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Raw Story

by Plucky Walker

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1.
Well I never get a moment to sit alone/ Spitting on tracks/ leaned back/ get a little gone I don't really know why/ the seasons blow past so fast/ Where'd the passion and feeling go? Got flooded in the rain/ they put it in my brain early on I was put on earth to speak a song/ Now I'm getting old though/ I should be spitting gold/ Instead of holed up in house with a stick of dro But it's tricky, yo/ Trying to navigate the feeling That you'll never blow/ even with a hella flow You gotta let it go/ all of the burdens On your bones and your heavy throat. Monsoons/ when they come/ wash you How soon/ will they come?
2.
Crashing at Mama's house/ mashing up on the couch Flipping the television/ checking Obama out Heavy with all the doubt/ that come/ from living broken son Smoking some/ Rolling the tongue along the mouth Yeah papa’s out/ so I’m here/ the coast clear Old fears/ trickle away and wander south I saunter out/ in the yard/ sit with the dog Scribble a song/ riddle it raw with marking out Erase/ Chase grace/ and then chase the old ball around Til I’m falling down/ go back into my fallen crown Dream of calling out to crowds/ hollering back Before all of the camps/ food stamps and dollar sacks And all the lack/ that I’ve mapped these past years The black spoons/ baboon backs/ and tracked tears I follow back/ and unclasp these trapped years The glass spheres/ snowglobes cracked in black beards I’m crawling out/ from under the rock and the rubble Speech/ shuttling over beats/ the heat subtle A solemn mouth/ hauling the body behind her With mama out/ calling reminders I’m crawling out/ from under the rock and the rubble Speech/ shuttling over beats/ the heat subtle A solemn mouth/ hauling the body behind her With mama out/ calling reminders
3.
///My pops said/// Take these shells/ + little rocks They’re protection spells/ for the walk/ through the hell You done made yourself/ now take yourself/ from the house where I raised you, praised you, son I’m dazed you Couldn’t pull your ass up a little further Smashed up, raising a glass/ losing the fervor You used to have it in church, but now you lost it Tossed in the dirt/ shit it hurts to be your father Why bother/ sacrificing to see/ half your life in a seed I pray every night/ in the afterlife I get peace These years tore me apart/ string by heart-string/ Darkening rings/ under my eyelids Never could sleep without silence Every ambulance that passed by/ blaring a siren I saw your body inside, purple with violence And when I could sleep/ I would dream visions of dying I’m trying/ but I can’t look you in the eye Same nose as me/ same shoulders and acne Same filthy mouth that made your mother cry Time after time/ boy, crime after crime [Chorus] Go son/ Take some bread for the road, son Now I heard that you wrote some Sad songs for me/ But I can’t stand to hear you sing ///Every day pops I work on my craft Out on the park bench in Pritchard/ just birthing a raft Building an ark from the dark of the past/ Trying to float In a paper boat/ maybe I’ll crash/ maybe I won’t/// I don’t give a damn, son/ it’s all gravy Your ramshackle singing and dancing don’t pay these bills Mama’s ill, and the more you’re around Stealing pills/ It’s just dragging us down ///I understand but it’s different now/// How is that ///Dad I’m clean/ I’m a different man/// You’re clean for now But you’ll crash on the couch, spend cash on a pouch Once a fiend/ always a fiend/ son, get out my house ///How can I change when I can’t even get a chance? Just washed the windows and the floors and then did your sedan Cooking you meals and you can’t look me in the eye?/// Take your broken wings and just fly [Chorus] ///Trying to get back onto my feet here, pops/ A couple days up in my old room/ eating/ it’s hon’ be cold soon I need to put on some weight/ sit at the Eighty-eight That gramma left for me in her wake/ playing some soul tunes/// Stop right there/ proceed with caution/ I’ll slap you Right out of your chair/ rocking a cold stare Keep your grandmama’s name out of your mouth I’ll drag you under my truck/ straight out of the south You killed her ///No I didn’t daddy I healed her Or tried to/ Sitting beside her/ singing haikus/// But then you’d dig in her pockets/ Looking for rock hits, Right til her cold eyes rolled back in their sockets ///I was broken then, pops/ smoking and hopeless A shell of a man/ selling plasma/ having coke fits I never meant to cause anyone else pain/ I’m saying Can I just get some help?/// Go help yourself [Chorus]
4.
Well I go on the lam and I never come back to the land that I left behind me So-so/ chewing on no doz/ composing new flows in a cold climate Far gone from the Carolina Highlands/ Far away from the Baltimore skies Get high/ push through the darkness/ kinda blissing/ just swerving wide From the land that I once knew back on the east/ I'm a beast for the get-and-go Grab all of my shit and just blow/ nothing on hand/ anything goes Anything rolls off of the tongue/ Put it on tape for the people at home Reaping that song/ time and again/ put it on vinyl and climb in the bins Well I land in the bay and I feel the wind blowing on my tongue with a taste of the sun And a man say, “say hey, son, do you wanna blaze one, and I say, are you cray son?” then he pulls out the beauteous fruitiest, smelling all stank/ bootyous gluteus And I take one draw and break raw and take off on a song and a tune it gets Lodged deep in the brain and the same song follow me around till I scrawl it down All the sounds that I hear falling from a tongue/ spilling from a lung in the park/ in the plum dark Spill into me/ build over illy beats/ still/ just reeling me back to the source Doing work in a cipher circular/ pulling me back to them raps on the porch Think of passing the torch to the little ones/ Sitting them down/ just fiddling around And the reason I rapped in the first place/ doing this sound for the kids and the crowds See I never gave a damn for the rat race/ all the fake-facing and chasing of crowns All I wanted to do was just chew on this language/ tangling/ wrangling sound No matter what I try to do/ I can't find my way back to you And I can't find the reason why Nothing really holds me now I'm feeling cold/ and down I lost my hold And syllables spill/ vermilion wets my soul It's killing me slow/ so ready for death/ these million debts I owe/ So close my eyes and let the skies convulse and pulse their purple light into the cold Til lead is turned to gold/ and letters turn to heat I burnt my scroll/ so desperate/ nothing was left/ I needed to eat To warm my frozen feet/ Now I'm mourning the loss of these songs Rolling along in a freight and holding my flint to a stone of a beat Until it sangs, man/ And it's so strange, ain't it? A world of flames, man/ and we got pain in it We just gon' lay it down/ til we find some way around The hard effects of living in this world before it weigh us down/ before it lay us out. Pushing the pieces together/ the puzzle of painting the walls of a prison with paintings of wide open spaces and chasing the odd liberation of waking with strangers & shaking the fears of a traveling man and the tears of a clown that's unravelling battling all of these harrowing maladies/ dressed up for Halloween rattling candy around in their cavities Nothing really holds me now I lost my hold/ somehow
5.
05 Snowblind 02:42
Open up them flagons of whoa/ The winter winds're blowing Tits cold/ it’s eighty below/ Keeyon’s dick froze We huddle up under the underpass/ thick coats Boots beaten in by the wind/ beyond sick so We gon’ set these fires in black barrels And hack carols up like lungs/ and wax careless And pass wine/ pass time/ into the night/ Til fires fade/ and we all shade/ right outta sight It’s all white/ shuffle up and cut through the snowdrift Cold lips/ blue in the face/ pain in my rolled hip Slip a pill in my throat/ the last one And sing so slow/ spilling smoke like ash lungs A fast tongue/ only gets you so far, son You gotta roll deep/ packet of old souls and geeks Creep solo/ they're gonna catch you close to the earth find you face down/ sleeping alone/ under the dirt God works/ so damn mysterious here He hardly come round/ yeah, he disappearing and shit I look up/ to the ominous clouds and shout flows He drops down buckets of snow Up in my army coat/ seeking asylum A clue like an igloo/ something to clutch/ no one’s an island Walking up in churches hurting from the inside out Fingers purple from the winds I bout Sleeping on heat grates/ heaping up meat/ free plates/ And nap while the priest say his piece/ could sleep weeks straight But can’t get down with these curfews and work boots/ see I gotta live free/ rolling with these cursed few I eat moss off rocks in T. Weaver The park warden shining his light/ that Ward Cleaver He can’t maneuver like me/ it’s tomfoolery Could peel the jewelry off his wrists/ he stay cluelessly Running under the bridge/ hunting my kids These dark figures rolling through snow/ holding to fifths So/ golden and blissed when we slip from his grasp For another night/ sleeping on grass (glass)/ far from the past God works/ so damn mysterious here He hardly come round/ yeah, he disappearing and shit I look up/ to the ominous clouds and shout flows He drops down buckets of snow
6.
Beaten under bridges where I live/ with my kids Trash lids open/ on the lam/ out the pen When I ran shit/ never thought I’d see the damn clan spit On the old god/ with his odd gold teeth And his raw-soled sneaks/ now it’s all so deep Protect your nest/ projects infect the best And reject the rest/ caress the flesh so patient Then leave your head meshed with the pavement/ In Laymen’s/ terms I been spurned by the turned back/ Burnt black/ dirt-nap/ taking bird baths latched tight/ in A rest stop stall with my raps so black And my last thoughts scrawled on the cracked white walls I miss my moms/ I kiss the picture in my palm This system’s making victims of us all I listen for your call but it never crawls underneath my sheet To shake me from my penance in the street/ it’s deep
7.
I want it all/ white wings/ bright green/ until my flight leaves Taking off/ filled with light beams/ in all the tight seams Floating over the ocean/ holding a whiskey water Moving hocus pocus and focus upon a frisky daughter Shake it back to the land/ turn off the bright lights Set the stage/ bed down for days/ until the night’s bright Colors are coming in/ swimming along the walls Take her to the waterfall/ naked under the stars Daily killing it/ filling a moleskine with lyrics Room full of instruments/ building with illy friends are brilliant No jobs/ mortgages/ rob stores and get off/ Ladle Every bit of life in a box/ label it rock Lock down/ till beats knock and blocks drown/ Godzilla foot/ sweet spots get knocked down Drums under my thumbs/ Humble the dumb Crumble all of these/ buildings that breed I want it all/ solar everything/ living off of the map Just cat nap/ and wake up and rap/ and make a fat snack Lamping back in the yard/ dreaming of rat packs revisited Rocking on stages til my liver gives With my brother beside/ so uninhibited Take off the tux/ rocking in socks and black chucks Wrapped up/ bottles of bourbon and fat blunts And the last words outta my mouth is Rap Sucks
8.
I’m on the street sweeping cigarette ashes/ having flashes Of leaving this life/ just skip up a couple classes The magic of purse-snatching/ lurking/ nagging Work rabbits under my hat/ it’s old habit Like old fabric/ comfortable/ Gloves fit/ fuckable Run swift/ dip in a dive and roll high When I stroll by pockets to pick/ I’m Cliff Huxtable Blend in with any of them/ many a men Housed within a single body/ on a given night Silver might slide in your room/ bare in the ribbon light Hiddenite/ jewels and gems/ slip to the dresser Professor Lex/ tools and tims/ speak confessions Under my breath/ mumbling sex, fire, and death A choir kept/ roaring its hex/ firing my chest In the highest clef/ stumbling back into the passage Fumbling/ handles of doors/ trapped on the third floor A child wept/ sirens arose/ I a-froze Till quiet crept over me calm/ speaking a psalm Fly through the windows and blinds/ as vines snap Laugh/ airborne like passion/ wings massive Never come back to the land/ feeling release As some peeps on the balcony stand/ watching police scurry round and round/ wringing their hands beetles and ants Float above/ loaded and dance/ holding my only chance Hit the ground running/ a hundred and ten With jungle gym/ vertical bars spun in my head And another bid looming/ I zoom/ lucid maneuvers & lose ‘em while a necklace hang/ reckless/ dang Slang/ pawn windows in shame/ Faking my name Julio McGooley/ schooling the game/ fool in the flames //Spill out the other side/ wallet is waterlogging it Pockets ripped/ slip in the bar/ playing the optimist Tomorrow morning be hollow back to a couple dollars Hollering/ Back at the sun/ rattle a ragged lung Slung low// fallen from riches hit a couple kitchens Head to the goodwill and get a shoe and a fitted suit Then to a neighborhood hid/ up in a stolen skin Spy/ with my eye on a benz/ violet lens Mens/ and women walk past/ waving and laughing I’m looking class/ jacket and pants/ shoe shine: glassy Splashed/ with sample cologne/ ambling/ stoned Slash through the damp on the lone/ flashing a phone Through vile clones/ making notes to dialtones When night falls, I’ll be back/ jacking these homes/ blown
9.
Sipping on shitty tea/ sweetened without a lemon & Eating a meaty meal you wouldn't feed to your beagle & Reading on some remedial media featuring Jesus & Feeling greedy for something to hold/ something old I need to read a novella/ compel a fella to elevate from a cell and get well away from a hell of pain Sail away/ on a tide of vitally verdant/ internally burning words that get turning/ learn to dispel the gray The walls of my cell are falling for real I'm crawling to the top of the hill/ with Alighieri Carrying with me a Merriam's Dictionary-Thesaurus And various books of western philosophy/ getting lost in these Words/ and getting found again/ and beginning to spin My own mythology/ if you follow me then you heard How I've rewritten my own autobiography An audiopsychologist rocking until I'm gone Until they kill all the lights/ I'm gonna fight Writing letters home on a metal desk in the heavy quiet The elegant LMNOs and elemental inventions of a man at the edge of a legend on instrumentals Taking it day-to-day/ pray I don't fade away The halogens that rattle me/ painting my battle gray Always/ lying awake and night and day we escaping Into the pages that shape our imagination and breaking away Shaking my head/ quaky, aching in bed Until I took a dip in an archaeology text Open a paper sarcophagus and get lost in the foreign marks On the ominous ark/ anonymous art Holding my history glistening in my hand like an automatic Til all of the static fall off a fallen planet Rustle pages/ a hustle, shuffling cards/ As mathematics assemble to crumble stumbling blocks Until they kill all the lights/ I'm gonna fight Writing letters home on a metal desk in the heavy quiet The elegant LMNOs and elemental inventions of a man at the edge of a legend on instrumentals Ain't incidental I need a pencil to blow/ Sickest sense of the flow/ through the fences I go I need to dig on a classic and find some magic/ Lost in a thorny grove/ a story carried me home
10.
10 Threnody 03:55
It's the end of the night and I'm packing away the books Looking out of the littlest window to overlook The city full of graffiti galore/ stories of pity and war Littered with gritty people that pour White liquor over their livers until they're warm Throwing bottles into bodies that shiver/ winter the storm Sleeping in doorways/ their families ran away Panicky little animals/ loss of humanity I cannot cry mama, my eyes have been dried in A life that leads me alone, out to the highlands So insular, but no island/ peninsula One minimal limb just holding onto a pen And when I wrote it I floated over it high Built a hideaway faraway from the day-to-day grind And when I spoke it, it floated into the night Running through empty gutters and spilling into the quiet I shudder under the weight of it all/ cover the cross and mutter paeans to beings/ bring on the fall I cannot flip within walls that collar me in A scholar can bend light/ but not when he's inside And all this reading is just feeding a need to get up And out of under the lock and key of the cops It's gotta give/ summon the water and let it fall on top of us Solomon's seal/ calling the Tidal messiah get higher/ bury the spires and telephone wires/ scraping the sky and making it cry out Mama Tsunami/ Come on and call through the walls of the crumbling prisons/ humbling visions/ run with the fishes Pound me/ crown me/ drown me/ ain't no difference Just take me from this prison of inches/ this shit's ridiculous I'll never bend a knee/ send me into the sea And wash the curse of man from the land/ birthing the beast Let go Let go Everyone here's looking for some kind of escape From drugs to the hunger for paper/ none of us safe Another day/ another devil we can't escape Chasing revelry/ painting over the pain Reins/ let go/ overlord Gepetto he can't make me a marionette/ his silhouette folds Behind a curtain of clouds/ tumbling down over ghettos Thunderous sound/ sound echoes Settling over the bleak meadows of oak ripe with broken defeat Til the alchemist laugh and shackle the gold from our teeth Crack-speckled vernacular/ rapped to cast a hex into Dracula's back We so immaculate/ leak passionate speech/ til the last of us/ pass through the teeth of old/ smashing it Put to the lash/ we been pushed to the back Now the waters rise/ swallowing skies/ it's all black Fall back into the sea/ O my enemy I sing while I'm spinning this venomous threnody In the wings/ Spilling these little syllable seeds And we fly on the backs of these thieves/ hatching so free Let go Let go Tidal messiah get higher/ bury the spires and telephone wires/ scraping the sky and making it cry out Mama Tsunami/ Come on and call through the walls of the crumbling prisons/ humbling visions/ run with the fishes Pound me/ crown me/ drown me/ ain't no difference Just take me from this prison of inches/ this shit's ridiculous I'll never bend a knee/ send me into the sea And wash the curse of man from the land/ birthing the beast
11.
Raised in the Orchestra/ Hazed by the dozens Mom worked door-to-door/ Pops was a plumber Tried to pull me up by the thumbs But I land in the slammer every time/ the phenomenon of crime Sang in the autumn/ Did plays in the summer Moms looking for a sign/ Pops going under Tried to pull me up by the thumbs But I land in the slammer every time/ the phenomenon of crime I used to sing in the choir at church Bells rang when I hit high notes/ in my throat You would sit in the back/ and just clap/ Your wild hair pulling stares/ everyone there/ laughed behind your back Til they smacked my last nerve/ Slashed tires, sugared their tanks, and scratched words into paint/ Smashed stained glass windows and cursed I went berserk, Mama, cause I was hurt, (I never meant to hurt you) They took me all the way/ To state on holiday A juvenile/ so damn small and faraway In the tank// learned how to spar & flow hard But once I did my time I was addicted to crime And never could arise out the demons in my mind Fiending for the grind/ That phenomenon of crime Bombing all the lines/ With a racked can of Krylon Nylon/ stretched over my head with some pipe bomb threats Don’t cry mom/ I’m coming home to see you Once I get outside of this evil cathedral Raised in the autumn/ & blazed in the summer Moms worked all the time/ Pops crunched numbers Tried to pull me up by the thumbs But I land in the slammer every time/ the phenomenon of crime Slang in the autumn/ Did plays in the summer Moms looking for a sign/ Pops going under Tried to pull me up by the thumbs But I land in the slammer every time/ the phenomenon of crime You put your dreams on me/ and set free Every passion I chose/ basketball to the dance hall Sacrificing your own/ so I could grow So fat/ so fast/ & such an asshole Who never really knew all the little things you’d do But when I’d see you crying in the middle of the room I’d scribble little lines, a riddle or haiku To brighten up your eyes for a minute or two/ Eventually/ I’d fall back in the dirt/ Remember you calling to work/ faking ill just to pick us up Robbing liquor stores/ Fuck it, liquor trucks Or getting beat half-dead, exchanging fisticuffs Eighteen, angelface, Mama’s little man Strangling bank clerks, and wrangling sedans These hands/ used to paint/ beautiful scenes Of you and me/ Now they break so brutally Mama see/ You’re a saint/ I seen the halo It fades when I come round, though/ it’s just a gray glow I apologize for the drama all the time I’m trying to leave behind this phenomenon of crime. Raised in the Orchestra/ Hazed by the dozens Mom worked door-to-door/ Pops was a plumber Tried to pull me up by the thumbs But I land in the slammer every time/ the phenomenon of crime Sang in the autumn/ Did plays in the summer Mom's looking for a sign/ Pop's going under Tried to pull me up by the thumbs But I land in the slammer every time/ the phenomenon of crime [[[ I was the one/ Inspired/ the son Baby brother running beside/ we like one lung til we turned tired from the firing of blunts Shotguns burning our throats/ crumbling coke/ into One too many as your sons grew skinny You’d sit at home/ all alone and rub pennies Til the face fell off/ and sell off/ your last links To get my ass out of the clink/ Just think ]]] I shoulda brought the dream/ to our family Working on the clean/ have you living like a queen Instead I fell/ deep under the spell of the streets/ had you Pulling strings/ out in the sleet/ New Year’s Eve Hat in your hand/ begging help from the neighbors With Dad on the lam/ Yeah, he couldn’t stand to stay there “Say there, could you spare a buck or two for bail? My boy’s in jail”/ They just stare/ you’re so frail And pass a party hat ‘round the room/ while balloons Escape toward the sky while you're shaking in your shoes Never meant to make you cry, mama, that’s the truth They closed the door on you/ left you out under the moon I miss you bad, Mama/ Swear I’m coming home soon Make the bail somehow/ And vow that I’ll do Anything/ to bring/ harmony back in your mind And finally resign the phenomenon of crime
12.
I wake late/ in the afternoon/ and play spoons Into a bowl filled with oat milk and spilt Os When it hits home, panic/ a fit with spit blown Her message’s been rattling my phone/ spelling I’m late I pull on some drawers/ splash on my face, and then escape Through the barred doors/ hop in a car with scarred floors And put on a tape—maybe that latest Utility Fog/ Maybe that Finale dub from 2008/ now we’re on our way Look out the window/ watch the tenements slide by The tenants mute/ the symptoms of drive by The boarded facades—the gutted houses hidden from God And underneath it all—a sense of the deepening fall We slide/ past the derelict blocks and then we stop, At a house of cards/ calling her name/ she’s in the yard with her shoulders out/ I’m swallowing hard, Girl—get in the car, we’re headed down to the reservoir Take me to the water’s edge/ watershed/ shedding The grit of the city/ skinny dipping/ bodies get waterfed Just float/ let it all fall away/ Wade into the reservoir/ Shake it off/and we’ll call it a day Follow your bobbing head out to the island The sun is swallowing the sky/ your laughter like a siren Pealing off of the trees and boulders/ spilling over me Indigo water holding me tight/ just like a cloverleaf Light/ tickles across the water/ skips like a stone Until it sinks and we slip out for home/ follow behind you Find a door in the gathering fog/ in the lathery dark, Laughing in starts, blind/ we feel our way back to the car Back in the center city/ cigarettes litter the curb The club’s aglitter and I’m flipping legitimate swerve Outside just spitting/ then head in for a spin and a serve, Sit for a gin and a word/ spilling back onto the curb The stars are far away, and God’s on holiday, There’s nothing shining in the sky besides the color grey I wanna call you up right now and hear the water play Across your tongue, pick me up Sunday/ it’s time to escape Take me to the water’s edge/ watershed/ shedding The grit of the city/ skinny dipping/ bodies get waterfed Just float/ let it all fall away/ Wade into the reservoir/ Shake it off/and we’ll call it a day

credits

released August 8, 2010

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Cover image by Mikko Luntiala.
Licensed under Creative Commons.

Beats jacked, respectively, from
01 Chanes
02 Jon Phonics
03 Oddisee
04 Glen Porter
05 Black Milk
06 Bronze Nazareth
07 Paul White
08 Jake One
09 Thes One
10 Diverse
11 Dr. Who Dat?
12 Beach House vs. 808.

All vocals and bedroom lore performed by Plucky Walker.

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Plucky Walker Asheville, North Carolina

Plucky Walker is a lost island of rap, a freestyle savant whose hunger for improvisation and contrary disposition has led to a bitter lack of recorded output. A sworn enemy of swag, focused on vibrant storytelling
and armed with a dizzying array of styles, his story is one rife with near-death experience, drug abuse, larceny, heartbreak and incarceration. In many ways, the story of rap itself.
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