Oddisee - The Good Fight

I've said it time and time again, Oddisee is nothing short of a renaissance man and I'll go into his album in a moment, but before that let me give you all a little update.

Although I haven't posted in ages hip-hop still is the main force that motivates me on a daily basis. I most certainly haven't lost touch with what inspires me to be better. Not many of you know anything about me other than my small snippets of writings, but I have goals and aspirations to leave a lasting impact on society. In the past year I've fallen in love with the most amazing and intelligent woman on the face of this earth. She's beyond brilliant, gorgeous, and is a doctor who wants to dramatically help with global health. My insurance brokerage has grown substantially and I'm extremely blessed to be able practice business in an ethical manner helping my customers on a daily basis. This all being said when I started this blog I always had the idea of doing something far greater. My goal has been to help change the music industry. Let the poppy bullshit some call music continue to be on the airwaves but bring more artists with morale fortitude to front line. I'm fascinated by how Kendrick Lamar has done everything Kanye couldn't. I know there are amazing artists that I listen to on the daily that need to be brought to the masses. Oddisee is on the precipitous of breaking through and for the rest of this post lets focus on him. 

I follow him not only through his lyrics but also keep tabs through the internet. It seems like all the hard work and struggle is paying off in a major way. He just dropped one of the most inspiring albums I've heard in years as well as getting married. The Good Fight is a story of failure, hard work, morality, values, and ultimately success. Not the type of success where you've made and kick your feet up (I highly doubt that trait is inherent in who he is as a person). Oddisee fights the good fight and genuinely cares about the culture of hip-hop, knowing that unfortunately it's lost the importance of uplift that it once had. This is verse from his mixtape a couple years back and the song is titled "The Gold is Mine" 

"Cause the dollars that I gain ain't at the cost of rotting brains/ I'm from a time that's been forgotten where the scholars entertained/ Music with a message, message with the music/ records for living reckless & records for wreck improvement/ Practicing what I'm preaching, the good and bad in me meeting/ To much of one or the other mean your perception is skewing/ fix up & care less of others doings/ ambition ain't bout results, what you perusing"

All the tracks on the Good Fight are superb but right now one is resonating with me more so than others. A List of Withouts shows that hard work pays off period. Listen to this digest and understand it. If you've hankering for more go support this artist cause I promise you the moment my nieces and nephews start listening to music uncle Gabe will gladly having them tune in to what Oddisee has to say.  

[Verse 1: Oddisee]

One time for setbacks
One time for progress
Have hatred for the matrix or fall in love with the process
Not enough sleeping
Way too many prospects
Always feeling fatigue but I have yet to need alarm set
I'm just bout the realest of things
Ain't that the logic?
Lie awake with a dream and then fall asleep with a concept
I hear a lot of chatter about hustling on the daily
But when did the discussion come pay me? Never
This the man that's behind the words that do whatever it takes
I'm not too proud to eat the scrapings off plates
Turn your nose up
You're missing out
What this about
Having holdups?
Well you can eat the chips on your shoulder
Know what
That ain't something that you can learn
But on the way you could earn
Rode through the fixes and the clenches
Never make a U-Turn
And if you do
You ain't ready for what anything cost
Youngin' you soft
Run along with your loss and step off

[Hook: Oddisee]
You ain't got the skills for this
Nah, you ain't got the build for this
Nah, you ain't got the real for this
You ain't got the chill for this
Nah, you ain't got the smarts for this
Nah, you ain't got the art for this
You ain't got the ear for this
Nah, you ain't got the tears for this
Nah, you ain't got the feel for this
You ain't got the years for this
Nah, you ain't got the heart for this
Nah, you ain't got the heart for this
Turn it up

[Verse 2: Oddisee]
When do I not have a lot on my mind
Contemplating what to do with my time
I'm pursuing a grind that runs faster than my passion and I'm
Tryna match it with the habit to shine
Money coming and going
Predict the pattern what I'm tryna define
Already knowing is a tragic decline
Before the show end
Show up with a "I know what" instead of "why"
The answer ain't in the sky don't expect a reply
I'm just expecting decline
I'm scared to death that
This the best I'ma get before God come and collect his breath back
[Arabic?]
So I don't sweat that
I got a lot of blessings at stake
And I would hate to take them all in the vein
Like I was shooting up base
I'm in the trap you might know it as states
A Murryland boy who wants the world to rejoice at my recording of tapes
Y'all don't hear me why

[Hook]

[Verse 3: Oddisee]
My mother worked the register all the way through her pregnancy
Less than a week from getting me she was working to better me
Pop's selling coke out on Lanny Park in the 70's
He hustled for the struggle to stop the troubles ahead of me
That's when he had a diner off of New Hampshire Ave
Didn't last, Reaganomics set the market to crash
When I'm back home I always make a point to go past
To see the spot as a reminder of how good could go bad
This the world that I inherited
Furthered it through the murderous weekend meager the nervousness
Look at me I'm impervious
Take your best shot and make sure that I'm done
Cause if I'm not I'll come back to take the life from your lung
I fight The Good Fight
The merits of my actions is slow
Overnight: Nothing worth it would grow
This I learned from the modest of folks
Fake artists with your targets' to blow
Y'all implode
We ain't guarding your soul
Yeah

[Hook]