Every Friday on the OurStage blog, I’ll be featuring a great example of flow and lyricism on a hip hop song pulled from the OurStage ranks. I’ll get the artist’s thoughts on the track, as well as post the lyrics or best verse so fans can follow the flow themselves.

Doujah Raze, a man of the world

Today’s “Friday Flow” comes courtesy of Doujah Raze. He’s been around the block a time or two, and is sick of the way things are. He’s been able to garner recognition by taking his own path; doing things his own way. With reasonable success in both touring the world and playing festivals in the United States, Raze has four albums under his belt (one of which was a Japan-only release). It’s pretty clear what this week’s flow is about, but let’s hear it straight from the source:

Plastic World is my dedication to all things fake in this world. From politicians’ false promises, to chemical drug use, to gun violence, to plastic surgery, this song covers the gamut of everything “plastic” in this world. My boy Shuko from Germany did the beat, and when I heard the hook sample “I can’t live in this plastic world, it’s killing me,” I knew what I had to write about. Now I’m no saint, and I know that we, as humans, have all participated in “plastic” things. This song is not so much about being a perfect person, but more about trying to rise above the fake things in this world and trying to see that there is more to life than what we often can see in front of us. Plastic World was the lead single off my self-titled debut album.

So, check out the song, feel the flow and spec the lyrics —we’re sure you will love this song. If you dig it, buy it on iTunes!

Verse 1
I’m bout to shatter the glass, break the mold in half
Release Hell’s fire fury though this phonograph
Feel my wrath, heart stuck even on knife’s end
Rewind then, just to flood the speakers with violence
It’s crime when all these great artists with intelligence
Trade they soul for the wealth cuz they be selling it
That be irrelevant, anything goes up in this game
That’s the smell of it offending my nose
But it’s bigger than that, bigger than rap
I crack my window wide open and I’m sick of the fact
That shorty’s on the block smoking
And ain’t twelve years old, but shorty’s glock smoking
It’s seldom told that little Jessica from Atlanta with cancer
Her Daddy spend his loot on the alcohol and dancers
And ain’t gon’ be no operation saving
Dunn she’s lost most of her eyesight, she halfway to the grave and
Yea we be praying up in times like these
For a savior, a soldier in search of the truest
The plastic and toxins I’m breaking on through it, what!!!

Verse 2
And it keeps going, these mean streets keep growing
Deceit feeds, greed’s green teeth keep showing
Believe no one, cuz everybody got they mask on
Smiling in your face but behind you with they laugh on
This platform built on perilous cliffs
Has been deprived of the nutrients to care for it’s bricks
And it’ll probably crumble any day
Man there’s plastic where the steel should be anyway
And platinum fields!
With chicks these days it’s not just tits
Now they got fake ass, fake eyes, fake thighs, and fake lips
The shape shifts to what it want to be
So stop using artificial shit to make it how it oughtn’t be
I’m rhyme sicker than the channel 5 news
As I align all these visions through these scriptures I use
Scriptures you choose, pictures of truth it keeps my head strong
Going all these miles through these lead storms
Yea so right now a true warrior emerges
And while your busy worrying bout “oh is he gon’ be saving mine?”
I’ll be really working overtime cuz I’m breaking mine

Verse 3
Sometimes you won’t know which way’s up or where to go
So just put your ear down to the ground to hear the show
Feel the flow, but these days man it be tougher
There’s a lot more plastic, a little more rubber
It’s muffled, and all this hype got us on the wrong things
Brought up in this life, taught it since we was like small kings
And queens played for the fun of it
But now these whores carry AIDS and these guns they be running it
The politicians ain’t apologize for none of it
They do it for the blood yo, they do it for the love of it
And we all suffer cuz we cut in it
The wound’s deep and we only got sheets to try to cover it
I’m sick and tired of this haze kid
I look around and I’ll see is chemicals up in my face with
Some ill intentions and they trying me
So I’m a spark something natural and leave that shit behind me
Foul, grimy the road that I walk on
So I’m a just stalk on with strength building numbers
And burn down this plastic with measures it’s drastic!