VERSE 1
I wrote this album ‘cuz I want my life to change/
Tired of being shortchanged, I'm tryna remain sane/
Hopped off the plane, didn’t stop all the pain/
My father’s still in debt and we've been struggling to pay/
For a bedroom up on Meekland Ave., reachin for just meeting half/
Hands tied against the odds, how the fuck you even that? /
The people from the slums once, now livin’ the humdrum/
Mama from the barrio so we dreamin’ we can stunt once/
Mama, I know it’s gon’ be fine wherever we go/
‘Cuz we know, you raised this girl to dream and be a hero/
What’s an ego to an eagle? I free flow when I speak though/
My pipe dreams through a peephole, my skin so Filipino/
But oftentimes my pride, inside, is fightin’ high tides/
The day we broke the ocean was the day I learned to nose dive/
Closed eyes, fingerprint ink with the most dye/
Those times, mama never blinked, say the oath twice/
HOOK
I said mama we gon’ make it there someday/x4
I said mama we gon’ make it here someday/x2
VERSE 2
So whats a freestyle to me? I been doing as a 6 year old/
Thinkin’ on my own 2 feet, survival pick & go/
Pick a role - you can be the swimmer or a sunken soul/
I was a 6 year old without a father figure role/
No silver spoons or dinner rolls, so will you fold or will you go?/
Pretend to sing like figaro, my people still invisible/
When you the spittin’ image of a person that you hate/
Makes sense im spittin images of dawn that never breaks/
Nirvana never waits, I was a pawn of bitter fate/
That spawned from inner hate, I never wanted to be great/
I study my mother wonder how she holds this family/
That minimum salary, stretched as much as it can be/
She stressed but keeps that shit from me, I’m just tryna fit in, see/
I crave for that acceptance like it validates my sanity/
I wrestle with affirmations, settle for masking faces/
After all, the stolen lands are always greener places/
HOOK
VERSE 3
At school, reduced lunches while my mama skip her lunchtime/
9 to 5 minimum wage, she at the bus line/
Here I am, filling a page, waiting to bust rhymes/
‘Til I’m nearing the day I’m getting cosigned/
Snare rolls and punchlines to pay rolls and punch time/
We take shows like crunch time, we braved those like front lines/
My life on these lines ‘cuz we never had lifelines/
And these days I’m scared of what might go through my mind/
I flow like Rizal and I’m writing like Hagedorn/
Mixed with Gabriela Silang, now watch as the page mourns/
Say my name, it tastes foreign, type to make your face form in ways you never made/
Born from another place, thorns couldn’t break away/
Or am I just a break away?/
From being center stage from off the page or will I fade away?/
I never been the type to say I’m scared of what I have to face/
‘Cuz all I ever knew is being me so all I ever need to say is…/
HOOK
credits
from CIRCA91,
released October 3, 2017
Produced by OJ The Producer
Guest Vocal by Ann One, Pallavi Gunalan, and Evelyn Ballais Peters
Originally bought the CD years ago, but streaming it while riding through Northeast OH seemed like the appropriate way to listen to the album at high volume. Peace and respect to the entire BeatRock Fam. AA
“Calibration of an Altered Mind” is the perfect showcase for Jay Stone’s taut lyrical style, with clever rhymes and classic production. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 27, 2018