「The Only Street I Walk」

[Intro] Pen and a notebook Nothing else on me That is the whole of it [Verse 1] [Rap] [double time] I map this, black ink, take your bars apart and count them and clock the last beat, half speed, act quick, count the vowels out and then mark the ones that stand still, long or short it never moves an inch and I track this, nobody handed me this ear and it is practice, I walked into a room not mine and took the shape of it apart and I have this, stand back, grab this [Rap] [double time] Every landing here belongs to someone I will never meet that's the tactic, don't call that skill, unpack this, look, I studied it the way that you would sit and study a classic, it was never mine, your shape is now inside of my mouth and now the mouth will always have this, I say it out loud, that is panic, say it and you stop, I am standing in a form that is not mine and I'm good at this (check) [Pre-Chorus] Pen and a notebook, nothing else on me That is the weapon That is the whole of it [Chorus] Nothing here to envy (take it) Take the whole degree, it never made a thing in me It opens nothing, I still start at the desk Envy eats the thing that feeds you There is nothing here to envy [Verse 2] [Rap] [double time] I don't sleep, cold feet, February comes and they go and close the whole street, no key, hold still, they all think that it is easy and so they don't speak, nobody has ever once asked me why I don't sleep, the only street that I have walked on is called Hongo, I am on a track that I did not choose and I cannot get off and I won't leave, no one, told me [Rap] [double time] Take the name and take the address take the whole degree because I'm only holding, I don't go free, I owe this, stop, they all think I'm fine and that is the problem I am not coping, that's the kindest thing, a trap that looks like luck will hold just as tight it is a trap you don't see, not a soul at all, comes consoling, I don't ask for that, look at every bit of it and tell me that there is no need (nothing) [Pre-Chorus] Pen and a notebook, nothing else on me That is the weapon That is the whole of it [Chorus] Nothing here to envy (take it) I did not pick the house, nobody picks the house It was given, it was never earned, take it Envy eats the thing that feeds you There is nothing here to envy [Interlude] [Spoken Word] A note on the previous claim. See Rawls, A Theory of Justice, nineteen seventy-one. Careers open to talents is the formal version. Fair equality of opportunity is the real one. A door held open for everybody means nothing if we arrive at it from different distances. I am not the argument for that principle. I am the evidence that we do not have it. And see Weber, on the shell. Parsons gave us iron cage. Beautiful, and slightly wrong. Stahlhartes Gehäuse. A shell as hard as steel. [Rap] [double time] Not a cage they built for me a shell that I grew, now notice what I did, they asked about my luck and I came back with a German and an American and the man who moved the one into the other, the house was never the advantage, this was, the reflex to reach for a citation, I can name it exactly, naming is not payment [Bridge] [Spoken Word] Let me tell you the actual size of it. A room in February. One table. Two examiners. And a corridor I have walked so often my feet know it in the dark. That is the whole of my hell. It is very small. I say it at this volume because at its real volume you would not hear it at all. The arrogance is not a personality. It is a way of holding a hand still. And the shape I am rapping in belongs to someone I will never meet, who was not asked. I know. I am using it anyway. That is the part I cannot make elegant. [Pre-Chorus] Pen and a notebook, nothing else on me That is the weapon That is the whole of it [Final Chorus] Nothing here to envy (take it) There is no talent, there is a notebook and the hours Trade with me and we both come out of this bigger Envy eats the thing that feeds you There is nothing here to envy [Outro] Maybe I am arrogant. I know the exact amount. It is the only thing that holds the hand still when the mic comes up. So I turn it into flow. Pen and a notebook. Nothing else on me. You will not get a name. Remember that on your way out.