Lyrical Exercise

Beat Starts

Verse 1: J. Cole

Lyrical exercise every bar a different rep today

every syllable a pushup every flow a different way

permanent beyond the surface where the average rapper stops

I been sharpening the blade since before the culture clocked

the pen that I been swinging like a scalpel on the beat

every rapper think they nice till they feel the concrete

of a bar that got three floors and they only read the first

I been the surgeon and the patient and the thirst.

Double meaning in the bars like a two-sided coin

every entendre got a different place to join

the literal and the hidden — I been building in the gap

every rapper reading surface getting caught in the trap

of the obvious — I left the obvious behind

triple layered every bar got a basement for the mind

to excavate — the finding is the whole point of the craft

Jermaine been the architect since before the aftermath.

Every bar a different body of evidence and code

I been the cipher and the message on the road

to something past the language that the comfortable speak

every rapper on the radio been running from the peak

of what the pen can do when the pen been fully trained

I been the weight and the resistance and the pain

converted — every rep a different version of the truth

Jermaine been the lyrical since day one in the booth.

Every rapper in the game been skipping leg day on the craft

I been training every muscle every morning every last

rep of the session — session meaning every bar I wrote

every entendre swimming underneath like a moat

around a castle that the surface readers never breach

I been the castle and the moat and out of reach

of every rapper who been comfortable with the first floor

Jermaine been in the basement building something more.

Verse 2: J. Cole

Pen like a nine millimeter every bar a different shot

every syllable deliberate and every bullet hot

with a meaning underneath the meaning underneath the skin

of a bar that got three layers and I'm going in

past the entry past the surface past the obvious floor

every bar a different building and the building got more

rooms than the comfortable can navigate alone

I been the labyrinth the map and the keystone.

Surgical precision on the craft like a blade

every bar a different incision every incision made

with the intention of a man who knows exactly what he cuts

every rapper rapping surface got the lyrical guts

of a ghost — I been the body and the spirit of the bars

I been the distance and the destination and the scars

that the journey left — the journey being every night

I spent converting what I felt to something precise right.

Every cipher got a cipher got a cipher underneath

every bar a different layer every layer got teeth

of a meaning that'll bite you when you least expect the pull

I been the current and the undertow and the full

weight of what the language carries when the language trained —

every double entendre got a triple that remained

hidden past the second reading — I been the third

Jermaine from 910 and every bar a coded word.

Carolina in the bars like a frequency embedded

every rapper reading surface gonna leave frustrated

by the gap between the floor and where the meaning lives

I been the excavation and the gold and the gives

of a language bent to purpose — purpose meaning craft

every bar a different level every level a shaft

going deeper than the obvious design they built

Jermaine from the basement laying bar after hilt.

Verse 3: J. Cole

Last verse and the architecture got three different wings

every bar a different frequency every frequency rings

at a pitch the comfortable can't tune themselves to hear

I been the signal and the static and the atmosphere

of a craft that operates above the obvious line

every hidden layer in these bars deliberately mine

built from the intention of a man who chose the depth

over the surface — every bar a different breath.

Jermaine in the booth dissecting every word I chose

every door I open got a door behind it that closes

on a meaning that the average rapper never finds

I been the excavation and the gold and the mines

of a language that I bent to fit a different purpose

every rapper reading first draft never breaking the surface

of a bar that got foundations deeper than the eye

I been the basement and the building and the sky.

910 the debut and the debut operating

on a frequency the comfortable been underrating

since the day I picked the pen up and I chose the depth

every triple entendre is a lyrical theft

of the obvious — I took it and I flipped it three times

past the literal past the figurative past the rhymes

into something permanent that lives beneath the words —

Jermaine from Carolina and the message always heard.

No ceiling on the layers no ceiling on the craft

every bar a different x-ray every x-ray a shaft

of light into the meaning that the surface never shows

I been the depth and the direction and the flow

of a river running under what the comfortable see

every triple entendre is the truest version of me

lyrical exercise and the exercise don't stop —

Jermaine from Carolina and I'm climbing to the top.

Beat Ends