ a coin/
Soon as I finish this joint/Man I'm hangin’ it up/
It's been a long strange/Trip, I can't say it enough/
Gotta struggle to remind us/It’s humble to suffer/
All you can do is put/One foot in front of the other/
You on a path even/If you don't know it/
Some lose they way and/Most of us won't notice/
I'm just passing through/A character in your dream/
Reminding you that everything/Really ain’t what it seem/
Reality is splittin/And I'm somewhere in between/
I'd have to guess that some/Degree of madness is the key/
Somehow I became the/Link like Neal Cassady/
Once a prankster, always a/
Prankster if you askin’ me…/
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Foster the Prankster
Rapper/Producer Foster the Prankster has released 3 solo studio albums: Kings Highway (2015), Free Lunch (2015) and Merry Prankster (2023). He has released a single, Think Me A Fool and 2 EP's, La Honda and The Acid Test, as the frontman for the blues-rap band, Foster & The Pranksters. ... more
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