Sometimes I feel like I’m just a fish in the sea Caught in the current where I ain’t currently free Swimming in deadlines that I could barely breath Tryna hustle for the green, but green hustling me Got me feeling black and blue, life punishing me Leaking red with sweat that’s the hunger that we Feel, and like an eel its just shocking to me Money debt be like death grim following me Through the jungle and I wonder if this struggle’s a feast For the beast cause you know how that grizzly be Occupying my time my occupation of grind Waiting for a break ahk, you patience decline Chase that bacon of swine on the sunniest side But wait ain’t nothing sunny with the money on my mind Cause money bring out the ugly on the other side of fine-- Guilty scheming while believing I can honestly grind Let’s go My love, my hate, and I know My strength and weakness my growth My rights and wrong in my soul Still I hope (That’s Life) I can’t object to objects that make my prospects Increase incline like reverse on a slide Yes to success high like reverse on a dive As long as the objects ain’t the object of life That’s a box that they want to keep us locked up inside Running circles of miles until we fall on our side Or hit a wall, deflating dreams, like the wheels on a ride No air, hard to breath, a little late to revive Or so it feels so my zeal to achieve and provide Is getting tested with that pressure quickly bubbling high I’m just an educated guest with a limited time So I’ll guess I’ll examine whats the lessons of life Without lessening life and so my efforts to try Will have varying results like the x’s and y’s At what point does it connect like intersections of lines So I can see the bigger picture to the question of why Let’s go My love, my hate, and I know My strength and weakness my growth My rights and wrong in my soul Still I hope (That’s Life) Mortal cries fall deaf on the ears of the few The elite feeding lies so we don’t hunger for truth An appetite for disguise while we facing the blues Seeing people sell their souls just to fit in them shoes Walk away from their roots like I bid you adieu But little do they know they getting ran by the crew The few illuminated to eliminate you If you choose to educate on what they secretly do Conflicted between concealing or revealing the true But most don’t really care they appeal to the new The fanfare of the circus got the masses amused Got you wrapped around their finger like a man in a noose Unravel induce get the brain to react Cancel pushing snooze concentrate on the fact That the stats are just the fuel cause you better than that Stay above all of the doubt so raise the level you’re at Let’s go My love, my hate, and I know My strength and weakness my growth My rights and wrong in my soul Still I hope (That’s Life)

Classism muffling ya ambition Past present goals inside a max prison Lots of angles to it all like a glass prism Loss of language that the damage that impacts living Mass victims to glass ceilings and cold lies Mad driven by bad systems from old guys Past written from their vision, control minds Assimilate deliver hate to our own kind Impose lies so hope dies on coastlines Perish slowly on long shifts and O-time Forever lonely when jobs hits the slow grind Their object is to profit this gold mine Is out of reach tryna eat like suck the bone dry Pinching pennies like the pins on the clothes line Cause plenty hanging by a thread while soul cries Nose dive while folks try to reach the most high A prayer for the 80’s drugs and crack babies Reaganomics where hate causes your fall hasty Trickle down killing crowds got us all shaky Pleading God save me but its dark shady Seek game, they put you on lies Pushing for a change and pushing is a grind Trying to find way while the system is designed To keep the people down but we’re fighting through the times You know the status amidst a generation Of white administrations that hides the information Like color blind rhetoric inside the education Minimize what we would otherwise see as greatness They dismiss what race is mystifying hatred White fragility they exhibiting evasive Action encased in fallacies and fictions An episodes of cops they got on the television Youth described as lost but lost is a is just a symptom Of three strikes and prisons product of the Clintons Gang injunctions and the oncoming evictions Political decisions the city in division The street artists that harnesses their own expression They speak honest through the darkness and cold oppressions Tax dollars kill for real better know the weapons Cause they provoke aggression swing with cold intentions Respond, react, be strong, adapt Hard to be calm when these bombs attack Gather keep on and on what matters is we act No less than progress, yes, never retreat back Seek game, they put you on lies Pushing for a change and pushing is a grind Trying to find way while the system is designed To keep the people down but we’re fighting through the times

You got to wonder why it's like that Complying the lies we don’t fight That's a hard pill to swallow That's why all the sheep follow Cold men… Broken… Lost men not knowing where we going Molded by the world made of stone and Fooled to think we winning but lost men I grew up in a time where the men that often shined Where the ones that held the guns or with money stacking high And tied to whats defined as tough is doing crime Young boys looked up to thugs imitate them as a guide While some knew what’s up cause pops was doing time And their Big bro would deal dope traffic and get a dime Get His share divide a means to stay alive They say boys will be boys but we never question why More men than women in prison for violent crimes It numbers multiplied rape and homicide Self hate that reside a prewritten script Deep driven in to think to limit what exist Humanity we kill it a perscription that inflicts A side effect that silences compassion they resist Be quiet when you dying hide the side thats on the brink Of cracking your reaction is act harder than a brick Cold men… Broken… Lost men not knowing where we going Molded by the world made of stone and Fooled to think we winning but lost men Cold world make cold men and in turn that opens The door more or less for sons that are broken Suppress grief can’t sleep and so these feels we hold in Is a knock on the door like a visit from the old grim Affecting your organs that leaves you with more things Like cancer and heart issues to come in like pour in Not knowing how to cope so we resorting to force and Pullin' out the gun two meanings to lost men These are the toxins that men follow blindly Where healthy masculinity is hooked to an IV Of all violent crimes male percent is at 90 So now is the time we shine light on it brightly Address the suicides we need to provide a Space to shift culture do more than survive the Pressure to conform, a request to do more A protector and provider doing better than before Cold men… Broken… Lost men not knowing where we going Molded by the world made of stone and Fooled to think we winning but lost men

Let's pray on heavy days and on the light ones Pray for warm rays from the bright sun Pray sacred thoughts for the divine Pray for heart and the community in these times I’m hoping I could reach you through these sound waves A little light despite I’m seeing that the clouds gray I recognize the frowned face feeling in a downed place Your narrative is real this is opposite of outtakes Validate your feels in the midst of an outbreak So much for us to peel beneath the sorrow and outrage The silence of our health is the violence of our self I’m reminding us its time we trust in our collective wealth Gotta hold us up together like the buckle on a belt I admit to feeling pressure that a struggle that is felt I hope the hands that are dealt aren’t the ones that you keep I hope to slide you an ace and yes I’m praying for peace I pray for healing not hate when depression is deep I pray for rain to wash the pain amidst the smoke and the heat I pray for grim ideations to totally cease I pray for growth, lots of hope, and many moments to breath Let's pray on heavy days and on the light ones Pray for warm rays from the bright sun Pray sacred thoughts for the divine Pray for heart and the community in these times I’m hoping I could reach you through these sound waves Extend love to bring healing in profound ways Both on them down days or when you’re feeling more light Critical we now change to unpack explore why We as a community would assume to have immunity To feeling heavy blues but the truth is that its all lies We all mourn, we all hurt, yes we all cry I wrote these words for what its worth to open doors wide I hope for water so we grow and to be more wise I hope we alter how we show strength and all find Ways for us to get through progress step through When this world will stress you respond and we all fight Together we all ride through all of the grief Please pray for the lost ones and pray for relief Please pray for everyone and yes a prayer for me Pray for growth, lots of hope, and many moments to breath Let's pray on heavy days and on the light ones Pray for warm rays from the bright sun Pray sacred thoughts for the divine Pray for heart and the community in these times

Thinking bout the moments The places I’m from Everything thats holds me The parts of my sum Back in my days Back in my days Back in my days When I was so young Finding my way Finding my way Finding my way For me to become I envy children cause they don’t believe in limits Some callin it naive Instead I’m callin it so gifted Unrestricted no limit they act without a scripted Pre-written prescription, poisoning their thinking So I seek vision and listen to how this all begin when Society tries to be the killer of ambitions Strangling the innocent laughter and all the grinning Blessed to be a witness to my son growing to live in A world of possibilities perhaps without the villainy Perhaps without levels of doubt and all the misery Cause misery loves company that infectious suffering Bad energy that cuts within tired like you puffin wind Let the youth dream of new worlds so we can love again Rediscovering through their eyes this circumference Of everything new so enthused with that hunger in Their own growth they go go never slow or stuttering Thinking bout the moments The places I’m from Everything thats holds me The parts of my sum Back in my days Back in my days Back in my days When I was so young Finding my way Finding my way Finding my way For me to become Before we walk we learn to crawl then we gotta stand A step into the future view it like a sonogram The ones to make change like the colors on the autumn grass Offer love like nurturing the seeds and we water plants Its takes a village an ecosystem yes all of that A rose from the concrete street that’s the hardest path And thats a lot to ask, a callin that we often pass the reason why the darkness last important we respond to that Not just talking raps, I’m talking about policies Creative labor birth creators out of prodigies Then some become teachers you seeing how this all repeats Better days in all ways that’s what real progress means The next wave with lot of dreams Langston Hughs we gotta be The dream keepers reach deeper own it like apostrophe The legacy that follows me carrying the fire The political is personal my passion my desire Thinking bout the moments The places I’m from Everything thats holds me The parts of my sum Back in my days Back in my days Back in my days When I was so young Finding my way Finding my way Finding my way For me to become

I was just an awkward teen 90’s living made an awkward me Insecure and I’m lost at sea While I cautiously just struggle find my way I’m was just an awkward teen with lotta dreams A square amongst squares unaware of who to be I tried to be this and I tried be that and I Saw them gangbangas rocking them bandanas 90s tryna ID what might be mad swagger Baggy jeans being bad be the man rapper What I seen or what I seem to gather Is that a lotta of us felt like we never mattered I never measured factors of why I felt like A fish out of sea, a crip on a red bike 8th grade too ashamed to even wanna test mics I was writing rhymes tryna just get my pen tight Non confident just following the rest like A sheep among sheep empty like a lead pipe I didn’t get life didn’t really understand it I still don’t but still hope to make it in this planet I was just an awkward teen 90’s living made an awkward me Insecure and I’m lost at sea While I cautiously just struggle find my way I used covet popularity but nowadays I rather be Vibing to lofi beats I let it carry me Through everyday life with my everyday allergies Everyday is another chance and a way to gain clarity A slave to the grind hoping time will give me mastery Practice self love above fishing for flattery Frequently practically without gaining arrogance Reflect on my teens, what it means to my parenting Age 16 to writing 16s through challenges Therapeutic practices and these rites of passages That I wrote to devote my energy to balancing Understand what’s happening and bring me back again Darth Vader back to Anakin, clarify my narrative Back before I buried it unearth it gather it Unpacking it examine it with new language its How we heal in this world that we travel in I was just an awkward teen 90’s living made an awkward me Insecure and I’m lost at sea While I cautiously just struggle find my way

(Aristyles verse 1) There’s that moment that epiphany that humbles you Got me soaking in the history it’s wonderful The language to articulate the problems that you struggle through Heal from the damage from the inner hate that troubles you Decolonize the discovery of something new Neo from the matrix with Morpheus unplugging you Decode dethrone the hatred that they suckas do Its getting deep when you read so that hunger you Feel in ya bones is really your soul The ancestors rage plus the love they bestow The answers we chase in to the places we go 8 rays from the sun to a the page full of poem To the pace of a drum as we aim for the goals Many lanes know the ropes educate gotta grow Elevate with the folks that embraces you close And fights for the future on the basis of hope (Edeline) I I’ve been waiting this for moment in time All these years they’ve been keeping me blind Tryna silence the fight thats inside But I Will rise no I won’t fall and We seek light answer this calling We gon thrive decolonize Decolonize Decolonize (Aristyles verse 2) I had to unpack run back uncover unwrap Unearth how some words would concern how some act Lies that was pressed like the hats on a drum pad Optimus Prime get revived on the come back Get into a zone to advance like a touchback Or take it to the hole like Barry Sanders on a cut back Analyze trust that the knowledge we want Can’t come from the people that colonized us So peace to my professors aknowledge the love And Props to the street scholars dropping gems on the up The grassroots orgs and all the friends that I trust Gotta act do more to connect like a plug Chop it up food for… thought, a measuring cup Full of water, author clarity to better disrupt To build better worlds with less suffering cause This work is divine, expel the devil from us (Edeline) I I’ve been waiting this for moment in time All these years they’ve been keeping me blind Tryna silence the fight thats inside But I Will rise no I won’t fall and We seek light answer this calling We gon thrive decolonize Decolonize Decolonize (Missvermz bridge) Who are you? Sitting with unbearable grief in my body too painful to name in this lifetime. A heavy burden inherited for generations. Kinsa ka? (Who are you?) Let the rage rooted in the forced erasure of where you come from be a guiding light on your journey of re-membering. Hinumdumi ang imong gininhawa. (Remember your breath.) Hinumdumi ang imong tambal. (Remember your medicine.) (J.O.A.L. Verse 3)

My people poor people rise up This is bigger than a dollar or a buck Every day we gotta build with love Cause change can’t wait it gotta come from us A lot of blood on these pigs like dinaguan Cause they strapped like your moms bag Louis vouton You could march on the streets or you could shoot with them arms Bobby Seale, Huey Newton with a tool to respond I labor like a mom and give life to these songs Mabuhay what that mean it just means to live long Or long live, Yuri Kochiyama, Grace Lee Boggs You should know CEOs don’t makes these jobs Instead they makes us starve, everyday is hard Gotta burn down babylon, Jamaican bars Gotta Get up stand up, Marley had the answer Respect to the Young Lords, AIM, and Black Panthers Legacy the energy continues through the chapters Plotting through the conflict a movie full of actors Factor the choice grip the pen or burner? The ballot or the bullet, Mandela or Nat Turner My people poor people rise up This is bigger than a dollar or a buck Every day we gotta build with love Cause change can’t wait it gotta come from us Unpack the evidence media the messages A lot of layers like Binuae rice terraces Understand the genesis, know what the premise is White House terrorist scheming for the benefits Demons in the disguise trying to hide all the blemishes Lies in their sentences told with some elegance But I don’t fall for it cause Ill fly like I’m pegasus Aim for the achilles gettin busy like a nemesis My mad villain effort is Doom with intelligence Itliong strong Vera Cruz in my resonance Kapwa connectedness ancestors speak A must we invest in this collective to defeat The sentiment is pressure them relentlessly we seek Do it on all avenues the towers to the streets The boulevard these bullet bars aiming at the sheets The klansmen that happens to occupy the seats (now) My people poor people rise up This is bigger than a dollar or a buck Every day we gotta build with love Cause change can’t wait it gotta come from us

Lets grow Together we rise Sometimes we fall but we gotta make it right Can’t do this all alone cause they trying to divide The inner work is key to reaching freedom in our lives (my people) Some folks perform woke while showing their insecurities Go at you and attack you for lacking a kind of purity That no one can achieve so they criticize you brutally Cancel culture hard and then they preach about community? That talk about compassion was actually illusory Ignoring fact that being sleep was what they used to be We all have past on this path throughout the foolery Criticism’s key but requires continuity A genuine investment in people in how we grow Embedded in these lessons addressing the ego A space to ask questions beginning from zero Not everyones your enemy know that we need hope Heed the words of Assatta, Freire, and Guevara Dialogue and give love for each other through all the drama Ancestors honored when we put it all together When fighting for tomorrow we can always do better (lets grow) Lets grow Together we rise Sometimes we fall but we gotta make it right Can’t do this all alone cause they trying to divide The inner work is key to reaching freedom in our lives (my people) Its like division has taught us all not to listen We just wanna be heard no concern for other’s thinking Too stubborn to learn so we burn even the children No pause to just search before swinging the whip and Feeling so cathartic but listen to what I’m often Tryna to convey without saying to be so soft and Forgiving to these villains please don’t misconstrue the problem There is a difference between watering seeds and breathing toxins One has the potential while the other’s not option For rehab, believe that we only lose a lot when We choose to be dismissive, put that energy to building Cause eventually the. seeds grow-plenty to feed the village Remember the memory of how you got to now Cause Malcom was known as Red before he ever got down He was all about the bread and then the knowledge he found Was chance to self reflect on what he’s really about (lets grow) Lets grow Together we rise Sometimes we fall but we gotta make it right Can’t do this all alone cause they trying to divide The inner work is key to reaching freedom in our lives (my people)

Just breathe Just breathe Find peace Some ease So just breathe Mom’s cookin Mom’s cookin Say it twice that’s right yea good lookin Fix you plate cheese eggs and welch’s grapes A biggie rhyme just in time when I’m bout to play A record on the vinyl just to liven up the day Feel-like your last final and you bout to graduate There’s nothing wrong with chillin so the mind recalibrate Netflix and chill or listen to Sade (Shaw day) But if you from Bay we bumping Goapele Pour-a little water planting seeds Ashe (Ah Shea) Let us grow like tree write a poem to a beat Seratonin from the sun a dose of dopamine Know that dope could mean knowing goals and dreams Or know when to let go when your hold is mean Inhale and exhale stretch it out release Loop that press repeat til you find some peace just breathe Just breathe Find peace Some ease So just breathe Meditate or medicate namaste elevate Previewing heaven’s gate relieve ya mental state Down time unwind relax and never break Like knee pads believe that supporting all that heavy weight Sunshine when its rain Jeremy Lemonade Tylenol when I’m in pain memories resonate Create your playlist one for the greatest Moments in your life and even one when its rainin A song list to keep you strong with a little patience Know that we belong when the world is bout to cave in Let this marinate and we will find a way when We all come together united we fighting hatred Prayer to the ancients the ancestors sacred The dearly departed even ones that’s unrelated Kapwa Ubuntu In Lak’ech say it Live it embrace it compassion display it Just breathe Just breathe Find peace Some ease So just breathe

This ain’t a soft rap simp song fall back This is hard facts all that love in a strong rap Maybe not as strong this is more like I’ll call back Text you I guess you want more I caught that You really like the company the kind where you front of me The kind of sweet time like honey from a bumble bee This the kind where we define the meaning of what love can be Please don’t stab me deep like longest blade of a cutlery New ground discovery opposite of gluttony I want to know your details I’m not interested in summaries Swim in conversation like a whale or a submarine Aladdin to your Jasmine where I’m asking if you trust in me Yea thats corny line I’m hoping that you know that I’m Committed to this marriage like Black Friday overtime Sometimes its slowly grinds but when we have our goals defined We gon elevate like butterflies in the open skies That's love I’m talking bout love I’m talking bout that strong will all in fall in love That complex, progress love No, it ain’t easy sometimes it hard But, please believe me you have my heart Yea that that my love Yea thats your love Yea thats our love Yea I love our love The best love is friend love mixed with that love love Romance hold hands whole fam we love us Self love self care together we gon come up Humane true change Bob Marley one love Clown in moderation not to down but entertainment The medicine of laughter as a matter of maintaining Apologies and growing knowing this is how we make it Cause plants needs water and a little bit patience A little bit of diligence envisioning the greatness Givin it some light to grow so know that don’t be faithless A balance of our union and our own respective spaces Aspiring to move in higher elevated places Bigger than the dollars, gold silver or copper Or what society likes to see as being proper The richness that we honor is embodied in our spirit With everything to offer as we’re pushing through the limits That's love I’m talking bout love I’m talking bout that strong will all in fall in love That complex, progress love No, it ain’t easy sometimes it hard But, please believe me you have my heart Yea that that my love Yea thats your love Yea thats our love Yea I love our love

… My father worked until his bones ached Blame it on the old age or maybe it’s the no breaks Short ones, cold game, paying him with old steak Crumbs from the gold plate the sum wasn’t so great Wealth be that cone shaped… the rich exploiting labor Employed by these old snakes the spoils of the paper Just another player to these slavers Forced assimilation from all of the invaders Immigrated man with a plan to create a Better day but everyday he dealing with the takers In his lane, showing disdain, another layer To his pain, and big gains to greedy gators Concentrate, say prayer, and make livin But why that very livin feelin like a contradiction Economic prison in collision with his thinking Supposed to be man but he feeling like a victim I’m sittin back I'm thinking bout The distance past and here and now Trying to understand like I’m making plans From you to me this legacy to be better man … My father worked until his bones ached Blame it on the old age, didn’t complain he held a stone face He from the old ways where you don’t say you hold pain Pride of a man understand you ain’t a snowflake Never shed a tear, “are we clear? you better obey” Even though he’s grow gray, everyday’s a cold day The way that he shows face becomes a male showcase Alcohol pullin ladies, crazy with the road rage Never on a slow pace middle name danger Dad paid the bills but mostly was a stranger I just wanna chill as young teenager A little bit of guidance of what will come later Conversation few, so I wrote on the paper Spoke to the beat as a way to escape the Void in my soul a giant hole like a crater My mama said let him be cause that’s his nature I’m sittin back I'm thinking bout The distance past and here and now Trying to understand like I’m making plans From you to me this legacy to be better man Post stroke, no joke, grappling with broke hope Struggling to cope hold tight onto that boat don’t Drown in the sadness the sorrow of the static Stroke left him with left limbs in a passive Inactive, not going to the doc to get examined Led him to place where he facing what is damaged The physical and mental feeling disassembled Not a man could withstand the attacks the devil Or the trials of the Lord, or is it accidental? I was told that tribulations was a way for God to test you I really don’t know if this is more or less true Regardless just know that I love and still respect you You still a man even if you barely stand Provided for the fam with a callous in your hands So vital I expand on the good that made ya Weathering the storms I’m inheriting your nature I’m sittin back I'm thinking bout The distance past and here and now Trying to understand like I’m making plans From you to me this legacy to be better man

Please send my love reflect your light Give you roses we honor life Please send my love reflect your light Give you roses we honor life Because of y'all we're the roses that grows from the concrete community with unity that we all seek the sacrifice and willingness to make our lives better so please accept this letter this rose for the ancestors (Aristyles verse) I saw a clip of Kuya Phil with his power to heal A tribute to Al Robles we remember you still Rapping with 10 thous caribous and it’s real The history is deep like I’m rapping with drills Peace to Sorro, that’s Bill, I got some roses to give I got some offerings to offer and I’m hoping it gets To ya’ll and the infinite, imagining the image is Y’all kickin’ it, laughing with San Miguel, drinking it Frisco to the Bay to Agbayani village, it’s Memories, remember E, our love is limitless A moment for Amado, all mourn, yea, I really wish I got to meet him, yea, he represents connectedness Across lands concrete and soft sands Love to Manang Dawn you help us to understand The importance of our stories, uncovering the past Let the wind chimes ring to let you know where we’re at Please send my love reflect your light Give you roses we honor life Please send my love reflect your light Give you roses we honor life Because of y'all we're the roses that grows from the concrete community with unity that we all seek the sacrifice and willingness to make our lives better so please accept this letter this rose for the ancestors (Saico verse) unang una sa lahat ay nais kong mag pasalamat saking mga ninuno lalo na yung nakasama't nakilala sa puso koy naiwiang alala mag kikita pang muli lahat kayoy makakasama kung may open mic sa langit siguradong nandun din tropa kong Artikulit walang iba kundi si Melvin at muling maririnig si kuya Phil naka ukelele madaming gumaling na bata dahil sayo sobra at grabe (reference to Galing Bata) sa gilid makikita si kuya Pio Candelaria'ng gumuguhit nag uukit lumilikha nag pipinta on deck na susunod kasamang Bj Alisago wala ng lalakas pa dyan pagkat diskarte namin to (reference to Bj Alisago's band Diskarte Namin) poetry ni uncle Al, mapaparap pa si Amado may dala pang cupcake si manang Dawn kanyang niluto Si Manong Steve Arevalo't kasama nya si kuya E. At madami pang iba solido na itong gabi English Translation: First of all i want to say thank you to all my ancestors specially those who i know and met that left memories in my heart we will see each other again and we will all be together if there's an open mic in heaven im sure he will be there my friend Artikulit also known as Melvin and once again we will hear kuya Phil on ukelele there was so many kids that became good because of you. and on the side you will see kuya Pio Candelaria designing, constructing, creating new paintings and on deck that will be up next is Bj Alisago no one else can go harder than that cuz this is our hustle (diskarte namin) poetry by uncle Al and amado will rap and there will be cupcake's that was brought by manang Dawn that she cooked and Manong Steve Arevalo is with Kuya E. and many more, this night is solid (or Perfect) Please send my love reflect your light Give you roses we honor life Please send my love reflect your light Give you roses we honor life Because of y'all we're the roses that grows from the concrete community with unity that we all seek the sacrifice and willingness to make our lives better so please accept this letter this rose for the ancestors