Get all 7 Fres Thao releases available on Bandcamp and save 35%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Mind Full Of, Daisy Dukes (Free Download), Storytelling ep, Cloud 9 ep, The Thought Bubble Mixtape, Blank Canvas (illegoaliens), and Hello My People.
1. |
My Way
03:11
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2. |
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ESCAPE
i woke up at the first thought
jarred awake by a cold gust of wind
and all of sudden it started to rain
thundering white bolts of lightning struck while i eased out of my dream
drained the pourage out of my cranium, so i could relieve the strain
strung across the brain a strong pain
unable to be retained
unbelievable how things insignaficant remain vain
tainted by the stain of a blank name
i strive in insane ways to maintain my sanity
in a manic plea, panicking automatically in a spasmatic fashion
callin on my telegraph machine to contact my spacecraft to come rescue me from planet three
lost use of telepathy so i resort to the m-i-c to persuade these idiotic human beings
that feign the green and the usage of their seeds
see i use to be wack shit, but now im above wack-verage
the thin line in which wack and average seem to meet
now it seems to me that im in a constant need to be pleased
constantly following footsteps that lead me to believe that im the beast
constantly following footsteps that lead me to believe that im the beast
discrepancies in my threes the reason my life expectancies been decreased
easily at expenses unnecessarily needed to be completed
obsessive to the optics cuz im the opposite of obsolete (shit)
shock therapy phonics, like open house to autopsies
my generocities gotten nada to me, but whats odd to me is
its probably gotten you the lottery, but what bothers me is
everybodys problems then, suddenly become a part of me
now im easily a part of the losing team
even though i was winning, grinning and living the better situation
now they put me in this position with a decision to send me off to the rehabilitation office
where the patients are dead carcasses and the doctors are street pharmacists
alarmed by this, i plot my exscape
[meanwhile fresco plots his dynamic exscape from his liminal existence]
now its hard for me to send my thoughts to be understood
but if i could, i would revert them to each and every person
alert them of whats the consequences
while im in a constant quest to question the answers i object to
respected amongst the disrespectful, i lead you
but aledgedly you fled, afraid of the pessimistic sentimental
reflections intended to intensify the momentum
discretion is advised, like the pendulum, i freely sway side to side in conjuction with the time
now as i reside in the future, i tend to reminisce about the present
but it doesnt seem as pleasant as if i was living in the past tense
now if it wasnt for the passion, i would have never had the charisma
and if it wasnt for the charisma, i would have never had the damn talent
now its not meant to make sense to some, but it sums up all the dollars
and those whos hollowheaded had probably had enough of the album
[attempts to exscape are useless]
i intended to send my thoughts in your direction
but instead then, my thoughts dispensed in a speech impediment?
its meant to mean something to your mental, but in infinite ways
youll interpret, but none of it will be in a correct text though
now i sit back and think about how it started to rain today
the scent of the rain came long before i started to wake
the sound, penetrating ,u window pane
cluttered my thoughts and down i came as i muttered a couple of words
sprained while i stumbled to walk the earth
not understandable
but not due to the fact that i stuttered
its due to the fact my thoughts were sent to the other end of the universe
[and so i sat back and thought about how it started to rain,
unintentionally in the long run, my thoughts came back to me]
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3. |
Hey You
05:41
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HEY YOU
So I, woke up this morning with a headache and bedmate, um
I couldn’t decide which one I’d rather get away from
So I put on the PJs, slipped away off the bed
Smelt the underarms, took a whiff of the breath
Got some OJ, bacon, eggs ham and coffee
Headache purely minor, hangover soon deceased
Opened up the blinds to see the yellow sun shining
Such a beautiful day, I nodded my head in silence
Got the attitude, energy and the mind set
All engines firing and (um) two open eyelids
Imagine that, feeling inspired since last sunset
Jump in the shower, wash, rinse and spin
It’s a new day, in the bathroom I sing
And if you heard me, yea, I bet you’d cringe
Jump out the shower, I come face to face with
Miss “I woke up on the wrong side of the bed”
But
Hey you, I aint about to play
I’m just here, right here, just to start my day
And if you got got some’em something smart to saY
(AND IF YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING VERY SMART TO SAY)
Well you can keep it to yourself, I aint starting that way
So I get dressed to impress no one in particular
Ignore medusa’s snakes, witchcrafts and spells
Check the email, blow a kiss then I’m out
Out the door, walking towards the old beater
Two parking tickets and there’s no parking meters
On the freeway to collect cheese in the rat race
Pulled over for expired plates and I’m late
Yes I Understand -- No I forgot my ID
Yes that is my name – Date of birth is one one eighty
No, I haven’t been drinking since, uh, yesterday
Can I just have my ticket and we both be on our way
He looked at me, tilted his aviators and said
Hey you, I aint about to play
I’m just here, right here, just to ruin your day
And if you do have something very stupid to say
Well I can keep you right here, I aint scared to play
Hey you, I aint about to play
I’m just here, right here, just to start my day
And if you got got some’em something smart to saY
(AND IF YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING VERY SMART TO SAY)
Well you can keep it to yourself, I aint starting that way
So thanks Mr. Officer I’m ready for a grand show
Crossed the fingers and wished myself some luck
In the cubicle 35 minutes behind ten
Took a deep breathe, closed my eyes and I sighed then
the boss struts in, tosses me the mandatory
Overtime shifts, I’ll gladly do, but I’m sorry
Its Friday, I’ve got a gig at this venue I’m headlining
Well the corporations blah blah blah blah blah
So I started my singing
Hey you, I aint about to play
I’m just here, right here, in the middle of the day
And if you got got some’em something smart to say
(AND IF YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING VERY SMART TO SAY)
Well you can keep it to yourself, I aint going that way
Another city of Milwaukee parking citation
The last straws drawn, I’m exhausted and impatient
How todays went is how my days go
so I’m singing the blues on the way home and I know
same routine tomorrow when today is done
same song when I sing that I’d had sung
same wall with no window or a door, see
oh I’ll tell you tonight’s epic
in a whole different story
Hey you, I aint about to play
I’m just here, right here, just to end my day
And if you got got some’em something smart to say
Well you can keep it to yourself, I aint ending that way
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4. |
Boom Bap Vocab
04:47
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BOOM BAP AND VOCABO
“hello friend. Say, what do you suppose is the most important part of your body?
The brain, yes the brain is the part of the body that makes all the other parts work,
Its something like a big, uh, switchboard, from which the orders go out to the rest of the body …”
Ear drumming humming, head bobbing cinematics,
follow on top, hollow cymbal drop
Static elec – trick – or – treat, fabric of time seeps color through the cracks in the streets
Swallow that tongue with a cold cup of tea, objection your honor, but im still not a scholar
Minutes diminish to hours to days say it louder with vowels that dance in between towers of letters, you came, you saw, you left, elegant strands of the elephant mans love
Transports through portals, wormholes engorge you, forced through the cold wind with war scars still open, potent energy crisis, solo timidly trying, crying out fire and waters nowhere to be found. Sparks on the snares, piercing the ear, share reason to fear, sound bombing nuclear musical chairs, Few can adhere the vision the speaker reveals,
Creatures alike seem to feign for the (k)night, shiny armor I hover into the starry sky
So make room for the boom bap and vocabo, in the headphones, they soon soon
COLLAPSE SLOOOOWWWW
Words float like birds heard far from the ocean
Motion reserved, since cold furnace dispersing, heat, that’s absorbed through means, way too disturbing, fetch the bone, thrown, overhand with a curve, and, catch the tone bounce off the wall and crumble
It’s the jungle jim jones with a knack for kickball, pitfall harry hopping over the scorpions,
Whistle while I work on top of the empire, state building, im digging a subterranean home – sick of the blues - choose not to worry so I cruise the avenue
Pass through your center of gravity with a big boom
“We find that a number of elements go into its makeup, the elements exist together”
So make room for the boom bap and vocabo, in the headphones, they soon soon
COLLAPSE SLOOOOWWWW
Connect the dots and follow the crooked outline, up on cloud nine, shouting for ya to find
Gravel stone hiding in deep blue Poseidon, abandon aircraft, smash into the horizon
Riding in the storm with no sign of direction, every section im blessing is for a moment,
Emotional addressing of everything that youre hoping
Maybe that’s golden, something that you couldn’t hold in
Maybe its incredible, something that you couldn’t let go
Maybe it’s the thought of how soft your echoes wander through the silence of everything that you know, Untouched sound molded into a waveform, rain storm found in the depths of the desert
Heckle all you want, doctor jeckylle is a professor of everything you want / are / and aspire to be, incomplete form so I expire to be reborn as electromagnetic flowing on through the chords,
Heaven meets earth and I disinegrate in the fog
So make room for the boom bap and vocabo, in the headphones, they soon soon
COLLAPSE SLOOOOWWWW
“the brain of man is a wonderful, partly mysterious organ, that has taken nature millions of years to create, the brain actually has about 10 billion nerve cells .. theyre constantly receiving and sending messages by means of electrical impulses that travel from 2 to 200 miles an hour .. the purpose of this little record is to clear up for the non musician some of the mysteries about the brain”
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5. |
Crushed Cans
03:20
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6. |
BST
03:51
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BST
Time slips through like knocks on the front door
See, I’ve heard it before so I ignore it with the same force
Open up the hatches, lay a golden egg and smell the fumes of the matches
Boom goes the head when it’s lights, camera, action
Rooms lit on fire, desires of an assassin
Piece the fragments, take the fractions (and) start adding
Atomic bomb dropping from the bottom of a cockpit
Stop it when you land it on the red dot of the target
See me in the far end while you’re sealed up in that carbon
Razor sharp, halogen light saber darkness
Mark it with the gun powder left from the murder weapon
Urban legendary wings clipped, so I’m bleeding
Sweat on the forehead drips like a hurricane
Devastate the forest, trees bend like time,
But stay rooted through the floor bed
Soil then becomes mud, moving creatures out to the sea
And there I still stand, with the scriptures in the hand
It’s the picture that I’ve, planned, when I’ve scanned the territory
It’s the splitting of the atoms
Matter then unloads, explodes in the pupils
Few then can behold the ceremonial mastodon
Stomping on the ground, until it’s broken up the sound
Wave in the air, if you brave enough to dare
Devil, I’mma write a letter, so you can beware
Wolf, I then become when the moon begins to stare
Tear down the broken piece of canvas that I haunt
Crying out wolf, when peter knows that it’s false
Will get you nowhere quicker than a broken mirror
When my image does appear, fist with a cold motion
Swiftly in the air
Plane, I reside on the open side of a box
Hopping out the rabbit hole, then wiping off the moss
See, I’mma keep it real, when the film begins to spin
Feel the beats pound from the entrance to the exit
Its an undetected visit, an eclipse of the full moon
Carpal tunnel syndrome on the fist that wouldn’t bloom
But now then entombed in a room inside a cave
The volcano will soon erupt when you’ve sealed the barricades
Bleeding from the – eyes
Sweat from the – cuts
Tears in the – ears – of those who cried wolf
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7. |
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8. |
Divided
05:01
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9. |
Life oh 8
04:08
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LIFE OH 8
Just a virus to your program to keep the mind tweaked
Chain smoking you couldn’t cut it with the techniques
There’s no pretending I can take it with this nonsense
When the moons lit, transform into the wolf --- MAN
Brain overload from the days work over
seen by the over lord I’m just short circuit bursting
All the day dreams in many ways can make you sweat
So curse me for the hunger but the thirst is getting quenched
See this 9 to 5, you can take this job and shove it
Anyways I’ll be back tomorrow in time to punch in
But tonight, if I can still see then I ain’t had nuff
Another night out, with the mouth under the faucet
Often too much, fill myself with the boose and
Drowning down the sorrow like a whale harpoon ned
Follow me, continue and listen to what I’m crooning
Still got the blues but I still sing you this
[chorus]
Still got that dream that seem a little off beat
As the scene takes you off through the vaults of my brain
I ain’t famous, got a day shift that don’t pay shit
These days I’m impatient, waiting for the spaceship
Keep my head lifted neck above the clouds
Where the shooting stars continue to fall and the sounds
Surround me in a bliss, yes dismiss the mess
I keep my place tidy for the misses when they visit
It’s the one all mighty that’ll spite me in the end see
In the time being I’ll be a friend with the enemy
I’ve seen better days, better days have seen me
You can’t believe much of all the hype so let me speak
The bare necessities of a life incomplete
I play it by the ear, give life a bear hug
It’s the way I love this life that gets people jealous
So ladies and fellas, sing along with fres
[chorus]
Feeling fresh like preservatives in your processed food
I maneuver through the day like there’s wings on my shoes
I don’t deal with the fact that you can’t deal with my facts
The real issues are officially left detached
You don’t make me mad, you just make me upset
With no smile on my grill, don’t mean I’m unhappy
Until the kegs on empty or these people become friendly
You can bet another drinks on it’s way to drive me senseless
(break)
Until these robots start functioning correctly
Until these tin men receive their heartbeats
Til they give me a legitimate reason to give up or
to give a damn of what they’re trying to say
These problems are going no where and neither are they
So I stand tall and keep on singing it this way
Come on sing along with me, it goes like this
I don’t hate life
Its just you that I don’t like
I’m a do right
No matter what gets in my way
If the moods right
I might tune out what you say
Because the moonlight will bring me another day
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Fres Thao Minnesota
I am a Hmong American poet, Hip Hop artist, multidisciplinary artist, activist and educator. My life long love of poetry, Hip Hop and storytelling has spawned eight albums, including Illegoalien’s ‘Blank Canvas’ and a vinyl release of my ‘Mind Full Of’ album, and one book, Lullabies for Happiness, A Manual for Love and Peace. ... more
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