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Chapbook + Download
64-page chapbook of lyrics and liner notes. Reads like a novel or textbook, only more brilliant!
**Now much tinier! 4x5" pocket edition is just as clever but way cheaper to ship to you.
Features a foreword written by Buck 65, several indices and appendices, and beautiful illustrations by Eisner-winning cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley (Scott Pilgrim, Lost At Sea) and Ignatz-winning cartoonist Hope Larson (Chiggers, Mercury, Grey Horses).
This version of the chapbook is bound using perfect binding,
which is like a real paperback.
Also includes immediate download of [numtracks]-track album in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
Includes unlimited streaming of Humble & Brilliant
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
... more
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handmade bootleg, edition of 15
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
now you don't have to carry your cumbersome MP3 player or turntable in the jeep when you want to blast tunes up and down the beach... I promised I would never make a cd but I missed the 90s too much and here we are.
Includes unlimited streaming of Humble & Brilliant
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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FINAL SPECIAL alternate jacket vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
30 vinyl copies of "Humble & Brilliant" were issued with a unique and super-limited jacket, designed, stenciled, and hand-lettered by Atticus Hamer.
The labels are the same as before, illustrated by Bryan Lee O'Malley and Hope Larson.
The new chapbooks are 5"x6" and very convenient for carrying around to read or start cooking fires.
Includes unlimited streaming of Humble & Brilliant
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about
Everyone got sick of the keep-it-real movement in the mid-90’s, but then everyone really really stopped keeping it real, so maybe we should have sucked it up a little better.
This is my new keep-it-real anthem for the kids to kind of bristle at right now, and then bang out in fifteen years when they suddenly pretend they always loved it. That’s when the money rolls in for me.
lyrics
“I want everyone to listen to me.”
I rap for fun, man, I rap for kudos; I rap to throw you poseurs on the mat with judo; I rap you up and smoke you like Macanudos;
I rap you on the knuckles for acting pseudo-intellectual or stupid either, skeptic through to true believer; S-T-U-C-K U-P or H-U-M-B-L-E. See, my LED's are maxed out like low credit. My signal hot. You want a hot single? Then go get it.
“Here, Fido, boy! Fetch, boy, fetch!” You got a pop fly hit, there's just one catch: I got my mitt. It's not my fault; I'd be out too if they caught my ball.
I watch drywall peel and bump your record when I want to relax and feel like I'm a legend. You comedy acts are frail and unprotected, still reeling from the message that you got to...
Pay dues, kid, make music, Stay true... don't do what them
Fake dudes did, played stupid with grade school wit, you were made to
Raise roofs, kid, make music, stay tuned in; don't do what them
Fake crews did, they blew it. That ain't you.
Yeah, I slept on 'em hard – they looked soft! Old school, new school, they hooked off. I'm fascinated; how'd they get a passing grade? “No studying,” and never went to class for days.
Mark my words, you get marked on a curve. We used to serve marks and herbs with sharp words. Smart nerds would spark original texts – that's the real hardcore, it's not a physical test.
You digital, hexadecimal, intellectually less-than-vegetable... Since when is this respectable? It used to be detestable and wack to lack keenness. I grew up idolizing Black geniuses!
Young men and women from tenements/inner city slums and suburban pretty homes honed the rap idioms. Whether literate or not, never idiots. “No not even a little bit,” but like you, they had to...
Pay dues, kid, make music, stay true... do like the
Greats do and did, play student with all praise due, then you will
Raise roofs, kid, make music, stay tuned in; don't do what them
Fake crews did, they blew it. That ain't you.
You ain't stupid. You ain't a phony. If your homie wants you dumbing it down, he ain't a homie. Your friends say I'm soft and a clown, but they don't know me. Take a moment, now, I'm a break it down slowly.
You got a fuel source, you got potential to blaze real bright for days, but you feel like essentially enslaved to the gentlest waves and tides, so your best foot drags behind. You got a major mind, why don't you prove you're smart? Eschew the charts, use your heart to pursue the art!
If that's corny, sorry, but dude, look – would you rather be yourself in the end, or a shrewd crook? If it's the latter, I beg your pardon, I judged you wrong. Look me in the eye and say it's so, and I'll trudge along. Otherwise, I'm gonna stand behind you, but I'll be damned if I use a heavy hand to guide you, just try to...
Pay dues, kid, make music, stay true... you got to
Make moves swift, take cues in, break rules. I'll watch you
Raise roofs, kid, make music that makes YOU grin, don't do
What I say you gotta do, just play the part of you, 'cause me? That ain't you!
credits
from
Humble & Brilliant,
released March 10, 2011
beat and rap by Jesse Dangerously
remix by Apt
license
all rights reserved