Dear Listener-Reader,
To get an in-depth look into the ideas behind this verse, please read the lyrics below and check out the footnotes.
Thank you for engaging with my work. It takes capital and time to complete this EP independently. Please consider supporting my work by visiting my store, or treating me to a cup of tea. I have 13 Zines left so grab them while they are still around. Thank you again to all of you who have supported this project.
With warm and loving gratitude,
and now Miguel
After laying this verse, I ran into a person who was reading The First and Last Freedom and they shared this quote with me, which I would like to share with you in order to frame this verse. She turned to the last page and read aloud to me:
“Where love is, there is transformation. Without love, revolution has no meaning, for then revolution is merely destruction, decay, a greater and greater ever-mounting misery. Where there is love, there is revolution, because love is transformation from moment to moment.” - J. Krishnamurti, page 288, from The First and Last Freedom
And on the same day I ran across this quote from Mama Morrison:
“The point of writing is to take what’s common and estrange it, make it new again, and to take what’s strange and familiarize it.” - Toni Morrison from a CNN interview.
I felt some sense of passion, maybe rage when I wrote this. The Clips dropped “Ace Trumpet” on Friday, May 30th. I wrote and recorded this track on Saturday May 31st. I am called to estrange what is commonplace. I hope that passion is more so love in a revolutionary kind.
Ace Trumpets (lyrics)
Came through with the Hippogriff told them I pick apart/1
Any whack rapper that ain’t even going to elevate the [E]art[h]/2
See I work just like a Page to become a Mage with the Bars/3
While, Romulus and Remus couldn’t even give you “a Star”/4
Such is patriarchy to frame their rears as wolves/
Imaginative fiction that old wanna be cool/5
That track wasn’t a blip you’re opening lines was a flip/
A trigger of “Ignition” showers you ‘nikcuf coward/6
They remixed the madness of those in power/
If Eve couldn’t cheat, but, a man was cool to creep/7
That’s when I knew malice wasn’t man enough to give relief/8
To the D’evils, maybe I’m hating cause they rap on spaceships/9
Astronaut Williams’ soaring beats is who made em/
The escapist rhetoric of cocaine, dealing drug addicts/10
I think Lupe should drop “Gotta Eat” part two/
Expose the similarities of these here too/
How their “I’m loving it” is low grade Food but it’s/11
Also like Liquor too, a poison akin to/12
Bel Bib Devo, and the fake love Nas spoke/
Of when he had overthrown the throne of Drug dealer/13
Raps, below average, they ain’t even explored of the/
Genre. They more like Randy Savage or Jeff Bazos/14
Bozos so what if they can float though?/
Content don’t justify any slow growth/
Of the genre or the gender, that gave life to the flow yo/
Of course the force of the energies maternal/
Man is always mortal. Don’t forget that./15
Liner Notes
Took another break from the EP to pen this one up. I find that being locked into production, mixing and mastering—producing a final output, always has me missing the act of writing lyrics. Lyric writing is a grounding and invigorating act for me. So, when I heard the single for “Ace Trumpets” dropped on Friday, May 30th, 2025 and heard the opening bar, “yellow diamond look like pee-pee/” I had started crafting my response. I brained stormed this while driving back from Legoland. When we got home around 1pm, I quickly put my son down for a nap, wrote and recorded this in about two hours. Its a bit sloopy, but, I dig it. I enjoy the perspectve I am bringing—even if its not a popular one, I know it is needed. Toni Morrison calls us to estrange what is familia and I feel like I did that here.
Vocals performed by and now Miguel.
Lyrics poem written by and now Miguel.
Track mix and mastered by Hear No Evil (and now Miguel).
These lyrics are in reference to The Clips’ single, “Ace Trumpets” (2025).
Hippogriff is a half horse, half eagle. I’m riding on that, mystical with my piece dude. Also, referring to No Malice’s opening bars on “Ace Trumpets” he says, “Penne alla vodka, Panama fishing village/ Visitin' with papa, with choppers/”
See footnote 4, reference to the male Earth god in Egyptian cosmology—Geb.
Shoutout to Big Daddy Kane, here we are flipping his famous line, “I work like a slave to become a master/“ off of the 1988 single “Raw.” Themes that are of interest to me is this connection of being the man, becoming a Master, and being a boss writing Hip-Hop discourses. I always come back to Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground (2016), where he positions the boss as a Black man who does the bidding of the Overseer—I think there are some parallels here to the drug game within modern cities. “Moses had made a deal with Ava, using some form of currency. Ever since Connolly had promoted the field hand to boss, to one of the overseer's enforcer, Moses had to set himself up as a broker of cabin intrigues. Order in the rows, such as it was needed to be preserved, and there were things a white man could not do. Moses accepted his role with enthusiasm” (Whitehead 15-16)–this also aggravates the pedestal most rappers put on the trope of the field Negro, which has a similar flavor of the populous political move, often pulled by strong men politicians. In the above quote form Whitehead, the word ”currency” in this sense is referenced in the verse for “The Bluest.” Also, this a shameless plug to the verse “A Page Turned Magnus” by and now Miguel.
The myth behind the founding of Rome and the twin brothers raised by the wolf Lupercal. Subtle nod to Lupe Fiasco‘s, Fall of Rome reference in “Gold Watch” a favorite. Also this is a shoutout to the SciFi show that was discontinued, Raised By Wolves (2020). “A Star” is a reference to Nut, see
note here, and also shameless plug, a reference to “A Star” a verse by and now Miguel.Lupe Fiasco's The Cool (2007) and his track “The Coolest” where he says “Lord please have sympathy And forgive Michael Young history, as .../” Ironically, this new Clips album is titled Let God Sort Em Out (2025).
This line, and the one that comes before it are in reference to Pusha T’s line in “Ace Trumpets” where he says, “Yellow diamond look like pee-pee/” and the infamous R. Kelly, his fetishes, by pointing to the song “Ignition.” Delivery cannot save a weak line and the people demand more, and better. Elevate the art. Lazy line hidden behind vocal performance man, well, it just pisses me off! This was my entry point for writing this.
Eve, “Love is Blind” (1990). A theme in these lyrics by and now Miguel is the unquestioned toxic masculine bravado, its emptiness and its supposed dominance through the use of double standards. The forgiveness of the sins of our fathers, but, what about the mothers? Anywho, check out that music video by Eve. Put it in relation to the interview clip.
Use lower case malice to point to what No Malice symbolizes in Buddhism ignorance is an active force just like any other deluded state of mind which is embodied by said rapper. This line can be read in different ways, one way I like to read it is, characterizing malice, the behavior rather than the artist Malice. A confrontation with the malice within but also criticizing the valorization of malice behavior within American culture. This line is also referring to Breakfast Club interview with No Malice double standards when Charlamagne Tha God asked him, “now you talked about cheating on your wife” see here (at 10:40). These type of double standards are cowardice expecting women to bear the psychological pain of infidelity. If you expect loyalty, be loyal or choose to be in a mutually open relationship.
A reference to Jay-Z’s “D’Evils” and also loves to talk about giving birth to rappers. The Clips are his sons. Shameless plug to this line in “A Page Turned Magnus” that says “A page3 made mage no Suge Knightin’ em/ Can’t Sir. em cause there ain’t no sirin’ em/”
“Drugs Killed my teen sprit, welcome to Nirvana/“ - No Malice off of “Ace Trumpet” (2025). There are several ways to read No Malice line. I choose to see it as a sorta morning for a former self, A loss of innocence, that was due to the additions to the hustler life, Jay-Z offers talks about this sorta relapse into drug dealing.
This line and the previous line reference to Lupe Fiascos’ album title Food and Liquor (2006) and also reference Lupe’s amazing song “Gotta Eat” where he uses fast food as a metaphor for the pitfalls of drug dealing. It's a cool approach to the genre of rap cautionary tales see Slick Rick’s “Children's Story” (1988). Lupe ends the song “Gotta Eat” by saying he will make a part two, which, I believe he still has not released.
Layering the previous reference to “Poison” (199) by Bel Biv Devo by referencing to Nas’ “What Goes Around” off of the album Stillmatic (2001). Also Nas’ “No Idea’s Original" off of The Lost Tapes (2002) where he says “What you base your happiness around? Material, women/ And large paper that means you inferior, not major.”
Pusha’s use of wrestling without grappling with the inherent racist and misogynistic tones in that space, so positions him next to Macho Man, Randy Savage, is a way to point to the machismo toxicness. And well, Bazos and his former wife MacKenzie Scott right? Her willingness to support progressive causes.
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