Life gave you everything attached to a string
Life gave me everything attached to a string
Life gave us energy to stand up and sing
My inner chasm’s just a spasm of the forces I bring

(Shakir)
I see him there, but I don’t wanna say yo
I just wanna go, his first name I don’t wanna know
He looks at me, I stare
I don’t say hello
You ain’t my bro and what I’m thinking, you don’t wanna know
I’ve changed
So much you can’t see the story in my eyes
Life may have crawled from the ocean but I promise you consciousness flies
Erase me so that my life is just one of your lies
Erase your memory and watch as eternity dies
I couldn’t help it. I put up a screen
Between being their dean and their machine
It was so obscene, routine
But for them it was so serene
White lies construct the psyche so that innocence loses its sheen
The distance came but no one thought it was shit
You couldn’t understand the hit you fit to make it legit
But I submit when I spit, I was the same to commit
I didn’t know how to make friends so I guess I just quit
No excuses it was tough, but I still had my boys
No matter how close they got to me they were always like toys
I could put them away in my heart whenever I needed
Whenever maximum commitment in my head was exceeded
Now that’s true, but still false, I was more so involved
Than I like to think, but I don’t think the problem is solved
It’s just evolved
Into something that I cannot control
I’m outta jail but I still got another year parole

Life gave you everything attached to a string
Life gave me everything attached to a string
Life gave us energy to stand up and sing
My inner chasm’s just a spasm of the forces I bring

(Braden)
I'm spitting blasphemies and treasons sinning like premarital heathens is
A regal kid straight out the rural bubble I'm in an urban jungle
Tryna juggle life and love and family but a lack of stacks
Has got a homie famished like potato droughts in Dublin is
So no I'm true to all the passions I envisioned
Back when both my folks would show no love in houses we were living in
So there I looked to find some kind of time to try and realize the prize of mine would lie in rhymes and beats that I could kick it with
Now I live it scares of failure got me motivated
It's so vivid every time I make a mistake
How staying locked up in my head has got me raising the stakes
Until the thoughts of all this falling my resolve wanna break and its like
All this lateral movement inside my psyche got me compulsively proving to myself just what this might be:
A fluke? Hard work? Or something I deserved?
All this second guessing is making my mind hurt
But it's worth it
I repeat to get to sleep at night
And though I got few options left I think that I can rhyme alright
So imma keep believing that one day I can achieve it, and I'll stay on my feet if these anxieties don't kill me first
Or worse one day you might awake and find that time caught up to you
And somewhere through the years all of your dreams just weren't as resolute
So got it gotta hold it gotta keep on keeping on
Cause you'll never see it coming when it's suddenly gone

Life gave you everything attached to a string
Life gave me everything attached to a string
Life gave us energy to stand up and sing
My inner chasm’s just a spasm of the forces I bring