Tag: do it cuz you love it

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This is one of my favorites from “Slow Nights. Fast Food.” but it was also the most frustrating. Due to technical issues, as well as my own perfectionist-issues, I ended up recording the verses to this song over ten times before I finally called it done. I was really proud of the final beat too, specifically the horns during the hook. I think that really put it over the top for me. There’s a real mellow vibe to the whole song, which as you may have guessed by now is my favorite kind of vibe. And thanks to AMC showing The Green Mile about 10 times a week it was inevitable that a reference to it would end up in my lyrics.

Most of the time I like for my verses to keep a linear movement between hooks, but every once in a while I have a song like this one occur. I basically just cranked the beat up and let the flow take a field trip from my brain to my pen without any restrictions. The result of a process like this is usually a collection of many thoughts/ideas, based around a central theme, and all collected into 16 bars (x3). This song is all about doing what you love based on how it makes you feel, not anyone else. It’s about doing whatever gives you joy without focusing on whether or not you’ll be accepted for it, or whether or not it makes sense financially, or whether or not it lines up with some 5-year plan. If you’re happy doing what you’re doing today, then do it with no regrets.

From day one in 1999 to this very second I still truly love creating music. Once I make an album it’s rare that I go back and just listen to it, because that’s where I hope you’ll find your joy in it. My joy was spent in bringing it all together and turning nothing into something. Some look at me as a fool, because I put months and months of work into a collection of songs but don’t see a dime for it. Some think I must be crazy, because if I haven’t done something big with my rap persona in the last 14 years, then it damn sure won’t happen tomorrow, or next year, or at all. All I can tell them, or anyone else, is that when I put my headphones on in the studio I forget about the money, and forget about tomorrow. My motivation is purely my anticipation of the final creation (THAT will be going in a future song, lol). My hope for stacks of cash or stadiums packed with fans becomes a side-note. I simply do it cuz I love it and nothing else. I hope you have something in your life you feel the exact same way about.

Lyrics:

(verse 1)
How bout, how, how bout we forget tomorrow could exist I reminisce on what I’ve missed
Wad it up inside a fist and then go throw away the list
If I’m findin’ that I don’t love it then I’m not supplyin’ my time
I’ll pilot high up above it then I’ll level off my climb
I’m somethin’ like a Steve Urkel sayin’, “Shhhh, not while I’m pourin'”
And family matters, best believe that love there is not foreign
Scorin’ all those points in overtime is not the way that life works
You got your moment, get into it, and wear it out like a shirt
Heard me an idea that’s pretty good from a girl that’s built to please
My day-to-day shouldn’t only be about stackin’ G’s
How bout that feel good let’s pass it out like a mixtape
I put it down for my town and hold it down for my state
Been slower paced since day 1 I lit the fuse on willow oak
Now I’m gettin’ seen in public. My own lyrics gettin’ quotes
Feel like there’s somethin’ cookin’ can you dig what I’m sayin’?
It’s a game that we’re all playin’, if you’re comin’ or you’re stayin’, you just…

(chorus x2)
Do it cuz you love it and nothin’ else, forget the money
Do it cuz you love it and nothin’ else
Do it cuz you love it and nothin’ else, forget tomorrow
Do it cuz you love it and nothin’ else

(verse 2)
Shake that money-maker I might just pay ya if it’s good
Wish you’d pose on top of my hood, say you can’t but I bet you could
And I bet it might make my night. Y’all go left and I take a right
Measure up but not checkin’ height, throwin’ hooks but not in a fight
Tie-dyed minds surroundin’ me not understandin’ how I stay clean
All that stuff is not my scene, spit it out like it’s Listerine, uh
Some call it square and I don’t care cuz I don’t cut corners
Toss it up like it’s a quarter, cross it up like this Texas border
Order me online, anytime, but some data charges apply
Check the sign, don’t be blind, ride the lightnin’ not on the Mile
Roll on 1
Ride the lightnin’ not on the Mile
Roll on 2
Ride the lightnin’ not on the Mile

(chorus)

(verse 3)
Now don’t weigh in with two cents, that change won’t bring change
If you know about a good time then you’re proly likin’ my range
And I’ll proly go and just hang I’m not tryin’ to get in those squabbles
Easin’ back on that throttle, overseein’ things like I’m Hobble
If you don’t know that’s my brother, and he can tell you what’s up
Every day we gotta make decisions, on occasion we find some luck
I stuck around like Scotch Tape, been holdin’ faith like this is church
Standin’ right behind this rap game and about to flip that skirt, uh
Back me up on this statement: “If I love it, then I’m gonna do it.”
Anything to dare block it off I’ll Karate-chop right through it
Yeah they thought that I could not roll, guess they’ve never been on my wheels
Guess they better sign a shoe-deal, I’ll be keepin’ them on their heels
Feel everything that I’ve said, take it all to your heart
Your role in this is “cuttin’ loose,” who better to play the part?
Don’t make a simple thing hard, let the world know who you are
It’s that thing that we’re takin’ yard, leave the tips inside the jar and just…

(chorus)