The Dig

[Rap sample:] I got more beats… you know there’s no one finer…
You know there’s no one finer… motherfucker…
I know a lot of spots that I ain’t putting you up on…
You know there’s no one finer… you know there’s…

[Rap sample:] Digging in the crate
[Spoken sample:] All the time
[Rap sample:] Digging in the crate
[Spoken sample:] Right on! (x2)

[Thes One:]
We got forty crates, black plates, rare grooves, breaks
No 78’s, Vietnam era United States
American funk, private label on major turntables
Sunken treasures that’s in the 4/4 measures
Now life’s only pleasures is digging, I do it often
So when I die, don’t cry, put my records in a coffin
And bury me next to a very big tree with my MPC
So they won’t warp, as a corpse, remember me
As a daily beat digger that figured out better ways
Of tracking down vinyl, like working at Rhino in the good old days
When the pay came, raised the notch, new spots
Friends with owners, under counters, digging through the new box
45 shoebox to understock rock, records before gas
Wood and glass, fuck it, I’ll walk for weeks
And sacrifice heats, looking for beats that coalesce
With chronic, like this here 45 on Microtronics
New spots, harmonic to sonic, enhance my life
My records are my children, my ancestors, and my wife
They’re there for me, carefully picked and never bit
My record karma stays stronger than the record by the Biz
I known places you don’t, did places you won’t
Yo, fuck a loop-digger in my city, man, just stay home
You see me by a pay phone on Normandie and King
Don’t wonder why as you drive by, I’m doing one thing
Head down, studying my music like Schroeder
Daily digging dust missions wearing out my motor
Fingers full of warts, back aching, arch support failing
Two hours to a new spot, fuck it, we still bailing
In my ride, digging worldwide, bringing heritage home
Reconnaissance, innosense, Renaissance elements
Evidence of long lost musical intelligence, big-picture relevance

[Rap sample:] Digging in the crate (scratched and repeated)
[Thes One:] The only way my life makes sense
I’m two weeks late paying my rent
I’m digging out the past and the present
And now my fucking money’s being spent
The only way my life makes sense
I’m two weeks late paying my rent
I’m digging out the past and the present
The only way my life makes sense

[Double K:] (Check it out…)
I get my records insured before the life coverage
Up in my room all day, y’all say I’m on some other shit
Digging through the blue, grey, yellow, and green crates
Like I’ve never done it before, got records scattered on the floor
Got records hanging on the wall and in my bathroom, too
Got stacks up in the hallway, let me put this another way
Yo, I don’t give a record dealer nothing but cold cash
And a hard time, pats on my back, ‘cause now I’m doing fine
Vinyl is like food, fool, I need it to live
My fingertips been touching wax since I was a small kid
And ever since I been a big Double, it’s kinda bad
I sit and just listen to all the money that I had
I drop ten on some smoke, you know where the rest goes
More money to listen to, never dressing for the hoes
Fuck clothes, DVD, or holiday and real estate, relationships and bullshit
Ay-yo, I’m digging through the ([Spoken sample:] Crates)

[Rap sample:] Digging for shit… then I’m going back
(repeated and scratched)
([Double K:] Ha! Hey, Thes, we cooling out right here, boy… yeah… ?… hey, alright, aw, fuck it, man, I’ve seen it all, it don’t matter, man, it ain’t worth it, it’s all good… aw, what’s that right there? Ha ha! That’s why I’m going digging, man! ? no more…

[Spoken sample:]
[Homie #1:] You remember in Cali when I grabbed one of your… we threw ‘em up, yo, we was in Hollywood, right? We’s in Hollywood, I grabbed him up, you took his gold, he ain’t do nothing, we still got the gold to this day
[Homie #2:] We taxed the kid!
[Homie #3:] Yo, man, I ain’t never been…
[Homie #2:] We taxed him…
[Homie #3:] We gonna tax him again
[Homie #1:] And again
[Homie #3:] So just keep your mouth closed
[Homie #1:] I ain’t never been taxed before