Released: September 5, 2000

Featuring: Doseone

Songwriter: Doseone Aesop Rock

Producer: Blockhead

[Aesop Rock & Doseone]
This is not your ordinary ballad
With a perfect little bow around the middle
And a black knight on a white horse
Or a white knight on a black horse
It's got all these tired parts where
We don't even sing and random
Princess raise the drawbridge
We don't serve your kind
It ends where it begins
And the beginning isn't pretty
Can't forget that not-so-perfect
Bow around the middle ('round the middle, 'round the middle...)

And it goes a little something like this..

[Aesop Rock]
Moon walking a broken soul pedigree incessant
Gut the cruddy frame
The zealots enveloped inside the belly of the blame
Cutthroats the result of pulp jokes soaked in poacher constants
And not a jewel amidst coal wander prominent.. honor (honor)
I bought up silkworms by the bucket like starter kits
Sew your first martyr stitch
Join damaged mammoth brigading caper
Nurse the tantrum with a fantasy chaser
I keep the spare wings strapped to my fuses
In case the hackers snatch the plumage

[Doseone]
So you mean these things are worth money
Now drifting off
This is the who-you-calling-homeless
Mock me fearful
Twisted mighty fearful twisted and tonight I got front row seats at the d-d-d-d-dead concert
And you're in it, Ichabod
Running out of morals for my allegory... (moseying)
My kind of people will sell only circles. (woseying)
With my eyes patched in a not so new universe
So I beckon and bray but my pretty bird just ain't muting the many...

[Aesop Rock]
Oh it'll be soon (real soon)
Balloon immune to doom blend
I ain't ditchin' the kitchen 'til every spoon bends
A glance along tomorrow, sorry
Looking lot of hopefuls was the rain dance
My little flint never dreamed would flutter potable
See I sanitize nothing for the sake of contemporary taste
Contemporary taste made my lip drop in the first place (incoming)
Hmm, You want to be a Czar?, idolize fallen heroics
Recognize root of the worship, search and hold it
Who put the fun in dysfunctional?
I, prodigal son combustible, donkey-punching pinholes
In uncomfortable Zen conjunctionals for good (good)
The bear cub slop a goblet of dirt wine
I nurse a single application of introvert, serpentine

[Doseone]
Now a sunset without a scrape of red an-an-and a plastic bag noise
Sunk down around his head sick-sick-sick-sick...
Stealing a peak
There's sickness likeness in the roofer's eyes and his alone
And nothing terrible happened to the bag

Wrongs spilled off in...
And brought on out the clouds...
The hiss cuts out...
Spill its voice...
And the piano...
And the window full of...
Star is fresh... kept
From where I'm going... holy other
Holy other, holy other, holy other...

[Aesop Rock]
B-B-B-B-B-But
I've got charcoals in my heart, I've got charcoals in my heart
I've got charcoals by the armfuls that burn my armor apart
I've got charcoals in my heart, but I've got charcoals in my heart
I've got charcoals by the armfuls that burn my armor apart

[Doseone]
And before, when I said 'Shut the fuck up, it's none of your business'
That was to be in vain
Be sure to lock that up when you're all finished
Finished yet? Now uhm...
I usually finish this number with uh... my skull open

[Aesop Rock]
Everybody rally around the novel burners, spit, murder the matches
Where the junkies trade diseases and the gullible trade passions
Then the masses wanna lean on me like "oh captain, my captain"
Not considering maybe this orphan hosts morbid attachments...

[Doseone]
Button, button, who's got the button
Take my name, please...
Button, button, who's got the button
Leaks the little gentle man made of lightning inside my lock-box
Oh, you like to help with coats wait unti you see what I got in this here locket

[Aesop Rock & Doseone]
This is not your ordinary ballad
With a perfect little bow around the middle
And a black knight on a white horse
Or a white knight on a black horse
And I can't forget the not-so-perfect bow around the middle
Round the middle, round the middle, round the...

Aesop Rock

Born Ian Matthias Bavitz, Aesop Rock was a pioneer in the new wave of underground hip-hop in New York City during the early 2000s. Regarding his name, he

I acquired the name Aesop from a movie I had acted in with some friends. It was my character’s name and it sort of stuck. The rock part came later just from throwing it in rhymes.

Aesop has a solid discography with 8 albums spanning over the course of 20+ years. He started in 1999 by selling his first album, Music for Earthworms, through his website while he was a student at Boston University. He has since gained a cult following and been named one of the best artists of the 2000s. His most successful albums are None Shall Pass, Skelethon, and The Impossible Kid which peaked on the Billboard 200 at #50, #21, and #30 respectively.