Pen Game

Intro

Listen up cause Jermaine came to show

the pen game been mine since long ago

910 in the building watch the flow

the culture bout to feel what real bars know.

Beat Starts

Verse 1: J. Cole

Every rapper better tighten up the pen game now

Jermaine from Carolina coming through to show em how

exposing every ghostwritten bar on every single track

every fake flow every cosigned rapper looking back

Jermaine stepped up and told the culture it was enough

of rappers selling fiction dressing all of it as tough

the culture been accepting less than everything its worth

every bar I write is everything I got left on earth

earth don't lie and the lie don't ever last too long

every rapper stepping to the pen better come strong

pen game separates the real nigga from the fake

every bar I ever wrote had everything at stake

truth over comfort cause comfort never ever fed me

Jermaine with the pen and the pen stay fucking ready.

Every bitch ass rapper with a ghostwriter on call

better check the culture cause the culture saw em fall

faking meaning buying bars they couldn't ever write

I been in the basement crafting every bar at night

since before the deal since before they knew my name

since before the culture figured out exactly who came

to change the standard of what lyricism supposed to mean

Jermaine from 910 running every single scene.

No features no assistance nothing below the craft

every rapper that I bodied needs to hear me laugh

at the gap between their pen game and the one I hold

every bar a different weapon every weapon cold

as Carolina winter meaning hunger and the grind

every fake rapper out here better make up their mind

cause the arrival was just the warmup for what pen can do

Jermaine in the building and the building coming through.

Verse 2: J. Cole

Don't need a ghostwriter cause my life already wrote

every bar I ever spit came from somewhere in my throat

that the comfortable could never ever manufacture

every rapper on the radio just another chapter

of a story that the label wrote before they signed em up

every flow pre-packaged every bar designed corrupt

I been the antidote to everything that's fake out here

every rapper on the charts got a team that they fear

writing bars they couldn't find inside their chest at night

I been in the basement putting every single bar right

bleeding on the page and converting every loss to craft

every bitch that said I'd never make it makes me laugh

cause the pen don't lie and the page don't ever forget

Jermaine been the realest nigga and I ain't done yet.

Built from every basement every notebook every pen

built from every single bar I wrote and wrote again

till the bar was perfect meaning earned and fucking real

every rapper with a ghostwriter couldn't ever feel

the satisfaction of a bar that came from somewhere true

I been the truth since day one and the truth coming through

on every track every verse every syllable precise

every bar a different level every level paying price

of the craft meaning everything you carry deep inside

every rapper faking bars got nowhere left to hide

culture waking up to what the real sounds like raw

Jermaine been the standard always setting every law.

Never compromised the craft for a chart position ever

never watered down a single bar for any endeavor

the label said the market wanted — I ignored the noise

Carolina in my chest and Carolina is my voice

on every record every verse every bar I ever wrote

every rapper with a ghostwriter better clear their throat

admit it to the culture before the culture finds it out

Jermaine already knows and Jermaine got the clout

of a pen that never needed anybody else to hold it —

the pen game been mine and every bar has showed it.

Verse 3: J. Cole

Every rapper stepping to the pen better come equipped

cause Jermaine on the mic and Jermaine never slipped

on a bar never stumbled never needed the assist

of a writer or a team or nobody on the list —

just the pen and the page and the fury of the night

every bar a different blade and every blade precise right

the culture been asleep on what the craft supposed to mean

I been the realest fucking thing this generation seen

coming out of Carolina with nothing but the hunger

every fake rapper out here better run for cover

pen game been mine since before they even knew the name

Jermaine from 910 and the 910 came

to remind the culture what a real fucking bar sounds like

every ghostwritten rapper bout to feel the longest night

of a culture finally waking up to what is true —

the pen game is the difference and the difference me and you.

Every bar a different scar every scar a different page

every page a different chapter of the Carolina rage

that built Dreamville from the nothing of a dial tone cold

every rapper that been faking better know the code

of a culture that remembers who was real and who was not

Jermaine been real since the basement and I never forgot

what the pen is for — the pen is for the truth alone

910 the debut and the king claiming every throne.

Beat Ends