THINK LESS.
This is a track I've been sitting on for a while now. The beat was originally going to be for Soul Sample Side B aka "What album?", aka the Phantom Album That Walks, aka the album that never was.
So Side B got left on the back burner, at least for now. I was still pretty attached to Actor and Luni's swingtastic soul jam however, and I had already recruited the incredibly gifted Bravo Child to grace it with a spoken word, so there was really no way I was going to let this track fade into the limbo of non-release, and so resurrected it.
The verse is, as it goes, based on a dream I had about telepathy. I woke up thinking about it, and I concluded that reading peoples minds seems cool, but would actually be crazy annoying if you consider the mount of pointless fluff that goes through our heads.
I branch out a bit from there to talk about social media, and how just because everyone now has the capacity to get speak out to the world via the internet, doesn't necessarily mean they have something worth hearing. In a nutshell, fuck twitter and the world's self indulgent mental bullshit cascade. I struggle enough putting up with what people say, let alone the things they deemed too stupid to vocalise. Bitter? Do I sound bitter?
lyrics
NICK:
I had a dream about telepathy/ But then I noticed that's like twitter- I don't care whats on your mind stop telling me!/ lame musings the universe isn't meant to see/ followed by hundreds but really just one lonely celebrity/ a superstar without talents/so I shouted down the rabbit hole and found madness/ outstatused by noobs without status that think their sound matters and so they twitter their bowels habits/ stop going there- thats an overshare/ yeah, and you can sorta pretend, you say you wanna be different just like all of your friends/but see thats just conforming again/ and you'll caught in the end, if you brain aint good enough/ if things going over your head you need to look up/ check the index in depth and in secs you'll hve the world wound around your index/ fingers up for burocrats that just listen to facts and so they think less/ rappers just listen to rap its like incest/ smoke bomb-big breath/ I can't deal with this stress- truth is
"I was too afraid"
BRAVO:
And so I looked at this form, and I paused. Over the occupation section I coudn't answer what it was I did. What was I doing?
I'm thinkless knowful, sunk, but hopeful and whistling/ rankless in this age-based system/ you can be the captain of wishful thinking, but your ship will still sink when the bolts go rusty and screws come undone.You can be someone. I'll be no one. Just a young guns with a a day hanging out his back pocket like a flag. I'm a citizen of whatever minute I'm living in. The rest is locked in a body bag.
And looking back up the page, my name. Could I really say that that was who I was anymore?
But at least I never said "I was too afraid"
credits
from Nostalgia Just Ain't What It Used To Be,
released August 27, 2013
Vocals by Nick Knowledge
Spoken Word by Bravo Child
Production by Actor 1, Soup
Additional keys by Max W
Cuts and scratches by DJ Dlect
Prolific Mexico City rapper SPEAK ponders the self-isolated age on a booming EP, recorded live in his kitchen during quarantine. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 24, 2020
