they say the devil got a chess game better than fischer had on his best day set stage, he leads, first pawn to c3 left a white queen open just to try to check me so let’s play i’m wilin on my castling switchen up positions on that gotta keep her traveling off balance, i’m jaw slacking and off rambling tryna get her grin to stretch tighter than taut canvas been on that couple years a game shit livin in my mental, might as well’ve made her pay rent spent a summer living under latex ain’t a damn thing like some unsafe sex blank checks living on that fourty-nine moves shit got a couple knights, can’t find a way to use em i’m no kasparov, worried I’m see through livin in between them mean reds and deep blues checkmate checkmate every pawn thinks he king on his best days checkmate checkmate makin moves through the ranks and the chest pains checkmate checkmate every pawn thinks he king on his best days checkmate checkmate but even kings get deaded players had us lookin like fool’s mate i could see the future in the moves made now we could move straight or we could watch for the hook you know there ain’t no such things as halfway rooks i’m halfway shook, tryna keep that nice act up on that dark horse riding while my knights act up on some fuck a bishop, they ain’t never seen a black square how they gon tell me that i gotta keep a path clear thought i had that shit on lock last year tryna lead a charge bet they only taking cash here wish we had a strategy to get behind i’m done with living balanced on a mahfuckin credit line tryna play a couple moves in advance on some pull a piece back, remain true to the plans catch a black king leanin tryna get up out a chess game open to the queen, that’s a mahfuckin checkmate checkmate checkmate every pawn thinks he king on his best days checkmate checkmate makin moves through the ranks and the chest pains checkmate checkmate every pawn thinks he king on his best days checkmate checkmate but even kings get deaded in the end game

so i was standing outside at the back of this show tryna catch a little breath, with timb tracks in the snow passin ghosts in the air from the back of my throat there’s a couple boys out back, stoners passin a roach red shades on they souls, half packing a bowl i’m like, half worth notice til it’s ready to smoke then they on some you wanna hit this? we got a couple minutes til the next act plays throw some clouds in your vision i’m all i’m tryna make a living off this voice every hit i take of smoke gets it closer to destroyed besides, i rarely smoke marijuana anyways couple hits of ganj and my brain goes renegade they laughed, looking like a hyena pack eyes glazed, minds half detached a man i hadn’t seen stood up in the back rockin all black everything with pentagram tats, like son i know what your bidness is dropped a lil disc now you tryna go infinite i can see your future, dead insignificant your voice ain’t deep enough to grab rap dividends i got a pack of camel lights that’ll never run dry you could smoke em all night and them a get your voice tones right the only price that they take a couple years off your life slippin on that black ice, shiver in my bones knowing that my next words giving up the ghost, like fuck it, i would die for a pulse looked him in the eye spoke gimme gimme smokes coughin never seemed so intimate gimme gimme smokes get me closer to the infinite from the ash to the dust to the track marks whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star? This is rap divination chantz and i talkin bout the future in his basement tryna get the fanbase spread like we satan the beats and the candles the black innovations he schooled me on his body of work said it’s human sacrifice to embody the words when you sip out the goddamn bottle it burns til you vomit words you know you putting pain in the verse there’s no restraint if it works it only bangs when it hurts no containing the curse or escape to faith in the works you doin alchemy equivalent exchange in the worst way sacrificing everything you had in the first place i’m sitting there, asking if it’s worth it to bring all that pain to the surface i reached in my pocket for the pack of the cigs lit one up like it is what it is coughin never seemed so intimate gimme gimme smokes get me closer to the infinite from the ash to the dust to the track marks whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap? whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star? ---------------------------------------- coughin never seemed so intimate gimme gimme smokes get me closer to the infinite from the ash to the dust to the track marks whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star? coughin never seemed so intimate gimme gimme smokes get me closer to the infinite from the ash to the dust to the track marks whats a couple years to a rap star? sing it coughin never seemed so intimate gimme gimme smokes get me closer to the infinite from the ash to the dust to the track marks whats a couple years to a mahfuckin rap star?

you always said your dad gave you paper skin it was wafer thin look, felt tip pens bleed away from where you make amends i seen the way your eyes turn in sets enough to wonder how you keep them flames burning fresh with him it’s always gin and tourniquets i don’t know how you think you deserve that shit i’m afraid you’ve been growing hard to reach again cause when we play shows, i see your shadows leaning in glass bottles get reversed on a bit of bourbon all your curses reemerge all your burdens worsen you done fell in love with a mariner he sunk his fingertips deep in your salt weathered hair traded in your voice for white noise and a bit of air every story ain’t got an ever after square on the shore he got a couple rays to share but son turn a little darker when the sky ain’t lookin fair he got a pistol in his closet i’m not saying get it but i’m not saying not yet heard he want to put a ring up on your finger one of y’all is gonna have to pull a trigger i’m just saying that i’d miss you if it came to that if he hits you again you should pay him back i can’t tell you how to purpose your pain i just don’t wanna see you circling drains circling drains you always said your mom gave you eyes like a paintbrush colors in your mind black and white on the paystubs rooms fulla people who don’t know where you came from that shit can make it kinda hard to make it through the grey months i know you went distant i noticed the friction i know you took to smoking just to pour it through your system i know you was sprinting just to hold your position black holes with a mission tryna close you in a grip n get you tripping listen i always been a scribe without a script never found a way to mitigate the symptoms but that being said i only ever had to trip about the outcomes you always had to worry bout the income and i’m not sure that i can write to give you any peace of mind but know i’m riding with you til the outer limits i spent that money from my whip just to put us on a disk if i went back i wouldn’t do it any different and we know the world tryna leave us with our tracks in the ash it’s a goddamn battle of attrition but i’mma make sure any time they try to tell us what we’re worth we slit the purses and we liberate the prisons winning we only got up in this shit to motherfuckin struggle and i’ll never give that up because of image so anytime you got a couple shadows in your head you gotta juggle know i got you to the mahfuckin finish to the mahfuckin finish

one for the clouds two for soft anxieties three for self- indulgence and baristas who say hi to me four for anonymity the warmth of simple privacy five for life on cable lines and feds who tryna wire me six for the apathy seven for the practice eight for five percenters tryna parcel out the math in me nine for the caffeinated ten for the casualties eleven for the gentleman who broke the glass menagerie twelve for the riots shields and full metal jacketing don’t speak on thirteen got a feelin that it’s bad for me fourteen when i made my first track fifteen for the nostalgia and the way it’s coming back to me sixteen i almost died on lake street driving backwards lost cause my first love had turned her back on me wouldn’t have made it to seventeen if i didn’t have an eye for navigation and a way to keep the traffic clean eighteen for the vividness of near death experiences i can taste the fear like it’s happening nineteen for when her eyes glaze over on ceramic states of mind like the homegirl ashley’s twenty for the lies i told to escape the devil’s cave and the men who saw her spirit in its packaging twenty one for the cycles round the sun that have passed since i made my first tracks on this galaxy twenty two too heavy handed fools in my head always tryna rap battle me i could be the new god odysseus except i’m such a hypocrite now isn’t that a goddamn tragedy twenty three for days sleepless twenty fours twenty five couldn’t tell you what the hell i’m counting for but i’m not gonna quit cause i’m scared to stop trying twenty six twenty seven twenty eight twenty nine and thirty thirty one thirty thirty three thirty eight fourty five fifty one fifty counting blessings while i’m hiding in the storms getting tired but i’m running out of doors but i’m running out of doors counting blessings while i’m hiding in the storms getting tired but i’m running out of doors but i’m running out of doors doors counting blessings while i’m hiding in the storms getting tired but i’m running out of doors but i’m running out of ...