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Mata Hari

by Obese Chess

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1.
Gather Round 03:46
Hit the ground running my mouth hard as I ever did Crowd of naysayers outside, I never let em in 'Cause I never been better than I am living it now, Sever the leather off of your bones if you're bringing me down The reckoning is hectic when you're sticking out your neck Then I heard the records beckon, I reckon I'm fucking wreckin' it You don't gotta love it, but you better respect it, I'm the shit, y'all, you buried and septic They try to tell me I'm soft, just 'cus I'm slept on, but fuck it, I kept on truckin' and stepped on These plastic rappers who been covering canned rap I'm fresh to death, a cadaver in saran wrap Even if I'm rockin' a capella to hand claps Legends line up just to give your man daps and if y'all thought Chess wouldn't smack a rapper down then take a seat up at the front, everybody gather round Look mom, rap music! Wow, what a disaster I'll body the track and I'm smashing these other rappers I'm thinking bigger than massive, the plan has been mastered Fuck some shallow bars, I'm going hard in the plaster And if y'all still in Paris, y'all best be embarrassed I'm leaving handprints like drunk step-parents I can rush the whole game like Sarah Kerrigan's harem I can arrogantly tear 'em every time I'm spittin' sarin My brainstorms rip the stem from your cerebellum I got all kinds of verses, I just never care to sell 'em It's compensation, but it ain't about the money, kid And even if it were I wouldn't share like Sonny did It's domination, the way that I've been running it Nobody ever even wanna think about that other shit That's why dollar for dollar, and pound for pound Everybody wanna show up when Chess is in town Not the best, but the best dressed rockin' Stocked with a microphone and a fresh-pressed oxford Apparently I'm a parody, or maybe a paradox Cold-cock the box office wearing pair of Dockers Clock you like a boxer and knock you out'cha socks Chop the block off, rottweiler in a China shop Docked till y'all wanna stop jockin' dishonesty I be coppin' and hoppin' up on the opposite commodity Come on, y'all - somebody stop me Put some hair on your chest, pot of black coffee Half of y'all wanna rock with me, half are cross shoppin' me Possibly trying to find an MC as hot as me But nah, B, not easily, and not if he's not me Please buy all all my records, and buy a lot of copies Give 'em to your homies, have 'em pass 'em around I said one more time, everybody gather 'round
2.
Sighs and stirs her coffee with the side of a knife I just try to reconstruct the puzzle pieces of her life Once again it's my job to tell her she's right And I empathize, I'm just not feelin' it tonight I'm supposed to be on her side, I try to hide that I've decided I would rather die than try to modify the lie that she's been livin' in, I felt like givin' in, She goes on and on and on about this life that she's imprisoned in So I hang on every word, every cop out Every excuse about how no one likes a dropout She's acting like the whole world is crashing down around her She hates all of her friends and the people that surround her There's no sense of irony 'Cause if it gets better, she can never cry to me But since she's so comfortable down on her knees I gotta ask her one time, just shut up, please. So I said, it's a crying shame The more we all change, the more you stay the same You never wanna try, you just lay the blame And still you wonder why we all walkin' away And that's because I'm sick of hearing how bad you got it When you diggin' out the past and blastin' it out the coffin 'stead of laying it to rest, looking back and laughing on it, or turning off the film and forgettin' what happened on it You do it all passively, like there's some chastity to break down the sabotage you're using as a strategy ain't that a sad tragedy, mad that your dad had to see The way that his daughter could ever fail that massively but that was how it had to be, it seemed so sad to me that anyone would ever sing the blues so happily and I won't ever hear you change your tune, got the same sad songs about the pain and abuse It's like a full time job when I try to respect you In the best of all worlds, we woulda never even met you There's some days that I can't go through with it, If you got another chance, you wouldn't know what to do with it So I said, it's a crying shame The more we all change, the more you stay the same You never wanna try, you just lay the blame And still you wonder why we all walkin' away Walk away.
3.
Catch 'em in the club with some donuts and a pot of coffee They writin' tickets givin' everyone a carbon copy lock you in a box and they toss the key never walkin' out till you obsolete They shut the party down and they stop the beat, Say you need a permit just to rock with me, You takin' fingerprints and searching the body? If you're policin' hip hop, I want to see some ID Well little homie, says here you can not spit Your record is criminal, rhymes are obnoxious So keep it underground, call it “real hip hop shit” 'Cause if you get a budget, you a sellout, you not shit Got a hit, got a deal when Doug Morris hears it, Five mics in Source and they praise your crazy lyrics But you ain't got no poetry, no prose, just cons Call in a professional, check the homie Soul Khan You the run the whole show, but you runnin' it bad So we roll up with the gun and the badge And ain't nobody gonna know what it means Beat cops and we're on the scene Now everybody go ahead and put your hands up Cruisin' around in a new police truck And everybody out here chasin' the green, Beat cops and we're on the scene [Soul Khan] Well it's the unprofessional That got your mama and your mama's mama Sweating out them love jones chemicals Your blunt smoke's medical, but you ain't sick, dog You're too 8 bit for you to stunt so technical There's thirty pages of rhymes in this here book But what's the point if you forget it like a kid's yearbook The A&R's tell me you just gon' hear hooks But I got a pretty woman without Rich Gere looks Soul's so willing to go gorilla food For that Tillamook 'til it spills through a hole in my villa roof For real, if you ain't feeling me, then you who do you approve of You need a group hug and something that's tequila proof But if you're just trying to get my goat, I'll let you yodel and I ain't slowing down 'til ever single record mogul recognizes I am Reggie Noble mixed with Quetzalcotl so let me get to know you, before I'm dead below you You the run the whole show, but you runnin' it bad So we roll up with the gun and the badge And ain't nobody gonna know what it means Beat cops and we're on the scene Now everybody go ahead and put your hands up Cruisin' around in a new police truck And everybody out here chasin' the green, Beat cops and we're on the scene Incompetent doctor, tried to save the patient Cut the wrong limbs off, still made the payments Picture perfect packaged by a major corporation, We love the empty calories, your taste is amazing You make it look so easy, like it's part of the plan, Your single's fucking cheesy, you promote it with spam You roll with stale crackers and you never go ham Your grind is Lunchables, just being real with you, man We all waitin' for that hype machine to die down, Turn the lights down, get the fuck out of my town You beggin' for success when we designed ours My crew sticks together like Frida's eyebrows And then we dictate that rap is in trouble now Put your life savings on crap and you double down You're fracking the scene, you pollute the underground Because you ain't all in, you just here to fuck around
4.
They say you get paper if you write it all plastic, Another joke song, Chess, that'd be fantastic It's just so much easier to be sarcastic Half-ass it instead of being passionate But you'll never learn to smile if you're too busy laughin' And you'll never find happiness in all that detachment A permanent sneer with your eyes to the stars Hope nobody notices how boring you are Like, irony, wow, nice job, Alanis Isn't life working out just the way you wanted? How sad it would be if your style was dishonest And you were always pissed off and talkin' obnoxious Maybe that's just your way of being cautious Keep your head high, nose above the lot of us Can't bear the thought of ever having to care So you acting real arrogant to hide that you're scared And now you're stuck becoming everything that you hate You're puttin' up the walls and you're try'na relate You need somebody to save you from yourself Because you're so 1998 And now you're stuck becoming everything that you hate You're puttin' up the walls and you're try'na relate You need somebody to save you from yourself You need somebody to save you from yourself [Satellite High] [DISCLAIMER: This is what I hear by ear, I make no guarantee as to the accuracy of these lyrics - OC] Tryin' real hard to never get caught Taking anything serious, don't wanna lose the leverage I got Post up with the beverage and pot Building with the nihilism in my life because man, what else have I got To define me? I'm all like “remember the 90's!” Yeah, I got some feelings but you're never gon' find these, dude 'Cause it's creepy to care, and I keep it that way, Sincerity's another language, grace is Chinese Colorblind to these hard-earned lessons [I literally have no idea what the next two lyrics are, please help] It's just me, or at least the me I present A firebrand, always quick with the barb and the spark Playin' hard but I cry in my pillow after dark Postmark in the middle of my heart when I shout Get real, I ain't a killer, I'm a mark – out And now you're stuck becoming everything that you hate You're puttin' up the walls and you're try'na relate You need somebody to save you from yourself Because you're so 1998 And now you're stuck becoming everything that you hate You're puttin' up the walls and you're try'na relate You need somebody to save you from yourself You need somebody to save you from yourself Doesn't the negativity ever start to drain on How there's never been a parade you couldn't rain on How do you stay in that broken frame of mind Walled off and drowning, mouth open to sigh Try to find a soul to hear you moanin' and cry, But everybody's gone because you wasted their time It's an echo chamber and you feel like it's shrinking The walls are closing in, and I know what you're thinking You can't figure out how it got this far But when it's time to party we will pity party hard Playing poker with a full deck of sympathy cards, And a joker who forgot how he got those scars So he asking everyone on both sides of the bar, Hoping for the comfort of a stranger's car So you lick your new wounds, and you ask for more salt, Still haven't figured out that this is your fault
5.
Woke on a foreign shore, broken and war-torn Chokin' my vocal cords, hopin' for open doors Man overboard, nothing of value was lost Keep your gold chains, homie, I got an albatross The tide rolls in and it's sinking your plans Every great creation becomes a grain of sand Hold your tongue like you were born on a pirate ship Take my advice instead of sitting, admiring it I would dive so deep just to find what I needed When I belong on dry land, putting a whole sea between us I'd try to decompress, I'd bend till I'd break, With a belt of dead weight and two empty tanks Fish in a barrel, grip the trigger, I'll pull it Rip your ribcage with three silver bullets And when it's all said and done, we're gonna drift apart And you'll never pull those slugs back out of your heart I will never lay eyes on that ocean again, A sea full of sirens with emotions to mend There's blood in the water, and circling sharks There's blood in the water, they gon' tear you apart So never lay eyes on that ocean again, A sea full of sirens with emotions to mend There's blood in the water There's blood in the water Blood in the water, make the rivers run red The same subtle nightmares, a plague in your head A life you've devoted to a poisonous well A life you've devoted to a personal hell Punctuated by the pain of another dry spell, Stuck staring at the clock, asking what will time tell Said you'd help me find my way, but you did the polar opposite Dishonorably hopped into my boat and started rockin' it And lead me astray, I shoulda stopped and thought it obvious That a stowaway would not be someone to keep it honest, see The captain's obligation is down with the ship But when the shit hits the fan and the sails start to rip Somebody gotta help him charter out another verse, A row of teeth chewing on encouraging words But you raided the arsenal, dove off of the planks Hit rock bottom and you made your escape I will never lay eyes on that ocean again, A sea full of sirens with emotions to mend There's blood in the water, and circling sharks There's blood in the water, they gon' tear you apart So never lay eyes on that ocean again, A sea full of sirens with emotions to mend There's blood in the water There's blood in the water You've been sucking on lead like it's going out of style Staring down the barrel every time that you smile Three dozen white shells in a sawed-off shotgun That fester into yellow when they soaked in your bile Each toxic word that you can fit in your mouth Keeps polluting your bloodstream once you spit 'em out Runs through your veins and makes your skin crawl Need a fix of your poison, you just itch in withdrawal You flash those little fangs every time you come around And I'm getting so sick of sucking the venom out I got a target painted on the side of my neck Where you can take aim with that pain you inject And when you barin' those teeth, I just sigh and I See you bite down on that cyanide Call it a death sentence, watch the words die Another tide rises, and I wave goodbye I will never lay eyes on that ocean again, A sea full of sirens with emotions to mend There's blood in the water, and circling sharks There's blood in the water, they gon' tear you apart So never lay eyes on that ocean again, A sea full of sirens with emotions to mend There's blood in the water There's blood in the water There's blood in the water There's blood in the water
6.
Mata Hari 04:03
The hurt was visceral Words, I took 'em literal Shipwrecked, washed upon the shores of the miserable Walked into mine, of all the gin joints in the world A mouth full of fangs, A doe eyed little girl Are you lost and you're hoping that you might be found? Or do you find yourself looking for a way out of town? You're far from home, but that's always where the heart is That's the blunt side of the story that hits the hardest A blade between your teeth, your lips are pressed to my neck I was always impressed by the way we'd connect The pressure in my chest, the way you'd possess me Got me questioning my rules, like who could Chess be Tongue and hands tied like she could arrest me Made me confess how invested I'd be And what a bloody mess that turned out to be She got front row seats to see me burn out for free When the dusk is creeping on and on, And the sun won't rise You stay down, you stay awake Open up your eyes We all laugh, we cry, we say we're sorry But ain't nobody ever cried for Mata Hari Ain't nobody, Ain't nobody Now, I was so hellbent on staring at those headlights I was blind to every warning sign and red light She let her hair down, tried to get her head right And in retrospect, I should have gone and read right Between the lines, rewind to the start She didn't want all of me, just the best parts She wanted attention and validation a la carte Just to charge the batteries on that cheap plastic heart Empathetic sympathetic synthetic, Prosthetic pumping a pathetic set of fetishes Rejected a medic to inject the anesthetic Of a leech infected with depressants and sedatives Couldn't keep it copacetic, she said it, I read it I was never offended, she just couldn't defend it And then it was mended but torn at the edges And when it's broken like that, you just toss it, you end it When the dusk is creeping on and on, And the sun won't rise You stay down, you stay awake Open up your eyes We all laugh, we cry, we say we're sorry But ain't nobody ever cried for Mata Hari Ain't nobody, Ain't nobody Pull your blinders aside at the firing line You never felt so alive as the night that you died But you kept your head high, settled to your knees Never thought you'd be so easy to please Pick apart the pieces like petals on a flower, She loves me not through those withering hours Light years past these other men and the boys Just couldn't stand out to a Helen of Troy Had to fight an entire army to get your attention Shoulda been the gold standard, you're an honorable mention At best, a statistic, and twisted as shit The way I tried to hit the mark but got a swing and a miss Figured I'd be the best, so I was hedging my bets The worst part is that I'm as good as it gets Get some rest, you only grind your teeth at night Because I haven't given you a bullet to bite When the dusk is creeping on and on, And the sun won't rise You stay down, you stay awake Open up your eyes We all laugh, we cry, we say we're sorry But ain't nobody ever cried for Mata Hari Ain't nobody, Ain't nobody

credits

released August 1, 2014

All lyrics written by Obese Chess (except the guest spots, obviously, those guys wrote their own lyrics too).
All songs produced by Rod Da Blizz at The Labor Department / Fruitz of my Damn Labor Music (ASCAP) in New York, NY and Baltimore, MD.
Recorded October 2013 - March 2014 by Brud Giles at Fremont Recording in Portland, OR.
Mixed and Mastered by Keith “Touch” Saunders at TouchSounds in Bridgeport, CT.
Cover Model: Savannah Els
Cover Photography: Rachel Jeffs
Graphic Design: Kim Farrugia
Special Thanks: George Spiceland, Patrick "Praverb" McNease (RIP)

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Obese Chess Portland, Oregon

All-American Union-Made Rap Music.

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