Behind The Lyrics: Cities & Rivers
With the upcoming release to “Cities & Rivers”, I wanted
to take the opportunity to go through each track and give a brief rundown of
each song. This particular project consist of 16 tracks selected from a catalog
of about 30 songs that I have recorded since 2005.
THE TITLE
Cities & Rivers
For those who have read “Sidhartha” by Herman Hesse, there
is significance in the experiences that Siddhartha has when he embraces city
life and culture and when he eventually reaching the river. Without giving away
the story to this classic book, cities, as it relates to this project, quite
simply represents the life’s fast pace, temptations, dangers, rawness,
contradictions, etc., while the river represents finding a sense calm and natural
direction amidst the chaos.
1. Fear Doubt Hate
“Heart, they say we need it, I believe it,
If we ain’t seeing we need it, then
it leaves us in the dark
Pause, they make it easy to defer a
dream
Look and observe and see the have
not’s”
This song attempts to address the inner
demons of fear, doubt, and hate that many of us internalize as individuals as
well as within many communities. It is a reminder that these very emotions only
work in the favor of those that oppress and privilege from oppression.
2. Purpose in Mind
Oh yes everyday push
Another day here gotta
show em what’s good
Everyday shine in any way
find
The energy you give with
a purpose in mind
The
bassline and tamborines on this song, honestly, made me want to go for a jog.
While I chose not to write a song about jogging, I instead wrote song about
finding confidence within yourself to find purpose in your life and to remind
yourself to give you energy to something that is meaningful everyday. I try to
view everyday as a blank slate in which I have the opportunity to do something
amazing and of great substance. I hope that sentiment shines through whoever
hears this song.
- Just a Man
“Abusive by design while I’m trying to find the line
Between my 1st world privilege and past colonized
The complexity that I grapple on
the daily
The attitude of pay me verses
freedom must arrive”
Just a Man attempts to capture the
struggle of having to pay bills and support a family while trying to address
systematic oppression. The title simply acknowledges that I am flawed in my
pursuit of freedom, while, at the same time, seeing the need to comply and
participate in a system as an obedient worker. This song attempts to paint a
honest picture of what it is like to feel the responsibility to pursue freedom but
also acknowledging actions that involve pursuing freedom could very well come
at the expense of a person’s ability to feed themselves their family.
- Image
“They
say be a rapper, a rapper people like
An
image to consume that’s appealin to the eyes
A tough
guy, arrogant, cold heart, masculine
Gun
talk rapping gotta grab em with a lie”
As a
whole, Image attempts to describe the images and lifestyles that the media
promotes in a way that, in turn, invalidates lives others. It touches upon the
negative effects of the media on people’s psyche and behavior as they attempt
to emulate the images that they are constantly exposed to. The first verse is
solely a critique of the current rap music industry in which they attempt
dehumanize, caricaturize, and limit the narrative of what a rapper should be or
write about. I think this even extends to some underground labels even ones
that claim to be different from mainstream music but use the very same dehumanizing
model of mainstream labels for marketing. I’m obviously not one for marketing a
certain caricature or image. I simply want to write honest good music that reflects
a very human experience that people can connect to.
- Water Well
“Now
some hustlas turn cowards when life devours dreams
A
little money and some power make that water well unclean
You
hear poison in their voices and see slither in their schemes
Packaged
in nice plastic and the taste of it is sweet”
Water
in this song represents the positive means in which people attempt to achieve
success. However, within a capitalistic society, we often compromise our morals
to reach success, thus, polluting the water that we all have.
- Four Women
“This
Pinay’s lips is as pouty as they come
And her walk and demeanor
is as heavy as a drum
She curses in Tagalog like
their poison in her lungs
And theres fire in her
eyes that is hotter than the sun”
Four
Women is inspired by Nina Simone’s “For Women”. Like Simone’s originally song,
This song features four women (Pinay) that represent different types of women
or experiences connected to Pinays. The first verse is about a woman who
essentially represent the Philippines. The second verse describes the
experience of a sex worker as it is a global problem. The third verse captures
the experience of a woman having to leave her family in order to find work
overseas. The last verse describes the bitter sentiment of a woman angered by
the oppression that women, especially Pinays, have had to endure and continue
to endure. The woman in the last verse is one that is bent on defeating her
oppressors and less of a victim, thus the name Laban, meaning fight in Tagalog.
- Underdogs
“Peace to Rocky Balboa, Ponyboy Curtis
Young Siddhartha on his journey still searchin
Young Esperanza from Mango street
Barry Horowitz shock
em when Skip got beat”
Underdogs
pay homage to the many of the underdogs from history, pop culture, video games,
literature, etc. The underdog’s story is not unfamiliar to many of us. It is
essentially these narratives that I find inspiration to want to take the necessary
steps and actions to avoid complacent inactivity and simply “getting by”.
- Survival
“More
jobs, more schools, freedom and safety
Guarantee
all folks have freedom from slavery
Regardless
of your race or whatever your shade be
Cause
freedom of speech is not something they gave we”
Plainly
put, we are entitled to the basics needs to live and pursue happiness. Our
needs whether they are met or not are directly to connected to those that abuse
their power and live in gluttonous excess. And yes, the song features a 16 bar
verse and an 8 bar verse from Orion One.
- Bolo Yeung
“Straight
villain killing the competition
Kumite
te turn they back I’m still winning
Chong
Li chant understand I’m making victims
You
are next, got Frank Dux quiverin”
This
song pay tribute to Bloodsport villain and legendary kung fu actor Yang Sze aka
Bolo Yeung. When fear or doubt sometimes takes over, I try to channel my inner
Bolo. Bolo does not hesitate, he just does. Few words and a lot action.
Besides, the bassline had a villainess quality to it.
- Commodity of
Time
“A
lyricist whose heart speaks to four bar beats
Struggle
written on the dashboard and old car seats
Tattoos
of bloody wounds that won’t stop leak
Carry
pain like tragedy oppression tryna bury me”
Commodity
of Time acknowledges time as the only thing we all own and that it is what we
do with our time that we make meaning out of life. It also affirms people’s
ability to remain resilient amidst the adversity and many struggle of life.
- Make Due
“I own
a minivan 95 Mazda
My
ride elevated like I’m in a helicopter
And I
ain’t tryna race, I ain’t into all that drama
Cause
gasoline too high and I ain’t got alotta”
Make
Due was originally supposed to be a light (not-so-serious) song about my 95
Mazda. It was originally intended to act as a counter-narrative to the many
raps songs about having nice rides and such. The 2nd verse, however,
moves away from my 95 Mazda and touches upon my upbringing in which my family
worked hard and made sacrifices in the form of having me wear hand-me-downs and
teaching the valuable lesson of substance over style.
- Receive and
Return
“I’m
swapping liquor for a convo with tea
Whoever on rotation for Ms Ross and
Supremes
A white tee and baggy jeans for
that interview please
Hyper masculine bravado for
creating some peace”
This songs is mainly about growing
old and the necessity of maturing. Becoming a father and getting married has
transformed my life in ways that make my younger self seem like a complete
stranger. It acknowledges the cycle in which I, as a man, father, educator,
emcee, etc. must give love back in the same way that I was given love. It is,
essentially, this cycle that has allowed for cultures and people I general to
continue from one generation to the next.
- A Little Less Heavy
“You can’t gotta live your life
like every second fight
At one point a brother out here
gotta sleep
Gotta recharge and rest ease off ya
step
Take a moment to just meditate and
breath”
A Little Less Heavy is a song
especially for folks that do social justice/community work. It is a kind
reminder for folks to practice self-love and self-care. While we may
romanticize revolutionary leaders of the past as passionate and relentless, we
have to understand they were also people, and like all people, we get tired.
Yes, Malcolm X and Dolores Huerta got tired at times, physically and
emotionally, and when they did, they rested, just enough to feel better so that
they can continue to do the work that needs to be done.
- Struggle Begins
“And the struggle is deep that I’m
fighting inside
While simultaneously trying to
build on the side
And its like I’m livin a lie when
I’m tryin to speak
About revolution when I got nikes
on my feet”
This
song was recorded years ago, back when it was relevant to post music on Myspace.
The message of self-criticism and improvement are backed by a light piano
sample. Like a good number of songs, I try to write something that acts as a
reminder for me to continue improving in various ways in my life. I only hope that this song resonates to folks
in same way that it has with me for many years.
- Out
“Gotta
move with my earth and connects them rays
Gotta
learn how to heal, so concern for the real
The
hands on the clock still turn like a wheel
So ya
man gotta walk til it hurts in the heels”
While Struggle Begins is about self-criticism as a
necessity for creating change in the world, Out seeks to narrate my
relationship with music, people, and finding the positive despite not complying
to popular notions of what it means to be a successful artist. While the verses
lack any particular focus, it form can be likened to how our minds often wander
from one topic to another in deep pre-sleep reflection.
- If Tomorrow
“A
little hopeless like I’ma fall quick
Into a
box where they keep them dreams locked in
Gotta
stay standin’ gotta take chances
Remind
self that this life is a great challenge”
If
Tomorrow narrates with much honesty, he struggle of trying to remain hopeful as
the world ills can often be emotionally and mentally taxing. It acts as a reminder to stay grounded in
past lessons, music, the hunger to learn and improve, and, lastly, the
possibility of achieving and producing greatness in the world. While I may sometimes feel like the work that
I do may not result in the change I intend for it to have, it is the
possibility of creating change that is enough for me to continue despite
sometimes feeling emotionally and morally low.
I truly believe in this particular project. Many
of the songs are personal to me and have been in some ways motivational mantras
grafted into my mind’s memory. I feel
like that at the end of the day, all I want to do is create honest music that
narrates an aspect of life that gets people to think , act, or interact differently
with each other and their environment.
-ARISTYLES
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