dangerous compassions

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Thursday, May 21, 2015

Stutter -- Tim'm West

There's this hiphop song I like called "Stutter" by Tim'm West.  It's so brill.  But I couldn't find lyrics online, so I decided to transcribe it myself.  Please comment with corrections.

https://timmwest.bandcamp.com/track/stutter

Stutter--Tim'm West

This is for any kid out there struggling with language, 
like I did as a kid--
trying to get the words right,
trying to win the fight over fear,
'cause we're still here
even if we outgrow the stutter and the words seem clear.
Never have no shame in your game.
Everybody stutter when they say my name.

Stutter
wonder
if no man can put us under.
We hesitate and wonder
afraid to be it manifest in speech.
Insecure we
stutter,
wonder
if no man can put us under,
we hesitate and blunder
just like the beat, repeats.
Sometimes we--

I ain't got no speech disorder,
I just sometimes sort of experience
a disruption and repetition
when I'm in a mission
to be dissin'.
Anyone who say I can't put on my sounds
makes a little bit closer,
rhythm and grounds,
my words never becoming absurd.
Unable to start words,
'cause boys are more likely to stutter than girls,
little kids searching for the right words.
Get it right like right's prefer,
speech impediment, deterred.  
I am powerful beyond measure.
Words are my treasure,
poetry my life blood, pleasure.
I can speak,
therefore I am--
speech therapists say I can.
Even when I didn't know where the words went
when I had to vent,
people so critical, it make no sense,
of a brother on some other,
a fighter and a lover,
had to learn to be confident.
To mm-mmm-mmm-mim-
born to be baptized to begin again.
Sometimes I say stuck on how that feels,
but we overcome like Winston Churchill.

chorus

We kick it speak if we skir--
the words won't come out if we stutter.
Stuck in the muck,
this terrain that's called to earth.
I say we do it,
flow like fluid.
Just like Obama, "Yes we can,"
but we gotta comprehend the plan
to embrace whatever makes us afraid.
Caught in a maze
of all the times before, 
when more seems less
and less didn't give us anymore.
The score had us losing,
sometimes choosing
to defer our magic alphabetic
acrobatics,
punk points like in the Harlem xx
making the people like fire.
Zora and Langston and Bruce inspired.
Rather conspire to express,
word becomes flesh,
no longer object.
Become the subject of an intelligent freedom.
I believe a stutterer will lead them.
Smooth like James Earl Jones.
Can you feel that freedom poem?

chorus 

I'm so smart,
too quick I think.
So tight on the mic,
my eyes blink.
Not trying to wink at you,
just doing what I got to do
to spit my truth.
It ain't always
been this easy,
for sheezy,
nervous, the words that leave me.
But when I sang or I was laughing,
seldom stuttered when I was
happy or laughing. 
The words always came out right
despite the fight 
between capacity and might.
With the tension I'm aight
cause they helped me see the light.
I'm a die hard stutter
though I don't do it no more,
like Bruce Willis in the picture shows,
or like Marilyn Monroe, 
Carly Simon, voice of kill.
And I'm just the next installation 
of a stuttering nation,
reaching back and relating,
'cause the words that didn't kill us 
make us stronger,
even if it took a little little little longer.

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