Phx - Benjamin Earl Turner, Archduke

A cigarette burned down to the filter

My life ain’t been ashed in a long ass time

My photos all got black and white filters

Snapshot shows I been having one hell of a time

Cause everything is burning

And here I am a phoenix

Can I be reborn

I’m drowning in smoke again

Everything is burning

Everything is finished

I’ve been reborn

Thank God I’m born again

Grappling with self-hatred while leaving this woman’s house

Snow is caked on the ground

I’m trudging through the drudgery while listening to daughter

That music is the sound of hope slaughtered

Just what the doctor ordered

And probably some penicillin

It’s probable I smoked a Black 'n Mild while in my feelings

How many black boys always torn apart by that phrase

And then consumed by the rage become the song from the page

Now we real niggas chop a bitch up

And burn her in the furnace with it

Chopper hiccup to your stomach boy your sternum missing

Better that I’m in my fee’s with all the wild things indigenous

And Miles,, and Sun Ra with pleasant dreams about Maxine, sure

The type of woman I would max out for

Instead I’m 'bout to implode

(?) man is looking at me like he already knows

We both wear the same cologne

The brand is alone

A cigarette burned down to the filter

My life ain’t been ashed in a long ass time

My photos all got black and white filters

Snapshot shows I been having one hell of a time

Cause everything is burning

And here I am a phoenix

Can I be reborn

I’m drowning in smoke again

Everything is burning

Everything is finished

I’ve been reborn

Thank God I’m born again

Too good to be rapping about robbing

Too bad Heath Ledger ain’t get his joke

To my throat if we ever choke while I’m entertaining the masses

And we depressed and in need of the Xanax

Trying to cope with a rope tied tightly around our larynx

Be sure to pull out my wallet, retrieve the note that we wrote

To ourselves we inflict the most pain, pain

Two eyes could produce the most rain, rain

To all my listeners thank you for being patient

I know you used to that instant gratification

To write a bar is like writing a Bible verse

I’m trying to give you a record of my creation

A record of when I died and a record of rebirth

Modern miseducation I’m unplugging the universe

To give less would suggest if you blessed this for you

I’m telling you now 'cause the people adore you

A cigarette burned down to the filter

My life ain’t been ashed in a long ass time

My photos all got black and white filters

Snapshot shows I been having one hell of a time

Cause everything is burning

And here I am a phoenix

Can I be reborn

I’m drowning in smoke again

Everything is burning

Everything is finished

I’ve been reborn

Thank God I’m born again