Know Yourself

If you saw the younger you, what would you say to them?

I would say, "thanks"

I would say, "peace"

I'd tell them, "soon, child, you're gonna find release" (find release, find release, find release, find release, find release)

Long time coming to right now, pipe down

Lifetime looking for things I thought I'd found

Already, falling to the floor like I'm alright, I'm steady

I send myself back so I can tell me

20 years deep in the rhymes of beats

And I'm still so far from finding peace (and I'm still so far from finding peace)

Every line is a ladder I can climb through time

And I walk straight-faced through these winding streets

I eat the bread of rhythm, I drink the milk of rhyme

I've been carrying a bag of shame that's bigger than me

Dragging up behind me, up an endless staircase

Until the day I realised this doesn't mean what I think it does

I don't need to carry this forever

I left it in the clearing by the fire pit and ran

Back to the child I was looking for an elder

I saw myself there, I took myself by the hand

When I was young, I sought help from my older self

I came into my head, I told me, "know yourself"

When I was young, I sought help from my older self

I came into my head, I told me, "know yourself"(yourself, yourself, yourself, yourself)

I was 17, heaven seemed close enough to touch

I had never been happier, chest against the barrier

Watching Wu-Tang, my own character starting to bloom

I was learning how to capture a room in two phrases

20 years deep in the rhymes of beats

Close my eyes and speak down the wires of time

I go back to the child I was when I put myself on the line

I had to beg for the mic, I had to deal with their ignorance

I had to get better, I wanted bigger things

Well, these days, those days, they are far away

Try and catch them in my sights, but they start to fade

Now I sit amongst great loads of rhyme books

And I think about the days that the time took

I thank the little me that put the work in

Could you picture me when you were spitting 16's?

Surfing the top deck, penning them bars

Underage in the clubs, taking charge of the mic

Precautious little nothing with the world in his sights

I am on it now, I will work harder (harder)

This is peace to the kid I came after (peace to the kid I came after)

The words of the bridge between the present and the past

I know myself at last

When I was young, I sought help from my older self

I came into my head, I told me, "know yourself"

When I was young, I sought help from my older self

I came into my head, I told me, "know yourself"

Know yourself

Know yourself

Soon, child, you are gonna find release