We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

iMaintain & LIVE at Joker's Pub

by ISWHAT?!

/
1.
iMaintain (Chorus) I maintain, that the main thing Is to get the meaning of the first thing 4x Better get your understandin’ (Verse 1) If you got info but not truth It’s like a big plate with no food And it’s hard to concentrate on the truth When you only meditate with them fools You can spend all day with Glenn Gould And be clueless of the skills that he used You can hear the magic of the Duke And never really get the groove (Chorus) (Verse) Some try to rock with no blues Best give it up no use From the fruit came the juice Like evidence came from the proof Some find shelter with no roof Like I get free but I’m not loose And what’s the use of going through pain If there ain’t meaning, no point to the thing So …. (Chorus)
2.
Twice the First Mind There was never no bad time For us to have one mind But we better do this time Cause our ass is on the line All we passed along the way Lonely nights and crowded days comfort taken joy in knowing confidence is never broken we with pride remain this way when they claim to own our time the skin you’re in your state of mind know that, I am yours and you are mine There is nothing more Divine, No option to divide I’m grateful that you’re alive and stayed by my side There was never no bad time For us to have one mind But we better do this time Cause our ass is on the line
3.
Torture 03:14
Torture It’s torturous the way we skip around the rhythm Make war with us if you trippin like we kidding It's more of us than you peeping with your vision Deny it or believe it We connected, no defeating Silently win Violently grin sock it to ya soul through your tissue and skin yeh maybe you the one thats housing us but show me how you eaten without us freaking out the circus like a cat that found out you a square in here, and this our roundhouse might look strange like the freak show announced But we got no shame and we ain't gone kowtow Permanent powwow never leaving the meeting Connected at root so the leaves fleek and skin so tuff it’s joining stuff scaring you to death cause you don’t dig it enough literate legitimately joined by ligaments but the strangest thing remains your ignorance can’t put it in the pass tense it has no absence it’s right here with us oozing like an abscess It’s torturous the way we skip around the rhythm Make war with us if you trippin like we kidding It's more of us than you peeping with your vision Deny it or believe it We connected, no defeating My offspring fly Cause they talking about us Double elevation Building stories around us may be hoping that they joking like a token surrender but they twist it all together Put ya soul in a blender like “they did dat ?? how they live like that ??” see the hate so real and make love combat doing that torture tango psycho logical checking all the baggage and reaching beyond it If they can defy convention then i can too look at me, look at you look at all of us ancestors got our back if we just wake us up wake em up they still swinging the blue remains in everything they singing a million variations on Afroblue vibrating plantations liberated and true either you loving the connection or it’s torturing you It’s torturous the way we skip around the rhythm Make war with us if you trippin like we kidding It's more of us than you peeping with your vision Deny it or believe it We connected, no defeating
4.
Dig You gotta dig in the mud Find the rock with the gleam on it Get understanding and learn not to lean on it You gotta hunt it, yearn like the fiend want it Nati boys on the block they still on it It's called salvation for a reason fools Cause it saves the savage and we need it fools Get out the box in book Retrieve your tools I'm just saving breath for the choking people Put to death by the dripping needle That can't see we the chosen people But all of us them chosen people do what you gotta to to get what you need to get do what you gotta to do to get what you need to get do what you gotta to to get what you need to get do what you gotta to do to get what you need to get ya dig You gotsta dig through the dirt and find the batch with the scratch in it et underneath and learn how to scrap wit it You got grab it Make the good life a habit Reproduce your dough Like a bunch of wild rabbits and put your credit down if your crew ain't down Can't make your plate great with a bunch of wild clowns Lions get loose they make the ring right All free by noon eating good tonight All free by noon eating good tonight do what you gotta to to get what you need to get do what you gotta to do to get what you need to get do what you gotta to to get what you need to get do what you gotta to do to get what you need to get ya dig
5.
I want the homestead I need the homestead I want the home instead these streets is dead from the trailer parks to the projects from the settlements to the boat decks this is real poems for the stressed homes and the latch keyed, everybody gone from the, from the trailer parks to the projects from the settlements to the boat decks this is real poems for the stressed homes and the latch keyed, everybody gone there was a quiet place waitin for the weary soul for the early born and the nearly old clear and shelter from the gun clap and head tricks from back break and the mean stick we bought the noise in through fussy box we let the glamour sin, the glass crib throwing rocks quiet rushed away as we rush away bringing stale baggage in from a past day and now the homes look like the streets dis funk shun we climb from underneath from the trailer parks to the projects from the settlments to apartments these is fresh poems for the wrecked homes and the latch keyed, everybody gone did you find it on the block searchin a dirty ride escaping harsh judgement that won't crush your pride or was it on the court bounce'n the rock to score once in doors you rejected no more needing brothers cause my sisters is nice but the need to belong is crippling vice and the more you get away from yourself the less you getting out of yourself so you can try to work it out on your own but half the home less will send you home from the trailer parks to the projects to the park benches where they get respect these is lines for wise ones that make the running understand from where they come the pilgram and ronin is same on a Haj trying to move with the change walking steady being washed by the rain smiling ahead understand the theme was the meaning only real in the dream or is life the nightmare that it seems and they tell it from difficult place its theirs etched deep in the face when you get the understanding that they givin to you you make the home they had once again brand new

credits

released May 26, 2020

cover art by Reggie Faulkner

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

ISWHAT?! Cincinnati, Ohio

ISWHAT?! is a long standing, eternal cypher of hiphop, headed by Napoleon Maddox. Since 1996, ISWHAT?!, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, is comprised of a international family of like-minded musicians and artists. This global musical concept allows ISWHAT?! to perform in many different configurations. Recently ISWHAT?! is touring the world with "Twice the First Time, Stories of Millie-Christine McKoy". ... more

contact / help

Contact ISWHAT?!

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like ISWHAT?!, you may also like: