Released: September 14, 2016

Featuring: EDEN

Songwriter: EDEN ATO

Producer: EDEN

I only ask to get ahead of me
So I can see the man in the cemetery
And I was in love with the prophecy
Just another slave to hypocrisy
People distracted by the world outside
And fail to see the world when they close their eyes
I'm feeling the imbalance, hatred and malice between us
Why we at war? We should be more like Venus

I was born by the river, raised by the queen
Faced with reality, mind willing to dream
Contemplating a life of freedom
I was forced to turn my back on the door that saw everyone leaving
Rock bottom is a strong foundation
Built an empire on it with some words in the basement
We write the truth and then they write us off
Just a couple lines that Malcolm was willing to cross
I came back home with a rose and some torn up clothes
Played it next to a desperate note but it remained composed
I said Lord for I see but I cannot sail
How does one win when he's ready to fail?
I know you know my heart, my spirit, my soul
I been overwhelmed by fear since I was nine years old

She came in my life so unexpected
She felt love before I had it resurrected
If you are, you are who you say you are
You are out of this world, you are Jupiter
Now that would explain this new atmosphere
We didn't plan it to be hard and to be so far

But we've gone, baby we've gone
So you take it off when I turn it on
Walk in my mind into the unknown
I walk in your's and we can get lost

Tell me when you're down, down, down, down, down
Down, down, down, down, down
Down, down, down

And I was born by the river, raised by the queen
Faced with reality, mind willing to dream
Contemplating a life of freedom
I was forced to turn my back on the door that saw everyone leaving
Rock bottom is a strong foundation
Built an empire on it with some words in the basement
We write the truth and then they write us off
Just a couple lines that Malcolm was willing to cross

You said you had a tunnel for a past
And described when you saw the end glisten like a star
While from so far I'm an alien
We see different worlds in our craniums
See these are vivid words, vivid dreams, lonely nights
You're gonna spend all your time making money
'Til you spend all your money making up for lost time

Life ain't easy, sunrise by the stream, tell life to meet me
Stuck in a place only I can free me, deep in the east in the belly of the beast
I know you know that this ain't easy but I get my bottles for free
Deep in the valley where my shadow don't sleep, we get to stalling while brothers are balling

'Cause we are more life for the ready
More hard, Henny gets buried with the Penny
I die, you die, they die heavy
You live, I live, not so many
Welcome to the matrix
Parallel world where we're living
It took space to see the world that we live in
And it took time, it took pain, it took vision
And I've never been here before
She came down like a meteor
Yes, I'm young and I'm insecure
I've seen too many leave like a sycamore
And she cool - like ice sometimes
But she can save you - from your hardest times
Like old Gods and I don't really fuck with the others
My back gets up with the others
And I'm analyzing the time and I'm seeing this widen
My pen gets to pain like an ambulance siren
I pray to not pray, then I pray it again
I been deep where faith is the only way
I depict my own flaws and slam my own doors
The shit I've seen would leave you lock-jawed
I'm a young fighter, deep thinker, raw writer
Walk through the dark 'til the sun finds your shadow

The more they hate me the more they help me
The more they love me the more they hurt me
The dynamic of a lonely journey
I failed to say a word but I know that you heard me
Your absence is present, I feel it
Praying on the day I count my blessings and mean it
Close my eyes and see the devil trynna be Jesus
In a world where believers are trynna be leaders

But he's completely lost

I'm just my darkest fear and my greatest achievement
Thousands of snakes and I'm back with EDEN
Faith is staying strong without notorious reason
They say God is love and that love is freedom
But love took my heart and it left me bleeding
Love had my on my knees begging and pleading
Love showed me the valley of the shadow of death
Love showed me life is a beautiful test
A man told me people live Hell on Earth
That's why I had to put down a hell of a verse
They say life's a bitch but she's beautiful
Motherfuckers out here are tryna snatch her purse
And she said who you gonna be?
Every breath's cost but that karma comes free
She can see I'm not afraid to show her my fears
And when I'm gone I hope she remembers the words I whispered in her ear
Said she said who you gonna be?
Every breath's cost but that karma comes free
She can see I'm not afraid to show her my fears
And when I'm gone I hope she remembers the words I whispered in her ear
I said, yeah, I got a tunnel for a past
And described when I saw the end glisten like a star
Where I'm from's so far, I'm an alien
We see different worlds in our craniums

And now a great thing in the street
Seems any human nod
Where a move in strange democracy
The million masks of God
The million masks of the joker
Because the joker is the player
The trick player
Who plays ultimately the great trick on himself
So really, there can be no resentment about this, nobody to blame, nobody to turn around in the end and say:
"You, you bastard! You did this to me!"
Because it's always you, who are ultimately responsible

When life draws for the side table
I feel to pause, watch it flash before your maple eyes
Being fed lies through the cage we've been held inside
Heaven is the answer to the question that we're living in

And there's an opposite to everything
Yang and yin compelled by the sedative we're letting in
Time counting down 'til there's no tomorrows left for me
One-way trip to heaven had me sitting in the window seat

Long talks with the man in the mirror
But he don't move when I move, we used to be together
I see clouds when I close my eyes
But it ain't rained in years, it might rain tonight

I might see everything clear, tear after tear
I'm gonna climb my fears, you can't tell me 'bout peers
Can't trust 'em 'til the end 'cause the end ain't your friend
When you run out of love 'cause all that love got spent

I've been spending these days on my own
Being thrown like a stone into the sea, the unknown
Escaped a long line of clones in the queue for purpose
People that don't know themselves make me nervous

They call this home, I call it the unknown
Trapped between letting go and the need for control
Still looking for the spaceship that we crashed and burned
For we were looking for Heaven when we fell on Earth

You said that I said that I'm yours
I told you that I made myself at home in your flaws
They be learning from the greats while I learn from their mistakes that found the Devil's gates
Amen

ATO

Ato Alexander Ampiah-Haagh, better known as ATO, was born in Oxford, UK, to a Danish mother & Ghanaian father.

His collaboration with Irish songwriter and producer EDEN in the fall of 2014 established the beginning of his musical career. His first EP, Intro, dropped later that year.

In the summer of 2017, he released his second EP, Man Of The House.