Story Behind the Song
Dirts favorite Line(s): ‘unlike those on the promenade/ I’m not leisurely’, ‘you steal lyrics but forget the Holy Spirit’, ‘taking the essence back from the hypocrites’
GoldenChild sent me the beat for this one almost 6 months before I went to New York to record. When I first heard it, I just knew I had to stomp on it. And I knew what I needed to do with it. It needed to be a solo with radio appeal. After the first album came out I had a lot of radio DJ’s complain to me that there weren’t any strong radio cuts on it (even though I thought ‘Mustard Seed’, ‘Operation E.’, and ‘Breathe Deep’ were!). The age old struggle of getting Dirt to ‘lighten’ up!
I don’t know why but it was hard to write anything. I heard in this beat the capability to be a mass appealing beginning, but all I could write is these ‘killer’, grimy, street level words. Plus at the time I thought writing ‘radio’ stuff was selling out (as compared to now, when I realize that the true challenge and sign of a dope emcee is to write in between cultural relevance and commercial appeal).
With all that time to write, I walked into Jesse’s studio with nothing written to this beat! It was actually the night before we needed to record it, that it all spilled out (‘I wrote these lyrics at 4am/ with fire in my pen’). Then I slept for a couple of hours and got up to break it off! I built the song around the scratch (I always wanted to use that scratch and it hit me the night before). The inspiration might have been last minute but the result was still good.
I had to call Mike Czech and tell him the BPM’s of the track so he could do the DJ cuts on it (actually all the scratches he did on this album were done like this). In my opinion this further solidifies Mike Czech as one of the illest turntablist seeing as how he doesn’t even need to be in the same room as the beat to lay down phat stuff on it!
Its GoldenChild and Epsilon on the choruses and the extra vocal pieces. If you listen close to the last verse when I say ‘representing underground like sedimentaries’ you can hear a punch in that was done wrong. I had messed up at the end of that verse at that spot, but we liked the beginning so much that we decided to just punch in right there. But the punch in was done too early catching my lyrics in mid word. We listened to it and thought that it actually sounded cool so we left it!
I don’t know if I got that ‘radio’ vibe everyone wanted, but I like this track a lot (mainly because of the Dj'd pieces). Alotta people said I did too much experimental stuff on this album, but I don’t see how anyone could not consider this song a pure hiphop song!
For more song lyrics, stories, and interactive Dirt... check out www.intheholehegoes.com!
Lyrics
"Essence"
ROCK AH YAH, HOSANNA
I CARRY MY LORD LIKE A BANNER
ONE DAY I'LL EAT MANNA IN THE HEAVENS
UNTIL THEN, KEEP MY BREAD UNLEAVENED
AND THE TOP OF MY HEAD UNSHAVENED
I SEND A QUIK RAP TO MESS UP YOUR WHOLE MONOLOGUE
I FIGHT HARD WITH THE POWER OF GOD
MY VOICE LIKE GOLDENROD
UNLIKE THOSE ON THE PROMENADE
I'M NOT LEISURELY
BUT USUALLY
THOSE OF YOU THAT HEARD OF ME
CAN'T MASTER THE ART OF ME
GOT THESE LYRICS FROM THE SCROLLS OF THE DEAD SEA
(deejay chorus)
'Mock my appearance yet yearn for my essence'
PRAISE THE OMNIPOTENT, THE VOCAL SUFFICIENT
YOU LIKE THE SOUND AND SO WILL YOUR DESCENDANTS
YOU STEAL LYRICS, BUT FORGET THE HOLY SPIRIT
NOW HOW CAN YOU BENEFIT
THAT'S ONLY TAKING HALF OF IT
THE HEART IS THE REST OF IT
WHAT'S AN EMCEE WITHOUT SOUL IN WHAT HE TRANSMIT
THAT'S DANGEROUS, WHEN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THIS
BUT SINCE WE STARTED THIS, THAT STORIES BEEN AGELESS
IF IT AINT BROKE THEN DON'T FIX IT
TREAD THE SERPENTS HEAD
LYRICALLY THUROUGHBRED'ED
SQUEEZE A DRAGON LIKE BLACKHEAD
HIP-HOP IS EMCEE'S THAT REARRANGE THE ALPHABET
AND DEEJAYS THAT SPEAK WITH PHONOGRAPH DECKS
IT'S NOT DEVILS THAT COME WITH THEY OWN SCIENCE
MOCKING US, BUT YEARNING FOR THE ESSENCE
IT'S Bboys AND Bgirls WITH ILL FORMAT
PRAISIN' GOD THROUGH MOVEMENT ON LINOLEUM MATS
IT'S PENCILS AND PENS IN THE HANDS OF ARTIST
WE CAN'T LET LUCIFER PERVERT THIS
(beat break)
…Your whack, son!!….your whack
I DISAGREE
ALWAYS HAVE TO PROVE MYSELF TO THESE EMCEE'S
AS IF FIGHTIN' EVIL SPIRITS WASN'T ENOUGH FOR ME
SO BIG RESPECT DUE TO THOSE SUPPORTING ME
NOT GHANGING WHAT I AM
FOREVER MY MIC SLAM
AND MAKE THE HARDEST MISTER CHANGE HIS TITLE TO MADAME
(deejay chorus)
'Mock my appearance yet yearn for my essence'
(mini chorus)
MY CULTURE?…'HIP-HOP!'
PRAISE MY GOD?…'FROM THE ROOFTOPS!'
IF YOU WANNA DANCE?…'FOLLOW THE RYTHEM!'
WHEN DEVILS ATTACK?…'WE WILL FIGHT THEM!'
WHEN WE STUDY, IT'S WITH BIBLE CONCORDANCE
WHEN WE PRAISE GOD THROUGH MOVEMENT, IT'S CALLED BREAK DANCE
WHEN WE PRAISE HIM THROUGH ART, IT'S CALLED GRAFFITI
AND WHEN WE PRAISE GOD THROUGH LYRIC, IT'S CALLED EMCEE
WE EVEN PRAISE HIM WITH TURNTABLES AND CALL IT DEEJAY….
I WROTE THESE LYRICS AT 4am WITH FIRE IN THE PEN
THE THING ON MY MIND, DESTROY THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN
WITH MUSIC DEAFENING
AND PUTTING WICKED THOUGHTS IN THE POCKET OF A SLING AND FLINGING THEM
A PARAGRAPH PHARISEE
BUT JUST ONE THREAD IN THE TAPESTRY
THAT HATES BLASPHEMIES
REPRESENTIN' UNDERGROUND LIKE SEDIMENTARIES
TAKIN' DEAD MENTALS OUT OF THE CEMENTARIES
BUT I CAN'T DO IT SOLO
JUST LIKE THERE'S MORE THAN ONE STRING ON A CELLO
DISTUINGISH RITUAL FROM SPIRITUAL
THEN DROP THE HEAVY WAR MATERIAL
BUT THIS CAT APOLLYON
WHO ATTACKS LIGAMENTS AND TENDONS
'CAUSE HE CAN'T GET MY ESSENCE
HIS WEAK GAME IS IRRELEVANT
BUT YET HE TRIES TO TRAIN ME LIKE CIRCUS ELEPHANT
HE STOLE THE SOUL FROM WAY BACK
BUT BELIEVE THAT THIS CLEPTOMANIAC WON'T GET AWAY WITH THAT
WE RUNNIN' THIS GAME IN OPPOSITE
TAKING THE ESSENCE BACK FROM THE HIPOCRITES
For more song lyrics, stories, and interactive Dirt... check out www.intheholehegoes.com!
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