Royal Ruckus > Summer of the Cicadas > Track 25
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Intro
I was standing in a dark kitchen with my laptop when I wrote the first verse. I thought other people would write the rest.
I sent the song out for guests. Nobody took it up. Months later, I came back to the Shedlyn beat with some new trouble of my own and wrote the remaining verses.
On the second disc, “How Does It Feel” stays in the unsettled days after the breakup. I could remember where I’d been when I started, then hear how much had changed by the time I finished. The later verses keep replaying a breakup, down to rereading the old texts.
At the end, I call it my audio rap journal. That’s how it came together.
Videos
Behind the Cicada Ruckus (commentary)
All services · Bandcamp album · Apple Music · Spotify
Lyrics
Chunjay, Verse 1:
It’s that deep space that dark space that pain
It’s that place where you find the comfort in rain
It’s that pace where your joy fails to maintain
And escapes you devise only nudge toward regain
How does it feel to be real with your spit
How does it feel to be really legit
How does it feel to be chill when you’re hit
And life doesn’t give you a break for a bit
I’ve had a taste, I’ve tried a few times
I’ve eaten in haste and I’ve bitten the rind
Disgraced displaced, and plain run out of time
Some things I’ve faced gave birth to these rhymes
How does it feel to run wild and free
How does it feel to be a child and three
How does it feel to be styled a freak
And when you’re reviled does it change what you seek
Chunjay, Verse 2:
Another transition so it’s time to clock out
Uncomfortable positions bring up your old doubts
Life is intermissions, there’s no use for a pout
Nighttime emissions no respect to your drought
It feels like hell but I must keep going
Some bid farewell but I can’t start showing
Gotta keep my face glowing, an’ inside start growing
Pushing through this spell to that realm past all knowing
Feel it in your gut, feel it in your chest
Feel it in the cuts that created all the stress
How’s it feel? It feels no good
How’s it feel? I feel misunderstood
Unrest expressed when I last confessed
Lay it out for my priest about how we transgressed
I’d like to get this over I’d like to get myself dressed
Together we’re alone until they lay us to rest
Chunjay, Verse 3:
I woke up that morning, she was still in my head
Broke up two days before, I was glued to my bed
Playing tapes over and over of things we both said
And I return to all the places where she and I tread
Finding traces of our memories cute faces and her energy
Carved spaces in breweries muse of the century
Remember nearly every single text and love note
Questions perplexed at sweet things she wrote
How’s it feel? it’s unpleasantly reality
How’s it feel? like my present personality
Is about to crack I want a jumping trains knapsack
Reviewed a year of texts like it was an almanac
Just want a comeback to fix up all the things
Plot to exchange the pain for the joy her face brings
Hope springs eternal but it’s more like a funeral
My heart is in this song it’s my audio rap journal
Credits
Music: Shedlyn
Lyrics and Vocals: Chunjay
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: Shedlyn Lyrics and Vocals: Chunjay These source credits are attribution information, not a lyric-scope blocker; they do not specify legal ownership shares.
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