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Medium Talent

by Tom Swifty

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1.
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
2.
Brand New 03:49
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 
3.
Invocation 04:00
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
4.
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 
5.
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
6.
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 
7.
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

about

When Chevy Chase returned to host Saturday Night Live for the first time in 1978, he and Bill Murray famously got into an altercation that came to blows. As they were being separated, Murray shouted an insult that I believe cut so much deeper than merely denying Chase had any worth whatsoever: he called him a "medium talent."

Many years later, in 2012, Chase left an infamous voicemail for Community creator Dan Harmon in which he said, "You're not funny. You're okay." I believe he had learned the lesson from his altercation with Bill Murray decades before, that a well placed "medium talent" or "you're [just] ok" hurts so much more than saying "you suck" or "you're untalented."

It is with that level of humility that I modestly present Medium Talent, a seven-song EP showcasing my rap skills, as well as the definitely above-medium work of my collaborators. In honor of the legendary fisticuffs that inspired it, the album begins and ends with dialogue from the only scene Chase and Murray share in Caddyshack. Listen closely for other fun movie and TV samples sprinkled throughout!

credits

released August 13, 2023

All lyrics and vocals by Tom Swifty except where otherwise noted. 
Turntablism by Elsewhere. 
Track 1 produced by MCCRD; Tracks 2 & 6 produced by Tha TruthTella; Track 3 produced by Swamburger; Tracks 4 & 7 produced by eRok4a; Track 5 produced by SEEMWARE. 
Tracks 1,2,3,5 & 7 recorded at Stickout Studio (Minneapolis, MN) and engineered by eRok4a. Track 4 recorded at HeavyGrind Studios (New York, NY) and engineered by SIN HG. Track 6 recorded at The Office (Minneapolis, MN) and engineered by Dick V. 
Album design by Jason Volk (Indirection LLC). 
Copyright 2023, Ezra Stead. 

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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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