1. |
Another One
03:38
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Qubicity:
Yeah we back on another one!
Still bumping, still stunting til we're number one
We gotta keep surviving
That's why we going in on the mic straight grinding
Sterling Duns:
Im back up in the magic lab
Is that new, come on bro, you don’t have to ask
Me and my crew, so fly so fresh to death
when haters hate, all we do is throw em up an ampersand
Annnnnnd what ya’ll really saying,
2nd round draft pick, So we aint really playing
that 1st round game though, they league done slept on us
but it means the opposition aint put the press on us
I’m so focus I’m illin
rhymes so potent they healing
rhymes so cold, yep we chillin
boy we done landed like pilgrims
rock the mic like its plymouth
hit the beat like its tennis
We show up like arrows
Then we like some gymnaist
I improvise on the beat but I don’t
I pen a verse down like i hit it with a rock bottom
If we fail I don’t care cause we aint getting graded
And I rather try and fail, then say we never tried to make it
Qil:
Yo, we bringing in the new space age
I be on that space heater, flow be on that genophage,
This is just my Genesis and I don't play no face games
I never been a nemesis, I Sega from the first stage
Set up in a bird cage but I be going cuckoo
Snapping on a track, got me actin like a choo-choo
I'm about that do you, and doing me is doing right
My future make a star clap, ya mama say I'm sunlight
Listen to that thun like "This could be my energy"
Coming through them sound bytes, sparking up some chemistry
Treated like a new dawn, clean up like I'm brawny
Butter up the beat, pop a kernel I'm corny
So Punxsutawney, my feels all doctored
Step up to the plate the new age has been proctored
If you ain't banging wit it you can go and get lobstered
Cause everytime I hit it hit it like a young mobster
Qubicity:
I’m on a Dr Seuss planet with a blue spruce planted
overhead, granted I can barely even stand it
how I grind inside my mind and scribe a line thats hard as granite
quiet signs shining in a blinding field of famine
stun the stage, and leaving the lab cremated
ripping page, and writing the flow sedated
man i’m consecrated with consternation
I’m elated in facing an adulation
in creating these arrogant and ungulate rhymes
grinding beef during delicate times, I’m getting mine
sit in silence, the lines hit your sinus
like all the rat pack snap backs its timeless
the culprit with all his crusty rapport
leading to necrosis of every muscle engorged
except medulla and the ped that puts the pedal to floor
back of the lac smirking with a ready retort
the misadventures of a closed throat bandit
duns said get it, so i got it, wrote and planned it
don’t be doubting this is the fire and you just fanned it
the flow so hard you can hardly stand it
this the lyrical pinnacle, the sentences centerfold
my flow so respectable, i’m beard and bespectacled
i’m sounding like a master but i never reject a show
sterling hopped up on my back he said i gotta let em know
now the flagging forces out in force
they redirecting you around the crash reports
the last resort: catch up cuz we fast on foot
writing on a track man its like we passed a book
so rassling hooks is all we got left on the map now
the trembling trinity is trending out of the background
i swag so hard that i walk with a lame hitch
made the track and killed it; two ways that i make hits
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2. |
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Qubicity:
Baptized in saliva, building the empire
The entire city is watching like we on the wire
Tryna eat this beat up like a chocolate from Godiva
Tryna heat this beat and take this instrumental higher
I'd be a liar if I said I didn't fall in love
With the slap and the crack of sounds from up above
Resounding out, pulled together with a simple touch
The secret ingredient is never giving up
i take a breath, hit the mic without a second thought
I got Sterling and Aqil chilling in the spot
Let the beat spin and instantly we catch the nod
Never forget about that, cuz man thats all we got
I love this beat, I love this beat
it was love at first bite, and I'm still in heat
I be on my knee, pulling out this ring
A piece so real I couldnt leave it at a fling
Hook (Ben Jang):
I love this place, even in the dark times
I love this place, even when it’s hard
Sterling Duns:
Coolness on this winter eve
I sit back and shoot the breeze
With Q, freeze
any beat he concoct
while i peak at the clock
and get ready to have this party rock
this that hardwork life
work hard live right
short days long nights
for the love of the mic
cool, so let me know if you need it bumpin
my whole crew get it jumpin, and shut it down like its nothing
Hands up hands up ands up if you feel it
music its all business im neva catching no feelings
but of course i fell in love
had to put a ring on it
now everything time a make a track
it got a bling to it
im loving the energies
the vibes, the inner peace
and im tryna see it all
til im sleeping, 6 feet
i hate to have regrets then
lets pack then and be ghost like the foes in pacman
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3. |
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Qubicity:
Can’t even understand you, how could I command you?
And to tell you the truth, I can barely even stand you
Yet my day is filled with plans, of how I could land you
Just hear me out, think of the power, me and you
Here I meander, I’m just a pander
in a pedantic sheet, a plan to meet is a cancer
So I’m fighting but writing these thoughts until both my hands hurt
Imagining our interplay that doesn’t end in a scamper
I'm queasy from a passing thought of grabbing hold of you
But from disgust or lust's the question I'm beholden to
I'm growing colder too
My second guessing's bolder too
And on the verge of getting too much to shoulder I... Grew
Spread open my wings and I... Flew
And I gotta say that I love the view
The caged bird sings to fill the void of its lost companion
The one that follows suit and leaves the nest becomes the champion
Hook (Keys and Debby Duns):
You be the hammer, imma be the nail (I’ll be)
Hold me down while you put the wind up in my sails (I’ll be)
You be my Bonnie with a bunch of copper on our tail (I’ll be)
This world may have set us up to fail, but we’ll fly so high
Sterling Duns:
and love is just another drug
a high its no surprise
that I’m addicted to your scent your touch
i dont objectify, i just keep it in perspective
that if this is really true
we really gon have to test it
I impress you but its temporary
with fine dining
mall shopping
yea you looking fancy
jamming in your newest jammies
but is it fleeting
eventually we’ll be needing
to figure out our future
the tudor rooms are always creaking
Honestly speaking
yea I use to flirt a lot
but I give it up just to have you up in the uno spot
and you must trust that I will never ever break this bond
cause real talk, tick tick, boo you are the bomb
So what’s the next move, lets stopping making chess moves
you’re the queen, I’m a pawn, and that’s the best truth
Sterling Duns, you sounding like a different dude
same man, same plan, but I’m adding you, lets groove
Hook (Keys and Debby Duns)
Qil:
I remember the days when I would've had a laugh at love,
Thinking that hammer never drops with the sound of arrows above
My head screaming and teeming with meanings of us convening
On a wonderful city night alight with the brightness of your perfectly beaming
Smile,
Yeah I tried to dodge it for a while
But a bullet never misses when lucid lips reach for the barrel
And once the notion hit me, a pharaoh found denial,
In delusions I was the king of me
Til I bowed to your profile
No scowl,
I'm blessed to be seen deep inside your visions
These are the things we live for, the places we've been missed in
And though I'm wary of losing myself in lovely fictions
The figments that you feed me make me stave off interdiction
I've broken down resistance and rebuilt with no attritions
My every breath insisting on gazes closing the distance
My heart's upon a scale, your dimples say it's tipping
So hold me close my darling, recoil's a happy ending
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4. |
Easy
04:29
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Qubicity:
I spit that Verisimilitude,
The Clarity, inner truth
Focus up on my crew
You focus on doing you
I'm saying deuce to the recluse
And chilling in my room, tried to claim it was my booth but really my tomb
I wanna see the world, even just a part of it
Better yet I wanna say that I was part of it
It seems like things are moving past at an alarming clip
But imma fight back man I'm balling fists
So goodbye to all the family, goodbye to all the exes
Plus the friendships lost in time to the trenches
I'll see you in my dreams but I'm living fully sentient
My eyes can stay open in the dark without depression
A couple months ago I thought i'd never learn my lesson
Now I spit my soul on top of holy beats I'm blessing
Steady flexing on the grind and never stressing
Now that I realize that I'm a star no crescent
Sterling Duns:
no question
its a blessing
just to be here
just to see, hear
touch smell, taste success
check the press
the latest post
not to boast
but we the next
And all my past dreams
are headed past me
broke hearts, broke ties without asking
A cold world
you own pearls
when the pressure dont get to you
fine linen aint nothing if it do fit to you
and my credentials were off the charts
Climbed charts, just to put the pieces together
a widows heart
broke when my father pass
I have to ask
is moving on 1st stage
or maybe its the last
either way that’s where I’m at
and its eye opening
im focusing
peace love and unity
thats all i am promoting
then im focus man
moving on, cause if not, id be a broken man
Qubicity:
if I said I was content with our goodbye itd be a lie
And every night I see your face alive inside my cries
I find that all signs say in time I'm left behind
You left my universe and left my mind misaligned
Sterling Duns:
Misaligned need your tires rotated
cause ive been driving through my thoughts
hopped the curve, blast through the pavement
been elated been sedated, had the painage move to patience
and all the while, through the ages, had to wait think we'll make it
Qubicity:
Said I'm fine and had to fake it
Thoughts collapsing meditating
Been afraid when cerebrating
Yearning at the celebrations
Steady claiming imma reach that basis
But moving backwards isn't even a stasis
Sterling Duns:
face it, you're only here until the hours up
cowards jump at that reality, cowardly. courage trumps
any and everything, let it ring,
you chasing a life of quality or quantity through all them dollar dreams
Qubicity:
Reality is sour b if you filled with malicy
Let it out and counter the influential fallacies
I been touring all up and down the galleries
And ain't nobody make it there if they steady bound to cheese
Sterling Duns:
and Ive been touring round the galaxy, stars aligned
saying its time to take the stage, flip the page, spit the rhyme
its time to take the stage , yo Q, you fittin to ride?
Cause the present is the most pressing time to just be alive
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5. |
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Sterling Duns:
I stopped waiting, dreaming dont buy the bacon
bread stale, croutons, for salad thinking
Move past limitations
hardwork was created
and now we spit rhymes tryna send moms to jamaica
its all good til it goes bad,
front seat, mad dash
if I don't make it out,
than at least, I'm gon have a laugh
We get words of wisdom,
Don't let them fall on to deaf ears
fresh fruit, hors d'oeuvres to go with the the first cheers
So come on lets have toast to the moment
And please live free yea we do condone it
aint buying what they selling
Lies I'm never owning
Steeped in dreams, been reaping what I've been sowing
The last to the table
The first up out the cradle,
If u ain't living true ur just a fable, that's just play
so stay true to all that's true Q
and if you do nothing else you better do you
Hook (Keys):
Love will see us through
Would you trust in me, like I trust in you?
And that going gets tough,
but it’s not enough
To stop us from dreaming
Qil:
I rise from a ripple on the lakeside
Streams flowing from my sighs, growth takes strides
I'm biting back the bitterness that my aches cried
While fighting for deliverance from unpaid tithes
I catch a glimpse of myself in the wake's eyes
Slaking thirst with the waters of the low tides
I tried to hide from the highs of a simple lie
That every drop is separate somewhere in the inside
But truth is we all drip from the same skies
Our lives measured in whys directed inwardly
I stare into the aberrant pools of irises
Searching for something to call this life's energy
A glimmer in shades of abysses and silences
My hands plunge into the cold dark trembling
My fingers wrap around a stone on the river bed
Water falls as I push a heart into me
Qubicity:
A molehill is a mountain to a head laid on the ground
so (if you) idolize your models, then their acts resemble clouds
goliath on the courts and minds that toil in the lab
your reverence flows red and it bleeds out until you scab
grabbing and ripping through the package to find a slab
that you can hold above the people on a cliff above the land
strap it to your chest along with sandals for the sand
split the sea and say: “I am he, a copied man”
don’t become compliant, exhibit your defiance
scale that monument and stand on shoulders of the giants
growth is reliant on ideas so exotic
from the empire burghers that they need to light the pyre
wicker weave a spire of your idol prior to
setting fire and inhaling the entirety of fumes
getting higher and flying, you acquire sight for miles
arranged attire composed of their ash inside the pile
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6. |
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Duns:
I be ballin be ballin
davis bryant and harden
steph curry from long range
if I get in I’m scoring
cause When its raining its pouring
and I be running be touring
I aint seen my home in weeks
I’ve been sleep in corners
of all the venues we packed
my whole crew is so fresh
QDQ in the building
with hardwork on the map
Aint seen it like this
we got beats we got hits
and my youngins up and coming
they can’t even rent whips
So what is next for these folks
U Say we wack, u got jokes
when you ride by on your bikes,
you hear our fire burn spokes
Too close
so go and get your sugar cookies
cookie getters
rhymes sweet, post beats, we gon see the dentist
such a menance. you know we dont follow rules
Q the Phenom on the team, man I dont know how to lose
I guess I’m spoiled, Dunsy you’re such a brat.
Put the team on my back, philly back up on the map
Qubicity:
Breaking bread when we flexing
Off the head we be blessing
We done said we the next ones
And we bled just to stress it
All these styles I'm blending
Matter fact man I'm blinding
I'm Dez Bryant when he's crying imagine me when I'm grinding
My flow is slimy like the ish you find in your sinus
Spitting it quickly cuz you know the sickness is grimy
Crews fixed on the crucifix, immaculate rhyming
First hit of this beat and ladeedada I'm flying
S/o to banks for the hook up
I hit the kitchen to cook up
a remixed flipped with a shook up
Bumping harder than shook ones
And you can follow the movement
Peep your mama she groovin
Get your popcorn like it's front row of the movies
Cuz we here for the moment
Live it up til its over
And I'm here just to show you
We rock Dakota to NOLA
I give it and go and we just kicked in the door,
its QDQ we spit that rowdy ravaging flow
Qil:
Yeo,
I'm a force to be reckoned with
Grind lookin' effortless
While I'm pumpin pistons' you chickens lookin' so featherless
In the stu', elephant
Green go to kale with it
If you ain't dealin' realness I call your pillars irrelevant
I'm your-verse celibate, nah I ain't tryna mess with ya
QDQ's indelicate, go hard on the regular
Our lines cuttin' deep with a well-worn patina
We the apple in your eyes looking like Macbook Retina
We sweatin' on a track, run enough laps for two
Ay we putting in work like a priest on a pew
I mean we tryna save rap wit no catch-22
So we just try to stay prime, got no beef on the move
Got this beat on the stoove
Got'cha feet on the groove
Put'cha posse down and turn them sheets into cubes
Cause Sterling Duns & Qube so monu, mental
I think my Shangri La is wit' them
Rick Banks:
Been out the game for a minute
But I'm back again
Verbal assassin when
I get it strapped and then
I pull the slide back on rap attack Mac
Then let fly sixteen like clack clack clack clack
Awww snap Mr Boom Bap done dusted off the mic
Yall couldn't get this fly if you dusted off your kite
Or ya key, this melody's electricity
You can't stop me with Sterling, Qil, and Qubicity
So get ya steeds and regulators, mount up
The four horsemen of the apocalypse
We on the come up
Generations on the track so the legacy continues
Qubi Q and Qillyeo, the future's in you
But don't sleep, Duns and Banks ain't growing old
You can get it however you want it like Soul to Soul
So don't test, I'll leave you restin on ya feet
Hardwork is still the move but my Shangrila's the beat
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7. |
See the World feat. Keys
03:43
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Sterling Duns:
I never called back, guess well call it even
Went to sleep woke up west coast dreaming
If i dnt make it to the west sude
At least i made it out alive
Sme made it to the charger, but aint make it out of dodge
Hours up, soul snatched, yo chel the time.
We got a show in bout 30 and my down south girly and i are hittinthe party spot early.
Cool.
I wonder if my father proud of me.
Been a champ, got the plaques a couple degrees
But it'll all be in vain bra
If u let the money change ya
Respect so, lets humbly except,
I sent my regrets
With flowers and a check
Accept my apologies
But i did it all just so we can shoot the breeze
Hook (Keys):
What is this for?
We must explore
So hop in my car, and see the world tonight
There’s love in this world
There’s peace in this war
and all that I know: we’ll make it out alive
Qubicity:
Sometimes I wanna get up on the roof and scream
95 til the day i die and let it ring
Cuz who'm i kidding, I never wont be living
Man I cant picture fights with the grim reaper winning
I don't believe it but it helps me reach a peace at night
And knowing that in sleep I'll see our future reaching heights
I never shoot the breeze unless I'm speaking bout my dreams
And I think it's bout time that I started living out my schemes
Been in waiting since I started sneaking out it seems
Every moment ripples out within a cloudy stream
But let it settle, and sift the silt to reach the pebble
Reclaim the piece of mind that brings you back the holy treble
The wisdom and the health so you achieve what you believe
But in passing I might have to lose the family thats coming in at number three
But I'm coming back, I’m coming back
Right after we swim the seven seas
Bridge (Keys and Duns):
If we don't make it West Side...
Then at least we made it out alive
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8. |
Why We Pray
03:54
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Sterling Duns:
streets aint safe
brothas still bangin
so im tryna save the same lanes that a young brother was raised in
martyrdom, fashion models in borrowed dresses over them
my last love was ivy league
had to smarten up no dumb moves
my young moves were probably my best
my young crew got strung to seat of success
i refused, was done soon as the greed was addressed
i dont move, not one move, when police suspect
Uh, another day, gets given, heres the takeaway
put a brother in the background like he layaway
You better learn how to backdown to the fadeaway
Cause its afull house in prison cells no mary kate
No bruh grinding until th sun up
knowing it could all be gone if a youngin put his guns up
a black Quaker no savior, but I’m on my Mr. Rustin
So white friends are skeptical and black friends can barely trust him
so thats why we pray
Qubicity:
Pumped through the atmosphere
The fear, the lies, the cheese, the greed, the tears
Incite a riot then they fly in,
A couple thousand buy in
Fueled the flames and made a profit off the fire
Find a new figurehead to martyr
Stage an interview between the children and the father
A lot of, gravel is formed by the pounding of the gavel
Barely underfoot when you're riding in the saddle
The media just falsifies what's never meant to be lies
The media just crucifies from enemy lines
How far does this autolysis go?
We're in the middle of both, between division of foes
The deities facing off with the men from below
Any others is choked, joining Garner in the garden of wrote
Another bloke that's adapted by the molding of clay
One day the people will emerge from the grey...and so we pray
Qil:
Set it off with civil articles, started with the plausible
Made the black face seem inaudible
Didn't think it possible
Disbelief while crawling through the trenches of another social war obstacle
The media's illogical
Gullible to clauses used
Against a people startled to
Thinking we ain't valuable
And thinking we are soluble
Believing we ain't solvable
Based upon the volume of a prejudice so horrible
But we are invaluable
And undissolved when we rise
Inexhaustible and cautious to
The uniformed lies
Dying in ain't optional
Wit signage and some martyrs who
Took a bullet for the truth
Chokehold for the youth
Dreaming forth like oracles
Giving news no choice to choose
To take a minute for these views
And right the rites wrong to you
With this coup we pay our dues
To the justice we pursue
For the people
We the people
Dark storm on the move
and so we pray
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9. |
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Sterling Duns:
This is me in the flesh
This is all I have left
I’ve gotta give it all
til my very last breath
Cause, heaven knows it aint a easy road
So we pave the way and fade away and simply pray that the story grows
I do it for my mama
I do it for my fam
I do it for my friends from west philly to Paris, France
I do it for youngins who never seen another way
Who don’t want fame and fourtune, but wanna see another day
This for you
I linked up with QDQ and now I feel we gotta ball
We gotta crew true now we on the movement
whos bent
on global collaboration, no domination
I’m contemplating
no mistaken
no hating
we’ll make it
If we all just believe it
I’m standing on the precipice
in the distance I see it
the future looking so close
So lets get there quick
so we can kick it and have a toast
To the journey
Qubicity:
Hopping off the bus
We about to bust
It's going down in your town
Yeah we about it bruh
See my name up in lights, right next to Qil and Dwight
Hit the stage and amaze, and get it jumping right
It's not about fame or recognition
It's about getting a positive message to children
That's why we on the grind till we reach the pavilion
Yeah We tryna be the three that are the one in million
We're touching seven billion
They saying heaven's spilling
Cuz we're stars from the sky, plucked out of countless trillions
We're touching countless feelings
Put pride inside every being
The optometrists of optimists, I hope its what you're seeing
Cuz as bad as it seems we'll make it out alive
I'm here to tell you that I'll see you on the other side
So put a hand in the sky (and) trace your trajectory
we're sent to be the heaven-sent impressionist amphetamines
Well start resting when we're resting in peace
Qil:
We are happy, and living with the richest sense of patience
Life just seems to move as if it listens to our cadence
With goodness in our graces
We exist with no holes
In our hearts, in our minds
We are one body and soul
No role but to play our part
In the universe's symphony
Connected by a string we pluck away
At all the imagery
Enclosed on every side by a beauty so timeless
We embrace our many blessings
With a wonderfully loud silence
And whether we feel like giants
Or microscopic islands
We never get the impression that we are separate from the greatness that is love
Love for one another, love for all the color we've discovered by being in tune with all the above
We are, what a special thing to be,
we're dazed by the fact and yet our eyes can still see,
so when you look at me I hope you see me for the better,
because our lives are bound by thread together.
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Qubicity Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hiphop producer and vocalist based in Princeton, NJ and Philadelphia, PA.
Photo by James Sung
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