Royal Ruckus > Summer of the Cicadas > Track 22
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Intro
A Yamaha PSR 520 gets Mike’s verse started. I’m complaining that hip-hop was better in the nineties. Yoda is encouraging both of us.
“Rap Is Not Music, Son” takes a shot at my dad’s opinion of rap, then catches me sounding a lot like him. I’ve grown attached to the version I grew up with. Newer rappers are apparently supposed to answer for that.
Grizzly Beatz made the music and handled the scratches. Mike’s verse goes back to the excitement of hearing *Hello Nasty* and making music on his computer. Moving forward on the second disc includes recovering some of that excitement under the complaints.
Videos
Behind the Cicada Ruckus (commentary)
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Lyrics
Yoda:
Hey, yo man, this is Yoda One, bringing it way back, this is Royal Ruckus! I was down with this crew! We used to do stuff, when the music was real, the music was live. Bringing it back, yo. Chunjay, show ’em who’s alive, get it, boy!
Chunjay, Verse 1:
Up jump the boogie on the b-side rock
Looky like a wookie with my beard Juice like 2Pac
It’s me against the clock I’m not waiting any longer
Feel like several lifetimes, each one I’m getting stronger
Just turned 36, I feel like twenty-five
Been swinging kettlebells reading funny fails on Chive
Power snatches with barbells got me feeling like a god
Happy hour romances got me feeling kinda odd
Yeah that’s the joint, yeah that’s the jam
Got my beats and rhymes on point I’m not flunking the exam
I’m digging eggs and ham for cholesterol and fat
High saturated content, I’m a low carb diplomat
Take it back to the nineties: hip-hop was rightly done
I feel like my dad, complaining, “Rap is not music, Son!”
Yoda:
Eh, yo, man, that might have been too much! That might have been too much! Hey, yo, who’s next on the lineup? Ooooh, it’s my boy Flat, they call him Flatline for a reason, because he kills beats! We used to sit back in the garage, just hanging out, listening to this… Yo, Flat, man, show ’em what you made of, son, tell ’em what you got!
Flatline, Verse 2:
I got wrapped up in this crew in 1998
The Yamaha PSR 520 was great
Sequencing beats on the PC desktop
Stated up late, my escape became making hip-hop
Summer Jams over there, house parties over here
Hello Nasty on CD blew open my little ears
Can’t believe where it took me, made a home in Tennessee
Played shows ’round the country and bless’d the fam’ly tree
Tweedle dee, tweedle dum, rock the mics and the drums
Talent shows, how it goes, happy just to get some crumbs
I can’t work without some pressure but I always deliver
I plant my roots in Texas now and try to earn a little silver
We Ruckus’d Royal rightly under Bakersfield’s sun
While Chunjay’s dad was complaining,”Rap is not music, Son!”
Yoda:
Man, I don’t even know what to say anymore. Man, that was just too much, too much. Yo, we gotta bring him back one more time, ’cause this is his crown, this is his whole moment. Hey, yo man, Chunjay, show ’em what you got, bring back that 1990-no-daddy-like-sound! Uh! (Yeah!)
Chunjay, Verse 3:
I got a mani-pedi from an Asian girl named Betty
Said my name is Chunjay, I don’t eat no spaghetti
Felt a bit unsteady when I skipped any meals
So I dropped the carbs, upped the fat and dialed in the deal
Why be a sugar burner? burn fat like a beast
But I like to sip on IPAs when chowing down a feast
Throw down the gauntlet on this rap thing that we do
Mike and I thought Ruckus deserved a fresh reboot
Don’t dispute I’m not the best, but I’m learning every day
I studied a tape of Eminem and Dr. Dre
Hip-hop hooray, way beyond today’s wack rhymers
I guess I’m on the verge of earning “cranky old rap timer”
Take it back to the nineties! hip-hop was rightly done
I feel like my dad, complaining, “Rap is not music, Son!”
Yoda:
Hey, yo man, that’s it. The only thing I can say is, yo, just drop the mic, you done like James Brown, buddy. 1990-sumpin’, that was when we was in it, we out boy.
Credits
Music, Scratches: Grizzly Beatz
Lyrics and Vocals: Chunjay & Flatline
Hype Cameo: Yoda
Album-wide credits
Additional Credits
Production: Flatline, Chunjay
Mixing, Engineering, Co-Production, Mastering, Additional Scratches, Everything but the Kitchen Sink: DJ Sean P at TWLVS in Fort Worth, Texas
Vocal Production/Consultation: Krum
Pre-Mixing: Flatline, Chunjay, Krum, Shedlyn/Chris Felix, Annex, Grizzly Beatz, David Mathewes
Background Vocals: Flatline, DJ Sean P, Chunjay, and Friends
Executive Producer: Chunjay
Lyrics and music copyright 2017 Neopolis Media in partnership with Invisible Library Records. All rights reserved. M. Walker & J. Bennett Artist rights (BMI).
Guest/co-writer FYI: Music, Scratches: Grizzly Beatz Lyrics and Vocals: Chunjay & Flatline Hype Cameo: Yoda These source credits are attribution information, not a lyric-scope blocker; they do not specify legal ownership shares.
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