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Pebbles in my shoes, gravel underneath
Wine bottles breaking against my teeth
Losing spirits, inadequate grips
Shot after shot slipping behind your lips
Weak hands trying to reach for something solid

Rocky exterior, someone find me a geologist

Make me more polished, marble crafted body

Never gotten drunk but I still spit up sloppy

Put me a neat glass, I sure hate going to class
Keep me by your chest side, even if it's just a flask
They put me on blast, don't even know the half
Gotta study when I get home but I don't think I will last

Ended up first but only for a second

Strike me down like an automatic weapon

Let me see something even if aggression
Otherwise just wrap me up in your attention

I'm feeling really bland and it's just who I am

Work and school and poetry slams

But what's in my hand? I can't understand

What's left on this tarnished wedding band

Aiming on point but I still miss you

Afraid of a certain word so I can't misuse

Hate being a clean ex. Not grabbing tissues

Chiseled and locked down, life of a missile

Room messier even though I'm a quote "grown up"

Time goes slow enough to show you what sure sucks

But quick enough so you can't even know your own stuff

Hit the detonation but you can't even blow up

I wanted to be clever, I wanted to be cool

I wanted to be everything I tried to be at school

But I messed it up, what is flowing in my veins

I'm still too vain: looking for something to gain

Hate going to this place, it's all bullshit
Life is a trigger and yes I'm trying to pull it

Keep anger like grudges: it's best not to hold it

Not being claymation, I'm not being molded

Hold the fabric of my own destiny

Feels good in my fingers, yes it better be
Cooking up something real mean with my recipe
Quote my own shit and just let it breathe

Like 1, 2, 3,
1, 2, 3, and you better read.
Mixing up all sorts of different aspects
Literature nerd, what do you expect?

Check the specs if you're feeling twice as deft
But you won't predict of what's coming next

This kid is feeling both cursed and so blessed
Feels the pressure but is it that good stress?
I can present but I can hardly test
Don't bury my struggles inside my chest
I suspect that the finesse of this rest
Will reveal the quest that will ingest
More progress, less digress
Traveling in my mind, east to west

His style is real clean but he lives like a mess
In the end, just trying to fill out the Pokedex
His style is real clean but he lives like a mess
In the end, just trying to fill out the Pokedex

And of course the beat changes with the content
No contest I'm spilling my guts is my level of honest

I fucking hate being here, but I make it a little better
Carve smooth nooks in a world of inclement weather
Already used to that rain and that gloom without rocking hoods
Are you okay, kay, kay, kay? Let's get it understood
that my skin pigment is not oriented in my ability
to rock microphones and have ninja agility
My mental stability is located in something more intangible
Cross of a beast, scholar, speech kid and an animal

My anchors that keep me down, keep me grounded

Still trying to figure out life and how it's founded
I'm being childish? Well, it's just a little gambit
I treat life like the solar system, I have to PLAN IT
I manage through skill alone and when I'm in the zone
Never phone in a performance I both shine and shone

Typing furiously at keyboards enough to pop the tab off
I'm a shaken up soda can: I'm about to pop the tab off!

Just call it blastoff, just try to laugh it off

Never being bottle necked but people still think I'm a mad dog
I'm controlling this alternate shift
Can't find the end or delete so we won't really finish

Switches from serious to jokes more times in a minute

The tragicomedy of Alex Dang. You either in it or with it

Dragonite

I'm waking up whenever I want because I'm an adult
Finally reached this ripe old age where the childishness should halt
But I keep on my kid stuff and naysayers get very salty
Keep the pepper pushing like spheres of influence: yes I'm ballsy
Ironic that you said you never wanted me to be so angry
When now you're the reason for this. This is what you made me
Frankenstein that can rhyme, take a look at your creation
My secretions from my brain are flowing quicker in this basement
So I'm about to break out of my shackles and if you tackle
My hustle then I rustle, bustle, say FUCK YOU while I lack some muscle
I'm the skinniest alive and I get brawn for the ages
I step onto different stages and like kin to the herbs: word up to my sages
I'm a scholar who rocks collars and starting to change up the style
Corduroy pants and crew neck sweaters turns up the dial
And are you listening? I'm trying out different inflections
This direction of stressin lessened because I'm so blessed
No need to imagine dragons, I make it real
I got the Chinese Connection. Spitting flames: that's the warmth you feel
I'm a master on the sheets. Paper and beds included
I got manners like a gentleman but believe, I can be the rudest
Take a look at the Judas, they stand all around me
360 degrees of treachery and yet I'm still just counting
With all of this company, I must be doing something right
And if I'm wrong, fuck it, I shine bright because I'm polight
Alright?! My hands have been calloused from holding on too tight
But now the challenge is snatching everything I want in sight
This is my life. So I'm going to make it how I wanted
Like I'm taking shrooms on second base, I'm so on it
Kid, I'm honest. Me and you, we got to stay focused
Currently residing at where the best coast is
But we're gonna travel. We're gonna hit this world like a one night stand
Except I'll be sitting down for years, you see this ring on my hand?!

Dedicated to the poets that helped me get this far
And to the prisons that I lived in that gave me my bars
To the problems that hindered my progress to a stop
You made me better for this thing called HIP HOP

My words are spilling out like drunken texted messages
I'm doing this from my real life. So this is what I'm repping. It's
A kid with metaphors and similes
But similarly he is like a 4 letter alphabet: U C A G
I'm shooting from the hip, now that's a waist line
And I could probably spare some change, cause all I got is dimes
My policy on staying the same is quite obviously
Still normal in the sense that so is Dragonite's hyperbeam

Bonus Stage

[Verse 0]
Let me start this off with both some flattery
And a few comments that might make you mad at me
Girl you looking real angelic. Where the pastor be?
But Jesus you're looking hot as hell: blasphemy!
Stick with me and we might burn some calories
And I just keep going charged: battery
If some guys are classy. Then I'm Gatsby
It takes two to make an accident. Or a masterpiece

[Verse 1]
Life on nickel and death at the platinium
110 percent and that ain't even the maximum
Girls? I got em. Yup and I lose them
Take life by the day. Never got a duplicate
So catch me like coughing or old school balling
Catch me like Spalding and if you caught the following
I'm sure we'll get along just damn swell
And if you like me? Well, shit, only time will tell
Other dudes? They're useless. They just lose it
I'm not trying to be hard: Rubiks
Me? I got this. Shine: it's polished
I'm a dapper pro and them: novice
Write it to any beat or the a capella
No I'm not Jay but I can rock a fella
And me? I'm stellar. Like for the confidence
Then fall in love with the real: all of it

[Verse 2]
I flip the script kind of like dyslexia
I keep my room neat so I won't mess with ya
Now, I'm not trying to make up anything
Since I can get you wrapped around my finger: wedding ring
Asshole? Kind of. To be perfectly honest
Sometimes I stress and unstress: sonnet
But in the end of things, I'm a real chill dude
I'll pick up the bill when we go eat food
Hold open doors, but don't hold your breathe
Cause I do things quick, never hold onto regret
I've heard a tale once a time before
Never fall in love with a rapper times galore
But me? Who even knows what this is
All that's certain is me and you and that's just it
Cutie 3.14. Humble as pie
I don't get high, but with me we'll still fly

[Verse 3]
Don't even lie. You know I'm adorable
Antonym with horrible and incorrigible
Metaphorical in the sense that
Always being watched. Where Eckleburg at?!
But the fact is that we all got problems
I'm not scared enough to be afraid to solve em
So here it is right now, it's all just here
And what's left is the truth that we must adhere
Sometimes I'm verbose, sometimes I just quote
Sometimes I hate swimming and I'd prefer to just float
No I don't drink. But I'm thirsty for you
I pass on the smoke but damn I'll roll with you
But I know, I know that we're all just human
Deep inside me are some hidden ruins
So if archeology's your thing, come right along
If not? Then girl, just vibe to the song

[Verse 1]What a day, what a day is something that we might say
But you're still up working too much, I think I found a gray
You treat yourself way too harsh and way too hard
When everyone around you has got dropped down jaws
I'm not trying to tell you that you need to slow down
But you're working like a slave when you've already got a gold crown
It hurts to be looking from the outside in
Seeing you walking on pins working in the dim with your stress at the brim
And this is isn't me trying to play any funny games
This is me noticing you putting in overtime and getting underpaid
Even if you fail once, you've already succeeded
I hate seeing you defeated and depleted. You don't really need it
You've parted oceans and seas and took to the skies
I'm proud of you regardless even if you only tried
So fly back home. It's getting real late.
We made you dinner and it's getting cold on your plate

[Chorus]
I don't know now, but calm down
You've already fought all 12 rounds
Put your head up because hands down
You are the best, wow

Keep moving, you'll do it
Bigger than a movement, oh you'll prove it
You're the coolest
And I'll be here thinking that I knew it!

[Verse 2]
Straight As, GPA, grade made protege
But when do you find the time to just play?
Life shouldn't be about the awards on your chest
It should be about doing the things that you love best
This is vastly all about the good times gladly
Living and looking classy if you want to ask me
Because when I meet my end, I don't want five friends
Talking around my grave about how my time spent
Quit beating yourself up. I can see your bruises
And you don't have to be perfect. You don't need those excuses
Being happy with yourself is probably the hardest
And I know that you might not want advice from a starving artist
But it took me 18 odd years to convince to like me
And now I can look at myself in the mirror much kindly
I hope in the end you can flash yourself a smile
It looks much better on you anyways: it really fits your style

[Chorus]
I don't know now, but calm down
You've already fought all 12 rounds
Put your head up because hands down
You are the best, wow

Keep moving, you'll do it
Bigger than a movement, oh you'll prove it
You're the coolest
And I'll be here thinking that I knew it!

[Verse 3]
Let me lift up my cup, I shall raise my chalice
To the girl who has turned a house into a palace
Intelligence abundance, and though it's redundant
You're over 9 thousand! No where near the hundreds
I want to toast you tonight, and tomorrow and after
Let's capture your laughter inside some nice chapters
Pictures with trophies they sure look nice
But you're here with us and you look better tonight
Your mind is stunning and you are never stunting
But still defying gravity girl you are something!
Knock out in a dress, beautiful in some jeans
Whatever you wear, doesn't matter, you will still beam
I'm not blowing smoke: I don't like cigarettes
I don't even want to hear you say that word regret
Because you've gotten this far and I'm well damn impressed
Now let's keep making bonds like we're about to invest

[Chorus]
I don't know now, but calm down
You've already fought all 12 rounds
Put your head up because hands down
You are the best, wow

Keep moving, you'll do it
Bigger than a movement, oh you'll prove it
You're the coolest
And I'll be here thinking that I knew it!

A Song About A Girl

[Chorus]
I, I, I, I, I want to love you
But if it's not right what can I do?
Everything will be alright
So baby get some sleep tonight

[Verse 1]
And I find myself wishing it never happened
If only I could sit down and retype the things I imagined
Too selfish to leave your life, but I'm only there halfway
Don't want to commit but I'll listen on your bad days
Failed to utter the words that you so desperately needed
Used you as an ego boost even though I'm conceited
Now sitting around the keyboards feeling real defeated
Existing only in blog posts without proper nouns
Keep thinking about you, can't even count the times now
Wish washy, flip floppy
You were just to cute for anyone to stop me
We both made mistakes. Mine were a lot bigger
And our status shifts as if I'm the prince talking to gravediggers

[Chorus]
I, I, I, I, I want to love you
But if it's not right what can I do?
Everything will be alright
So baby get some sleep tonight

[Verse 2]
I never wanted it for us to be curtains
I'm stabbing them up like behind them is another person
But enough of this oblivious Hamlet shit
Can't keep living this life so damn blind and so ignorant
Because all I have are words, words, words
But I bet all you heard is disturbed nerd blurbs
What else am I supposed to do? That's what I'm good at
Keep conjuring lies and excuses out of thin facts
The impending increases along with distance
And I bet all your friends now hate me in an instant
Shake me like a polaroid, just a dumb human boy
Repeat to myself that feelings are not meant to be a toy
We're like one giant abyss: we just avoid

[Chorus]
I, I, I, I, I want to love you
But if it's not right what can I do?
Everything will be alright
So baby get some sleep tonight

[Verse 3]
I swear to God I never meant for all of this
But I also swear I was in the biggest bliss
The best thing for us is to just move on
Yet I keep staying up waiting for a new dawn
Just whisper in my ears again, maybe we can just be friends
I never wanted this to end, but I'm feeling too spent
If only I could change, if only I could rearrange
If only if only is only written in my page
The human heart is so damn powerful
Capable of lifting up the most doubtful
And take down the strongest in just a mouthful
So say it to me in your tone that's so vow full:

Everything will be alright
So baby get some sleep tonight

Red Hunting Cap

[Verse 1]
This is the one thing that makes me feel redeemed
Coupon status, mad at us? Ignoring the chatter seems
To be the only strategy when one hand writes poetry
And the other writes only in the dreamiest of realities
Semis 3 times but never an automatic
Gawky kid spastic, wordplay fanatic, almost fantastic
For your information. Break me out of plastic
Enemy to Majora because I'm trying not to mask it
Never following the stereotypes. I'm surrounding the sound
My heart pound is the bass now and it's getting loud
I'm tallying up my hours. Not even close to the limit
So I'm going to live it until my painting becomes vivid
Parents so livid that my life is dedicated to the arts
But it's hard to stop when you start and every single part
That you would cut into me would bleed lyrics and paint
But just like cutting my wrists, this will all make you faint

[Verse 2]
I've always felt mediocre compared to my peers
And the only time I gave an F is when at the final I failed to appear
So this is me starting it up, key in the ignition
Writer's block in remission, Trusting only the intuition
Tired of the lectures. Tired of the yelling
Tired of being a disappointment but there is no telling
How my future will turn out. I'm trying to craft it barehanded
An ambidextrous ambition is the only thing demanded
I will not be reprimanded for choosing happiness over the latter
I will never break nor shatter. This is mind over matter
This is heart and the soul. This is attitude and mentality
This is the gallery of my entire being without puff or flattery
My fingerprints are left in the dust of words long forgotten
Craggy fingertips gripping memories almost rotten
To try and transform my personal poison into antidote
Treated as empirical since this is the prince's anecdotes

[Verse 3]
Supported like girders in between my fragile flesh
The hardware is there. The gridiron and the tenderness mesh
You cannot match the freshness stored inside his chest
I've been studying myself for years, so go ahead and test.
The recipe for this is 2 parts wisdom, 3 parts fool
9 pints of liquid courage and let the bravado just cool
A dash of naivety but added in by shaky hands
Heavy with idealism and optimism. Far from bland
It's alright if he is burned. It leaves merely a char
Regardless, you will be tasting the stars
With feet that stand with the tenacity of The Tank Man
The parking lot of his head will never be vacant
Hands overactive with turning pages and scribbling
And scars left from 2 parents and 3 older siblings
You are about to partake in viewing behind the curtain
Despite the name calling he is a person, for certain.

Unlocked

[Verse 1]
They told me tighten up my game so I'm right against the lames
Who don't even know my name but know I hold this deer like reins
Who is this? Alex Dang? Who is this? Depends on your lane
Pick a side, choose a brain. One virtue and one bane
I tighten this up like tuning keys on my violin
Flow like Poseidon and stay on point: Trident
Rapid show? Try again. Rhymin with leviathans
Pious lion about to get rich or die with the Mayans
Used to have that long hair, switched up for the grown man
I can sell my own jams. No need for Willy Loman
The view from my bridge is so damn beautiful
Never being miserable but my life's still musical
As I rap I got in the back a dope ass ensemble
Kick it with me after the show for a classic convo
Something that you remember, goes past the ages
It'll strike down Alzheimer's and unlike Vegas
You're gonna wanna tell everybody about me and you
Tweet it from the mountains: OMG he so cool
Never thought he'd be a gentlemen with perfect meter too
And he's still in school? Educated man: oh damn is it true?
I got game like a rainy day afternoon


[Verse 2]
Confidence brimming every time I'm grinning
Even from the beginning I've been at least kind of winning
Talented and Gifted, style is so fitted
Popping TAGs so much like it's my professional business
Gray suede on the shoes, Neck and my cut is like my crew
Myriad of labels like a tabloid knowing who is who
Rapping like it's easy, no girl, believe me
Macaroni air conditioner: I'm cheesy and breezy
Whisper lines in your ears but now all of your peers
Might wanna sink this relationship, oh that's weird
Maybe they're all a little bit jealous
They don't have fellas, just zealous of our hella
Swagger back and forth just like a swap meet
Don't pay attention to them. Go ahead and mock me
At the end of the day just suck on my cockiness
Looks can kill and I might just have to body this
Came to box, leave in a bag, so certain, so sad
I'm holding the banner and you wave your white flag
Pimp like a cane and thus we are so able
You aren't my oxygen and time isn't your label
You're never running out on me, for that I thank you