Hard Season

[Intro – spoken]
Yeah…
West Coast.
They talk loud, but the real game whisper.
Listen.

[Hook]
They print the money, print the wars, print the pain on repeat
While the signal in the background put the kids to sleep
Say it’s progress, say it’s love, say it’s all for the youth
But they changin’ who you are before you learn the truth
Print the money, print the wars, then they sell you belief
Hard season every cycle, keep the people on they knees
If you don’t control the past, you can’t see the trap
That’s the signal… play it back.

[Verse 1]
I grew up watchin’ blocks crumble, elders fade to grey
Same lies, new fonts, everything cinematic and now gay 
They don’t aim at the mind with a gun or a badge
They aim at the kids with a screen and a laugh

Cartoons with agendas, games with a mission
Teachin’ who the enemy is before critical thinkin’
Old world painted dirty, history reduced
To a villain with no context and no truth

They say “erase the past,” call it healing the nation
But you can’t heal a wound if you delete the patient
Forgiveness need memory, memory need truth
So they cut out the roots, then they market the youth

I see plantations in data, chains made of light
Overseers got smiles and a brand-new mic
Same structure, new language, same hunger for power
Just updated the signal for the digital hour

[Hook]
They print the money, print the wars, print the pain on repeat
While the signal in the background put the kids to sleep
Say it’s progress, say it’s love, say it’s all for the youth
But they changin’ who you are before you learn the truth
Print the money, print the wars, then they sell you belief
Hard season every cycle, keep the people on they knees
If you don’t control the past, you can’t see the trap
That’s the signal… play it back.

[Verse 2]
Every empire run a famine before the feast
Keep you tired, keep you broke, keep you beggin’ for peace
Bad food, bad sleep, bad news on the screen
So you trade big questions for a dopamine dream

They don’t want rebels, don’t want thinkers awake
They want players in a game where the board always fake
Ender taught ‘em the method, distance kills the remorse
Push a button, win a war, never see the corpse

By the time you learn the truth, it’s already done
They call you hero support the troops 
then they load the next one
Scoreboards for morality, likes for the soul
Outrage rented hourly, never ask who controls all the fatalities 

The elders remember when the story was bent
When the lie was still naked, not covered in scent
So they phase ‘em out slow, make ‘em sound insane
Turn fathers into hashtags, mothers into pain

Not force—nah, irrelevance is cleaner
Ghosts at the table while the signal get louder through the speaker
[Hook]
They print the money, print the wars, print the pain on repeat
While the signal in the background put the kids to sleep
Say it’s progress, say it’s love, say it’s all for the youth
But they changin’ who you are before you learn the truth
Print the money, pri

Rap West Coast Classic Conscious G-FunkTempoBPM 88–92 BPMSweet spot: 90 BPM timing 4/4 F minor or G minor rimshot 2/4