Seems to me
like it was just 2002
And me and Two Tent Timmy
Were high
And soloing 5.5
He was solid
I was terrified
That’s the truth
I’m just trying to be in the mix
Like Shawn Carter in ’96
Only by a reasonable doubt
Am I free today
Just trying to free y’all
Even if it’s just two of you
I’m just trying to get 22 #2s
And then find a thousand-foot hand crack
And send that shit in one pitch
My laps on the life
That is a climb
Aren’t infinite, I know that
Like I know cracks
Born to climb
Born to rhyme
I come from the era
When Tommy Caldwell
Had one more finger
And we had two more towers
In NYC
I’m a poet, not an emcee
Just a student of the game
Another artist playing the game
Two hustles ago I was in the back of the kitchen
Washing dishes
With 99 problems
But a dish wasn’t one
Now I’m Jack Kerouac
Back
On a hand crack
And then I’m chillin’
Like Mac Miller
Like Mac, we got too many problems these days
But it’s too soon to give up, it’s crazy
There’s too many good ones of us
Too many great organizations
Too many great humans
Too much love and too many hugs
Too many cool two-year-olds
To just give up on this shit
I come from the era
Of Too Legit to Quit
Too many trips
With a Tribe Called Quest
On tapes with two sides
Every story has two sides
To my people
It ain’t too late to come together
Cause too much us and too much
Love equals forever
This poem was published in Volume 23, now available. It will be included in the upcoming Microdose Mixtape by Luke Mehall, Devin Dabney, and Kris Hampton. And, yes, we will be making real tapes. Dropping in 2024.
