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End Civilization (2011)

by Zack de la Rouda

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1.
when i kick it i'm slithering through the rhythm like a lizardman to rip slick shit for your head, i'll keep killing it, really i'm feeling illy cause the system weaves diseases like a textile if you digging this fists to the ceiling, to the villains, man i'ma make 'em dip like an exile all else i'm here all hell could break loose now for all i care i'm so blessed fuck passivity. it's disaster really we're in major danger, i am past this science i ain't ask for pity, i ain't half a pretty bitch plus got that acid spit like reptile i'm impressed i'm not arrested for testifying loud against lies it's depressing how they found the best crimes to aggressively drown out my friends sighing we been blinded - we better wise up that's why i hold a sign talking about the end times we could rise up if we find our soul, heart, and our minds snake-eyes up they are hooked like a clientele shook by our rioting and cooked like a frying pan they mistook our violence for protesting "that'll not work," i am crying out so who's behind it now? naw, you is lying, man who could be denying de la rouda with the giant sound? (skrillex) just another loose-lipped judas saying "we ain't gotta do shit, stick to the mayan count" we ain't got room as it is, no slacking off i ain't cool with you kids if you wack at all and you laughin, huh? it ain't work if you're only jacking off i'm attacking this skrillex joint with the passion that i have for the planet because it's suffering catastrophe only after i'm finished will you halfway done listening; my writtens i could upstage your pastor
2.
twist right on the volume knob i spit tight, fistfight when i start to talk i get loud when i get down at night i rip mics for the crowd til they call the cops i be kicking ridiculous writtens spitting lyrical pictures of sinking ships rhythmically listen to me are you digging it figuratively literally i can give your head something real it can think a little i live independent of the system in my vision but i'm still chained, we're all enslaved, getting free still we're pieces of stars, our people are lost, i'm tryna lead 'em out of the fog and into the forest i been tracing adam, his fall, his so-called knowledge, and concluded it's false, i need to inform y'all: we need to start uneating the cause we need to foster peace in our hearts tryna chant babylon i'm drowned by the cattle call and rattled cause my clan is asleep while the battle's on but wake up's what i'm saying when i'm rapping so turn me up in the back just twist right on the volume knob i spit tight, fistfight when i start to talk i get loud when i get down at night i rip mics for the crowd til they call the cops and the cops? you could go ahead and call 'em i be ripping mics all night no problem even if the black and whites come they'd grab at my tongue i'd spit the snakes straight with the poison i be making noise onstage, i was born to we all got a part to play in this farce you asking if i'll charge a fee i'm too poor to asking if it's hard to breathe well of course dude still i keep going my carriage my feet rolling i parry and keep throwing bows at every kid blowing smoke i'd be lying in a van, no crying i would still stand tough for the front lines, i-and-i fire, lick a lizardman just with my voice i do mean trouble for them boys in blue because i'm pro-riot, i invoke violence i would put my life on the line for the bottom of the triangle nobody's realer than me, skrillex and z dubstep down the pyramid scheme enough said but they ain't get it so i'ma say it again nobody's realer than me, skrillex and z dubstep down the pyramid scheme enough said so turn me up till the cops come through twist right on the volume twist right on the volume knob i spit tight, fistfight when i start to talk i get loud when i get down at night i rip mics for the crowd til they call the cops
3.
it ain't a competition, you know what i'm saying? sometimes y'all be like, "who's the best battery?" right? nah, i ain't think i can rap. i think i'm a pissed-off rich kid with bitch tits and my game's wack. but i ain't afraid to admit that. hi, my name's zack, and at least i ain't asleep or a sheep like these racing rats. i started late like i forgot i had to lace these tracks, but it ain't a pissing contest; my noggin faces facts, and what it sees is something strange: a bunch of pieces of a chain, nobody's free, we're all enslaved, that's why we must be brave, but, these tame cats breeding waste like some dang maggots, feeding off the memes thats in my brain like inane patterns. i'm tryna preach praise but they say that it ain't matter with lying eyes and wide smiles like trained actors. y'all talking shit, no polyglot. y'all ain't comprehending what i spit? i'm sorry, dog. i'm tryna drop knowledge but they hardly watch, thinking that the problem's getting solved by the oligarchs, but it's probably not, honestly we all are shocked. ask us who the terrorists is, we say the Taliban. ask us if we scared to resist, we say the war is lost i'm tryna help american kids, but obama's not and neither is the gospel or the pot smoke that your partner got. the drinks, drugs and the bibles all are prisons, let the garbage rot. i been stuck in denial, but i'm studying survival now who else gon wan help me stop starvation in somalia? come on then, let's get goin, are we unconscious or uncommon? we obviously all have an appointment in samarra that we gotta be insane to wanna keep, he got the flame but talk is cheap, i'm gunning for the ones on top who fleece the bottom like a priest. and i ain't pointing the blame, but we got choices to make, so pick your poison, okay? said, are we healing the pain or destroying the things we need? we're motherfuckers like some freudian fiends, because we fuck the planet and duck our responsibilities like a stuck-up bastard caught in a rut, wondering what had we done to suffer this punishment, grasping around at straws, wanting a pause but every governments under the thumb of the companies, study it, buddy, i did, i discovered the trouble and now i am uttering it but you need to hear it so fuck it i'll scream! listen up really i'm someone to heed we fill up the freeways, there's no way to breathe we're dealing with greed, it's become a demon, it's like a leviathan, i'm fit to name it mesopotamia, ur and sumeria, what is the cause? civilization. it's inherently unsustainable... so quit debating, fools.... and what's the point of y'all fame if we act voiceless and blameless? so keep your coins. i'll keep begging for changes.
4.
i'm so sick of this liberty we're living in a big walled cell with a little piece of crack rock, slapped hard, they snapped our mask off they let us taste something pretty quick and that's all now our race is a futile silly match long-lost hard hung-up on the cross called cost cuz the cause ain't nothing but struggling for some money if it sounds good, y'all think it's funny i'll be spitting stunning writtens while ya chillin kid i really think i figured something big, i'ma fill 'em in the system's broken, we won't admit our ignorance were you listening? i said this shit is broken and we won't admit our ignorance they're soaking up our souls while we're hoping to be picked for king we're choking when they shove it down our throat like a dick again god damn, yeah i spit for real we gon' kill the man for certain cause he fit the bill and we sure gon' cut them curtains, split them prissy frills if there's fire in this mic all i need is steel let me see you lift your fist i know y'all listening what we need is power on the right night to flip the script we will rally now and fight blight to fix this mess what's the sound? de la rouda and skrillex give me a microphone and i'll fill the room spit a couple lines bout our doom and really dude get 'em all riled up to move and kill it i'm in the mood to be livid and i might still fly but for now i am rattling this cage when i'm onstage you see the bars in your face cause i have god's speech y'all have god's grace every time i see i pray that if y'all have ears please hear what i'm saying mad clear we are playing ourselves like a game our fear has created this hell that we stay in. i said, our fear has created this hell that we stay in. my peers haven't changed, i can tell they isn't thinking. what i'm saying is this damn ship is sinking.
5.
y'all not ready. but you need to be. cause the problems we face are insanely dangerous and they're close to beating us completely. and y'all don't want this but i wish you did cause if we gonna win then i figure we should think about our worth as work that we're putting in. look at this a full system we control, so simple, we unroll moldy scriptures and dispose old wisdom and we don't know shit about the whole big picture but we go on, let the lizardmen bomb buildings. we're all dealing with intense hard feelings, we're depressed, not giving the impression of healing, progress towards ceilings and pretend we don't hear or see dimensions all skewed and conventions off kilter what i mean is our freedom is conditional. we can only seem to do the things we been conditioned to. people will believe what they see and they listen to, all of us deceived by the thieves that imprisoned us. this ill culture has produced all killers, if you do no wrong bet you still contribute to the harm inflicted on our world by our industry the whole thing of it is sick like our ministry. the word "city" means growth is inherent. read what is wrote and you'll see it's apparent. breathe with the flow of the leaves and you'll hear it. sleep in the motherfucking street, then you'll fear the police what is this, the miracle lease? drive the planet to the cliff, fix the steering and leave? what we're handing to our kids is a scary disease. why is man being a bitch to the memes that he breeds? everything's connected and hooked. see what i mean if you ever take a second to look. you could read if you please, just pick up a book. but they all say the same thing: resist crooks.
6.
as a pawn i'm afraid i can't take a king or queen's place in the ranks of this chess game but i'm sick of feeling small and enslaved so who's ready? we got next, it's on like let's play with our new-found confidence we could just lay low long and still win and let the villains fall on their wrecked face they're making all the wrong moves. ay, let me explain: for their opening our enemy has only seen what they need from us, namely work, they feed us just to keep us going like robotics, like we're oxen and the carrot is a wad of cash. they lost their castle once already, man. so when they switch their rook and king they're looking thin, all that's left to guard the crown is some pawns like us, think about it: all the times they sent the knights into our houses we studied them motherfuckers and learned about 'em. i'm down to get 'em now if you with me. the fists in this building could flip the script quick like a death mid-filming. i stress our strength and brilliance we got this game locked call me kasparov i'm casting off this ship cause it's sinking, this is silly, kid all we really need to win is get their king, we got millions of moves left but the clock's getting late we need to stop this game in the next phase we gon have to make some sacrifices, fighting on behalf of lightness, black's attacking our queen, we'll have to pick the best space and it'd be awesome just to spectate our breathtaking grace when we say checkmate let's rearrange our avatars and take our saddles off we've spent too long in this dungeon of a cattle car shackled to a sagging bar locked in a stockyard born to die scraping off rust from the rotten walls let's invent something powerful, unique, new, healthy, smart, compassionate, incredible, sending astronauts to mars
7.
it's crazy, like, the further and further away from our roots, away from our origins we get, away from our ancestors we get, the more important ancient wisdom becomes. and i think it's really crucial to remember, as we approach the apocalypse, that the despair, the desperation that we're feeling is a completely appropriate reaction to the destruction with which we are faced, and i think it's gotta start being acceptable to admit. look, i caint fake this pain out. i could explain now, but nah, it's safe to say i can't be complaining about the state i'm in, so i stay fateful. the way i live was raised as a kid on some grave-to-the-cradle shit, afraid to give up, i'm stuck sinking on this paper ship, clinging to my stuff while bracing for the great abyss. facing off the precipice, i never hit the brakes a bit. ready for the lift, get me far from my neighbor cause I hate the kid, i ain't be kept. now, i'm worried that i'm marked cause i caused my brothers' debt and I ain't even wept. honest to god, i ain't abel to apologize yet, nah, instead i monetize death, cause slavery ain't pretend, that's a bloody fact, and when i take my last breath in i want nothing but my money stacked. i said it and i meant it, people guessing that i've cracked, but i'm just chasing paper, and love is just an act. so if you ever prayed to your god, "i can't fake it," you absolved now, you ain't gotta kneel any more and if you ever screamed or shouted, "i can't take it" to your boss you ain't gonna have to steal any more and if you ever cried aloud, "i can't make it," to the IRS you bout to never get no bills any more y'all all right, look alive, zion rise, jah can break it, babylon nah build any more. nah, i beg for a way out. i need a break now. the great escape is the caper that i'm dreaming about, i lay in bed, oversleep, wake slow, i hate to fit. this the pace, my week could go away like a drainage ditch. the bank and the club, the hospital, the therapist. it's basic y'all, we're in the stocks, chained to our heritage which blatantly sucks the brains from us like that dang academia, i seen so many clowns that i can't read the court. i pledged allegiance to the crown; in pageantry we trust, but i've already bowed to the ground, i can't get off the floor. and now i'm feeling like i'm starved, what? cause i'm not cleaning it up? they got me fiending for blood, and impossibly dumb like i can't tell felled trees from wood, or copper dust from gold nuggets, well, i been muttering the truth but now i'll bellow from the roof, yelling, "End it now! 10,000 years of motherfuckers!" so if you ever prayed to your god, "i can't fake it," you absolved now, you ain't gotta kneel any more and if you ever screamed or shouted, "i can't take it" to your boss you ain't gonna have to steal any more and if you ever cried aloud, "i can't make it," to the IRS you bout to never get no bills any more y'all all right, look alive, zion rise, jah can break it, babylon nah build any more. yeah, i think sane when i freak out, like finally i've beaten doubt, feeling proud speeding over freezing ground, while i train my spit: i'm freestyling with a big smile as i'm chasing dinner, speaking with the babel fish, i'm primalist, y'all make me sick: hedonistic, nihilistic, fatalistic, take your pick, bait and switch, place your picket pin. and quit debating the individual validity of my statements. if you study my intricate lyrics a bit you'll probably follow my hatred, cause it's getting ridiculous, taking the hits and swallowing payments y'all all sit, three Z's, i'm five threes in the matrix... break the system, then make sure dip before it topples on us. we'll watch the babel towers fall, not the forests. so as it has been for ages, earth is all, civilization is the problem, that's why i'm recording songs, i only got one thing to say from off this pedestal: occupy the wilderness before its gone. so if you ever prayed to your god, "i can't fake it," you absolved now, you ain't gotta kneel any more and if you ever screamed or shouted, "i can't take it" to your boss you ain't gonna have to steal any more and if you ever cried aloud, "i can't make it," to the IRS you bout to never get no bills any more y'all all right, look alive, zion rise, jah can break it, babylon nah build any more now, i really believe, the more we discuss our despair, the more we voice our concern, the more comfortable we are talking about the violent nature of the way we live, the more comfortable we will be in discussing migration beyond civilization, the more comfortable we would be discussing our options, which are: rewild or die.
8.
this the realest shit i ever wrote: my buddies say that peoples' nature is to blame for the problems of our system, but i disagree. my studies lead me to believe we been deceived by our politics and history. just listen, please. when i'm speaking i'm pleading for equality and happiness and harmony and partying, but also i am praying to god that what i'm saying aloud will make sense, and some of y'all will grok it. acknowledge knowledge that ain't taught in any colleges, you try to talk about this but they call it inappropriate and really it just boggles my mind how we all follow the lines, we're caught up living in a culture of lies. it's shocking me how often we fight, if we're wrong or we're right, we are all either deaf, dumb or blind, just rest all the time, like, "let's go get high and fucked up," that's what's up when you stressed from the grind. we have messed up our lives. i'm depressed because i think i'm better than a god damn 7 to 9. i'm fed up with signing my name by the fine print and i ain't even ever been offered a dime for my music. i do this for the truth like a prophet. what we got's a problem and we really got to stop it now, knock it down and get out alive. it could not stand the test of the process of time. look, civilization is unsustainable 'cause it requires exploitation in order to maintain a crop-space; perpetual growth that it needs to float, murder we wrote, what this means is we're all slaves. with your shocked face maybe you're trying to say that this is our fate, that we been following these steps to space because we got faith. i'm saying, please, man, we must stop sleep, enough praying. we've existed for 2 million years healthier than any superfluous modern doctor could imagine, we had no vaccines, no IVs, no cancer, no diabetes, no lie, man. now we're chilling with 10 thousand years of illness getting worse from the moment we embarked along this path what we eat, how we live, how we teach our kids to compete, and hold heat, it's bad, fam and these machines have only been here for a minute. imagine the damage they already inflicted. try to fathom what happens when you sacrifice a planet on the altar of progress and privilege... and it looks a lot like this an audience filled with lots of lost kids what i'm talking to you about is often hushed up we ain't even wanna know what the cost is still, we are pawns for a price we feel small but we say it's all right like we ain't wanted this but we got it now and it's all just "struggle or die" but we must realize what the real lies are feel my bars, they were built by god captured on film to reveal my thoughts saying, honestly, the system is the problem. look, civilization is unsustainable 'cause it requires exploitation in order to maintain a crop-space; perpetual growth that it needs to float, murder we wrote, what this means is we're all slaves. with your shocked face maybe you're trying to say that this is our fate, that we been following these steps to space because we got faith. i'm saying, please, man, we must stop sleep, enough praying.
9.
i can't stay silent i'm talking on the phone with the dial tone whining lying in a jungle of wires, i decipher the message that they inspire: "the best we can do is hide while the planet is dying," we just bandage our eyes people panic while i'm frantically trying to re-align with 'em, reading what the liars are writing, we go back to sleep, so i get violent with break-beats and mics, and hold signs thats big and point to the light, all because i'm the child of a fortunate life and i'm certain that this course isn't right... that's why i dropped out. now i'm crying here with everybody, cop-out. sometimes it's like, move to the woods or stay and die in the fire, man we're stupid as fuck for what we're doing to earth. we are all screwed for certain we'd have to feel bad if we knew what we're worth but we don't and we won't we keep buying what they keep selling. i keep trying to be real and i keep failing. at least i'm trying to be open. i don't fight any crimes, i still work, i'm still smoking. i feel lost hearing songs i wrote it's real odd hearing my voice talk on the radio not that that is happening often most times i write rhymes and then rap in my closet i faced facts and lost 'em train tracks, i crossed 'em now i'm on the same path as all y'all, i wanna pause it i'm so post-paper-chase and i just started so close to god i could taste what she just martyred i'm far away from the grace and the love of it my scarred face is ashamed of what i sung from it still i am tryna get back on track the twelfth time's the charm, i got five more snaps i'll be fine if i don't slip and i don't slag i keep trippin, like you're listening to zack on crack i figure systems only crash when they're actually sapped of slack so i'm makin' sure the flag gon' flap green and black split diagonal anarchy activist our ancestors knew what we've got to get back to: this planet has bloomed all life like a flower and civilization is the sickle that hacks it and it'll bring bigger disasters aw shit, but what do i know? the whole colony is caught in the time code
10.
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If I Die Young (free) 05:00

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This is some heavier stuff. Most of these songs are from 2011.

Favorites: Volume, Checkmate, Enough Praying, Time Code

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released December 1, 2011

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Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

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Zack de la Rouda Portland, Maine

i write songs and rap about weird stuff like love self-actualization civilization depression anarchism and taoism i like to eat from the garbage even though it's kinda hard to find organic stuff there i spend a lot of time alone somehow i am still releasing music ... more

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