Hater Players (Track 9)

[This is part 9 of a longer series – previous track – “KOS (Determination)” – next track – “Yo Yeah”]

This song seems to come pretty hard at the same folks that “Re-Definition” was going after but a little more in the vernacular of a more straightforward diss track.  About halfway through, though, we get this an unexpected urban landscape painting:

Visions occupy my synaptic space
Command and shape, to illustrate my mind’s landscape
The tall grass, the low plains, the mountainous ridges
Thickets among the forests, rivers beneath the bridges
Presence of hilltops, lit up with tree tops
Eavesdrop and hear the incline of sunshine,
Nine stones in orbit, refuse to forfeit
They all form a cypher, and they came to absorb it

The metaphor here, of the forces of nature forming into a freestyle hip-hop performance space, is striking on its own, and also deepens the album-long development of the cypher image. It places it into the space of the a romantic poets, one of whom – William Wordsworth – is the namesake (I think) of Wordsworth — one of the posse on the album-closing “Twice Inna Lifetime.”

And this is where the end-of-album motif of “the black star line” really takes shape.  At this point in the album, I do tend to find myself overwhelmed by the totality of the lyrics, and check out a little bit.  I think there’s some deep stuff here, but it’s also got a sense of a lull before what, to me anyway, is a transcendent final three songs – “Respiration,” “Thieves in the Night” and “Twice Inna Lifetime.”

[This is part 9 of a longer series – previous track – “KOS (Determination)” – next track – “Yo Yeah”]