What I think is really cool about this is when he says he learned cautious speech, his phrasing gets really tight. Each phrase is just two or three words for the next few lines, directly reflecting what he said in the lyrics. And again, here we have Ka relating his street life to warriors. Instead of talking about getting a gun and ammo, he is describing it as a bow and a quiver. And the consonance in that last line just makes all those S sounds roll off the tongue, evocative of the "slither" that he is describing. When people talk about a rapper having a great flow, picking the right words with a mind towards repeated sounds is part of how you create a good flow.
Spoke with Moors, know the laws, and walk with assurance
I commence with strength, now I'm talkin' endurance
Felt a gleam, too much self-esteem to be a groveler
Been leader since toddler, teachin' not to be a follower
Them days raised my sister rigid, never coddled her
I ain't poppin' shyt, just got her doctorate, I'm proud of her
Again, the use of archaic terms connects his street life to days gone by. "Moors" isn't something people really say any more. I also love the technique he uses at the end of this section when describing his sister. He re-rhymes her with her after being so masterful with his internal rhyming earlier. This isn't being lazy, it is intentional. This makes the line really stick out to the listener like a sore thumb. And here that rhyming technique matches with the content. The fact that his sister escaped this life and got a doctorate is shocking and sticks out compared to the environment of their upbringing. I love when rappers use this technique well.
There may be days I lead the way as a beacon
Attractin' by my actions, not my speakin'
My battle plan was grab the hand, I was reachin'
From teens was taught to lean for support was leechin'
So I stood on mine, during the hoodest time
Was a nightmare, felt like life here was as good as dying
We was born in the thorns, few arose
Once a town's noose, now in soundproofs pursuing golds
Ka continues to reflect on how he escaped his life. And yet again, you are seeing archaic imagery. "Towns noose" evokes old western towns at least for me, and here he uses it to describe the do or die situations he was in. And how he escaped it and is "now in soundproofs pursuing golds." These themes are very common in rap, but look at Ka's internal rhyming and unique imagery and word choice really makes his lyricism stand out. He takes a topic that isn't super novel but spins it in a very fresh manner.
On the block with the rock up nights dribblin'
Time spent gettin' bent, hard to be upright citizen
It's more than trouble is, same corners are bubblin'
The pawns are huddlin' and all of a sudden it's
Heat gone, we mourn the night
You've got the classic basketball double entendres here. "on the block" as in street block or on the block in the post. Rock as in crack. Rock as in slang for basketball. Dribbling as in selling drugs or the literal dribbling the ball. I also love the mixing the metaphors in the next line. "Getting bent" meaning to get high or drunk, as it is difficult to be an "upright citizen." These are two idioms where "bent" and "upright" don't mean what they usually literally mean, but they also connect on a literal level. This is an awesome technique rappers use where they connect idioms or metaphors in unexpected ways that also make perfect sense.
And finally you get to the chess imagery. This also ties in with the portrayal of street life in a more old school or sophisticated historical manner. Chess is a thinking man's game, a historical game. I'm reminded of the great scene in the wire where d'angelo explains chess to bodie and the others. But this connects with the lead in to the chorus "heat gone, we mourn the night." Because night can be either night or knight. Ka even named his previous solo album to this one "The Knight's Gambit" so he is definitely aware of that play on words. And the imagery of huddling together on the corner connects beauitfully with the "heat gone, we mourn the night" evoking a cold winter's night.
KA
Ka's strengths are in his imagery and his word choice. He often has great use of consonance and assonance, repeated consonant or vowel sounds, that make his lines flow beauitfully when he wants and sound very abrupt and choppy when he wants. And as I highlighted several times here, he is great at really picking specific images and words to describe what he is saying. That is what separates great lyiricists from mediocre ones. You could write this same verse content wise in a very generic "I struggle, I came up hard, I got out" way in the way thousands of rappers write it. But someone like Ka can really take you in a unique and unexpected direction that can really get your imagination going. This coupled with the haunting beat and Ka's hushed delivery really builds the atmosphere in a way that pairs perfectly with the content. This is also something Ka is excellent at: using word choice and beat choice to complement their content. Great writers in all genres make their form of writing fit the content, and Ka is one of the best currently in the game. I also love that despite being somewhat difficult to get into in terms of sound, Ka's actual lyrics are pretty comprehensible. He isn't the type you need to bust out a thesaurus to get the meaning. I've always gravitated towards the lyricists who you can listen to one or two times and get the surface level story, but there is so much more when you sit down and look at it so it rewards multiple listens.
Overall, it is a great album, hope people's interest was piqued by this. We often talk about great lyricism in pretty generic terms like "oh that was a great bar" or "X rapper is a dope lyricist," so I wanted to quickly highlight a few specific things that make a great verse great. Also note that this isn't the only way to be a great lyricist. Someone like a Billy Woods has a much more loose associative approach where he only sticks on an image or phrase for a second, but uses those images to build an overall sense of theme or place. That reminds me a lot of a poet like TS Eliot or something than a rapper in a classical sense.
