Released: September 5, 2000

Songwriter: Aesop Rock

Producer: Aesop Rock

[Intro]
The ritual goes, same window, different visual

Wing of wax? Or wing of gold leaf? Choose one
Float or plummet 20,000 cold leagues
My nourishment's provided in the summer
So then I wonder how y'all chasing dreams when what's tangible still outruns you!
Hail dirty doll immaculate performance
Warm as the march of a billion torches forward to burn what I'm born in
Cut and paste alertness to current settings provided quick
Shimmy the pirate ship mass, spot the island, sound the siren
And about face
Let's salute the embraced pertinent generals
Who turned innocent hermits to burning spectacles
Flirtin' with a serpent working overtime, drain the battery
Siphon the poison to flood his majesty's hatchery
I was riding on a yellow bus to where the brush thickens
And it ain't exactly plush pickings
I'd rather take the time to burn every last bridge
I've ever crossed beneath the sun
Than live my life knowing you may one day follow me over one
Snake bite, breath too heavy to hold
Caught up in the wake of the red witch trying to swim it
Ran for the sake of dead cliques stripped of idyllic image
Steal a sloppy earth meal
Feed my pottery wheel to model colossal vision
Thrill, trucking with a bucket of pennies
I'm 'a drag my sneakers through the dirt like alligator bellies 'til the cloud burst
Honor and a loud thirst submersed in a trap
Little drummer boy vs. thunderclap

[Hook] x2
In a city of garbage, trying to reap the harvest
Adaption is the trap in which the artist meets the forest
Swing your little ax or be an oak tree if you can't
Either way; adapt to circumstance or play your final hand

You don't know enigma
An attempt to bury the hatchet rendered me victim of deviltry
Plus wounded like stigmatics
Something's huffing hazardous
I smell an inch of difference in this morning's pollution pistons
And how the loose ends drifted
My sour patch institution slipped in amidst the invaders and pardon my tone
But this garden's grown fucking acres since my visit
Itching to count the layers in the blizzard
'Til that chapter where my family inserts the dagger and twists it
It's a carnival
Have you any sweets for my weary kin? It's a carnival
Have you any feed for my cheery grin? It's a carnival
Welcome, play our games, you'll never win
'Cuz it's that carnival where every freak show spectacle's your friend
And I'm a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas
Anti-freeze to glacier, cookin' a look of fiery nature
It's the ceiling feeling too heavy to bliss the I-beams for a fraction more
Collapsed and left 'I'm sorry' tacked to you door
Pitching my back to hell's kitchen
Back burner murder machinery released regardless of the pardons
Hitching my life to the leash of one minstrel
Sick of same window different visual
Same agnostic hostage different ritual
Plague, cooperative super colony clash
I heard you got a dust collection, lemme see it
I duel as underdog vs. forced adaptation to the marvels of the now
Since then, my knuckles haven't once dragged on the ground

[Hook] x2

[OUTRO] x8
The ritual goes, same window different visual

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.