Get all 21 Khemmeta releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Even Numbered Film, The Current Meta, When I Get To It, How to Outrun a Supernova, Winter Forever, Shine Factory: The Sugar and Scice Mixtape, Be Brave Stay Safe Love Yourselves and Each Other, Fool's Therapy, and 13 more.
1. |
Escape Velocity
03:26
|
|||
|
will they sing about your sorrow like they
sing about Achilles’ rage?
even if you put the lyrics
and notes on a page
and stuffed em down the mouths of
every vocalist close to a stage?
you want your lowest point to
usher new hope for your age?
you want your muse to live as
fuel for a worthier saint?
one more disciplined with
turning their words into paint?
but they can’t make the tryout,
rehearsal or play
if ain’t nobody noticed
casting managers searching today
you want to give your friend the
years that the universe took?
you want a monument
to get Ozymandius shook?
she deserves a longer stretch
and a lengthier book!
80 bars for every verse
and a lengthier hook!
you want the folks that loved her dearest
to bask in her light?
to feel the warmth of her embrace
and her laugh and her sigh?
and your only building blocks
are the raps that you write
that might not even reach anyone’s ear
but you have to recite
don’t be still,
be swift while the iron’s hot
like an avalanche boulder
no one would try to stop
if you want it hard enough
then you don’t need no rocket
one foot in front of the other
to ditch this dying rock
don't be still
be swift while the iron’s hot
like an avalanche boulder
no one would try to stop
if you need it you’ll be it
and it won’t take no jets
one foot in front of the other
to get away from death
would you build your love a temple
before you could make yourself a house?
a grand cathedral
that liberates all its guests from doubt?
structure so sturdy
the centuries couldn’t rust it down?
bricks that laugh at
exploding stars when they’re shutting down?
would you raise a new society
to bless her name?
torch the cities of
any who celebrate her pain?
of course you’d have to climb back
outta your couch and the games
you’re playing getting stagnant
ducking calendars counting the days
ain’t no legacy building
if you’re strapped to despair
steady sleeping cuz in dreams
there’s still spaces you share
waking up to a tragic
that’s too sad to be bared
grown-ass man just finding out that
life isn’t actually fair
tears ain’t only homonyms,
they are actually tears
you spend your life restitching
lest your innards might catch too much air
tryna share her brand of magic,
they had to be there
the truth is ain’t no going back cuz
your better half isn’t here
don’t be still,
be swift while the iron’s hot
like an avalanche boulder
no one would try to stop
if you want it hard enough
then you don’t need no rocket
one foot in front of the other
to ditch this dying rock
don't be still
be swift while the iron’s hot
like an avalanche boulder
no one would try to stop
if you need it you’ll be it
and it won’t take no jets
one foot in front of the other
to get away from death
don’t be still,
be swift while the iron’s hot
like an avalanche boulder
no one would try to stop
if you want it hard enough
then you don’t need no rocket
one foot in front of the other
to ditch this dying rock
don't be still
be swift while the iron’s hot
like an avalanche boulder
no one would try to stop
if you need it you’ll be it
and it won’t take no jets
one foot in front of the other.
|
||||
2. |
Moeser Lane
02:32
|
|||
|
i wished on a star
and it made it to you
i made bait out of a bar,
and you gave it a chew,
that’s a meaty win,
savor the juice
you and i, shared a love,
that was brave as the truth
and who could question our results?
our destinies and hopes
felt as certain as that first brigade of
blessings did for Job
the universe selected us to
catch each other’s souls
and every scar we grew apart only
prepared us to be whole
so the fusion’s not the sum of its fractions,
it's even greater
we’re crusaders for a
better humanity for our neighbors
friends and family and strangers,
let their weariness fade
i get gassed within your aura
i get carried away
so let’s get married today?
my bad, i’m working on my wing of this
to even up the balance and
strengthen my flimsy links a bit
i think i’m on the brink of succeeding,
i used to dream of this
a team no one could deem outta sync,
when they get to see us live
and i’m wishing on
all the people we’ve ever been
and i’m wishing on
all the colors we’ve ever known
and i’m wishing on
all the shoes that we walked within
and i’m wishing on
all the beaches we ever go
and i’m wishing on
all the dreams we have yet to dream
and i’m wishing on
all the places we’ve never seen
and i’m wishing i’ll wake up
and you’ll come back to me
and i’m wishing i’ll wake up
and you’ll come back to me
on star spangled nights,
we park atop Moeser
and watch the city lights
and the cars zipping by
ribbon sky,
if it’s above the horizon it’s hypnotizing
we’re the lions
and this world is our jungle, fuck being humble
may the mumbles be roars,
may they rumble enormously
as a deafening chorus,
every "i love you" is weighted
like we ain’t said it before,
it’s a prayer and it’s a miracle
every hug is a testimony,
every kiss a spiritual
when we’re together baby,
feels like i knew you forever
from just a word we can
complete each other’s lectures
and it’s never enough,
we’ll never be separated
if you ever change directions
then my steps will correlate
it’s me and you,
til my body is breaking and it decays
me and you,
til the atoms that make me have been unmade
i’ll never give you up,
the suggestion is so profane,
i’ll be looking to the heavens
to find you on Moeser Lane
and i’m wishing on
all the dreams we have yet to dream
and i’m wishing on
all the dreams we have yet to dream
and i’m wishing i’ll wake up
and you’ll come back to me
and i’m wishing i’ll wake up
and you’ll come back to me
|
||||
3. |
Celestial Grenades
03:02
|
|||
|
if heaven couldn’t wait,
me and heaven got beef
don’t be alarmed
it was never that deep
i was often already
on my sad sack steez
don’t give the man a reason
to react with that feeling
cuz it echoed out through space time,
life as a cold war
turned my whole emotional
bandwidth to Hodor
she and i had forged a
bond that was so pure
how i’m post to go forward
without her here to hold more?
why shouldn't i be brittle and hollow?
if heaven couldn’t wait,
me and heaven ain’t cool
don’t trip,
i’m already a fool
trusted the universe
to correct missteps
copyedit catastrophe
to a path i could accept
when exceptions arise,
in the syntax, fix that
never let the loop break or
come to an end, that
makes for a lackluster
user experience
how we supposed to regulate
fear in this indiscriminate shit?
why shouldn't i be brittle and hollow?
if you already reached nirvana
and i don’t see you next lifetime
could my soul even
survive such a slight i’m
not sure if my resilience
is the right kind
not sure i can stomach
this passing thought, i
battle rap my nightmares to a
flimsy stalemate
like i seem to barely scrape out a win,
or fail great, well?
what to do but
inhale all these L’s straight
and cough out any toxins
i caught into well placed
melodrama,
sailing for honor or for oblivion
the latter’s inevitable,
the former’s just a silly whim
the universe’ll shrug and ignore,
like an empty wind
out on some barren planet
the constellations can’t even glimpse
dark enough to evade
even celestial grenades
when the pin’s finally pulled
from the end of this age
and the solitude’ll peak,
likely never to fade
that’s the prize for escaping
from mortality’s cage.
|
||||
4. |
Fix Ya Face
03:12
|
|||
|
all his other
masks disappeared
he was looking for the one where
the laughs turn to tears
cabinets were bare,
every flat surface cleared
but the tragic Melpomene faces
stacked up for years
he stood at the stratosphere,
balancing on the sadness
quite aware that the precarious
faces could lead to crashing
collapsing onto land from that
altitude was no laughing matter
splatting on impact
was all that would make the chapter sadder
so he went to rapper mode
using phrases like a
ballerina’s toes
keeping gravity below
and the tragedy unfolds
as he gradually arose
so ungrounded normal life
looked like ants seeking holes
and he’s outta his depth
choking on clouds in his breath
high as heaven still beneath the looming
shadow of death
and he fears, all the evils
of land and sky
contingency is spawning angel wings and
planning to fly
and the crying visage multiplied
under his feet
and the distance to the surface
kept redoubling each
passing second a new testament to
tragedy’s reach
far as the length between the summit
to the sands on the beach
and he’s lacking in heat
getting closer to the vacuum
where no man can see grief
breaking the habit of breathing
nommo downer bars forever
cuz he’s downed at the peak
this was meant to be uplifting
so it sounds like he’s free
and he stay lit. when the day grim.
kinda hates it. fix ya face kid.
and he stay grim. when the day’s lit.
he can’t take it. fix ya face kid.
fix ya face kid.
fix ya face kid.
all his other
styles weren’t around
he was looking for the one
where the smile’s upside down
but the winky-face expression’s
all he had in the house
so he must’ve left his anguish
buried deep underground
so he went to grab a shovel
and he went to grab a drill
and he went to get explosives
so the blast could reveal
the path to the real estate
tasked with the sealing
of his passions and despair
beneath the asthenosphere
it had to be where
it was left, at a depth
where only the lords of treachery
were kept under duress
this is where the bad emotions are left
separated from the surface
so they aren’t in position
to interject
top side’s a comedy
we don’t need the stress
but he’s digging for the bottom
of the barrel for the quest
and he’s checking low and lower
and below anything over
the superheated peridotite
the mantle is enclosed in
how low can he go
and not be low enough
brave face is heretical
when the going’s tough
forward movement’s betrayal
to all he know and love
he’d rather watch the burning core
than bother glowing up
the comedy of his mourning
it gets deeper
the punchline was living
to miss having grief seizures
and the only face he needs
he still sees in his deep sleeping
when she wake up and she whispers
a million unique secrets
and he stay lit. when the day grim.
kinda hates it. fix ya face kid.
and he stay grim. when the day’s lit.
he can’t take it. fix ya face kid.
fix ya face kid.
fix ya face kid.
|
||||
5. |
Hourglass
02:50
|
|||
|
my sand over your sand any day
when my beach ran outta sand,
it was a shitty day
understatement of the century
now that she’s ascended,
i’m just hoping she remembers me
however it goes
nommo sun in my sky,
so it’s desolate cold
and i’m tryna be a vessel
for her legacy’s glow
but i’m barely even reaching
my pathetically low
every goal
feels more like a trap,
in a universe that
takes away your star in a flash, it’s all ash
why try to build a life outta that?
why show at 9 to work each morning
just surviving in the capitalists’ vice
and why rap about my feelings
if the raps ain’t about building
a contraption that redacts
passage of time beyond the ending
of my whole world in January,
happiness stopped
what could i do except to
cuff in place the hands of the clock?
not alla that!
all i'm tryna do is flip the hourglass
cuz i can’t take that the hour’s passed
imma make the universe give her hours back
she never needed you diminished,
to amplify her greatness
ain’t a number in the calculator
could equate with
her grace
cuz it ain’t about data, but where your pace is
one foot in front of the other
to change your place
and be grateful
for every grain of sand arranged at fate’s whim
i never understood her patience
with this makeshift
universe where suffering
needn’t follow some great sin
more than occasional,
innocents get forsaken
punctuated with
sudden endings and heartbreak
hide your tears
but the stoicism won’t stop plagues
Rockbiter’s hands
where his beloved friends were not safe
dropped by a myopic deity
tryna mock satan
and i’m still building sand castles
right under tsunamis
a thousand monuments
to echo the wonders she taught me
and it won’t be enough
but the hunger is throbbing
cooking morsels up for supper
to plug up my talk-piece
not alla that!
all i'm tryna do is flip the hourglass
cuz i, can’t take that the hour’s passed
i'mma make the universe give her hours back
and really i’m taking decades
put me in her light again
and i’ll be at my best phase
i’ll learn to live for the present
and not the next day
let us cherish each second
and let the stress lay.
|
||||
Khemmeta San Francisco, California
Khemmeta's music strives to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, or are shouted down when they do. His upcoming EP "When I Get To It" produced by Stephonathan (1/3 of both Pride City Purpose & Chedda Guap Boyz) is silly, nerdy, romantic, anti-nihilistic and defiant. He can't wait for you to get to it this [December]. ... more
Khemmeta recommends:
August Botellita Bourdain
by WiG
"Choosing spirituality over cheddar" WiG's 2020 album August Botellita Bourdain is the total package. Highly recommended.
go to album
Small Victories, Vol. 3
by Crown Colony
You'll find some of everything here. And you'll find it in 1 minute, digestible bits. Find every mood on the third volume of Crown Colony's minute-or-less songs compilation.
go to album
Life & Sound
by Pride City Purpose
End-to-end bangers on the 20 track sophomore album from Richmond California rap trio Pride City Purpose. This is an album that would make anyone proud to rep Hip-Hop (not to mention the Bay Area!).
go to albumIf you like Khemmeta, you may also like:
Rawhyde
by Oliver the 2nd & Jeremiah Jae
Cousins team up on this raw and gritty rap outing. Oliver's smokey-toned MC'ing sits atop Jae's dusty b-movie grooves.
go to album
Can't Stay Perched All The Time
by Equipto, Brycon
San Francisco producer Brycon pairs with the MC Equipto—also from the Bay Area—for 13 grimy, hard-hitting, hip-hop tracks.
go to album
Save the Day
by Basi & Drew Banga
featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 18, 2021
go to album
