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BRUCE

by Natty Wylah

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1.
so how the story goes (lemme find the page) how the story goes. come a lil closer... and listen. it goes a little something like this. make sure you check behind you (make sure you check behind you) because the forest doesn't sleep. ('cos the forest doesn't sleep) crackling, twigs, neck snapping and things you know the forest doesn't sleep. they nod their heads to the beat. (so lemme tell you how it goes...) feel the decay in my vertebrae charge my dreams in these moonrays well i ain't slept for a few days health is priority, life is reality another night spent dulling pains by the gallons she acts like she's smitten tickles skin with the talons bleed lust for this sultry eyed siren shame it ain’t love it's just desiring yeah that's shits tiring like sisyphus rolling up the boulder while I’m climbing still jack and jill tumbling fates' cards fumbling 52, picking up the piece my past lumbered me with my tongue stumbled and slipped like Freuds' whisperings still I’m more Jungian; battle with my Anima and Animus I’m shushing them. raggo man'a'mashing like an animal in bush and then sparking up the tushunpeng on a bed of violets - I'm lying with my eyes slit tired blow the kiss to your violence. Welcome to the Spiral, looking there behind you. nothings there, just here. Spirits in the cinders, see the sirens yeah there smiling with their eyes on you. Prophets mumbling dishonesty. crackles from the embers leave an amber glow. Cicadas yeah they follow me, these bastards tryna bother me got nothing but this fire and smoke! war with a rainstorm caught in this maelstrom voices in the tandem probably maybes what I tell them picking them at random spin the arrow what it lands on then I’ll trail on setting sail from out the alcove long days and dark nights what I count on and through the depths the light beckons from the mountains poseidons light beacons, fountains underneath us feel aquatic and anaesthetised, fighting for me feeling, kneeling, numb between my feet and thighs Compass glass splintered as it meets me eyes - Shit I'm needing guidance. tide licks, shudder, boat rocking side to side and in my mind yeah I think it's where the ride ends. seagulls cry, hope through my closed eyes a wave like a golem's hand smashing through the boats side. ropes fly - lashing like the 9 tails, drag my under down like the nose diving crow flies, tangling my limbs now. shit I might as well just swim down, great deluge relinquishing our sins. thinking all these things, either sinking or you'll swim but fate has handed me the dot so time to flow round! Welcome to the Spiral, looking there behind you. nothings there, just here. Spirits in the cinders, see the sirens yeah there smiling with their eyes on you. Prophets mumbling dishonesty. crackles from the embers leave an amber glow. Cicadas yeah they follow me, these bastards tryna bother me got nothing but this fire and smoke!
2.
Pester, don’t let your mind fester Yestermoons don’t let the past stress ya So your grafting for the future yeah? Well just remember that the now is where it’s happening here So check the clouds form a thousand pictures Alan Wattsing with that eastern wisdom Flicker, see the lights through the blinds, And the afternoon sun trickle through the prisms But does it matter if it isn’t? Cos everything change so there’s nothing different I’m just tryna feel some love up in this life I’m living I’m just tryna feel some love up in this life I’m living Gotta give it of you want it back But they wanna try snatch from an honest man So I snip it where the strings attached And disappear like a hologram Following the traces... See the ghosts in the eyes of their faces. Pure visions in my dreams lately Should probably figure what it means maybe Over-analysis ain’t anyway to channel this though Battle with demons try steer away from fiends mainly Lethargy yeah this weeds hazy The pleasures mine think it’s marvellous to meet Hades Back of my mind saying no, tryna calculate why That’s when cerberus start chewing through my feet crazy You’d be an eediat not to read the signs Proliferated pixels read between the lines They’ll snatch your fingers for a piece of pie The smoke lingers and it stings ya eyes But real as steel this is fortified Babylon’ll burn with them chordy lies Pinch of salt though its border line 40 days yo and 40 nights 40 days yo and 40 nights Nah it really wasn’t advertised Tryna read between the paralines All a paradigm Through my narrow eyes Paralyzed Tryna sacrafice Grass green in the paradise
3.
WHOAMI 02:56
I aint from bits, I aint from them ways but still I don't mind. And I don't watch post codes, me I see you soul first looking through your eyes. Some swiped out lifestyles picking out these pixels from my psyche Dealing with some ignorance pricks yeah the chink man a chink yeah man I'm chiney Pacifisticing though I got my fist clench tight like Put me in a box get boxed. But you ain’t seen the flare that I lick off when I'm writing And you don't know about the pain that I hold I got inside me And I ain’t from England, I ain’t from China… so fuck off with your labels (child of the moon) Product of environment, I'm suttin’ like a hyacinth busting through the pavements Living in fables. (tales) I'm probably from another place elsewhere Fate done taking all my loved ones elsewhere, cried so much it left a fissure in my welfare All this pain. cracks. stains. smashed self care Gargling booze, angst and mood why I'm looking for my health here (I just don't know, I'm like) Who am I? Who am I? (who am I?) who am I? (who am I?) who am I? (who am I?) who? Who am I? (who am I?) who am I? (who am I?) who am I? (who am I?) who? Who am I? (who am I?) who am I? (who am I?) who am I? (who am I?) who? (What) (what) (what) Who am I? (what?) who am I? (me) who am I? (you?) Who am i anyways? who am I? Individual persons,(yeah) belonging and were looking for a purpose See how we earthlings, (yeah?) ruining; the water turn turpid (black like night) Now seeing how fear works, drop a couple bombs then blame it on the burkas (tabloids) As if there ain’t a war right now, know the karma is a double headed serpent (it bites both (ways!)) Yeah the future feel worthless.(wah) so how we meant to feel about our children? Picking up the rubble from before like…(like like like) how we gonna build another building? Cracked foundation. the system need changing as ever but that's nutting new there’s nutting much to heal this (not much hope) Pointing out the fingers. but really one per-centers need to feel this. Turning round the tables vote labour still dubious (wah) revolution is solution let’s do this. (Yeah) chanting with the beads I move buddhist (Om) mani padme hung grooving. Peace, music, love - movements. C’mon everybody get loose just tryna find silence (shhh) I'm in amongst mayhem and madness and arise from the grit I move phoenix I flew but Like… who am I?
4.
5.
BRUCE 04:58
Horizon line on my cuticle, The sun will rise and the moon will fall All these little things so beautiful Dreamer, lucid, all These edges blurred I climb the ledge Railings; precipitate Palms are clam, there muscling And hermit crab I’m changing state. We all make mistakes Child of the moon I’m home away Don’t mind my eyes they’re swathed in silk Bathed in golden lakes. Caligraphy: ink drips it stains it black I fold these pages intricacies And pray ion cranes not building flats These sacred wings been more than clipped Our tapered futures claim it back Confused with all of this I find solace in scripts and painting tracks I figured it’s time in the pipe-line like wriggling rats Its brimming with flavours bangers and mash smothered in gravy drizzling swag Still raw like grazes Know the time like Dali’s clock Here another man call me Jackie Have to pull up like pardon what? You can call me Brucey Jeet Kwan-Do yeah my style is not My style is (free) my style is (bad) My style don’t fit in your rahtid box. (You must be like water) With the tide feel the pull from the moon (Splashing I ain’t ever gonna fit in your box) Got me feeling like H gimme space gimme room (Well You must be like water_) True true true… Yeah were under one heaven under one roof Look in my eyes they don’t know about truth All I knows about this tryna figure out roots Got me feeling like… got me feeling like bruce. Can’t you see were blessed Black and white yin-yang mind like Eschers’ That’s metamorphosis Under cloaks like Harry Houdini When I die disappearing trick Still here but the eyes won’t see me I’m vanishing moving dimensions freely ayo Oil slick superfluous See the beauty in the mundane Sometimes I see clear as crystals Feel like Lou reed on a Sunday Til its all falling Like Hito Steryl Horizon line I feel it all spinning Its a matter of spirit tryna keep it all level It’s not straight it’s beveled Slipping and sliding towards it Here on the Hispaniola Guess I gotta ride this vortex And Poseidon pissed off Cyanide slides in saucers With the blind man Pew Tryna Long John Silver the fortunes But this life is gorgeous Though I been trialed and tested Fed up external searching truth is hidden inside intestines Labyrinths – Hansel Gretlin Tryna figure where the threads been Left trace Ariadne’s steps acceptance fates written in my DNA … woven. (You must be like water) With the tide feel the pull from the moon (Splashing I ain’t ever gonna fit in your box) Got me feeling like H gimme space gimme room (Well You must be like water_) True true true… Yeah were under one heaven under one roof Look in my eyes they don’t know about truth All I knows about this tryna figure out roots Got me feeling like… got me feeling like bruce. I pity your form, Metatron’s Cube im taking off Ain’t confined to the layers of skin I reside in planets and cosmic dust I reside in rocks. I feel this Brahman Got my mumzies minerals deep Stuck in my sternum locked. Tryna open heart Spread wings still guzzling fluoride ‘Cos they put it in the water tanks Til your drizzling thoughts are washed Your pineal dead your cerebral rot. Like all this clot! Lord bless us with the caustic soda Tryna make all the stagnance stop. Dealing with banks and bots These crooks in suits How they make a human so ugly Don’t be fooled by the Grenson boots See reality in Orwells’ fiction Metaphors that’s the perfect truth I make art so my Mumzy loves me Putting in work when I'm inside the booth Can’t you see that shining That’s something I won’t claim on Ego Je n’ai c’est quia: that’s Prana See the energy we got it by the Kilo’s Fate: it’s the way – Inshallah Flow - where it goes, only he knows I don’t know about gendered Gods Just Kings and Queens we people. (You must be like water) With the tide feel the pull from the moon (Splashing I ain’t ever gonna fit in your box) Got me feeling like H gimme space gimme room (Well You must be like water_) True true true… Yeah were under one heaven under one roof Look in my eyes they don’t know about truth All I knows about this tryna figure out roots Got me feeling like… got me feeling like bruce. (You must be like water) With the tide feel the pull from the moon (Splashing I ain’t ever gonna fit in your box) Got me feeling like H gimme space gimme room (Well You must be like water_) True true true… Yeah were under one heaven under one roof Look in my eyes they don’t know about truth All I knows about this tryna figure out roots Got me feeling like… got me feeling like bruce.
6.
(Patience is the key) Skipping in the pond see the ripples as they run Yeah their searching for the difference in the 1 But know it's all... Hollistic yeah this bit fits inside if it's twisted Like the puzzle box the lid is lifted only once it's all... Slide into appropriate places... That's how we met through fate just Like in the way your face slipped Into my vision oooh tingles know i felt sensations Drawn towards i ask you for your name And now im asking for a flame like id even rolled or licked the rizzlas And i don't even smoke it wouldn't have made the littlest difference Had to utter anything just couldn't bare to risk this... To see your pureness disappear into this blurring distance Words, I've tripped. stumbled nah the plot is twisted ... Caught up in this half nelson, Trying still I can't help the sitch' Nah I've boned it - plucking petals from chrysanthemums I've picked I guess I'll just.. I guess I'll just wait another while I guess I'll just wait another while I guess I'll just wait another while I guess I'll just wait another while I guess I'll just wait another while I guess I'll just wait another while I guess I'll just wait another while Cos good things come to those who wait! Plenty fishes there lust'll treat you vicious yeah Spend a little time on my own Just let me sink ill be submerged in blue and purple here With your turbulence still rocking on my boat ... Love is superflous No attatchment trapped in anchors tryna float Flailing for the surface air.. Love is light if you feel then you flown So no need to search away your days... No, no. It'll find you when you stop, like Cornelian in stop lights Slowly incandescent glow. Hope but no expectancy. Roam around the seven seas, And find it underneath your nose. Draw the wax from the arms on candelabra Snuffing out the wishes; see the smoke. I guess I'll just wait it's like a fucking joke It's like im honest still im stuck Every girl I open to it swiftly close And theres a couple that a wish I never dipped my toe But I guess it's all just growth... you never know... I guess I'll wait another while... While your rocking on my boat... I guess Ill just wait another while cos the good things happen never know... You know it's true! Know its true, know its true... Guess ill just wait! Waiting here for you...
7.
FEEL U 03:02
Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Its funny it’s sunny outside But I just feel like sitting indoors And I ain’t even been puffin on draws Like nothing don’t matter no more Like I know I need company But get to close I just push them Tryna cultivate my own garden first Ain’t space enough for your flowers The plant just died that you gave me Became a brand new home for spiders When they crawl they’re sitting in darkness In a mood of meticulous silence See it’s hot through through the window Feel the sun through the glass I feel like ants on the pave-stone Or Woody when Sid done fried him See round my heart it’s cortex But it feels like it melts when I’m drinking And I know we’re getting close but I’m drifting Well I hope you can’t see what iIm thinking See the night in your eyes But I’m more drawn to the waist In the morning, see The dawns on your face And I wake with the need to escape And it all feels... Awful. strange. Can’t wait for the day that I fall in love Can’t wait for the day... that I fall in. There must be a lock on my heart Just pains from missing my marge Shimmering stars: Her spirit, know I feel it when I dance. Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind Don’t want to Feel U Don’t want you on my mind It’s a brand new day though Sunshine with the reggae on the radio Tryna make a little reddies from the stage show Let’s go, let’s get it, get paid And I tryna gwan like I’m bad though Me I got a good heart and a mad flow You won’t see me in the trap or the bando me I do the two step or the tango See my heads in the clouds And I don’t need no vals or xans though I’m old school like du-du! dun know Still drawing these chicks on my trap phone And the reason for that is I never been a geezer for gas I don’t endorse all this digital madness bruv Yo I’m tryna keep my head piece in tact Glitching. Cooking up food in the kitchen! Literally. Tryna get my greens in flipsing Like spatula, shouts my brothers and sisters Batchelors, my honeys and vixens Actually it’s just love that Ii’m living Actually it’s just love. Actually it’s just love Actually it’s just love Actually it’s just love Actually it’s just love Actually it’s love Fuck em if they’re hating they can do it if they like they’re just wasting their own time Fuck em if they’re hating they can do it if they like
8.
9.
Feeling like I lost it lately Days on my own thing roaming Jungle; but theres no Bagheera's Living off my own impulses But this worlds imploding Aint no control z Ain't no control full stop. Fate'll bake us all brown bread one day So, you decide.reaper sycthe, walk the line. On a knifes edge, spice heads, Rummaging scrap here – rat race running through time In the guise of reason we skeam on Crossed fingers... The hunger for sun through winters The hope mumbles keep on. I just woke up out the dream to the sun Yellow rays shimmer Alittle flav in my lungs, tasting it. Pray for the better days inshallah, Turn autumnal and brisk With the springtime lining in a silvery colour While we're burning up the sage Summon rays, cmon, ayyy cmon. Storms at home and the suns outside Stuck in the doorway, I was a child of the sun i'm a part of a tribe Sand by the shore-ways touched by the tips of my toes and my eye-lids rise Sink with the sunlight, I saw the blood in the gun fight Head in the same waters that a mum cries And I feel the same sore loads when I bun thai Crazy how I had to fill my own.. Company it's all smoke and mirrors til you drown your phone I'm at one in the daytime Deep rooted in the faith Guess I had to heal these bruises to free me from feeling the ache like... I just woke up out the dream to the sun Yellow rays shimmer A little flav in my lungs, tasting it. Pray for the better days inshallah, Turn autumnal and brisk With the springtime lining in a silvery colour While we're burning up the sage Summon rays, cmon, ayyy cmon. Feeling like I lost my family. But I was raised on the low like simba. Except for when there no rafiki's Living off your own inscentives Feel it when the flow crescendos Ain't a firework here Bang stick and them buying work there Anticipate final finalé Cos I clocked now It's the lyrics that allow me Channel this sage in sound Been up we been doubty too but... Can't slip on this slope It's self built sticky and false Nah come we get rid of this God played a trick and its a joke Tryna feel the sun on my boat. I just woke up out the dream to the sun Yellow rays shimmer A little flav in my lungs, tasting it. Pray for the better days inshallah, Turn autumnal and brisk With the springtime lining in a silvery colour While we're burning up the sage Summon rays, cmon, ayyy cmon.
10.
4 Siblings 02:47
To my 4 siblings that were never born I miss them but I never I never met them so I didn't know 'em Plus I got some siblings now New life, new life Ooh yeah can we get along New life, new life 'Finna get it on New seeds for a new song Got some nice vibes for a new jawn Some red pills and some blue ones Yeah we're tryna break these illusions And no sobs gotta move on Got me feeling like bruce Me I move like Mu-Shu out of Mulan Grooving out on life gotta grove on Let it slide yeah slipping Let it slide Let it slide yeah slipping Let it... Slipping… slide... Wriggling by... Slide yeah. slip Tell my mama don't worry 'bout, Please don't worry 'bout me no... I'm loved and I'm living and I'm free Tiling on my roof don't leak, don't worry 'bout me I'd be drinking rain drops if it was so don't please don't... Tell my mama don't worry... Don't worry ‘bout me yeah... I'm loved and I’m living, I'm free See the tiling on my roof don't leak, don't worry 'bout me I'd be drinking rain drops if it was so don't, no, please don't worry I’m bless, I’m blessed
11.

about

An inspired body of work which tackles themes of identity, loss, ambition and defiance, the tape includes featured singles ‘WHOAMI’, ‘Feel U’ and ‘4 Siblings’ plus a slew of new material. Through Natty’s unique style of rap which blends elements of spoken word and layered samples with his meditative, breathy flow and vivid lyrical imagery, the collection of tracks expertly represent his powerful skills as a lyricist.

‘BRUCE’ opens with the beautifully sinister ‘Cinders (Movement Mix)’ which instantly sets the tone for the mixtape’s sharp commentary on social issues. The ambient ‘Yestermoons / Future Fiend’ follows - previously remixed by Joseph Efi - before ‘WHOAMI’ sees Natty confront institutionalised ignorance. Being of mixed heritage (British-Chinese), Wylah’s lyrics explore his own complex grapple with identity as he shatters lazy cultural stereotypes and pointedly declares “fuck off with your labels”.

As the mixtape progresses, it’s peppered with thought-provoking interludes that reinforce the complexity to Natty’s approach to rap and his wide range of reference points. On title track ‘BRUCE’ Natty speaks of his refusal to be boxed in - citing Hito Steryl’s ‘Wretched of the Screen’ and Treasure Island’s Hispaniola in his poetic lyrics - before ‘Chasing Smoke’ brings a laid-back slice of hip-hop. ‘FEEL U’ finds Natty ruminating on love and life over a flipped Jorja Smith sample taken from Preditah collab 'On My Mind', before new cut ‘Crossed Fingers’ paints a dreamier picture with Hackney singer Bel Cobain delivering a delicate verse that compliments Natty’s words of hope and fate. Its touch of melancholy extends to ‘4 Siblings’, an emotional tribute to family elevated by Mac Wetha’s hazy production, before ‘BRUCE’ closes out with a moving piece named ‘pianos out of tune’ - the perfect representation of Natty’s ability to simultaneously conjure up feelings of both uncertainty and promise.

Speaking of the mixtape, Natty Wylah explains, “BRUCE for me represents defiance, it is an affirmation of my own body and the skin I’m in. Explicitly hailing from the Little Dragon Bruce Lee, phonetically the title also easily blurs to ‘bruise’ – the purple, blood-raised colouration of skin after harsh contact: Pain… Healing. As well as touching on my worldly experiences, dream imagery and the realms of myth and magic are something that I live through and are inextricably linked to my day to day - so painting these scenes, entering these worlds and telling these stories of the more ethereal and metaphoric are just as important, or more so than accounts of my ‘waking life’… but more times they’re entwined anyways. They both feed into each other. Sun and moon shit… Ying & Yang.”

A direct insight into Wylah’s cathartic creative process, ‘BRUCE’ proves he’s successfully carved a niche as a thought-provoking rap artist. In the last year alone he’s received support from Gilles Peterson, Jamz Supernova, Toddla T, Don Letts and 6 Music's Tom Robinson, as well as being spotlighted as one of Amazing Radio’s ‘Tips for 2021’. Also responsible for creating the artwork for each of his releases, his creativity stems from his non-conformist parents - his mother, an abstract painter, was into punk and jazz while his dad was a lover of dub, reggae and rocksteady. An artist of deep intelligence, ‘BRUCE’ is not only a frank and honest outpouring from Natty Wylah, but a mirror to the realities of everyday life.

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released March 5, 2021

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