Shades of Excellence

Sub-Conscious ft. Oktober - “Shades of Excellence”
[Emcee(s): Sub-Conscious and Oktober]
[Producer(s): Spier 1200]

[Intro: Oktober and Sub-Conscious]
Oktober: That’s right
Sub-Conscious: Think about it, son, you know?
Oktober: I know
Sub-Conscious: De La
Oktober: Uh huh
Sub-Conscious: Whatever. Common
Oktober: True. Who else?
Sub-Conscious: Recognize all of them, man
Oktober: That’s right. All of them
Sub-Conscious: They ain’t multi-plat’, man, you can’t say that’s not… you know?
Oktober: You know?
Sub-Conscious: There’s mad ways you could look at it, nah’mean?
Oktober: Mad different ways, yo
Sub-Conscious: Yo, come on, how many ways could you, man?
Oktober: There’s too many different ways, yo
Sub-Conscious: What if… what if your rhymes was just thugged out?

[Intro: Oktober and Sub-Conscious]
Oktober: That’s right
Sub-Conscious: Think about it, son, you know?
Oktober: I know
Sub-Conscious: De La
Oktober: Uh huh
Sub-Conscious: Whatever. Common
Oktobеr: True. Who else?
Sub-Conscious: Rеcognize all of them, man
Oktober: That’s right. All of them
Sub-Conscious: They ain’t multi-plat’, man, you can’t say that’s not… you know?
Oktober: You know?
Sub-Conscious: There’s mad ways you could look at it, nah’mean?
Oktober: Mad different ways, yo
Sub-Conscious: Yo, come on, how many ways could you, man?
Oktober: There’s too many different ways, yo
Sub-Conscious: What if… what if your rhymes was just thugged out?

[Hook: Oktober and Sub-Conscious]
There’s other ways, and that could lead to something fatal. Good presence?
That ain’t enough—Hammer had a good stage show. Aight, unit
Sales then. To me, the illest emcees is record-less. Bottom
Line, Sub: there’s mad different shades of excellence. Come
Gangster? There’s other ways—that could lead to something fatal. Good presence?
That ain’t enough—Hammer had a good stage show. Unit
Sales then. To me, the illest emcees is record-less. Bottom
Line, Sub-Con: there’s mad different shades of excellence

[Verse 1: Sub-Conscious]
Shades
Of excellence ride the rhythm, make an exodus
The kick drum gusts like breeze, I’ll make the best of it
Let it set me adrift, deeper Consciousness, full
Blast through a glass half-full for all pessimists
Sleeping on my gospel like Jews with the New Testament
There’s only one of me, but it’s still treacherous
My pink palate give rhythms a new pigment
The main base color got inner visions mixed in it, sparkles
Off-campus from immense solar image, even
Glows under halogen lights infinite
I spitbox with water-based, non-toxic
Imagery that turn vintage in the right concoction
Rich rainbows off windshields in your mind’s cockpit
Snowstorms that seem like light drizzle in the tropics
The flow’s short and sweet, but you’ll still need galoshes
Torrentuous sixteen, blabbermouths be obnoxious

[Verse 2: Oktober]
I’m on the other
Side of the prism where the spectrum is. Follow
My lights to find shades of excellence. Color scheme
Like aerosol on walls of tenements
High-resolution, focus all evidence
Of dark lies wrote alongside the coast
Mind is visualized through kaleidoscopes, vivid
With wide-defined strokes painted inside notes
That I quote, thoughts of Picasso in this
Blue period through some serious crisis
Explain my life through mysterious writings
Highlighting text in the message of the righteous
Teach excellence, y’all cats is D-minus
We be designing this through lead pencil tips or
The pen spits authentic penmanship. Those
Who possess ignorance can never put an end to this
Covered the whole page with shades of excellence

[Hook: Sub-Conscious and Oktober]
How ‘bout
Vocab? Yeah, son, but people gotta understand it. And
Production? That’s the illest if you tasteful with your samples. How ‘bout
Concepts? Gotta have ‘em, son. That’s like a prerequisite
Yo, bottom line, Ok’: there’s mad different shades of excellence. How ‘bout
The lyrics? Yeah, son, but people gotta understand it. And
Production? That’s the illest if you tasteful with your samples. What about
The concepts? Gotta have ‘em, son. That’s like a prerequisite
Yo, bottom line, Ok’: there’s mad different shades of excellence

[Verse 3: Oktober]
Ayyo
I spit shades of purple haze on white canvases
Blacked-out, sight vanishes, I’ll write manuscripts
Like the cannabis, though vanilla Dutches are cancerous
By definition, we’re past what average is
Thoughts developed in dark rooms beneath the red lamp
Artform chiaroscuro like Rembrandt, vision
Is seen through dark shade. When skies are gray
I’ll listen to 1200 beats and parlay
Imagine performing uptown at Autobahn
Up at the podium, keeping recorders on, Ok’
Touring with Sub-Con on stage with the fist up
Aimed at the X on our chest, but they missed us
Bullets that’s shot and stray ricochet and
All that was sacred was given away, plus
Your heart is only days away. Still, these colorblind
Cats visualize me as shades of gray

[Verse 4: Sub-Conscious, Oktober, and Both]
Yo, my thoughts
Swarm for this artform’s upliftment
Emcees be stuck in the past like the word “since” is
I train for the present tense, rhymes is my wind sprints
Like hallucinogens, we take minds the distance
Too deep for anchor chains, so we bring the dock closer
We next like winter winds whistling in Oktober
It’s hard to follow. Leave hairs twisted back. Like leaves
Hitting the ground, I’ll stop shadows dead in their tracks
Emcees be trying to flip ish, but their heads miss the mat
Sub sick with the Bisquick, cross country over litmus, serve
Lumberjack helpers with these fresh-squeezed liquids, formulas
More nutritious than breastfeeding infants biting
Soylent Greens with a little turquois tintage
My color schemes expand the light spectrum two inches. Rap is
More than just gay now, son. It’s incestuous
It’s Sub-Con and Oktober, shades of excellence