"...we all slip silently down the road, courageously, with or without a sunset..."

like it’s all too much/ and my heart might bust/ & still like children do/ I trust/ that there’s a You/ and You are true/ & give mercy to get us thru/ these times that try are trying me/ fist to mouth with adversity/ bouncing checks so I can eat/ a stranger in familiar streets/ wandering purpose aimlessly/ knowing that I gots mad things to do/ the hue has become a darker blue/ than the baby that I was 2 years ago/ not that life’s the Truman show/ but I write from my perspective—cuz it’s the only one I know/ but not the only one I feel/ New Orleans to me is real/ Rwanda too—cold as steel/ on a night when you feel all alone/ wrapped in a blanket with no call to send home/ …these days they eat me/ …that’s why both my legs feel weak/ & I’m a bit too heavy for her to catch me/ so I try not to speak/ but it only grows stronger when the rooibos steeps/ I don’t know how she can be so sweet/ from wherever she is to wherever I be/ I hope she’s mine for me to keep/ I hope that I can fall asleep/ without pharmaceuticals inside me/ but as it is, is present tense/ & letting go of tension just makes sense/ how I wish I could baptize this/ & send it to the wind like a springtime kiss/ sliding thru the water like a slick porpoise skin/ I don’t know how or why or when/ I became this way/ okay, sometimes you gotta just jump on/ so I did/ ask the questions/ in the hopes to get those lessons/ hue, boy + rocket to subtly shock you/ an electric charge/ 2 unplugged brothas 2 healing farms/ free from harm yo you safe with us/ i don’t know much/ but I can promise you some trust …//

if you take a step into the mind/ never know what sherlock’ll find/ clues they too sometimes combine/ but tend to grow like tomato vines/ so that’s why I sometimes cry/ and try to carwash both my eyes/ then open them up like a diner sign/ 24 hrs always fresh/ 7 days a week I deliver my best/ the ekg said my heart is stressed/ am I too young to have this in my chest?/ I don’t think so, but I’ll slow… down… my.. flow/ like black molasses goes// what’s a song without a dream?/ hip hop without “p’s” on the scene is ‘hi-ho’/ wave bye yo—boy + rocket’s set to go/ got wings so strong and beats so true/ birds and squirrels they feel it too/ I put out my thumb and they picked me up/ now I got a space suit (&) it’s buttoned up/ tight up- to the neck/ but loose as a goose in winter wet/ we use these tunes as insulation/ and transform our situations/ over the rainbow might be gold/ but that’s not here so I do not know/ it might be silver, it might be bronze/ I hope it’s bullfrogs in a pond/ with big flys above and lily pads below/ and roots so deep you can feel them grow/ and every so often I hope they’ll be/ a lotus flower floatin’ there perfectly/ like an old man, like a baby, like a woman, like a new seed, like fall leaves, like a cool breeze, like summer, like ice cream, like winter when snow’s falling, like my love when she is calling/ calling/ calling to me/ to me/ like an old man, like a baby…//

This thing that sometimes I mourn/ Is so old, yet to be born/ Not like the identity/ It is its own entity/ I would like to think that I know what it is/ but I’d be lying & I’m true to this/ so I hold my tongue/ and touch my heart/ like Jackson Pollacking art/ it sprays and lays and grows in layers/ my eyes heavy, Darth like Vader/ but before he went to the evil side/ some say dark/ but I’m a black guy…/ and I try/ to not confuse/ the subtleties that words construe/ or often miss and (then) bruise/ bricks are thrown tear gas is used/ and as the fires blaze the sky/ I pray that God will take back light/ I pray that girls take back the night/ i pray this world gives up its fight/ and decides to give love a chance/ to forgive and to advance/ to really live and really dance// ad-libs… This thing that I seek I saw in the eyes/ of a 6 yr old girl and a homeless guy/ it kind of skipped & kind of swayed/ like flowers, like a chain gang/ I must say I didn’t know what to do/ like deer in headlights tend to do/ I muttered a verse and brushed my shoes/ —off— and then I think I coughed/ I didn’t have words for the thing I saw/ like momma birds when chainsawed trees fall/ I had always imagined one way it’d be/ but then again in actuality,/ expectations contradict reality/ like Jesus, up on the cross/ Diallo’s killers gettin’ off/ like the holocaust we said “never again”/ but then Rwanda and Sudan happen/ it’s hard these days to have faith that rappin’/ can change the block let alone the globe/ but i gotta stop self-doubt, although/ cynicism’s tempting- it’s fear in a cloak/ a smirk, a sar-ca-stic aside/ I work, this art, until I cry/ and then the tears purify/ and then they rise to meet the heights/ that martin spoke of on that final night/ the mountaintop is there/ ain’t nuthin stoppin’ us but the air// don’t give up/ don’t give in/ forget this/ say it again/ don’t give up/ don’t give in until the ocean takes them in/ sand grains wait/ ghost crabs glisten/ it’s all here/ now just listen… don’t give up/ don’t give in/ forget this/ say it again/ it’s all here/ now just listen… now just— //

(instrumental track)

yo if I could change the status quo/ (I think) I’d get in my little boat and row/ then I’d go, oh, yo, so gently down the stream/ but not a single stroke with no pfd/ cuz life is rare-re-ly what it seems/ ceo’s be wearin’ jeans/ broke city folks slave to wear Gucci/ yo I tend to rock whatever fits me/ —and I don’t just mean physically/ I love it when it’s been grown locally/ csa, co-op, or family-owned grocery/ a 3rd of the hole in the ozone, comes from food being shipped far from home/ if I’m here in the DC city, I keep it 540 Loudon County for my veggies / I turn down tofu from California/ when I’m home keep it 828 Western North Carolina/ put some spring house meat on my plate/ deep breath in, & then thank/ like Cherokees when it rains/ I pray for today/ try to make time to work and play/ I hope when I’m old and grey/ I’ll still know how to beat a break/ or even break a beat/ with boy + rocket in the pilot seat/ it’s maybe the first time on the m-i-c that h-u-e has been fr-ee/ critics say I’m heavy/ but the last project had to be/ comin’ to terms with life and death/ and tryin’ to do it with a bass and treble clef/ is not the easiest thing/ my heart was blue and I had no bling/--no cheddar, no cake, no cream/ just cold sweats, nightmares and screams/ no hummer to hide me from world/ just a couple homeboys and I lost my girl/ then it got dark and I lost my world/ wondering where the hell was the light/ in the bottom of the well, days are nights/ and nights no different from days/ I couldn’t see the mountains cuz of the haze/ I’m most grateful for that thing called ‘change’/ it’s amazing how we mazed then we find a way/ how we were once were lost/ how we now are saved/ how we now are free and used to be slaves/ i want to/but I can’t run away/ gotta find courage to stay/ some days/ it’s a miracle to just get the feet out the bed/ problems… like hurricanes flood my head/ but this music helps me thru/ some watercolors and guache will also do/ when I don’t have words to say/ but need ya’ll to feel what I feel today/ h.u.e still got the urgency/ like too many cups of sweet tea/ the hyper-mellow me lets it flow free/ gain strength from vulnerability/ perspective and humility/ stomach cramps, bad gas, big smile, and flat-ass feet/ I be who I be (x5)…//

(instrumental track)

boy + rocket/ & you can’t stop it/ with h.u.e. this rocket be/ something that you cannot see/ unless of course your bifocals be/ hubble telescopes in 20-20/ these beats on earth from galaxies/ where people still believe in dreams/ and kids turn off their t.v. screens/ and walmarts collapse beneath the trees/ and seasons change & so do we/ which means that we proceed/ and rarely repeat our history/ see, this right here, is a.r.t./ (always reaching there) like mtns. to sea, the/ line in the distance is just that thin/ when my man sailed away into the horizon/ I never knew when I’d see him again/ but I didn’t doubt I would/ cuz his smile be glitterin’/ little blue bird with the red wings flitterin’/ these tunes spannin’ out (wide) like pilgrims on a mission, and/ we stay humble and live like the Indians/ keep our shows packed so you need a reservation/ if you wanna even try to make it thru the door/ throw your hands up like we just made a field goal!