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80s Babies Grown Up EP

by Charity Clay

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1.
intro for the 80s, 80s babies thats what they call us but we all grown up now but we can reflect... reflect on where we been how we got here and think about where we're finna take this we that we that, we that special generation everybody claimin the 80s but cant nobody claim it like us first verse so im an 80s representative the difinitive, decade recipient of the benefits of the 60s and the debts paid where the best laid genocidal policies of reaganomics thrive so we celebrate being alive at 25 'cause gettin cream is how houses without our fathers rasied us and they schooled us to be street smart so fukk the letter grades and its money over bitches so us women stay degraded and the hateful love relations be the reasons that we jaded and we pass the nigga syndrome to the babies we be makin and we claimin that the system should be blamed for what it made us convinced that inhumanity is part of human nature rat racin, paper chasin and obsessed with bein famous but we're smart too dropouts of the fines of the art schools graduate and entrepreneurs sharper than sharks tooth launderin the money that the older homies gave us from the sellin of the drugs that made the tales they told to raise us chorus aye we the children of computers and the rocket ships blowin up mtv era, shit hip hop bout as old as us the AIDS epidemic and the boycotted olympics HEY! WE 80S BABIES BABY BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP jordan slam dunking and tyson with them upper cuts black folks livin good the huxtables was showin us nintendo and transformers light brights and legwarmers WE 80S BABIES BABY BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP second verse conceived by young lovers gettin down to soul music and birthed into a social experiment set to ruin us shaped by black communities with nationalist influences and hustlers usin dope money fueling revolutions but they always kept a bankroll jewels and jordan shoes and their women told us young girls how we could pimp it too sellin sex so they confuse bein empowered with abused steady flash to show we have it and abandon all the rules so yea im rockin berkinstocks yea i drive a german car but yo im still at war i aint forgot the modern holocaust paddy waggons haulin off black bodies without a charge to face incarceration, death and sodomy by prison guards my generation's different from the set ins and the million march movement aint as fluid so our contributions written off rebellin for the hell of it we wreckless but we got a cause its freedom and the fortune and wont stop until we get it all chorus aye we the children of computers and the rocket ships blowin up mtv era, shit hip hop bout as old as us the AIDS epidemic and the boycotted olympics HEY! WE 80S BABIES BABY BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP jordan slam dunking and tyson with them upper cuts black folks livin good the huxtables was showin us nintendo and transformers light brights and legwarmers WE 80S BABIES BABY BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP third verse we learned the game from the gang bang and the golden era but we san with MJ when he was mannin in the mirror karl kani cross colors and girbauds is wat the gear was and drive bys and extension cords is what the gear was we told to go to college on them athletic scholarships or be like maxine waters and get deep into them politics or enterprisin like the nation on that black empowerment or be like nino brown and build a criminal conglomerate a million different roads but yo the path is still success tryna balance out the street cred and the corporate respect activist execs tryna rep correct ballin out so when its time to pay the debt sometimes there dont be nothin left what can i say no excuses, but the truth is we growin and what we do now will designate the future and we know it trust, we know the load thats on our shoulders its a must that we world a better place than it was left to us chorus aye we the children of computers and the rocket ships blowin up mtv era, shit hip hop bout as old as us the AIDS epidemic and the boycotted olympics HEY! WE 80S BABIES BABY BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP jordan slam dunking and tyson with them upper cuts black folks livin good the huxtables was showin us nintendo and transformers light brights and legwarmers WE 80S BABIES BABY BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP credits
2.
verse 1 I used to wanna rock the mic like mc lyte and say that salt n pepa nice what my mic sounds like I used to write to beats rhymes and life tribe tracks Trapper keeper kept the rhymes organized in my back pack pen in my pockets, old school mixtapes stayed in my walkman recognized the samples, from the soul joint played in the days I was crawlin and to the boom bap I was raised into walkin hat to the back, one overall strap on the tlc tip with the condom eye patch I catch the rhyme scheme studying the greats Freestyle to the beats/ boogie down to the breaks Whether doin the butt or the humpty hump Or writin fresh on my knock off reebok pumps Just a youngen in the culture that the people called a gimmic A trendy epidemic we’d be through with in a minute Hook And as a shorty i was in it just to mimic Did the knowledge gained the wisdom got addicted and committed Joined the lineage of poets, activists and musicians To the rhythm are! Now that im grown a little bit I represent it Stay attentive to the culture and the conflicts that’s within it Good and bad I don’t defend it, live and give it to descendents Let em know that they are! {sample says} young gifted black Verse 2 my generation is the ripening fruit Picked for the feast to give the people all a bite of the truth cores carrying the seeds that will enliven in the youth And then return to dirt to strengthen up and widen the roots That been growin since the 60s sprouts germinated during great migrations at the turn of the century strange fruit harvest, rotten, and bloody bodies hangin from the branches had the soil all sodden trod into our souls by the word of the authors and spread through the songs that were heard from the marchers blues from the jook plus the gospel from the churches made the music for the movement that was more than lip service inspiration for the living and the mourning for the murdered made its way through the airwaves and everybody heard it till the system tried to crush it pushed it underneath the surface where it bubbled underground and in the 80s it erupted Bridge the fashion and the function the flashin and the stuntin the taking what they said we couldn’t have but always wanted from nothing to abundant the styles that we come up with the voice of revolution and conspicuous consumption the window to our world that everybody used to peek in the mirror of our selves and the conditions that we be in like the old slave hymns with hidden messages of freedom backspun and cross faded so we could receive em Hook… And as a shorty i was in it just to mimic Did the knowledge gained the wisdom got addicted and committed Joined the lineage of poets, activists and musicians To the rhythm are! Now that im grown a little bit I represent it Stay attentive to the culture and the conflicts that’s within it Good and bad I don’t defend it, live it give it to descendents Let em know that they are! {samples says} young gifted black

about

This album was originally supposed to be a full length project made of tracks with all Aretha Franklin samples but I only completed 2 songs. I wanted them to be heard so I figured I'd release them as an Title Track and B-Side EP.

The theme of the EP stems from my reflection on my upbringing, the way that my participation in Hip Hop culture has influenced my worldview, and how now as an adult, I see my obligation to give back to the culture.


This EP also represents the end of an era. Since Forced to Freestyle, I had been doing ALL of my recording on the webcam mic of my macbook. I recently purchased a professional microphone so all projects from this point on will have much better sound quality!

...listen and love it!

credits

released December 9, 2012

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Charity Clay Oakland, California

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