1. |
Cement Sneakers
03:37
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Cement Sneakers
Written and composed by G’Ra Asim
Additional lyrics by Chris Craver
Add it up, count it down
And find that I’m nonplussed
Maybe this time around
Is make or break or bust
And in this part of town
There’s no one I can trust
Because you’re nowhere to be found
There’s just the memory of us
If this is farewell
Then what -pray tell-
Did you expect to gain?
Because all of your sins
Are means to your ends
When fair-weather friends
Are fair game
I won’t sink or swim
As according to your whims
When this chorus starts to shore us
We’ll be beached on bitter ends
My friend
I guess it all depends
If this horoscope’s not for us
Hope I never see your face again
I know that you thought
I wouldn’t let you go this time
You’ve had no such luck
Steadying your slow decline
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2. |
Critical Sass
02:17
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Critical Sass
Written and composed by G’Ra Asim
When day expires
I race home on cold streets
My thoughts and tires
Keep pace to a dead heat
After hours of putting on airs
I just need a little room to breathe
So tonight
My bike and Rockville Pike
We’re doing what we like
And this moment is the only time that I will feel alive
So take me for a ride
We’ll take it all in stride
The streetlights as our guide
My bike and Rockville Pike
It’s owed to the road when it all gets easier
We know it’s owed to the road when it all gets easier
Terrified of putting on airs
I just need a little room to breathe
So tonight
My bike and Rockville Pike
We’re doing what we like
And this moment is the only time that I will feel alive
So take me for a ride
We’ll take it all in stride
The streetlights as our guide
My bike and Rockville Pike
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3. |
Femaelstrom
03:18
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Femaelstrom
Written and composed by G'Ra Asim
I swallow down the hollow sound
That covers up your cracks;
The severed line from heart to spine
To sputtering synapse
A shortened fuse that's seldom used
For too much more than show
I'm worn out like the welcome you've
Exhausted when you go
If I could be indifferent to you
-If that was something I could do-
I'd turn it around
And try living down
All of the things you put me through
Oh, if I could strut in your stilettos
Alternate rose petals
I would test your mettle
For taking the abuse that you've given to me
When ya gonna play fair, pipe dream?
Tell me what you're all about
But beware, ice queen:
Some day I'm going to thaw you out
Baby, we're just different speeds
Spare me all the sympathy
'Cause you been running through my mind
And at best I jog your memory
If it were me, indifferent to you
If there was something I could do
To turn it around
And try living down
All of things you put me through...
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4. |
Can't Hardly Graduate
02:56
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Can’t Hardly Graduate
Written and composed by G’Ra Asim
I should’ve known I was headed for
Another year of uncertainty
That all my musings and metaphors
Only hide the absurdity:
Caps in air won’t be this year for me
I don’t know what you said it for
It’s not a state of emergency
If the rain comes, let it pour
‘Cause not a thing could burden me
What’s it pay that they all say
It’s so “do or die”
No, don’t ask why
I knew I’d never get by
If it wasn’t for:
At the shows where throwing ‘bows
And glancing blows is how it goes
I suppose that no one knows
Just what should keep us on our toes
When the end is near
Let’s hear three cheers
For graduating
If you’ve been waiting
Lifetimes for this
Sing this chorus
Life goes on
When you’re withdrawn
And I’m sincere:
I haven’t been to class all year
But I’m not going to sink
I’ve decided to think
With my own mind
On my own time
And I’m a credit short
But I won’t let it abort
My ambition
Or my mission
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5. |
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Scatology/Psychology
Written and composed by G’Ra Asim
Self-deprecation
Or defecation?
I’m no stranger to this
Odd sensation
A chamber pot
Is what I’m not
It’s somewhat awkward.
(Somewhat awkwardly)
I keep fucking shitting on me
I keep fucking shitting on me
Ebony and irony know
They cover me entirely so
If you see through the smile and the smoke
Which of us is in on the joke?
I never seem to duck these punchlines
On the scene on my own self-hate crimes
I took it on the chin ‘til I broke
And wondered who was in on the joke
And it’s hardly worth this song for a cynic
‘Cause beneath the surface it’s wrong, or is it…
Self-deprecation or defecation?
I’m no stranger to this odd sensation
A chamber pot is what I’m not
It’s somewhat awkward;
(Somewhat awkwardly)
I keep fucking shitting on me
I keep fucking shitting on me
Yeah
And it’s hardly worth this song for a cynic
‘Cause beneath the surface it’s wrong…or is it?
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6. |
Sleep Cute
02:15
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Sleep Cute
Written and composed by G’Ra Asim
You got the call
On your cellular
Began to stall
I could tell you were
In the midst
Of an argument
I got the gist
I was the target
All I gain
Is all I forfeit
Within the reign
Of your orbit
We may revolve
Around his apathy
It won’t absolve
Me from your gravity
The sun’s starting to show
Through the hole in your window
And I know you’ll let me go
Before he gets back home
He gets back home when
The sun’s starting to show
And it won’t look out below
For the strangest bedfellows
I know I’m on my own
I’m on my own again
In the light of day
Do you find that sweet nothings from the night before
Are the crimes that pay
They’re amounting to something that we can’t ignore
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7. |
Up the Monks
02:53
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Up the Monks
Written and composed by G’Ra Asim
Between me and you
It’s like a drug
Something of a genie
Ay, there’s the rub
Your lamp and three wishes
Is none of my business
I was tempted once but it’s better to save my breath
And be quick to parry
The dull ordinary
Future that you want ‘cause I’m better off by myself
I had a notion I could dream
My way out of this machine
But perhaps it’s just me:
I see I’m at the mercy
Of all of the things that I swore I’d never be
It’s easy
To covet a perfect fit
The clichés
Tell you it’s requisite
Your halfhearted vouches
For lives spent on couches
Aptly fit the bill for a fallacy well instilled
The show on your marquee
That looms ever darkly
Soon enough is going to be a prophecy unfulfilled
I had a notion I could dream
My way out of this machine
But perhaps it’s just me:
I see I’m at the mercy
Of all of the things that I swore I’d never be
There’s a lot to lose
In your role play
Leaving our virtues
To the old days
We can pick and choose
Find our own way
Don’t worry
We won’t go quietly
I’ll keep this notion I could dream
My way out of this machine
‘Cause it’s just not me:
I see that ordinary
Is one thing I don’t think that I could ever be
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8. |
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Proverbs for the Plastered
(for Patrick Cronin)
Written and composed by G’Ra Asim
Morning after vernacular on the tip of my tongue
‘Cause it’s so spectacular to be so well hung
And to know I’ll get back to her
While the night is still young
But the chance I’ll make mistakes
Is a chance I’ll have to take
Will it change in the end, though?
It’s a steady crescendo
So be cool, keep pace, make haste
This bittersweet acquired taste
Is all that’s left of you and me
And maybe we’re all better off that way
And the older my shoulder gets
The colder the chips
That I gamble with bolder lips
And a holster of quips
Fallen soldiers will smolder
Ailing relationships
And my gift of gab’s a curse
But I could have it worse
Is it the first sip that loosens these lips
Or the dregs of the drink that begs you to think
It’s for kicks you’re turning these tricks
When the keg’s in the sink you edge to the brink
Of reason and back again
Will it change in the end, though?
It’s a steady crescendo
So be cool, keep pace, make haste
This bittersweet acquired taste
Is all that’s left of you and me
And maybe we’re all better off that way
When the sun goes down
It’s bottoms up
Until she’s easy on the eyes
But so hard on my luck
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G'Ra Boston, Massachusetts
Goes to College is a compilation of songs I wrote, recorded and performed in the Washington, DC area as A Spike Lee Joint,
until this happened: goo.gl/MTgdB
Now I play in Back Talk , which you should totally check out! backtalkma.bandcamp
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