The Craft (Interlude)

Intro

The craft never asked me for permission or a sign

it just arrived one night and never left my mind.

Beat Starts

Interlude: J. Cole

I remember the first time the pen felt like something real

not a hobby not a pastime but a way to feel

past the surface of a life that wasn't saying enough

the basement was the classroom and the classroom was rough

but the rough made the lesson land different than comfort would

I been in the dark so long I finally understood

that the darkness wasn't absence it was presence of a truth

that only comes to those who sit alone in the booth.

The craft ain't something given it was taken from the floor

of every night I almost put the notebook by the door

and walked away — walked away meaning I almost quit

I stayed because the pen was the only thing that fit

the shape of everything I couldn't ever say out loud

every bar a private letter to a faceless crowd

of versions of myself that needed proof the thing was real

the craft gave me the language for the things I couldn't feel.

Carolina gave me everything the craft needed to grow

the hunger and the cold and the particular kind of slow

burn of a dream that takes so much longer than you planned

I been the patience and the fury holding every hand

that wrote it all down before the world was ever ready

the craft is why I stayed when the world was telling me leave

and leaving would have been the easier thing to do

I stayed for the craft and the craft always stayed true.

Beat Ends