01.

Existence

I sit in office for my 9 to 5

Abashed by the image in the mirror with a suit and tie

Seeking escapism, I scribble a rhyme

Ain’t no percussion so I write to the clock’s chime

The phone rings and I snap out of the high

Stare at the receiver for an instant then I sigh

I hear my heart pounding and my inner voice cry

But attend to the business of the day with a smile

“Hello” in the voice of shattered dreams

Listen to instruction as I’m muffling my screams

Life’s been quite humbling it seems

How do I apply my poetry within this corporatese?

The aspiration was to live on the loose

So the Four In Hand knot does feel like a noose

I drop the receiver and check the time

It was a long call but just a minute past nine

So I go out for a cup of tea

I could kill an hour from the pouring to the last sip

Thought I’d get used to the monotony

 But each day takes a piece away from my anatomy

I drop a teabag in the classic mug

Six sugars, hope the diabetes gonna take me out

Spread a little jam over a weak slice of bread

Though candidly, not the type of bread I wish I had

The perils of white-collar occupations

Slave away our days in the cages of corporations

My only form of entertainment

Is breaking down my life into profit-and-loss statements

And the math is astounding

With every calculation, I can feel my head balding

That’s how it feels to grow old

Before you take your first sip, the tea has gone cold

And now it’s back to crunching digits

Account for every value with these complex analytics

Compile the first report and then get onto the next

But not before I kill another hour for recess

Basking on the porcelain god

Sometimes the best harbor for the mind is the commode

Wish I could spend an hour or two

Should I kill them with the number 1 or the 2?

 But I’m constipated, I can’t digest my thoughts

I’ve been introspecting if I ever got a shot

To follow my wild dreams and castles in the air

Just about to risk it all if it could take me outta here

Always wanted to go high without a corporate ladder

To get out the gutter, I’d to throw my dreams in the gutter

Speculating in my youth

I never thought my greatest pleasure would be dropping a deuce

Allow me to introduce Existence

 02. Fly

Verse 1:

She said, “You wanna fly, don’t you?

I see your wings and I always wonder why don’t you?

Try to navigate this world from an aerial view

Instead of walking among men and feel what they feel

Is it humility or ignorance, grace or folly?

I don’t think I’d ever walk if I had pinions on me

Your opinion of me is that I’m worldly-minded

But it’s only when I see you that I’m well-reminded

Of my materialism, and all the world has to offer

And I fantasize that the universe were in my coffer

Or yours, ‘cause in you I see something special

So it hurts me to witness unrealized potential

You got wings but you never use ‘em

See, if I were in your shoes, I would never use ‘em

I would traverse the skies until the jet lag kills me

And rest on the clouds with the celestial music”

Hook:
 We fly, don’t we?

Or maybe we get high, don’t we?

When you look up to the sky this morning

Just know you can fly on it

Verse 2:

She said, “You wanna cry, don’t you?

I see your teary eyes and I wonder why don’t you

Let go of your pain and release that hurt?

I see your conscience surcharged by the emotional weight

That seems like a rough sledding, pain is impermanent

But once you harbor her, she becomes your temperament

Your pride tells you to never cry for help

Well then, I’ll help you cry if you can’t help yourself

Hurt is part and parcel of the human condition

So if you scream, there’s always an angel ready to listen

A friend told me the tears that we keep in our head

Become the water that will irrigate the seeds of our pain

You see, infliction is an infection

You nip it in the bud before you corrupt a nation

Even the clouds cry sometimes so why don’t

You come for my embrace? You’ve got a shoulder to cry on”

Hook:

We cry, don’t we?

Or maybe we get high, don’t we?

When you look up to the sky this morning

Just know you can fly on it

We just cry, don’t we?

Or maybe we get high, don’t we?

When you look up to the sky this morning

Just know you can fly on it

Verse 3:

She said, “You wanna try, don’t you?

I feel your itch and sometimes I wonder why don’t you

Scratch beyond the surface and reach for the stars?

Or better yet, go for the sun and galaxies beyond

Sometimes all it takes is a huge leap of faith

But we stifle our souls with incertitude in our heads

I understand your diffidence and cold feet

But the world’s cold too so you produce your own heat
 We question ourselves, will we sink or sail?

But the fight’s already lost if we think we’ll fail

So hop on board before the ship has sailed

And if the obstacles come, we gon still prevail

I’ve seen light emerge from a shot in the dark

I’ve seen two of each get a slot in the ark

Life’s taught me that missing a chance is not affordable

So it ain’t laughable to attempt the impossible

Hook:

We try, don’t we?

Or maybe we get high, don’t we?

When you look up to the sky this morning

Just know you can fly on it

We just try, don’t we?

Or maybe we get high, don’t we?

When you look up to the sky this morning

Just know you can fly on it

 03. Kites

Intro: London Boy

(Mpfanha Tawanda)

Takashinga, mdara. Takashinga, mdara. Takashinga, mdara

Check sta- check stanzi, mdara.

Unoto- unobiwa. Unotorerwa, unobiwa.

Check stanzi

Verse 1:

All of my brothers take happy pills

We ain’t had no McDonald’s, I guess that was our Happy Meal

Potent psychedelics transmute them into loony tunes

Mescaline, ecstasy, psilocybin and loony toons

We going higher than kites tonight

It’s all euphoric once the hemp hits the back of my mind

Lucy in the sky resects our problems

All we ever want’s to reset our conscience

TrapSu on loudspeakers, while the vapor’s in the exosphere

The weed is loud from all the angles here

Heaven knows we could use the perceptual changes

 Coz real life never really treated us fairly

Our dads drank like whales and our mothers were psycho

We’re just an oscillation in this archaic cycle

So these remedy our reality and depression

Analyze the cause, don’t judge us for our reaction

Verse 2:

Most of my brothers never hit 25

By the time they hit 20, they’re playing Dead or Alive

With the gukamakafela, inhaling the social taboo

But nothing really matters once I’m high off the shabu

Can’t afford to rave but familiar with the club drugs

Just a little moly kicks me from the humdrum

Moving goofy off the roofy

We’re going vertiginous till my senses all lose me

Twelve years of age, I was fighting anhedonia

Till the herbs hit me and took me to Catatonia

For the slough of despond, I need a new level

Either that or I’ll be stuck with these blue devils

I found God in the blue heaven

Lord, forgive me for my sins, even if takes two reverends

 To pray for me, my reality and depression

Analyze the cause, don’t judge me for my reaction

Verse 3:

This morning, I had Abyssinian tea

And an avocado sandwich for that Vitamin E

What’s in store for the day outside the daily tedium?

It’s one of two options: that or the delirium

Substance abuse for my brothers on the street

Who ain’t ever had to know another form of retreat

We seek retribution for how society wronged us

Take BronCleer for everything but the cough bout

Empty fridges could not gratify our munchies

Whatever that came from the pipe, that’s what lunch is

Never got a single course through the course of the day

Skip class, I won’t take a single course for today

So we write in high spirits for creative sparks

Take notes from the different worlds that we embark

What could halt a ghetto yut if Soul Jah Love did it?

A wise man sat me down and asked me, “What killed him?”
 04. Temple

Verse:

‘96, I was born; ‘99 I was baptized

2006, I was already getting chastised

Sunday School lectured on sacramental manduction

The body of Christ and how each organ would function

Introduced early to the concept of Hell

The consequence of every little test I would fail

Taught that the creeds of the Lord were so important

That it was blasphemous to question his omnipotence

By 2010, I had completed every chapter

Two times over, but I’d more questions than answers

On divinity, and infinity

And why the Trinity shied from visibility

I understood faith, I just asked for the signs

From the priests and the deacons who broke it down to a science

And told me that faith was a complicated topic

That only got worsened by application of logic

By 2020, I’d graduated from college

Twenty-four years of life gathering knowledge

 That all contradicted the idea of faith

Hard to wrap my head around everything I had learned

From the two institutions that reigned over my compass

One answered questions, the other questioned the answers

Is it God? Is it science?

Is it both? Where do I draw the line?

So I prayed to the Lord, I said open my eyes

I guess my prayer got answered, I started noticing lies

Mistruths and inaccuracies within the whole text

And my preacher dad said I was missing the context

But it seemed neither he could explain

The erroneous details in any plausible terms

He told me my that my heart had become darker than bitumen

And questioning God had made me the devil’s instrument

Apparently, I was supposed to follow blindly

So why did God open my eyes? I kept asking

At least there was comfort in the ignorance I had

And this new understanding only made me lose my head

And my friends, and a lover, and family who cautioned me

Against uncertainty and expressing my honesty

Which is ironic that they see me as an enemy

I’m positive Christ would have probably befriended me

Was I brainwashed or did I know the wiser?

Would I really worship the god of my colonizer?

A god whose sacred writings endorsed slavery

A god who scorns questions and penalizes bravery

A god that would get a 13-year old pregnant

A god who would drown a billion to send a message

Seemed so distant from everything that I stood for

Like even if the god were real, what is he good for?

By 2021, I was pretty certain

That God is a construct and a political weapon

I said to my pastor, “I know it’s what the Bible told

But no way the world is six thousand years old”

I stated a thousand other falsehoods in the writings

I showed him that it’s sexist, racist and divisive

He smiled at me and told me, “Look at the world

You honestly don’t believe that a miracle prevailed?”

I told him that I believed in miracles and God

And I’m wowed by everything; the physical and not

I don’t shun the idea of intelligent design

I just don’t define the universe as divine

 I don’t buy an invisible man who lives above

But I believe in God, and I believe God is love

Heaven and Hell exist but it’s mental

And I agree with Paul that the body is the temple

Outro:

Lorem ipsum
 05. LGBTW

Intro: Simon Kaggwa Njala

Why are you gay?

Verse 1:

Why do I feel this way?

Only the skeletons in my closet know that I’m gay

I detest all of them for the feelings that they display

Locked them up till they straighten up, maybe they will someday

Science is on my side but society is in denial

And for society to catch up with science, it will take a while

That will be the day, the moon will be a blue one

They call me a pussy coz I’m not attracted to one

(You are gay)

God doesn’t like me so I’m hated by the preacher

In the eyes of the church, I’m an infernal creature

The law doesn’t like me, a victim of legislature

Ask me to subvert the expectations of my nature

Seen some of mine perish when they get in this position

Judged and segregated for my predisposition

 Whole family thinks I’m a curse

I could have been the devil himself and it wouldn’t be worse

Bridge: Simon Kaggwa Njala

You are a transgender

Verse 2:

Why did I take this chance?

Only the people back where I came from know that I’m trans

Should I go back home, they’d dispatch me at first glance

And incriminate I’m trynna make daughters outta their sons

I’ve seen hatred disguised as education and science

Patriarchy disown me in the name of women’s rights

Cast aspersions at me, I’ve had every slur thrown down

Supreme Court debates on the consequence of my pronoun

The lavatories I gotta enter, the clothes I wear

The line of work that I gotta take up, the games I play

Are you really a woman minus the drag and the makeup?

Is it a lifestyle choice or the genetic makeup?

Coz you and real women will never have shit in common

Regardless of the penectomy or what they do with your hormone

 What you are is a screwball; brainsick and demented

There ain’t nothing you’re good for; you’re rapist and perverted

Bridge: Simon Kaggwa Njala

Should I call you mister?

Verse 3:

Why am I in this world?

Born a woman in systems designed for me to fail

Paid less than my equals, way less opportunities

Wayless, I got nowhere to go without all the scrutiny

Either my skirt is too short or maybe it’s the temper

Maybe I should carry myself like the other gender

Catcalled and abused but I shouldn’t remark

If I do, then it’s probably my time of the month

I’ll never win; I’m the enemy masculinity designed

With no seat at the table until every man resigns

Your equivalence for sure does have a twisted sense of humor

Hoping for the day you won’t separate a woman from a human
 Outro: Simon Kaggwa Njala

Do you perform the natural obligations?

 06. Malcom

Verse 1:

Who am I in the grand scheme of things?

Immaterial, so I find joy in the simple things

My little niece just walked her first steps

And soon, she’ll be rapping along to my first tapes

Back when I was rhyming for renown and the ladies

Before I knew my words would be a guidebook for the ages

Before I understood the divine power of literature

And little baby caskets were the most common furniture

Till my mama sat me down and decided to demonstrate

How to squish out these lemons and make lemonade

Lessons I learned from the citrus trade

How the bitter could be sweet depending on what you add

Started jotting chronicles of life in the tenderloins

Before I even understood what a metaphor is

I found comfort in poetry

In math class, I wrote lines but it wasn’t geometry

Who are you in the grand scheme of things?

I’m a scrivener who opted to put words into being

 God blessed me, to the beat of my heart I wrote

Till the lines became awing even my heart would stop

When a fan revealed to me there was something in these lyrics

That spoke to his soul and could uplift his spirit

I perceived my purpose and the role that I would play

In impacting the cosmos in a more beautiful way

The wise told me music is a universal language

So even other worlds will connect with every passage

And when I compose, I am guided by the mindset

That galaxies away, they should apprehend the subject

So this my message to the worlds far beyond

I hope within these notes, we find a way to correspond

Though I’m a million light years away

After a million years, we finally found a way

To you

Hook: Alisea Simmons

How am I supposed to love you when I don’t love who I am?

And how can I give you all of me when I'm only half a man?

‘cause I'm a sinking ship that's burning so let go of my hand

Oh, how can I give you all of me when I'm only half a man?
 Verse 2:

I used to think in decades now I’m thinking in days

Came to cherish and appreciate the beautiful years

Coz a decade from now, will I even be here?

God knows what’s ahead, I could be dead in a year

Learnt to be grateful for every little moment I spend

On this marble, ‘cause anytime this tenure may end

If I don’t find any closure from the justice of time

I hope my legend will continue in these pages of rhyme

Thus, I’m not apprehensive of the hereafter

And trust you can hear the joy in my sincere laughter

There’s a tearjerker every eye can read in my scars

But my ultimate account will be written in the stars

So every time you look up to the starlit night

May you ignore the dark spaces and focus on the light?

And sometimes it might feel like the stars are not aligning

But the weather taught me every cloud’s got a silver lining

Who are we in the grand scheme of things?

I found my calling in papyrus and linseed

Without paper, I’d prolly trade my pen for a gun

 So them trees gave me life in more ways than one

Thank God I found contentment in communication

And entertainment in these words and their formulation

To be a poet is a calling and a blessing

So I’m kinda humbled by them calling me a blessing

To this art form, and what I mean to the culture

My word’s written in stone and these words are sculptured

Thank heavens for Hip-Hop and letting me know her

It’s my prayer that time will remember these poems

This my missive to the nerd listening from the future

Tethered to the past through the music on your computer

Though you could be a million years away

After a million years, I’m glad this finally found a way

To you

Hook: Alisea Simmons

How am I supposed to love you when I don’t love who I am?

And how can I give you all of me when I'm only half a man?

‘cause I'm a sinking ship that's burning so let go of my hand

Oh, how can I give you all of me when I'm only half a man?
 07. Pressure

Verse 1:

Twenty-six years of age and you ain’t never known a woman

Are you one of them nances now? You confirm the rumors

Are you scared of the ladies? What happens when you get horny?

Scared of The Lord? Coz even in the Bible, they was boning

Is it the feelings that you lack or the confidence itself?

The chicks will never bed you if you don’t believe in self

Or maybe you’re one of them romantics who’s waiting for the one?

You think she’s out there holding back and resisting getting some?

You’re delusional, these girls need alphas like me

My body count would make you think my life is World War 3

You’s a coward! How long do you intend to stay virgin?

I lost mine at sixteen and since then, I’ve been taking

It’s real niggas like me who’ll be sleeping with your women

By the time she’ll settle for you, I’d have swallowed all her hymen

You ever sucked on a titty or just seen it in pictures?

Nigga, my dick so big all the ladies call it Richard

Verse 2:
 Twenty-six years of age and you still live with your mama

Don’t shit embarrass you? What’s that bring besides drama?

Think you’ll slowly build courage? Dummy, those days are gone

Ain’t no shit getting done till you exit your comfort zone

By the age of eighteen, I was in the concrete jungle

Soon I was earning more than my father just from the hustle

I was more mature then than you are right now

Man, your mama should be proud of who you are right now

See, I was paying bills before I could legally drink

That’s what happens if you learn to individually think

I’m an entrepreneur, I’m a big-time hustler

Screw college, these text books don’t really got the answers

Your parents failed you because they didn’t get rich

And it hurts me that you’re about to do the very same shit

Until you move out, you’ll never get the bigger picture

Nigga, I’m so rich all them Gs call me Richard

Verse 3:

Twenty-six years of age and you ain’t got a man yet?

When are you getting married? Do you even got a plan yet?

Your clock is ticking, when are the cows coming home?

 Coz now you got everybody wondering what’s wrong?

As a woman, you should have your second child by now

I know a lady your age with three kids right now

Your uncle married me when I was seventeen, fresh

And for the dowry, he paid twenty grand cash

I’m confident that you are not one of them single girls

So when is the wedding? Who’s ringing the jingle bells?

I got some big ideas, please tell me the venue

Who’s doing the catering? Please send me the menu

When will you introduce me to the man who stole your heart?

Seeing as pretty as you are, I’m sure he’s a work of art

Hope it’s not that other boy, you should go for someone richer

Not Tom, not Dick, not Harry, maybe Richard

Pressure

Outro: Nigel Tha Slick Pastor

Haa, yato pressure ka iyi

 08. Rufu

Ndatipper boys rangu, ndakumbodzokera pacamp

Ndichakubatai palater muchicorner kunge stamp

Time iri kufamba but life yakamira

Musati life is beautiful coz pakatiipira

Tirimo muchiround, ingori hula hoop

What can we do while this happens? Life yacho iloop

I never got an education, we were damn poor

The only zama randaiziva ndiTakesure

So ndiregerere in advance, wangu

Handina kumbodzidza zvelevel riri advanced, wangu

Vaindifadza vakafa, takanorova dombo

Nowadays panondifadza ndepandorova dombo

Iyo life yacho idombo, kumberi nekumativi

Ndakangotsiga kuti isadonhe, kuitange Kummakivi

Even in 2008, I never touched the millions

Mazino acho ayellow kunge ndotsenga ma minions

Ndakutsvaga budiriro ndibude muBudiriro

Beers racho harisi kukwana, ndikushaya mudiriro

Life ne vision zviri parallel, zvikuramba kubatana

 Hameno the direction but hazvina kunangana

Ndine maplans akawanda but architect hapana

Mafans akawanda but mafunds acho hapana

Trynna chase big things but zvinonditsoma zvihombe

Clouds got silver linings, zvichanaka nerimwe gore

But for now, tombodealer nenhamo kunge Doves

Dai pasina macards, ndaisamboziva maclubs

Apa bhebhi randiri kuda rikuremera mastreets

Ini ndichishedzera kuti mastreets akurema

Ndosaver sei? Change ndichipihwa sweet, havana change money

Ndikada kusaver maUSA, havadi machange money

Tichimhanyisana ne rate kunge kiti

Chinhu one chiri kukwiririrana nerate racho iBP

Ndikutraya kuchimhanya kusvika ndapinda mucoffin

Ndichingovabaya-baya kunge vaccine reCovid

Though vaccine yacho vari kuzeza kubaya

Tikufamba murima, ko iyo ZESA kubaya?

Submit bhama ku radio, uchigaya uchaita number 1

Check the charts, DJ haana kutomboplayer nhamba one

Kuchurch varikuti namata, spirit yako haisi mulevel

Ndikuedza kunanganisa but handina spirit level

 Nhamo yangu ine ginger, iri kurova tsangamidzi

N’anga dzacho hadzina plan, vari kungoti tsenga midzi

Vedzinza vanondiramba, hama yangu kambucha

Ndoshandira munyama kunge boys remubutcher

Ndangomirira rufu