Get all 6 Tom Swifty releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
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1. |
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Fearless like Jet Li, let me speak about my pet peeve
The dominance of ignorance over common sense
Bombing dense skulls, seeking the brain inside
My plane collides with kids playing in the rain on slides
All these images come and go with the waning tide
I try to move forward but always feeling way behind
Stop, play, rewind, fast-forward to the time
When I've reached the mountaintop and no longer have to climb
But half the time I feel like I'm just not the mastermind
Of my own fate, annihilate my foes, the last laugh is mine
Yeah, I blast the lines of yayo set before me
Then I cloud my mind with reefer smoke and it controls me
So I'm listening for hope to get me through the rough things we're discussing
Cause it's something and looking ain't yielding nothing
This bomb production, it influenced my construction
Shit rappers only do this for the bling and that's disgusting
Standing on this stage that I'm hoping you'll be rushing soon
Feeling like my rage is boiling up, they gonna crush the moon
If you and I don't stop em, take more than shells to drop em
We gotta make our souls battle-tested like clothes by Propper
Drop the science like appliances that's broken
Drift away unnoticed just like half the words I've spoken
Cloak and dagger, staggering through 1940s noir-scapes
I reach Metropolis and face my fate with higher stakes
Will you be machine or man when years become millennia
Or maybe what you bleed may open many doors intended for
The reconstruction, no apocalypse is coming
Just a new beginning, no more choosing between distant cousins
May the will of the people rise, may the Republicans fall
May this song open the eyes of each and every one of y'all
And make you wanna wake up, there's no progress without pain
After a thousand broken promises, this nonsense still remains
Let's kill the lames and break the chains that you be paying money for
Let's open up our brains and do something that ain't been done before
Like underscore our words in blood, pull fans like it's a tug of war
And fumble for a world above, this one's asunder torn
Stalk my block like a lion about to tear out all your stuffing
Hold it down until these clowns realize that I ain't bluffing
Looked around until I found that life was the McGuffin
Now I'm listening for hope cause looking ain't yielding nothing
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2. |
Brand New
03:49
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Deep in the city, eating shitty while you sleeping pretty
Evil exists between your fake smile and your sheepish pity
I keep it gritty on these streets mean
And make it hard for these pretty women to keep their sheets clean
Speak mean of fiends and watch the scene creep
Lean deep into the cut until my dreams sleep
Or I sleep on em, it's such a deep problem
We can't even see the wrong ones, indeed, cause we got em
We elected em and brought em on ourselves, they keep bombing
Eating lobster and steak while I bleed and eat ramen
Wanna beat your sweet mama for the drama and beef
You dropped on the streets, false belief that you can beat Karma
Arm a bear, cats bear arms in armchairs
Tear arms off your throat and get yourself a farm-share
Rip through every pawn, there's a reason they say all's fair
In love and war, the season's change what I'm running for
The forerunner of death and I ignore nothing
There's more plundering depths, so what's in store, cousin
Underscore the message, blessed to be the more hunted
Semaphore for sentimental bores who eat the floors of dungeons
And the spores of dragons, word up I'm a seventh-level lyric master
Tune ya ears up so you can hear it faster
Tom Swifty on the mic, duck, it's a disaster
Rough raps bubbling up like shampoo
Trying to dust for a clue about what the fuck's true
Everyone's a liar, what you gonna do
But put ya hands up for something brand new
Talk how you want, chump, puff your bamboo
Got a nice shallow grave to dump that ass to
And you can add that dumb fuck Trump to that too
Now put your hands up for something brand new
I got a fast-paced flow and I'll leave you behind
I'm trying to paint pictures for you to see in your mind
And this ain't for those who be greedy and blind
I'm trying to make those flows that you need to rewind
A lot of cats throw blows and want to emcee and rhyme
But they wack, for sure, with their feeble weak lines
Mumbling, stumbling, then they bleeding in time
When a real emcee comes and read them their rights
You got the right to put the mic the fuck down
You got the right to not be such a dumb clown
You got the right to stop fooling suckers who think you the light
True-to-life writer, you just a biter and they hype you
Dreams of empire, being called sire, they excite you
Pass me the fuse, fuck firefighters, I'll ignite you
Burning and learning, fuck what you earning, and I'm spurning
Every other emcee, Swifty the crowd delighter
With that pure undiluted 200-proof music
Spitting intense relentless rhyming sentences with no repentance
Later for you losers, of the culture just abusers
When I'm moving through your unit, genuflect and show respect, bitch
Lean and I'm mean and I'm clean on the scene
This is the best rapping you've seen since the Pleistocene
He got a hemi in him, automatic semi rhythm
Award-worthy Emmy writtens, drunk and yelling: Let me get em
Rough raps bubbling up like shampoo
Trying to dust for a clue about what the fuck's true
Everyone's a liar, what you gonna do
But put ya hands up for something brand new
Talk how you want, chump, puff your bamboo
Got a nice shallow grave to dump that ass to
And you can add that dumb fuck Trump to that too
Now put your hands up for something brand new
Bopping down the block with some coke in my coat pocket
I'm broke but I'm still toking, I'm smoking that potent hobbit leaf
I believe I'm a be dead and gone before they honor me
Hypocrisy can be contained in all these peeps' philosophies
Rocking these flows for generations coming to follow me
Acknowledging the live emcees that came and paved a spot for me
Drop your monocle properly, I got a damn monopoly
The slot machine's a Xerox, it's obvious they trying to copy me
Probably a problem, we eat ramen and keep silent, be
Divided by the politicians orchestrating poverty
Most could say they owed some payments for their college education
Formulation of indebted citizens still forms the nation
Common sense is not so common, failure it is not an option
Rock on top metropolises, bombing clods, no need for caution
Oftentimes when dropping rhymes, I'm known to shit on top of minds
Warning: if you got designs, you cannot conquer mine
I'll leave you lying lupines lying supine
I do this cause I have to, yo, why do you rhyme
You should find a new grind, akh, go get your shoeshine box
My sick crew will line you up, you'll die in due time, boss
You can't say me and my dude ain't visionary
Ooh, we scary, fools we bury dig their own graves
If you understand what true love it can do
Put your fucking hands up for something brand new
Rough raps bubbling up like shampoo
Trying to dust for a clue about what the fuck's true
Everyone's a liar, what you gonna do
But put ya hands up for something brand new
Talk how you want, chump, puff your bamboo
Got a nice shallow grave to dump that ass to
And you can add that dumb fuck Trump to that too
Now put your hands up for something brand new
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3. |
Invocation
04:00
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Buckle up for another rugged disgusting discussion
The repercussions of reductive counterproductive reluctance
To rupture the structures we in love with, tongue-kissing repugnance
Blissfully unaware of subjects we don't believe directly touch us
This soul-sucking republic regulating guns and reproduction
Will burn us down to nothing just to profit from the destruction
And when the slums run in the streets to fuck up normal functions
They send punks in with truncheons to harness the eruption
We stuck in prisons of luck and physics
We must get rid of restrictions they giving us
Nothing limits us but the timidness of the innocent women and children
That's in the scrimmage against their wishes, it's a call to kill your sons
Mourning all that's lost and gone and all that's still to come
Yeah the winners write the history books
So there's misdirection about which direction history took
But the one thing politicians and cops have in common
The ones we want in the job are the ones who don't want it
I invoke the strength of street knowledge
We scholars, even those who never made it near colleges
To the internet we pledge our first born
All praise be to the hubs of grub and porn
One thing we gotta cope with down the line
Is that it's ultimately hopeless, we all gonna die
Said it before and I'll say it again
Fuck the police forever and ever, amen
This sullen and fervid nation urges disturbed turgid skirmishes
And vermin get your funds and never divulge the hurt it furnishes
Assurance isn't certain, it depends on what it's nourishing
And earnest men will burn in sin when perjured with superlatives
I take a complacent racist and burn his face to ashes
The President's calling you a terrorist for hating fascists
Debating his tactics on not same-naming the Klan
In fact it's a power grab to radicalize his rabidest jackals
The hour isn't early but we powerless from cowardice
The powder keg's about to blow it out and that's just how it is
I take you through this sacred litany first
The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse
I invoke the strength of street knowledge
We scholars, even those who never made it near colleges
To the internet we pledge our first born
All praise be to the hubs of grub and porn
One thing we gotta cope with down the line
Is that it's ultimately hopeless, we all gonna die
Said it before and I'll say it again
Fuck the police forever and ever, amen
A flurry of misinformation has been loosened upon us
They talking about one bad apple when the whole institution is rotten
And the looting and robbing and shooting ain't gonna be stopping
The revolution is popping, call it the nuclear option
Goons who abusing the population, truly abominations
Human-removal skills polished and waiting, it's time to abolish you Satans
It ain't enough to just say fuck the police
We gotta get em off our streets, no justice, no peace
I invoke the strength of street knowledge
We scholars, even those who never made it near colleges
To the internet we pledge our first born
All praise be to the hubs of grub and porn
One thing we gotta cope with down the line
Is that it's ultimately hopeless, we all gonna die
Said it before and I'll say it again
Fuck the police forever and ever, amen
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4. |
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Here to extinguish the fear (in case you won't)
Trust we'll be feeling the rush (in case you won't)
Time to release the mind (in case you won't)
We wish you would
Spark conversations with heart (in case you won't)
Wreck those without respect (in case you won't)
Climb with the rhythm and rhyme (in case you won't)
We knew you could
I'm J.K. when I'm Rowling and slithering in
All my huffing and puffing is making nothing but wind
Life laws: looks like raving's in the clause (poor me)
Keep grifting door keys to get more sleep
And if I'm early to wake I'll put the sun in its place
You wanna shine through my shades?
I'll rip yours right from your face
That smile's utterly fake, and then I squeeze til they break
I'm not feeling that great. I think I need an escape
It's time to wander aimless
Love the world; hate the way it changes
Even in this day and age I've still got a book of White Pages
It's no wonder why I'm not quite famous
So give it another try to write what's dangerous
Replace the norm with a swarm of the strangest
Not married to the me I'm arranged with
Hold my peace, I'm here to break the engagement
Here to extinguish the fear (in case you won't)
Trust we'll be feeling the rush (in case you won't)
Time to release the mind (in case you won't)
We wish you would
Spark conversations with heart (in case you won't)
Wreck those without respect (in case you won't)
Climb with the rhythm and rhyme (in case you won't)
We knew you could
I speak when I'm seeking weekend evening iris's glow
Windows to the soul but glass house minds are resigned to be a part of it
And even when thieving reason from beacons enmired in gold
I still let em know their passed out eyes will never surmise this heart is split
(Let's start this shit)
I'm even with Stephen but this ain't won't and never will be
A requiem for speculation, dumb inquisitions and lies
I'm breathing but heathens with faint hopes to sever and kill me
Might catch a hot gunshot to the lungs, not smart to listen to spies
And glistening eyes might peek out and speak out but we shout
You'll never dissuade us! We reach out
To every audience whether or not they wanna embrace it
We freestyle and revile your weak lies about the essence that made us
Your retarded image of a Creator with white skin ain't nothing but racist
And complacent, needless debasement of our resources is killing us all
We giving a thaw to frozen hearts and wrists, departing this life raw
We keep on waiting for the day when all these villains will fall
And living in awe while posing heartlessness, with marked insight we draw
From righteous laws of our own creation, invocation, and induction
Don't be stuck in only one lonely mode of phony analysis
We break our stations, no more patience for reluctance
Bring destruction from below like bony peasants stoning palaces
Where the chalice is? we ask with blunts and spray-cans in our pockets
Rocking history on walls for generations coming after
And with this anti-systematic food for sprockets
Stopping time is not impossible, just hold onto the laughter
Here to extinguish the fear (in case you won't)
Trust we'll be feeling the rush (in case you won't)
Time to release the mind (in case you won't)
We wish you would
Spark conversations with heart (in case you won't)
Wreck those without respect (in case you won't)
Climb with the rhythm and rhyme (in case you won't)
We knew you could
Here to extinguish the fear (in case you won't)
Trust we'll be feeling the rush (in case you won't)
Time to release the mind (in case you won't)
We wish you would
Spark conversations with heart (in case you won't)
Wreck those without respect (in case you won't)
Climb with the rhythm and rhyme (in case you won't)
We knew you could
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5. |
Face Of Your Father
03:02
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You fled across the desert and of course I followed
Reset my present course, I'm headed north by morrow
Sorrow might borrow my mind for a minute
But I'm always on time when it's time for the killing
I climb for the limits when I fire my pistols
With my heart, mind and eye, riding high, I deliver
I'm a Gunslinger, after all, shooting's my business
Besides, the morning was windless
I get busy living while you get busy dying
The truth can be defiant in the face of nuclear science
Ravenous dogs with they slavering jaws
Metaverse laws that would give a savage madman pause
Hurdles in my way get smacked and null, void
All work and no play make Jack a dull boy
Look back if you'd know what the future holds
Ka's a wheel, all it knows how to do is roll
It goes
Long days, pleasant nights
I been gone away, bereft inside
And we all gonna pay for this genocide
But it's hard to say what's been left behind
It's all broken, death has unfurled with ease
Go then, there are other worlds than these
The future is rotten, erased, and discarded
Cause you have forgotten the face of your father
In this toxic waste land that we stomping through
All hail or beware of the Walking Dude
And the Crimson King, minions, things with wings
Fangs and dreadful claws, only death will they bring
And I sing til spring or when I find relief
You have these moments of clarity when you are impaired beyond belief
We all susceptible to lust and greed and shit
But a man who cannot bear to share his habits needs to quit
For the sake of your father, I'd retreat if I were you
I'm bad news, make you pass out and puke - Terrifier 2
At my crew fearsome enemies laugh
But we’ll send em to the clearing at the end of the path
Feel the venomous wrath of the wreckage that has
Proved the world’s moved on, time has an evident lag
The white flag of your imminent defeat unfurled
I'm eternal, motherfucker, I'm the eater of worlds
Long days, pleasant nights
I been gone away, bereft inside
And we all gonna pay for this genocide
But it's hard to say what's been left behind
It's all broken, death has unfurled with ease
Go then, there are other worlds than these
The future is rotten, erased, and discarded
Cause you have forgotten the face of your father
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6. |
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I'm nonviolent, the type of guy to find a silver lining
In my death like why not survive less
Thirty years plus with fake friends and blinders
Shady piles of shit I chose to spend my time with
Slick types and tricksters, small-time pretenders
Ripping everybody off, low-life offenders
I recognize the cold eyes, the emptiness when souls die
We just met but I've known you for my whole life
Don't even try you fucking dope, I'm not a goldmine
Stringing me along like a rope, you know it won't fly
I'm about to give you a kite, you better hold tight
Take your ass on with a stroll before it's showtime (stupid)
You were already told you better grow wise
I don't believe I'm speaking in code, you won't get told twice
Don't you roll your chances with me, this is no dice
I'll show you just how slow you can bleed out on a cold night
My hand is folded, my neighborhood exploded
You think I ain't loaded? Motherfucker, I gotcha
You try to sneak behind my back and in fact
I don't appreciate that. Motherfucker, I gotcha
Ending you is a treat, I don't do well with defeat
See me out in the street, I gotcha
You think you're smarter than me? You should continue to read
I throw the book at that ass, I gotcha
Ain't no stopping the champagne from popping
Ain't no starting it neither, my funds rotten
My funds not in, non-existent in fact
But when I spit on a track, that flow's not misbegotten
It's that uncooked uncut raw, no fuck shit
Fuck what you heard, what you know, the flow is disgusting
I roll with a dozen cold and rugged bros and cousins
And we own the type of lows that'll rough you up in public
Get your nuts cinched up quick by the spawn of Satan
Like I'm freebasing Grinch dust with the way I'm hating
Got no patience for your statements, I'm barely staying awake
And when you step into my station your obituary is waiting
While you sitting very complacently, your enemy is standing adjacent
Me? I take what I'm given lately and embrace the situation
Whether you bigger than Bopper or more hidden than Hoffa
I'm about to operate and dissect you proper, mate, I gotcha
My hand is folded, my neighborhood exploded
You think I ain't loaded? Motherfucker, I gotcha
You try to sneak behind my back and in fact
I don't appreciate that. Motherfucker, I gotcha
Ending you is a treat, I don't do well with defeat
See me out in the street, I gotcha
You think you're smarter than me? You should continue to read
I throw the book at that ass, I gotcha
What you know about the struggle? Head high, your phone dry
You out here all alone, I won't lie
But you still the good guy, now let metal sharpen metal
They three-legged tables, they'll never be on the level
I hate participating, conversating with some fake friends
Dap you up with a smile but still got hate baked in
I swipe left on society, no I in team
But there's one in win, I'm big dog just shaking fleas
Can't fuck with we's, different like we from overseas
I wish you would, low-key I'm begging, I'm like nigga please
Stretch out the opps until you see opportunities
To see ugly in your life they'll play themselves out beautifully
Cause when the stomach is grumbling and you're struggling
Your friends ain't saying nothing, then it's time to start dumping
And I ain't talking clips, I'm talking shit, talking sense
No talking when I'm talking, close your mouth, I'm talking, bitch
My hand is folded, my neighborhood exploded
You think I ain't loaded? Motherfucker, I gotcha
You try to sneak behind my back and in fact
I don't appreciate that. Motherfucker, I gotcha
Ending you is a treat, I don't do well with defeat
See me out in the street, I gotcha
You think you're smarter than me? You should continue to read
I throw the book at that ass, I gotcha
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7. |
Poets & Philosophers
03:04
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Poets and philosophers, rappers and comedians
Put away the differences, I'll meet you in the median
The media ain't free cause it can be bought by some greedy men
Fetch my fucking coffee, son, and make that shit expedient
The scenery is changing now, on some funny shit
Rappers out here nowadays, they making country hits
What's up then? My flow is rough, no slouch
Disrespecting beats like Fuck your couch
Honoring the problematic pioneers and prophets
Of the culture you exploit and try to engineer for profits
The optics are psychotic when you cop the new robotics
Trade your stock tips for an option on the upcoming apocalypse
Rocking since my adolescence, ain't nobody stopping this
We suffering from suffering this painful dearth of common sense
Mumble rappers popping shit, topping all the charts and it's
A hateful wake-up call to those who be rhyming with cognizance
Often it's a problem when skill ain't the key to dominance
These poseurs out here faking now put the "con" in confidence
Postulating cost-effective ways to dupe the populace
Bombing your metropolis with dubious preposterousness
Bolster claims of opulence with rented cars and garments
Spitting nonsense bars, the prominence of fakery is obvious
The trend is more than ominous, makes room for apologists
Who lauding this when it belongs in Wack Emcees Anonymous
Honestly, I'm trying to be compassionate as I can be
But how can I be positive when trapped in this monopoly
Of bland authoritarians that pose as a democracy
Got to be a better way to get away from poverty
Sick of all this sameness, this auto-tuned monotony
They cheating on these beats but, me, I practice strict monogamy
Married to the rhythm, rhymes, and beats, and I'll probably
Rock with heat till dying takes me out of this cacophony
How did I get glued inside this rock n' roll suicide
I don't know, I'm stupefied, give you the facts and you decide
Who am I to hate on other rappers till I lose my mind
I write my own lucid rhymes, used to grinding, do or dying
Lose the iron, gangsta, get some education, use your mind
It's true the finest things in life cannot be bought, you'll lose in time
If you inclined to fire without giving it a second thought
Your tomb, I'll pry it open, defile your corpse, I'm wrecking shop
Set upon a pedestal with other rappers' heads on top
Bet on cops to take me out before this cat named Stead will stop
Rhyming with that crazy vocal prowess, yeah, I shred a lot
Battle almost three months straight like Okinawans, dead your slop
Yes, I'll drop the science on you climate change deniers
Rip your eyes out with some pliers, you already wearing blinders
These lying social climbers give they hearts away without no hesitation
On the darkest days, up on the stage is where you'll find us
When in doubt I rely on ideas that my pen will spout
Getting out these thoughts that plague my head is what I've been about
Might be my experience or something that I read about
Either way I'm really only trying to find a better route
To self-expression, when the lesson's finished, then I send it out
To ears ready to hear it with its clearly planned, intended clout
Even make your grandparents shout that I'm spiffy
Severing your mind, the heavy-grinding Tom Swifty
And I'm out
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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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