(Braden)
Once we had solidarity in numbers
when everyday was encumbered by options and oftentimes
we're plundering pockets for bills and coins and nothing and buttons to push
girls averted looks while we were lookin for lines to cross
but we shoulda known better together whether we're alone or tethered competitors never could tear us apart
I'm your debtor from the heart but not a member from the start
(BUT Y'ALL KNEW THAT)
When over time we'd bear in mind and see the breaks in ties unbinding
and you wonder where we're standing when we're there no longer finding
all the strength in our crew
but once alone we still felt feeble
though we spent our sunny days tracing the tracks amongst the needles

Diseased as me that we'd see beneath the bridge
but what you mean we're causin trouble? we're just a couple of kids
- a couple of friends - tryna make the world make sense
(SO GIVE IT A REST) Cause you know
that it's easier to dream when you're chilling with your team
in a sun-baked garage that reeks of burnt weed down on Water Street
Or at least that's how it seemed when you forced me in boxes
and I'm insistently dismissed and labelled socially toxic
We get evaluated, regulated, medicated daily
made some predicated pill-poppers you wanted us crazy
you wanted us numbered you needed us standing in line
to better quantify our lives
and all we wanted to be was just as cute as buttons

We’re all as cute as buttons

(Galactic Brown)
Remember – the worst thing about life was eating leftovers
Went to bed at 8 unless I slept over
At Julian, Jeff, or Rachel’s house
and candy was like cocaine in trace amounts
So when they took me to restaurants they’d take me out
But no room could hold me I was breaking out
So I was late to class and always early to recess
In second grade no need to study for test cause
I ain’t care about makin’ green
I used to sniff all the markers now I’m smoking weed
But get older and things start changing
See this grass is green
But this grass is pavement

Remember eating PBJ’s with the babysitter
Viewing cartoons and Family Matters
But didn’t realize how much family mattered
Til I climbed higher up on life’s ladder
Now I’m looking down
Feelin’ crooked now
Got me shookin’ how
I’m cooking ground beef
Just like my mom - and hers too -
Got me wonderin’ what the hell
I’m gonna do
Cause as a kid the world was ahead of me
Never listened to the words that they said to me
but could it be? They really knew something?
But who’s to say?

We’re all as cute as buttons

(Shakir)
Nobody told me that I wasn’t a kid anymore
And no one told me bout the sly trap door to adulthood
Now I’m always looking back
Been counting days so long that I’m loosing track
A kid looking to the future but it came too fast
now I’m cynical as ever livin’ in the past
Contrast
Feeling so innocent, the worlds a blast
Death to the young me, put your flags half-mast
At last I’m here
Now the show commences
My whole damn childhood was building fences
signed the contract of life under false pretenses
I wanna please myself not just please my senses
Thought I’d grow up, and that would just make me free
Live by myself by the man’s got his eyes on me
Make it seem like with age that you gain control
I think I lent too far down the rabbit hole
and fell right in, so let the games begin
I wanna play but I know that no one can win
Try to keep a straight face, now look at this place
The earth just floats here in time and space
and I didn’t understand it when I was a kid
now I’ve grown up and realize that nobody did
or nobody does
we all had to miss it because
the second that you take a look at it it’s not what it was
The child in us never makes a choice to leave
we let desires run wild and they turn to thieves
Nobody gets to pick the cards he or she receives
so there’s never full control in what we believe
We can’t see every single thing interweave
or prove that there’s truth in what we perceive
Or groove with the youth that you have to leave
A new mind isn’t that hard to deceive
but with an adult mind and a new understanding
I’ll move through this life, and keep on expanding
Always appreciate the fact that you grew
The child may be gone but they turned into you