Listening - J-Live, Kola Rock

Hello?

Peace, baby, it’s me.

How’s it going?

Oh, peace!

What’s up, baby?

Oh, just chilling.

Just finished doing a show.

Figured I give you a call before

I turned in

Okay, where are you today anyway?

Um, we in Albuquerque right now.

We heading to Texas tomorrow

Oh, yeah, cool.

How’d the show go?

Show was going good, you know?

Place was packed, know what I’m saying?

Merch did good, flow did his thing

So yeah, wha-what time is it over there?

It’s a little late right?

I’m sorry

Oh no, no, I’m up, I’m up.

I was just writing something actually

Oh, okay.

Word

I want you to hear it?

Oh, word?

Alright

You ready?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kick it for me

Alright, listen to this

Alright

I’m listening to Lonnie Liston Smith

Lonnie Liston, Lonnie Smith, and Lonnie Lynn

They sort of share a common sense

And if you spend enough time listening to me

Then this is what you’ll find inside my mind’s contents

It reads like Chronicles 13, the Constitution, the Kama Sutra

Morrison, La Ruda, Buddha, Mansa Musa, Pharoahe Monch, and Pharoah Sanders

It seems I got low tolerance and high standards

It seems I got questions that defy answers

If you were rich while I was starving

Tell me how are we crew?

I’m feeling like a throwaway blue

Like God’s first draft of the sky

He balls it up for something new

And if you got something better

Then I’m listening to you

If you got something better

I’m listening to you

I let the beat ride when I’m listening to you

I’m through

Ahhh, okay

So, you know, that’s basically it.

Just a little something I wrote, you know.

So, what’d you think?

Yo, I’m feeling it.

I liked it a lot actually.

Yo, it reminds me-it goes ill

with something I wrote actually

Oh, really?

Yeah, yeah!

Um, I’ll let you hear that.

Cause we talking about listening

Cool, let me hear it!

Hold on a second, let me find it.

You ready?

Yeah, I’m listening

I been listening to records I collected

Records I selected and inspected

Dissected on examination tables until my technique I perfected

Records that have served and protected

Of confidence and my own perception of the world

Once the wax is reflected

I found my self connected to the music like the lyrics were injected

So now when times are hectic

I close my eyes and listen to the words

Like advice from somebody I respected when I was found ejected

That saying about art and life is just the half

When you realize music is math

Like a true song, it’s just a product on the answer sheet

Life’s craft is a scrap where you show your work

I would listen with a smirk from irony to Ireif

From Bob Marley smoking stones at the building refused

My girl left me

Roberta Flack said «Never You Mine»

Love may lose, but at least you tried

The wisdom hit me in the eyes and almost cried

Stevie Wonder saw my tears and put the joy inside

Sade showed me love that was stronger than pride

Minnie Ripperton invited me to come inside

Marvin Gaye taught me lessons of anger and time

That’s just the tip of the iceberg floating in my mind

Not to mention all the jazz and instrumentals that’s essential

And the hip-hop elders that taught me to rhyme

That’s why I’m still listening

Ahh, that was nice!

You know what I’m saying how it goes with yours, right?

Yeahhh…

With the whole listening…

And then with the whole mmmm

Yep, yep, yep

Okay, when did you write that?

The first day of the tour, I was just-

Yeah, I like that a lot.

Maybe we could put those together

Yeah, that would be dope!

As a matter of fact, this reminds me, I have another verse that could work

Okay, kick it

Alright?

Uh-huh!

I’m competent with competitions, I’m competitious

I complement my compositions with lots of pictures

An album full of mental photographs, assorted similes

Packed between the documents of dowries and pedigrees

Hip-hop is like my family

On holidays we bitching like

«Why you don’t freestyle no more?»

«I'm better written»

I like to place my posture in a positive position

I like to be the conduit in control of my conditions

I’m sitting on the back porch, thinking

And I’m listening to the Earth spinning

To the trees rustle, wind whistling

To the grass being crushed by the feet of small children

Generations of women whose end was my beginning

Settling of the foundation of the building

Settling of the foundation itself

Knowing that my best work has yet to be written

I’ll probably never press it up to put on a shelf

But when problems are rock hard and money skin tight

I write my love songs on the back of my battle rhymes

The question wouldn’t be if I sold my soul

My soul’s been sold

The question is was it worth your dime?

Alright, that was dope too, yo

See what I mean?

Yeahhh

Uh-huh

Alright, so I like the way it went together

Exactly, yeah

Cause the first one’s really slow, and the second one’s a little faster.

And your’s-

Mine’s is sorta like in between

Yeah, exactly!

You know what?

We need to just go ahead and do a song together

For real, I think so too, but we just got to find a time when neither of us is

busy.

So, one day

One day.

That’s what we always say

It’s true though, you know?

It’s not like we can do it right now

Maybe when were in the same city together or something

Yeah, yeah.

That would definitely help

Okay

Alright, so I’ll let you go.

But I’ll talk to you soon

I’ll talk to you when you get home

Alright baby, peace

Peace