This is Baba Brinkman

Recording live from Long Island, New York

And this record is called "Rapsode"

Want you to check the method people

Of what you think you want be

Oh oh oh oh

A rapsode is like a lyrical technician

We share a common sight and seashore

There's no reason to drown for keeps

Alone oh oh oh

But not a superstar, you know

It's like a service job

Nobody paid me to write this

Only track on the record that wasn’t a paid assignment

And that makes me delighted, major alignment

I say what I like, but the topic, I let the patron decide it

Only proper, when they spent the paper to hype it

Like a private investigator, you can pay me to dive in

But never dictate what I’m writin’, I can claim it as mine then

Rapsode, with the vocational rhymin’

Occasional versification, that’s my livin’

I can’t work a 9-to-5, I’m purpose-driven

Skills never rusty, college credits dusty

But the reach of the music is down to the algorithm

Shout out to the slept-on rappers blazin’ verses

Major wordsmiths workin’ bars and table service

Flow so crazy but never get paid for verses

A vast, unappreciated labor surplus

And yeah they can hustle, embrace that struggle

The pipeline is leaky but they see Drake and covet

21 Savage and Travis Scott make them hungry

Crabs in a bottomless bucket facing upwards

Facin’ math lottery-level-bad, but it’s all for the art

Walk-ons and extras, we all play a part

Workin’ actors hit auditions, it’s tough to get started

But workin’ rappers don’t exist in this market

Just artists decades into the skill-build

Who find the grind still doesn’t pay real bills

Knowin’ the road is rocky and steep uphill

Doesn’t make that feel like less of a raw deal

I can relate, ‘cause I’m another one and the same

Always figured one day I’d Roc-A-Fella my name

But I never been the type to get jealous of fame

Instead I figured a pivot and reinvented the game

And became a Rapsode, embraced the public service

Scientifically informative when I’m bustin’ verses

Something of a rapper and something of a journalist

A cross between Biggie Smalls and Copernicus

Mappin’ a clear path out of a lyrical trap

Rational actor, check the rearview and adapt

Causin’ a misconception near you to collapse

Scientific collabs on peer-reviewed raps

A useful application of a rapper’s abilities

Abilities accumulated by practicing diligently

In the pursuit of celebrity, frustrated eventually

And then applied flexibly to a different niche

Not the niche of the typical music industry

Sex symbols and singles and status signaling

Jingles and jiggling, appetite tickling

In the pursuit of followers and profitability

A lot of songs really speak on the same topics

But I’m not gonna judge, ‘cause yup, the motive is profit

And rappers are good at giving the fans what they wanted

The lowest common denominator path to the top

To get them to stream it and cop it, that aspirational

Motivational music to climb a ladder and chase a goal

Olympic podium music about takin’ gold

And makin’ the competition pay respect to the throne

And that’s dope, but limiting, returns are diminishing

Rapsode life, where status isn’t everything

This art form is capable of encompassing anything

If incentives are disconnected from mass-distributing

So change the incentives, embrace reinvention

Fossil fuel is just one way of crankin’ engines

Imagine a rap game where the rappers make sense of

A thousand diverse topics, and get paid for their efforts

Under the renaissance patronage system, it seems backwards

But it takes a Medici to make a Sistine Chapel

Commission a Michelangelo, pick an issue to tackle

Suggest the back-up sources and leave the rest to the rapper

And watch as the ceiling is painted, that feeling’s amazing

The scene may not go on to become exceedingly famous

But you can always be part of the means of its making

And stories today are better than biblical scenes of creation

I’m talkin’ scientific discoveries that are changing

The way we perceive creatures in nature

Energy generation, DNA, technology and it’s major

And people hang in the balance of each innovation

It needs interpretation, a storytelling medium

Beats, rhymes, and life science to break the tedium

A distribution platform on digital media

And a trained labor force, if we can give the means to them

Three consecutive records of custom raps

Original tracks I got the privilege to craft

Why? ‘Cause I liked the topic, and someone asked

And rap is a business, they budgeted for the task

How fun is that? In the midst of a major disturbance

The pandemic had me in a cage never workin’

At the peak of a labor surplus I made that swerve and

Transformed the rap game into a service

A useful service in which rap pays

A middle class wage, let’s erect that stage

Quit the day jobs, and spit mad flames

And drop whole records that Event Rap made

That’s the album intro, the passion and vision

That’s the manifesto, now it has to deliver

For the Rapsodes, makin’ the raps on commission

So check the method, just play this album and listen

Listen to thirtreen original tracks

All paid commissions

Made on assignment

Want you to check the method people

Of what you think you want be

Oh oh oh oh

Now I get it

If you're Drake, that is not cool

We share a common sight and seashore

There's no reason to drown for keeps

Alone

But then again, if you get paid to do what you love

There's gotta be intermediate definitions of cool