Breaking Habits - Song Break Down
This is a break down of the lyrics and themes from my song Breaking Habits off of my new album Drive. Erik Lamb and I joke about how writing songs is the easy part it's everything else that's hard. This song is a real reflection on that.
88 BPM written in the Key of E.
Album Art by the one and only Leif Kolt! I think it captures me pretty god damn well.
No Gimmicks, No Disclaimers/
I'll save My explanations for later/
You can try to copy the flavor/
But an understudy role won't help you meet your maker/
Short and sweet this was the first hook I've written in 5 years. I'm not trying to dazzle you with some cool hook, some catch phrase or twisting some idiom into a meaning for life. This song is very heart on my sleeve no bullshit, you can try to copy what I do but you will never be able to actually duplicate it. Every duplication is flawed in some way. Sitting and studying someone else's moves and waiting to find a way in will not get you any closer to your truth. You have to just do. That's what this hook means to me.
I'm breaking all the habits I learned from my social status/
trying to find a balance between the passion and madness/
Growing up underprivileged, and disenfranchised in my experience creates some bad habits. I've quit smoking cigarettes since my last album. I've tried to quit these bad mind sets I've developed over the years. Mix that with becoming an autonomous adult I'm really trying to find a balance between, the passion and the madness.
mindfulness meditation living in the practice/
doing what I can to avoid death and taxes/
I've since my last album picked up the practice of mindfulness meditation, every morning for at least 10 minutes I use the app on my phone called Headspace. I love it and it maybe one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was reading Walden Pond, at the time of this so a little bit of HDT snuck in. Trying to avoid death and taxes should be my next tattoo I think..
turning pro, growing up and fighting the relapses/
Self destruction's seductive, a pheniox from the ashes/
The word replace was intentional, I wanted to build the imagery of how everyday is a struggle with what I think of as the chocolate cake, I don't really like cake but it was good metaphor for my personal struggle. Having a struggle with a weight problem diet and exercise is one of my main focuses. Everyday is a struggle and the temptations will rise like the ashes of a pheniox.
and my discipline cracks, when I work for reactions/
I guess that's what happens when you tempt a book of matches/
I am a spontaneous and impulsive person I know that, if I don't try to structure my self and force a discipline I know I will never get anything done. As Jacko Willink says in discipline there is freedom. If you haven't read his book Extreme Ownership I highly suggest it, if your in to self help that is.
This is a recreation of self, put my apathy on the shelf/
Shuffle the cards that I'm dealt, play a hand for good health/
Not much to in unwrap in these lines I'm going to a self transformation (constantly) and I'm working with the cards I was giving and trying to stop bitching about it.
Good time spent wasted in a battle of mind/
crush the minuets into grains to see what I can find/
Who hasn't wasted time beating themselves up over a bad choices. It's a real waste of time. When my last album didn't blow and get me famous. I was crushed I really thought it would happen. I had to do a lot of reevaluating and figure out what I truly wanted to do.
I'll Pick apart the pieces, won't speak of what happened/
rearrange the fragments till they look like I imagine/
These are a couple of throw back lines to some older material. Like one is a throw back to my song burn and the second is throw back to a song I did with Leif Kolt! I love that dude and the lines fit both flow and meaning so I ran with it. So I go a little deeper with the self examination and pick out the prices of my self that I like and take out the pieces that I don't like and rearrange them in to a whole new person. Have you seen my new hair cut? This is chess not checkers
standing on the shoulders of Giants feeling like atlas/
carrying the weight of the works but I flipped it off its axis/
A little head nod to Newton, Tim Feriss and my father and law here. I guess I did flip an idiom into my lyrics. Oh well get used to that. It's the first thing I do when I get stuck. This a little ego stroke I do feel like I'm on top of the world but feel like I'm under so much pressure as well.
I'm pretty happy with this song, I used some punk rock influence on the structure chorus verse chorus. One and done, I love a quick song they are espically good as openers to get the crowd going at shows.
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Style Over Substance - Song Break Down
This is the song breakdown for “Style Over Substance” Featuring Erik Lamb. This song was inspired by the logical fallacy that says; just because you say fancy words doesn’t mean your argument has any validity. I liked how it seemed to be easy to apply to rap music. How everyone’s a rapper but are they really saying shit? Is that car in the music video theirs? Or is the out of state license plate a dead give away that it’s a rental?
As always I’m stoked to have my brother Erik Lamb featured on this album. Erik and I have been working together from the beginning, and he seemed up to the task of this song.
“Same shit, different rappers mouth/
Living a life, you can't brag about/”
I’m a true believer that your art is a reflection of yourself. If you’re spitting bullshit, I can smell it from bar number one. I have been fooled and I’m sure I will be again. If you say you’re hustling and you never do the work, you’re full of shit period.
The cabbage patch is truly sauerkraut/
Overcompensate till they're blackin'-out/
Are your really making that money? Are you trying so hard to hang with the homies that you’re killing yourself? Cabbage being a reference to money, I though it would be fun to make a joke about how things are not always as they appear. I also love sauerkraut and when I finish this album I’m going to treat my self to some beer brats.
Cultivated, from the golden age/
The new wave makes you disengage/
This line goes out to my thirty something, those stuck in 94’ rappers. Clinging to the past like it was the one that got away. I love “old-school hip hop” but I truly thing that for hip-hop to stay relevant it’s going to have to evolve and grow. I could spend three paragraphs bitching about how a lot of “new” rap sucks. How that style makes me wonder if you are on the spectrum?
No stage presence, no substance/
All wordplay, but no function/
I had an idea that I wanted to write a formula for hip-hop. Like A+B over C+D= Style Over Substance. I basically wanted to write all the shit you shouldn’t do and put it in a verse. I can’t tell you how many rappers, stand like The Statue of Liberty on stage and don’t move around. Erik Lamb and NME the ILLEST are in my opinion masters of stage presence, and not just because they are my friends. Come to a show and see for your self.
I think you need a healthy mix of stage presence, substance, wordplay and a reason for why you’re doing it. What is your unique perspective that you can bring to the culture? While I’m still ranting, please for the love of Buddha stop rapping over your own vocal track.
No heart, and all the ego/
Starve the art love the placebo/
Vocals peak with a lo-fi buzz/
Talk is cheap, saying you get shit done/
This line is dedicated to the rappers that get gassed-up in the studio. You think your takes are perfect and are the next big thing. You quickly post an un-mixed track to soundcloud. You sound like you were too drunk or too high and it sounds like shit.
You rap because you want to be famous and think it is a get rich quick scheme. There are people that have done it yes. The real truth is they worked their asses off, you just didn’t see it.
I’ve never rapped this much about rap. It was a fun departure, but I felt like I wanted to get these ideas out there and this song kinda of just worked.
Beats bang but the crowds all comatose/
Lyrics mumble like you just overdosed/
Just a little something to get off my chest/
Got the whole crowd shouting out S.O.S./
Growing up I idolized (still do) my favorite rappers. I though that being a rapper was like being a professional athlete. I remember seeing flawless sets and perfection. Like they cared if they didn’t do a good set. I have bombed sets, and just fucked up, I think everyone does. The great artists take serious time with trying to put on a good show. I guess I just feel slighted when I see acts that don’t take it seriously. I will definitely give them the benefit of the doubt but get out of here with your bullshit.
Beats by Skobie - Lens of Crisis
Beats by Skobie
This is one of my favorite beats I have posted for sale. This is my attempt at being a beat sommelier. I had a lot of fun writing a break down of one of my own songs. I will be doing a break down of each song. so expect to see more of these types of blogs.
This is a royalty free, exclusive hip-hop instrumental. This is an original composition, no samples.
This hip-hop instrumental blends elements of electro, complextro, and trap. The Drums are simple straightforward hip-hop influenced rhythm. That also uses traditional electro bass kicks, snares, and high hat. For the verse the synth leads, back up instruments and bass instruments are written in the complextro style. The arrangement changes ever quarter note. The leads have lots of wobble and depth.
The hook is a full soundscape of high saw tooth synths and strings. That is both dirty and clean to please the ear.
Written in the key of C
At 88 Beats per minute
There is only one of these beats; once it is sold it is gone forever.
All Beats By Skobie are hand crafted with Skobie's signature sound.
A Reason for Dissonance - Song Breakdown
I think that it’s always good to hear what the artist thinks their song is about, and what they think is the important ideas.
The following is a breakdown of the lyrics and the themes that I cover in this song. I think that it’s always good to hear what the artist thinks their song is about, and what they think is the important ideas. Since the listeners will have their own ideas of what is the most important stuff is. Also note I use a “/” to note that this is the end of a line. That’s just how I’ve done it forever.
“Fuck the government, Rogan for President/ Legalize weed and correct the fucking deficit.”
I thought it would be fun to start a song with the word “Fuck”! Fuck is a great word to use to really get peoples attention, unless you were raised by a sailor, like I was. This word doesn’t get thrown around for nothing. To me when I say fuck the government I didn’t mean let’s take em’ down and start all over. I mean fuck these jokers lets get some real people in there.
This leads to my election to the highest chair in the land Mr. Joe Rogan. A lot of this first verse is a refection of my time spent listing to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. I have listened to at least 500 episodes since 2010-2011 when I started listening. In my last album I made very cryptic references to Joe Rogan and Onnit.com, but in this album I’ve chosen to be more direct with what I’m trying to say.
Why hasn’t pot been legalized? Didn’t all my rapper friends tell me President Obama would legalize weed? This is me poking fun at that idea (shhh there’s still time!). While also pointing out the crazy fact that Colorado has made more money off of marijuana sales then off of booze. Ok I’ve spent three paragraphs on my first line in the first song that I’ve very proud of. I promise to be less winded.
“Pussifi America making men so delicate/ Skobie Won a pessimist represent Connecticut.”
Something my dad always said and something that Joe Rogan has mentioned many times in his Podcast. The Pussification of men our society is a huge problem. I was raised not to be a pussy. The second line is a reflection on my doubt that it’s going to get better anytime soon. In my last album “Bedlam and Squalor” I made a super cryptic reference to this idea. “Carpet square pussies watching paint dry”… I loved that line but only one person in my life ever got it. Since we made it up when we were 17 and janitors at our local high school. Also being from New England has the stigma of being a “Cranky Yankee” so this was a fun little flip of that idea.
“And I think it’s funny how them dems failed/ We're getting high blowing lines of Chem trails/”
As a libertarian leaning person, I’m very critical of Democrats and Republicans and all of their bullshit. Did I mention fuck the government? This is a jab at liberals and their love for global warming, but yet they take private jet liners to their town halls and other functions. So they pretend they are all about protecting the environment but really are too caught up in the rat race.
Getting high from the chem trails is more reference to Joe Rogan and his show Joe Rogan Questions everything. Where he debunks “chem trails”. Getting high from the chem trails came to me while I was driving to work, and saw that the contrails were in a perfect line in the sky. I though oh those look like coke lines. Now I don’t do drugs except for caffeine and booze but I thought it was really fun idea to put out there. Since they say “the sky is blue cause the water is blue” its kind of like a mirror. My best lines come to me while I’m Driving….
“Lobbyist three sheets to the wind and set sail/ Bureaucrats sit and watch it all dove tail/”
I definitely think lobbyist are too powerful and shouldn’t be able to influence our government leaders. So their three sheets to the wind, or drunk off of their power and the Bureaucrats just watch and do nothing about it. Dovetailing is a term we use in the office to explain how things come together.
“Meet the new boss same as the old one/ Social justice worrier, on the couch with a cold one/”
“These mealy mouthed mother fuckers spit with a split forked tongue/ Keyboard diplomacy until the wars won/”
Meet the new boss[…] is a reference to The Who, one of the best bands ever. I was lucky enough to release this song during an election year and this throwback was too good not to work in. SJW’s they remind me of the lobbyist but couch potatoes living in their mom’s basement mad cause no one ever hugged them… They too are drunk off of their power. “These mealy mouthed motherfuckers spit with a forked tongue”. This is hands down like 6:30 my favorite line in the song to rap. The alliteration and the flow is sexy like some butter in your coffee. Talking again about politicians and SJW’s that double speak and talk out of both sides of their mouth, having a forked tongue is a idiom for being misleading.
“Entitlement babies living off the dole/ A crisis of conscience, bought and sold/”
My father is all over this song, an entitlement baby was and idea he had about my generation and their fixation that the world owed them something. Living off of the dole is a conservative concept, I’m pretty sure Sean Hannity was throwing this around a lot. When I would car pool with my old man, he used to listen to these momo’s and I always thought that was a weird way of saying it. Crisis of conscience I’m pretty sure goes back to Graham Hancock’s banned TED Talk “The War on Consciousness” which was banned by TED.
“Some men do it for diamonds some for gold/ crony capitalism, it never gets old/”
The first line is a throw back to Tom Waits’ “Diamonds and Gold” from “Rain Dogs” which is my favorite Waits album. In context again I’m referencing how our government seems to be bought and sold. The next line is an adaptation from the Ideologies of Lew Rockwell. I read LRC every morning.
“No uh No I don’t buy it/ Trendy is as trendy does sell em’ tricks spare em’ love”
The hook of this song was sourced from the old folks around me, they love this saying, “I don’t buy it” It’s a nice clean way of saying it’s all bullshit and everyone is full of shit. I love it its really great. Trendiness is something I really don’t understand. I find it to be a distraction from life and the idea of being independent.
“The mislead youth jump off a building/ Search for the truth but it comes up missing/”
The first line is a throw back to my life as a skateboarder. “The Mislead Youth” was a video that Zero a skateboard company, put out that I loved. Also “Jump off a Building” put out by Toy Machine might be one of the best videos ever. At the heart I’m talking to my inner rebel about how you can’t find truth in any thing.
“What's the true cost of getting lost in a split screen/ Wash it all down with shots of Listerine/”
Is it really worth spending your days playing video games? When life (if you subscribe to simulation theory) maybe the best video game ever. So what are you missing playing someone else’s dreams? As a throw back to being a youth and allusion that aspartame might be clogging our pineal glands. Also this is an allusion to kids drinking mouthwash, since a lot of them contain alcohol so in theory you could get drunk off of Listerine (bad idea).
“Sick of the NIMBY's holding back progression/ Stuck in a nanny state, with to much attention/”
When I was writing this song I was reading a lot of Reason Magazine articles, one was on NIMBY’s also know as “Not In My Back Yard”. These are the type of people who go to town halls and bitch about how their neigbors house is the only yellow house on the street and it’s effecting property values. They are the same people who call the cops when there are unsupervised children riding bikes and just being children. Next I refer to one of the Cato Institutes’ favorite blog rolls, the “Nanny State” this is where in short; The government thinks it knows how to better regulate your life, health and basically knows what’s best for you. George Orwell is rolling in his grave as I write this.
“Living in a main frame, where everything's a weapon/ Back in the sand box full of aggression/”
This is another reference to one of my current obsessions the “Simulation Theory” a main frame is a reference to “The Matrix” and the huge databases of information we are all exposed to. “Everything’s a weapon” is a jab at gun reform. If you take things to their logical extremes anything and everything could (should) be considered a weapon; but no one is banning pencils are they? The sandbox is a reference to simulation theory; games like “Grand Theft Auto” are built with their own kind of intelligence. There are free worlds and nothing is ever really the same from game play to game play.
“There's always a reason for dissonance/ Deep-seated ignorance and no one gives a shit/”
A little title drop, I think no matter when, where or how, there is and will always be a reason to not (fully) trust authority figures and people of power. While they are people just like you and I, who put their pant on one leg at a time. Something happens to a person when they have power over others. This makes me very nervous. The next line is a throw back to my first album, similar topic but it honestly fits better in this song than it did back then. I think that a lot of people would rather choose to take the easy way out then to address a lot of the problems we face as society. A drink, a smoke, sex, any sort of instant gratification can distract us from our surroundings.
“A culture, a brand and provisions limitless/ we've got more than one pill to fill your impotence/”
To continue with the theme of distraction, I wanted to outline a couple of things that we engross ourselves with, and how we will use any thing for a quick fix as opposed to trying to find the root cause of the problem.
“Every dark cloud has a silver lining/ Stop and look around, might catch Wilbur fly in'/”
It can’t rain everyday and even if it did, there is always something to look forward to. I feel like I’m fucking Tony Robbins with that line but it’s really true. You control your perspective and your reaction to your surrounding. If you stop and smell the roses your might actually see that pigs can fly (not really).
“Should we really care if the NASDAQ isn't climbin’/ Time for introspection, it's gotta be worth tryin'/”
Is the fact that a lot of investors are gambling today really that important? The world’s economy seems dependent on a fucking number. Is the Market up or down, buy, buy, buy, sell, sell, sell. It’s such bullshit I don’t even really want to go down that rabbit hole. If you look within you will see that its never really as bad as it seems, and on the flip its also never really as good as it seems. You are just a little blip on a pale blue rock flying through space. Enjoy or life and just stop bitching.
N.M.E. The Illest - Hate Me Quietly
Hate Me Quietly is the third solo release from my friend and collaborator, Connecticut's Hardest Working Emcee N.M.E. The Illest. Hate Me Quietly (HMQ) is the second album of NME's I've worked on.
Dreaming is the second single from Hate Me Quietly, featuring guest vocals from Daphne Lee Martain and Noah White. Dreaming was a blast to create, when I produce for NME I like to challenge him. I'll throw in things like bridges and breaks to see what he makes of it. Dreaming has a break after every hook and builds into the beginning of the verse. Daphne and Noah fill the breaks with a creative call back to the title and main theme. Am I dreaming?
A conscience Reflection on building a career in music. NME realizes that while he was out making goals and pursuing his full potential, he actually started living his dreams.
Over the life cycle of the HMQ We faced many challenges, some were real show stoppers. In late 2013 our studio in down town New London, CT flooded. I lost most of my record collection, and I'm still rebuilding to this day. Our insurance refused to cover potential damages to our equipment, and we decided to move for what would be the third time in three years. We are now sitting fat and happy in our new location The Danger Room!!
The good still out weights the bad. In December of 2014 NME and I finalized our crazy idea to crowd fund the production and tour for Hate Me Quietly. I was at first pretty hesitant to try to crowd fund so close to the holidays. With our true DIY mentality We decided it was now or never. After 30 days and 134 backers, we raised $6,440. Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported us over the years!