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The first single from the album, and the only one we've made a music video for. This was written as I was adjusting to life in NYC almost nine years ago, and was therapeutic in that way. Check out the video here: youtu.be/y5T_Wq4DGPA

lyrics

There's 8 million motherfuckers in this rathole
Shaved heads, fauxhawks, dreadlocks, afros,
Eyes, empty mouths, toes, elbows, assholes,
Suits, bike messengers, cabbies and crack hoes,
Hassidic Jews, tattoos, pigeon shit, statues,
Hot roasted chestnuts, almonds and cashews,
Pizza by the slice, folks living off of cat food,
One more day even harder than the last two.
It's more laid back where I stayed at way back in the day, Jack
It's fast-paced here.
Cats face fears where the rats taste tears
I just keep on riding, hoping that the track stays clear.
Illegal cabs, you could say that we driven
Or just take it as a given that it's subway living.
Reppin' not a car as I step into the bar
With a misspelled i.d. from (where?) NYC.
And it ain't no going back
Flow on tracks so sick, pull up your ebola mask!
This city's nasty, don't ask me directions
With a smartphone in ya hand, pass me a weapon!
I'm on the train to Delancey and Essex
With a head full of sentences composed of my restlessness
Helpless in this insomniac city,
No time to act pretty, let me tell you bout my residence:
Funk Flex got the tunes for you to cruise to;
Crazy people talking to themselves or Bluetooth?
Get ate alive if you try to act too cute,
If you wanna survive, here's some things you better get used to:
Stepping over homeless mothers, veterans in wheelchairs,
Cigarette butts, subway grates and folks who eat they meals there
It's everyday shit, vagrants pacing, patiently awaiting they fix,
Wall Street bankers, movers, shakers, lunch break date with dominatrix
Of course the tourists make the purists wanna throw down
Send em back in body bags regardless of they hometown
They pack them things that go buck to the buck-buck-bang,
But sometimes it takes an all-out shutdown to make us slow down
A snow emergency can turn the city quiet
But a summertime blackout can turn into a riot
Car alarm noise can eat into your brain
But the city never sleeps so it's legally insane
What a long strange
Trip it's been, since I was in the Twin Cities, rockin onstage
Now I'm on my grind, working and coveting cash
Findin time to hit the studio, merkin and plundering tracks
Suffer the wrath! Duck and cover! This is war! We under attack
Through it all, I still love Minneap and sometimes I wanna go back
But then I found the truth and transcribed it with my pen:
What I really missed wasn't there, it was then.

credits

from Spare Thoughts, released September 13, 2019

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Tom Swifty New York, New York

Born in Springfield, Illinois, and raised in the southern Midwest of Missouri, Ezra Stead became Tom Swifty in Minneapolis when he began rapping live and recording quality tracks over ten years ago. Before that, they were... not so quality. Back in Minneapolis after 10 years in NYC, Swifty's latest albums prove that he's never been better. ... more

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