01 Shifting Gears, Changing Lanes
This introduction features Papa, which is my Grandpa. On my album, “Absolute Truth,” there is a song called “Nana’s Kitchen” that has my Grandma in the beginning. So I definitely wanted to get him in on this project. It sets the tone for the entire album, along with the intro title. You will hear the passing of multiple cars (which we recorded on the shoulder of I-20 East at the 408 split-off), the gravel crackling of the tires of my Toyota Highlander pulling up to a mic laid on the ground in an abandoned church parking lot in Oak Cliff, a window rolling down, Papa and I negotiating a ride, me and three6t jumping in the back of Pete’s truck in Grand Prairie (Pete is three6t’s step-dad), then my Highlander taking off. This 52 seconds took us about 6 hours to capture. We drove all around Dallas field recording, then manually placed the audio to build the story-line.

02 A Full Tank
This song is packed full of subliminal shout-outs to Young Bleed, Sage Francis, Jacknife, One Up (RIP), Blunt Force Crew, Leaf, H4, Odis, Lejend, Juicy the Emissary, Sleep, Tha Dead Poet Society (RIP), Sniper Entertainment, Merkury, Imaginary Friends, Nev.r.land (RIP), JointMethod, Lil’ Momma, Multi-ID of Big Red Rooster, Epstein (RIP), JackRabbit, Elle, Playdough, LIT Monthly, MC Astro, NevaDugDisco, J-Frog, and Bubba Sparxxx.

It also includes more field recording as the outro. You will hear a truck pull up, us jumping out of the truck, a farewell from Papa, me and three6t walking up to a porch filled with people (much love to PJus and Erech), then us walking into the house.

03 Just Another Thought
This is a revamped song we’ve been performing for quite a while. It used to be called “Nothin’, but Time.” Then we realized there would be 2 song titles on the album that would have the word “nothin’” in them (the song right after this song). So we changed the name. When writing the lyrics to this song, I was appreciating the fun of sitting down with a good friend and a bottle of liquor to catch up. Although I’m around big groups of people constantly, there’s nothin’ better than sitting down with an old friend and sharing a bottle.

04 Ain’t Felt Nothin’
I’d have to say this is one of the more cocky songs on the album. Definitely an anti-mainstream industry song. One of the lines from this song includes “I know at least 10 artists from Dallas that’ll lyrically slap you stupid-ass cats backwards.” For some odd reason, I keep thinking someone will ask me in an interview - “What 10 artists are you referring to?” We’ll see…

05 Outta My Head
S. Carlos Kirk sets this track off with sax. This is a simple song about being into someone that doesn’t live in the same city as you, written in ‘05. I don’t know about yall, but I have NEVER thought it was a good idea to be in a long-distance relationship. There’s so much that comes along with it and it’s a risky gamble, especially when that someone lives on the West Coast.

06 Mileage
I had to get back to my roots on this one. My first love was the guitar and I’ve always felt the blues. Erech Brookins came through and funked it up on bass guitar. The only thing programmed on this song is the drums. The electric guitar, keys, and organ were played live by me. This was the last song we recorded, a few days before we turned in the final mixes.

07 Lost feat. Young Bleed, Aaron B. Southern, Peezee
First of all, I gotta let yall know Bleed was an emcee I’ve looked up to since I was a freshman in high school. He was like a street philosopher. I have several of his albums and the first song I heard him on was “How Ya Do Dat” featuring Master P and C-Loc (watch the old video HERE). I remember rollin’ around in high school jammin’ this song with Blevins and TBass blarin’ the system I bought from Thumpers in DeSoto. So needless to say, when I hit up Uncle Pauly about featuring Bleed on a song and they were interested, I felt privileged. I didn’t even know that they were living around here. I was expecting to email him the instrumental, them record it, and email it back to me. I called Uncle Pauly, we spoke business, then he said, “are you available now?” So I canceled goin’ to the Rangers game with J-Frog and they came by. Peezee happened to be with Bleed and was feelin’ the track so much that he jumped on it too. After that, this track took a long time to complete. Originally I wanted to feature a female vocalist on the chorus. Then I heard Aaron B sing. After MC Astro’s video shoot for “Stressin’ Me,” I invited Astro, Aaron B, and Leo J back to my crib to drink and freestyle. After that, I knew I wanted to get Aaron on the track. Turned out golden.

08 Cleansed In Dirt
three6t tore it up on this beat. The second I heard it, I said “lock that away, it’s mine.” I honestly feel like the lyrics I wrote for this song are some of the best I’ve written. I dug deep, bit my lip, and let ‘er rip on this one. Since I was young, I’ve always battled with what could probably be diagnosed as depression. I say probably because I’ve never gave in and went to a psychologist or psychiatrist. I’ve gotten extremely close to doing it, but I couldn’t give in. I think if I can’t battle something by myself, then it’s there to teach me something. Originally, we heard Amanda Smith of Folium on the first section of this song. Unfortunately, with Folium in the writing process for their upcoming album, she couldn’t make our deadline and I ended up singing the first section. three6t tworked the hell outta my voice to create a distorted-glitchy effect. The drum-n-bass elements and breaks made it intense.

09 The Wrong Road feat. Jacknife
WOW! I rarely write songs as story concepts, but I’m proud of this one. I’m not gonna go into what inspired it because it would uncover a mess of other questions that I don’t care to answer. The bottom line - sex can be the most beautiful thing or the ugliest thing in the world. And where this world’s going, it’s getting disgusting. Our society has embedded lust into our mentality and doesn’t want to reap what it’s sewn. When we have shampoo commercials like THIS and bikini trimmer commercials like THIS, there’s something wrong! Joe Ortiz and Mike Warren of Jacknife helped make this song as powerful as I envisioned it in my head. And Deb Driscoll’s background vocals were exactly what I imagined, as well. During the chorus, I wanted a competitive vibe - a male metal vocalist vs. female chant-like vocalist to create this contradictory element and foreshadow the religious twist at the end. PJus had a hand in production with this original beat.

10 Highest Low
It’s weird how this song came together. I actually wrote these 2 verses separately, the 1st verse on 2-13-07 and intended for a song called “Sacred,” and the 2nd verse on 12-6-06 and intended for a song called “Smile.” Nothing was ever brought to fruition with either of the collaboration songs. When playing with ideas for a chorus section, I came across these lyrics that happened to be written directly next to each other in my writing book. They seemed to match well, so we plugged them together. One day after work, me and three6t hooked up and did the music to this song in about 2 hours. I picked up an acoustic guitar, recorded some rhythm parts and licks, three6t laid a bass line down, then we got some things laying around to build the percussion parts. We used uncooked Rice-a-Roni boxes, a bell from a collar, the sounds from me hitting my knuckles, three6t breathing, and me beating on a guitar with my fist. We didn’t use anything synthetic. Watch me and three6t perform this song for the first time HERE.

11 2nd Half
This is a revamped song I wrote back in 2002. “2nd Half” is one of my girlfriend’s and three6t’s favorite songs, so three6t worked up a new and improved version of the old beat. I know that sounds crazy since it’s such an old song, but we added some new elements, a bridge section, and made some minor changes. I know women love the sound and flavor that the saxophone creates, so S. Carlos Kirk threw down on this one too. The vocoder also adds something sweet to the mix.

12 These People feat. Imaginary Friends
Every time I’ve heard the finished version of this, I crack up. Me and Cainam talking and mimicking girls, I mean, come on! Poindexter came through to finish a hook that I started. He did an awesome job of recording it. We could do a hilarious video of this. I can see it now - GOAT and Cainam in drag, and Poindexter in a security shirt acting as a bouncer. three6t killed with this beat, it’s bangin’!

13 Slow Down
We did a version of this song over Kanye’s “Drive Slow” instrumental on Dallas Got Next: The Mixtape. We dug the song so much that we composed an original beat, so we could release it on Mileage also. It includes electric guitar work from Mike Warren, my cuz.

14 Damn Near On Empty
There were several things that didn’t go as planned with this album. I attempt to include as many people that are close to me in the albums I work on. We were going for a country-esque vibe with this one. Cody Warren, my cousin, sings and plays around with Texas Country Music. When that didn’t go as planned, I got an email from CC Cross (I’m on her email list). Then it hit me that she would be awesome on this song! With the recent release of her album, she couldn’t get away long enough to record. We were disappointed, but understood completely. Sooo…I did it! The lyrics I wrote for this song, especially in the lengthy second verse, were a bit more personal than I typically like to get. That verse was the absolute last thing I wrote for the album. It was supposed to be 16 bars and it ended up being 52. I had a lot to get off my chest, as life throws a lot to you at once. When it rains, it pours. I needed to vent, but I also wanted to let people know that regardless of my complaining and venting, I truly feel blessed in many different ways. At least I have a house TO put on alarm on. At least I have a car TO get broken into. At least I have a lady TO worry about. At least I have a job TO make me tired. When times get rough, we gotta remember that there’s always someone worse off than us. I borrowed and manipulated an old anonymous saying toward the end of the song - “I’ve whined in the past ‘bout the holes in my shoes, ‘til I met a man with no feet, gotta lot more to lose.” Another one of my favorite lines in this song is a shout-out to the amazing organization, ArtLoveMagic - “It’s imperative that I restore positive habits, create art with love, and watch it blossom into magic.” Watch me and three6t the day we were writing this song HERE.

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