Lost Touch

[Chorus: Substantial]
Lost touch when we locked down
Thankful that I got up after the knockdown
Lost touch with some old friends
Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends
Lost sight of the mission
Treating your community like competition
What was once lost, can be found
Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now

[Verse 1: Substantial]
Hip-Hop’s 50, I’m doing my best to double that
Loss legends, they say the culture is where the trouble’s at
Lost our way and it might be too late to double back
Chop it up, but I’m more John Henry than Lumberjack
Lay tracks 'til I die, fighting the machine off
Trying to catch an angel that’s about to burn their wings off
Editing thе bucket list of things you can leave off
Tiptoеing on the edge of faith ‘bout to leap off

[Verse 2: Javier Starks]
'Cause we harbor the darkest fears
Its as if our visions are the tallest
See-sawing and the ceilings are falling
Law of the strongest, despite all the odds, it's
Got me ready to go all in
But why am I Stalin? I know
Loud haters in the crowd be the nazis
Destroy, but claim to be building like rowdy Itachis
So proudly you watch me, in the studio cooking up miracles
Like the young black Hiyao Miyazaki

[Verse 3: Shing02]
How can I lose touch if I had it in the firm grip of my hand
Like a handle of a bike when I was a little tyke
Palm dirty held tight, then eventually
It transformed to the old mic
Crown rusty from the spit, signal only from the right
But the first time I heard my own voice in the monitors
Out of mind, simulation watch me body the beat
My alias, the birth of a moniker

[Chorus: Substantial]
Lost touch when we locked down
Thankful that I got up after the knockdown
Lost touch with some old friends
Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends
Lost sight of the mission
Treating your community like competition
What was once lost can be found
Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now

[Verse 4: Javier Starks]
I never thought friends in the past would leave or pass
R.I.P., some flee after massive schemes
Ghosted, the heartbreak is ferocious
Ain't no doctor and a cast for these
Masses looking down at their phone or their tablet
As time flies by at even faster speeds
Where functionality and community clash
It seems we lost touch like we cracked the screen

[Verse 5: Shing02]
Yeah, it's pretty obvious to us, having been in the scene
Feeling old like a vet. but curious like a teen
Had poets gunned down, prophets sold out
Rebels silenced, the school's no alliance
Venues shut down, stations paid off
High hopes for the internet, its intent malice
I see the talent in the stars but the mind so numb
Does it sell 'cause it's dumb and we talk with our thumbs

[Verse 6: Substatial]
Made to be greater, lost touch with the creator
The alpha and omega mistaken to be a beta
Artist or an artisan, creator or curator
Collapsing under baggage that could fit inside a freighter
The body is a temple and the mind is a fortress
Since health is wealth I’d mind if I lost it
Trying to make a living hope they dying to support it
If we dying in the streets, is me rhyming as important, guess we

[Chorus: Substantial & Shing02, Together]
Lost touch when we locked down
Thankful that I got up after the knockdown
Lost touch with some old friends
Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends
Lost sight of the mission
Treating your community like competition
What was once lost can be found
Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now

Lost touch when we locked down (Locked down)
Thankful that I got up after the knockdown (Knockdown)
Lost touch with some old friends (Old friends)
Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends (Road ends)
Lost sight of the mission
Treating your community like competition
What was once lost can be found
Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now
Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now