It's Tuesday morning, ten o' clock, and yet I'm late to eat Stop by early for a pastry from the bakery I snatch the bag, I leave the cash, and then I'm on my way But that day, I'll never forget the counter lady's face Sullen, weary, like something in her died Like she doesn't have a reason for a sense of pride Maybe this is only one of her two different jobs And in the other one, she's always harassed by the dogs They always shoutin' at her, they throwin' dollars at her And sometimes, she's sent home broken, and it leaves her shattered But it doesn't matter, she got her bills to pay And though she's feeling battered, no other choice but stay And the pastries, not enough to pay the rent But she loves it 'cause the people here treat her with respect So when she smiles with a "Have a nice day!" I can't help but smile also as I'm walking away I grab my doughnut and go I grab my milk and I go I grab my heart and I go I grab my heart and I go Outside the window, there's a PNC across the street Imagine the bank while you're sitting in your stadium seats The cold, impersonal exchange of currency green Times are tough, businesses stay rough just to compete But think about how insignificant those dollars seem When you watch a mother walk up the counter, deposit three She tells the clerk, "I have a couple kids depend on me, But how am I supposed to raise them with outrageous fees?" Yo, I feel for them, you know them kids, they need to eat And they pleading with her, "Can we eat at the McDonald's please?" You can hear her heart break every time she doesn't go She can't afford the meal, but feels she can't afford to tell them no So she swipes down on the credit card machine Can't find the time to live if you can't find the space to breathe Knowing that she'll never sort out all the mess Hoping that her kids can fix it when she finds herself at death I grab my doughnut and go I grab my milk and I go I grab my heart and I go I grab my heart and I go The guy next to me is furiously tapping his screen I can tell it's a message because I watch him read I can see the words tear through his eyes Criticizing and compromising every word that he romanticized Though I know I'm being nosy, I can catch a name Can barely make out it's a girl, he's out of his domain I can only hope she likes him just like he likes her But she keeps getting all frustrated by his lack of words And while she's quiet 'cause she's lonely inside Well, She doesn't realize he has a mountain to climb And everyone around him might just call it a hill But that demeans the pain and the frustration he feels 'Cause when he can't even do something as simple as text It makes him feel as though he's a cut below the rest And, no I don't say nothing, I get up and leave Hope that everything works out for the people here at the bakery I grab my doughnut and go I grab my milk and I go I grab my heart and I go I grab my heart and I go

Face turns green, the sun chose to believe That a boy burned into the world rose to leave A man now, head out of the sand, left branded Matured and wise, but not quite as he planned it The world has a tendency to move Only as fast, but probably faster than you do And what do you do when the universe splits in two? Time to choose, which side hides the truth? And that's where our hero stands Not by chance, but that's where the world commands Stands still, but the sun's tellin' him to run Many paths diverge into a wood, chose none Will's left chilled, it's broken down Left alone in the cold, and it's frozen now Hands hitting and it makes him miserable Bring him back into a time when it was visible Master the booze, mask the bruise Ask yourself, what more do you have to lose? Try not to think about the consequence the answer brings Fat lady sings when you realize it's everything How can you shape your life, make it disguise-proof When the atoms that bind you seem to despise you? It's a thirty-man balancing act Try to cross the line with entire passion intact The dragon stripped our hero of every bit of his hope Snapped 29 necks, now at the middle of rope Void of fulfillment, so says the villain Matters of the lucid are the only path to brilliance So he finds himself slippin' away Facing decay, right here in the middle of day Genetically inferior, never had a fair start Disappeared into his stare, like he was Earhart Heave, shots to the knees Visions of decisions that would cause him to freeze If he had a dime he could buy him a diamond And choose between love and retirement And he's heaving, 'cause of shots to the knees And the visions of decisions that would cause him to freeze If he had a dime he could buy him a diamond And choose between love and retirement Has a hard time counting up to three Stuck in the middle, fickle, and it's hard to breathe Others say free, but he's torn at the seems Devoid of the needle that he desperately needs Drove down the highway, rode through the skyway One way sign's a ticket to rapid tight brake Never gave way toward the sudden lane change Must be insane, watch the city limits fade away And that's when the spark went out Too much time apart and the stocks went south Fire burning, but it's water on a greased grill Keep on circling till its, "Peace, be still" Heave, shots to the knees Visions of decisions that would cause him to freeze If he had a dime he could buy him a diamond And choose between love and retirement Burdens, washing up on the surface Which tsunami, combined, drives you the furthest? It's important, the crack of the warden's whip Is a warning you'll never win the way the tortoise did And that's what the program said So he sheared it, then he seared it, pierced it out of his head But if you take a break during the race There's a million hares ready and eager to take your place And he's obsessing over the how to hit the right keys Caught between career and the Burt's and the Bees But if it pleases him to fight and scream Maybe better than solution is a thirteenth dream But is he gonna wake up soon? While he's sleeping is he gonna have to take that wound? And is he man enough to wear that scar, Or is it just another star on his x-marked heart? Heave, shots to the knees Visions of decisions that would cause him to freeze If he had a dime he could buy him a diamond And choose between love and retirement If he had a dime he could buy him a diamond And choose between love and retirement

They say you'll never get nowhere with arts and crafts The only value worth creating is expressed in charts and graphs The confidence you fake, the money that you make The list of things that you should've accomplished yesterday I'm pulling hard upon the brake to bring the traction back 'Cause every minute is assumed to be spent action packed That's a reality I aim to relieve Reject the premise, only then you're truly free But what does it mean, practically, When you're rapidly declining down the paper green tree? Because, when you were younger, never reached out for a leaf And then you turned eighteen, forever labeled a thief But it's never kosher 'till it's over Four-leaf clover never getting closer Place a personal, man-seeking-closure Write it up into a rap song, hype it on a poster (And you hang that poster high So you can advertise That you are who you want to be And nobody else) Melt into your bed, melt into your head Decompose what they said 'till your face turns red If you only had but half as much passion For taxes as you do for waxing and slacking Then, maybe you could learn to be somebody Finally leave to bleach your mind key If you kept it in the right, well I could understand But as it is, they gotta find it in another man The Devil said the greatest trick in the book Was convincing the Queen to treat her moves like a rook And what that means is things aren't as they seem So consider tributaries as you're crossing downstream They say a picture paints a thousand words But I could paint a thousand pictures or just write what I heard And the portrait of life, the quest to love and to laugh Try to quantify that onto your motherfucking graphs

Coming off a brand new, first fresh start Coming off a summer, feeling lonesome, apart Moving into another room, more compact Celebrate the 2016 class Hall Cats Well, first off, what can I say About the following 240-odd days? Left a couple out, picked up a few more But we got the same core, that's the five from before Switched from a routine of making the rounds To a cycle of simply two rooms and a lounge But that's okay, best that we consolidate Otherwise, there's just too much unused real estate 'Cause, met a group of people, call 'em my friends Met a larger group of people where the door meant the end Got a different atmosphere for only a year So let's try to have some fun while we're here, clear? Sirens blaring as we prowling the streets Bring everybody that we meet to their knees Hall Cats, baby, and we singing our song Hall Cats, baby, party all night long Gold to our touch in the breeze Taking special care of everything that you need Hall Cats, baby, and we singing our song Hall Cats, baby, party all night long Speaking of the core, let's count the things that we did Starting with the horror of the piss in the fridge (not me) From court to our homeboy D To eating everything you can find at the parties Eating absolutely nothing after the fact At the Hangover King after double-strength liquid crack Well shit, that's a swing and a miss Like the time that we ordered in free, no tip That was an accident, but most of it's not Such as walking in slowly, and not caring to knock Filling up protection with water, tying a knot Then placing it in beds in the shape of a you-know what And I don't approve of everything that we do I refuse to sign off on every foolish pursuit But, until I find that item I won't ever let slide I guess I'm just along for the ride, right? Sirens blaring as we prowling the streets Bring everybody that we meet to their knees Hall Cats, baby, and we singing our song Hall Cats, baby, party all night long Gold to our touch in the breeze Taking special care of everything that you need Hall Cats, baby, and we singing our song Hall Cats, baby, party all night long We had some people, always kept to themselves Never came of their shell 'cause of opinions they held Well, I'm not the type to tell people what to do But how can you enjoy yourself cooped up in a room? Like, don't any of you get lonely in there? I guess not, but I don't understand how you couldn't care It doesn't matter, 'cause the business isn't mine Push it out of my mind, straight to the back of the line And here's a shout-out to the honorary Hall Cats Consider them members with everything but a contract I can count four off of my head Sad we couldn't share adventures at the places they went From the friends that we keep to the people who leave From relationships we cherish to the ones that we grieve I'm glad for the time that we had, however brief So until the next time that we meet, peace Sirens blaring as we prowling the streets Bring everybody that we meet to their knees Hall Cats, baby, and we singing our song Hall Cats, baby, party all night long Gold to our touch in the breeze Taking special care of everything that you need Hall Cats, baby, and we singing our song Hall Cats, baby, party all night long

The first time we met, it was a late October night The celebration of the ever increasingly near fright The prospect of trading some consumption for deception Was the first moment that I was alerted to your presence In a stroke of luck, the population pruned One by one, they left the room as the number shrunk to two Off and on, I think there was a third person involved But that was not the topic my mind would revolve I told them I didn't like you, I'll let you know I lied But isolation of opinion always makes me question why Could it be that there was something I was turning eyes to blind? Or could it be that they were finding faults I simply didn't mind? The next moment shared, we were a little bit buzzed And by buzzed, I mean we were both completely fucked up Now I don't remember the exact topic of conversation, But I do remember timid consolation Fast forward a month, to a Super Bowl number crunch We had the patience of a monk, but we didn't get nothing done There was one outside the sea of sorted, sheeted numbers Made the butterflies flutter more than others Now I won't lie, what happened next was a damn miracle Wrote a text out the blue, was left with evidence empirical Hazy memory left Zachary entranced And the confidence expanded by the BAC enhancement And so it went, took some time to reconnect Back and forth we often crept, but the time was never spent This is where the story goes from cute, to drab, to tragic As the steam train pulled up to the station, lost its magic Fizzled out, gone, over and done Point 'em up into the sky and fire twenty-one guns I can analyze my failings, I can visualize solutions But the issue lies between the concept and the execution You see the problem, I gave you a fuckin' timeline From October to April, that's too long for me to sideline Now all I got is a string of disjointed moments And ninety percent of critical components I'd like to think these moments mean something to you I think they do, but as usual, no I never followed through And myself, I'm headed up a new stairwell So for now I'll just wish you goodbye and farewell

Bright and early, 9 A.M. sharp Till it's 8, till it's 7, till it's 6 and it's dark With the crack of the whip upon the bare of your back Until the stress tight compresses and your neck, tied, snaps 40, 50, 60, more Until your stomach's turning out, and here you're wondering the source It's your time, and you're giving it away To a system that commodifies and views you as a slave But that's alright, fill a swimming pool with cash Swim until you're dead and then you throw it in the trash I just have one question, is it worth it? Givin' up all of your life for what you're earning? No, no, no, fight! Until they beat you to the ground and then you're greeted by the light I don't care that we can't ever win So I'll be sitting here, shouting into the wind The numbers, Zach, tell me about the numbers! Because the ones that you came up with are makin' me start to wonder! If you don't want to be productive, then leave We can find another machine to replace thee! Numbers, Zach, tell me about the numbers! Because the ones that you came up with are makin' me start to wonder! If you don't want to be productive, then leave We can find another machine to replace thee! Whatever happened to the heroes from our textbooks Who went and stole the work week from those insolent crooks? 'Cause now it seems you either give in to the game Or you're on the street without a single penny to your name It's a classic case of prisoners' dilemma For a couple extra dollars they'll condemn the ones who sent 'em If it's a dog-eat-dog world, shit 'Cause if you call on me in for wet work you can find me at the bridge The worst is those who don't think it's a fuckin' problem At the slightest sound, they'll rollover, regurgitate the dogma Tough shit, that's just the way that it is And if you want to stay competitive, you'll learn to accept it Well, fuck that, I got a life to live And I only have a certain number of hours to give If you don't want the dogs now to hold them ransom, Then shout along with me, make it your damn anthem! The numbers, Zach, tell me about the numbers! Because the ones that you came up with are makin' me start to wonder! If you don't want to be productive, then leave We can find another machine to replace thee! Numbers, Zach, tell me about the numbers! Because the ones that you came up with are makin' me start to wonder! If you don't want to be productive, then leave We can find another machine to replace thee!

I don't normally do this, but today I'll make an exception So please, while I'm spitting, try to contain your erection My name is Vitemin, you need me once a day And if I had to choose one, I'd be Vitemin A A+ for the flow, A+ for the lyrics A+ for anything I do while you're able to hear it You wanna try and grade me, I'm too far off the charts I know what you're thinkin', how does an ego go to grow so large? After that last one you thought I was a mess But now I'm at a new peak, now I compete with the best The bulb went black, then the pencil went "crack!" But now I'm back better than ever and I learned how to rap I can see my execution made you not so sure So the only solution I see is to lay on some more Now I know I'm dope, I'm hoping you do as well The next stop after this murder, maybe learnin' to spell V-I-T-E Yeah, that's me! M-I-N Let's sing it again! V-I-T-E Yeah, that's me! M-I-N Okay, next verse now... Maybe you'd be a bit quicker to take a pic If you could understand the mastery of the tracks that I spit Now I don't want to be a tiny bit presumptuous But I just might be the most skilled rapper to ever live Seriously, have you heard any these songs? They were hand-delivered, down to Earth, fresh from the gods And my Adonis voice coming out of these vocal chords About to win me a couple hundred thousand million awards The keyboard that I used to craft all these sounds Sold for about 13 on Amazon, probably a few hundred now If I were you, I'd doubtless scoop that shit up It'll never be as cheap as it previously was If you're looking for the secret to my greatness, I don't have one It's natural for me to roll up to these mics and smash 'em It's what I did right now, it's what I'll do till I'm dead It's what I'll do until the day that I'm stuck in your head

To the one, two, raised me up As of late, I've been in a little bit of a flux You see, when you present a Jekyll-Hyde menagerie And, "Take a side!" everybody's always yelling at me Well, you can breathe how this gets a little complex Not a product of the past, patched together, Tron-bred They say the nut doesn't fall far from the tree But the tree's roots have been scorched from the green Willfully ignoring all that you do From the good to the bad, both tore me in two You never envisioned the tire skid But if you did, maybe you would have the sense to quit Painting effigies brown to beige Either send them to their home or send them all up in a blaze If I had a nickel for every time that you fell I could build a monument to all the virtues you upheld Two parts of a heart doesn't make it whole And the foil on a coin doesn't make it gold And the poison in your voice doesn't make it bold It only turns the fire burning on your pyre cold Two parts of a heart doesn't make it whole And the foil on a coin doesn't make it gold And the poison in your voice doesn't make it bold It only turns the fire burning on your pyre cold The frayed wire that connects the heart to the brain Is like a window where the rain sprays only one pane And the rain pushes away the flag at the mast It was ordered when you sliced up my aorta in half Never mind that the golden ticket wood is rickety But the base provided was tainted with acidity And when the gunk gushes out of my gloves I can scrawl across the wall my definition of love Scrape from the shelves off a layer of rust What your left with's a cross between a shell and a husk Does it count not to struggle when depraved waves hit? Is it grounded when refraining from your way of saying shit? A pacifist, equipped with these twisted hands Inertia when uncovering your mystic lands If I had the courage I could Moses the blue I suppose I'll wrap my boas in glue Two parts of a heart doesn't make it whole And the foil on a coin doesn't make it gold And the poison in your voice doesn't make it bold It only turns the fire burning on your pyre cold Two parts of a heart doesn't make it whole And the foil on a coin doesn't make it gold And the poison in your voice doesn't make it bold It only turns the fire burning on your pyre cold

Have you ever had the temperament, you meant what you said But then you pen it in a letter you regret when it's sent? It's penance for your pentagram, motor mouth, minute mile Upload it to Instagram, pretend that you can decompile Flowing free as your speech, so you drink it up Nobody wants it or needs it but you just can't deduct Any second now, tumble down, house of cards Loneliness is brokered and you know you're not a star 1, 2, feeling fine. 3, 4, give me more Then you mourn what wasn't yours until your heart is warped and sore And you never know when, it all happens too fast Like you're driving a Ferrari that's destined to crash "Go by how you feel, there's no need to count" Hit a magic number, though, and then I'm down and out And I don't mean the vomit, although it takes a village It's the declining of the mind, a different kind of spillage Flop, stop, drop, roll Of course you're having fun, but it's taking its toll Go to sleep, think it over... maybe not Place emotion in a box and then send it all to the chopping block You don't know what you're drowning, so you tend to detach Internal fire isn't drenched, light a match Flame high, burn it to dust, turn to disgust Carve out a symbol you can take from the rust Record the scenes, import it on screens Question the record, why does the end defy the means? Return to your previous genes, as a demonic child Write an archive for your friends, Johnny Mnemonic style And while you might forget, know that they never will And while they might also forgive, know that you severed still It's the important antecedent to rips in the sheets The kind of secrets that you wish you only spit on beats What kind of secrets, though, you don't know what they are At the bar, feeling charged, so you tear up your scars And that's when you make it yet another excuse For you to pour it out and chug more juice Of course you don't want to believe it So you express all your feelings inside of piles of diseased spit And if you ever want to give it all up Just make damn sure to empty your cup Flop, stop, drop, roll Of course you're having fun, but it's taking its toll Go to sleep, think it over... maybe not Place emotion in a box and then send it all to the chopping block You don't know what you're drowning, so you tend to detach Internal fire isn't drenched, light a match Flame high, burn it to dust, turn to disgust Carve out a symbol you can take from the rust

If you evaluate yourself to just a pile of bones Then you can check in 30 years to see how far that you've been thrown But, if you resolve to piece your skeleton up Then you can finally evolve into the man that you've become First things first, you need support, a leg to stand on 'Cause when baton is passed, it's up to you to nail the hand-off But it's a standoff, running out of your shamrocks Now go and grab your bones, they've been landlocked up in your sandbox 'Cause if you crawl into this Day of the Dead shit You'll find that gravity isn't a force that you should mess with So lift your legs into a tower of power and rise Quit your cowering and waiting for help to arrive You got two legs, and feet on both to match And moving em's better than collecting them in a sack And they're the same size, so I suggest you pray wise 'Cause when the dust settles, it wrestles em right from your waistline Now when you've got 'em in a pile, stacked a mile high See if you can stick the crypt to reach into the sky But before you do it, though, you're gonna need cement Otherwise, you'll collapse upon a stronger descent And when everybody else is also seeming to fuse It can appear as though there ain't enough cement here left to use I'm confident you'll stumble on some naturally So no need for you to go searching for faster relief And I can understand if you just want to quietly weep That just means that you're forgettable yet privately sweet It's unfortunate, but that's what we're restoring you for It's partially your own fault for igniting a war But never mind that, we got a job to perform We got a lot of work to do to make you lively and warm And I know that it's monopolizing all of your time But it'll be worth it when you cop your ticket for the Number Nine