Grow Away

This instrumental version of Forefeather's concept album 3Rhythms can be used to soundtrack yoga classes, dance immersions, meditation practices, or simply used as environmental ambiance.

These soundscapes were constructed around the sounds and experiences collected from an immersive and transformative pilgrimmage between a brother and sister to the Patal Bhuvaneshwar caves in Uttarakhand, India. 

Dennis (Instrumental)

INSTRUMENTAL TRACK: 
Rawnald Gregory Erickson The Second - STRFCKR 

This beat is not my intellectual property, and I don't permit you to give me any money for the song I made out of it. That said, I hope you enjoy the song. 

3Rhythms is an album inspired by and built with sounds from a trip to India, as part of a collaborative multimedia project with Summer HB. 

More information on 3Rhythms the album and project: www.forefeather.com/3rhythms.html

Lyrics:
So I had a short conversation with a turtle today. 
Almost jogged right past him, but he made sure to stop me. 
I almost thought he was trying to tell me a story or something, 
But I asked, and he just looked at me, like: 
"Sorry, I didn't mean to cut off your rhythm, or like disrupt your whole flow, but I figure while you're living in a manner that reflects what you're doing right now, you might appreciate a second to slow down." 
...Just looking at me, like "Slow down!" 
Alright, turtle. 

Looking around, and then down, and then right back at him, 
While trynna kinda figure out exactly what was happening. 
I registered that all this turtle could probably see was my shoes, 
Which I'm thinking only really represent so much about you. 
I'm thinking "Yeah, so what's a little turtle even know? 
I'm only really wearing these running shoes out here on the road- 
'Cause at the time and the place that he sees me I'm on the go." 
I'm like "It's just right now. I'm out here on the go... 
That doesn't really tell you anything about my soul. 
I'm just on the go right now. Right? It's fine." 

So the fact that I'm here pushing at my personal maintenence- 
Can't possibly be enlightening him to these acquaintences- 
And their weight upon my brain in this perpetual matrix- 
That it balances in, wondering if it's glad it exists (or not). 
It's not so bad turtle. For all the perfect that I push at- 
And wishing for a life that feels purposeful, 
I know that my only hope is right here in the moment. 
But who are you to tell me that I won't someday own it, turtle? 
Huh? Come on. Why you gotta be like that? 
You're a hater, turtle. That's what you are. 

So maybe tomorrow I'll feel alive right now, 
You little bastard. From down there on the ground- 
You think it's cool to judge me? Looking at me with all that doubt, 
Just because I'm still waiting to be right here now? 
And then he turned. 
Like, before I even had the opportunity to turn thought into word- 
He turned back to the side of the road he'd been headed for- 
And left me to decipher what I'd learned. 

And I was like "What? 
That motherfucker didn't even say anything...??" 
That was a turtle. 
What am I doing...?

Bandcamp

Rue (Secular Monk C-Side)

INSTRUMENTAL TRACK: 
Bollywood - Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra 

This beat is not my intellectual property, and I don't permit you to give me any money for the song I made out of it. That said, I hope you enjoy the song. 

3Rhythms is an album inspired by and built with sounds from a trip to India, as part of a collaborative multimedia project with Summer HB. 

More information on 3Rhythms the album and project: www.forefeather.com/3rhythms.html

Lyrics:
Nope. Don't even- 
*Cathart* 
So, this is a story... about... 
Do you guys remember when I was, umm... 
You know, back in the days... 
Beforefeathers!? 
*Chirp* 
They told me that I would have seen tomorrow by today, but all I know now is you can't unlearn listening. 
It was perpetual... 
Everything they said to set you loose was just a tool to move you to your weapons... to get you juiced... beckon you to the guru just to flex your sense of truth before you're next in line to learn it, just to humble you. 
Someone to one-hundred men is only number one-hundred-one. 
But two's enough to threaten everything one-hundred men have been trying to do. 
Wonder why your preconcieved guru turned up his nose at you? 
Fly solo next time, and know no-one will throw fruit at you. 

So if it's chieftan of the birds versus grasshopper, I will sleep among your tribe, and use my pencil for their words. 
Grasshopper say: 
"Yo I'll bring the bread, if you bring the cheesecake. 
Why not we make peace beside feeling?" 
Guru says: 
"We can't remedy bee stings before feeling bliss brung by the suffering. Nah." 
He says: "Though I am king I prefer to ride low, so I bite pride now and follow disciples. 
Grasshopper, do you know why the rifle's trained only on the whites of the eyeballs?" 
He says: "I've got more eyes than the word 'visibility'." 
He says: "I've got more eyes than the word 'me'." 
He says: "-But what does that matter? Let's talk about what I don't see, 'cause I see pretty much nothing at all, and actually I see it with a whole lot of clarity. 
So grasshopper, tell me what you're after. 
Anybody with a handful of a dollar, even with no sense could tell me that you're underwater. 
On your honorary semblance of solidarity, sir, swear to me, right now, what you'd give to legitimately learn." 

And I said: "Yes, guru! 
Hit me with that real life, and let it burn! 
I'm trynna feel that voodoo! 
I want to see truth! 
I want to learn to see through this goddamn roof! 
Let it catch fire, I'm breaking through!" 

Aw. 
*Boom* 

So he clocked me. 
Right in the side of the face. 
I was down for the count, but I got back up. 
So here I am. 
Just, some goo...

(Grasshopper) Goo (Secular Monk B-Side)

INSTRUMENTAL TRACK: 
Numero Deux - The Dining Rooms 

This beat is not my intellectual property, and I don't permit you to give me any money for the song I made out of it. That said, I hope you enjoy the song. 

3Rhythms is an album inspired by and built with sounds from a trip to India, as part of a collaborative multimedia project with Summer HB. 

More information on 3Rhythms the album and project: www.forefeather.com/3rhythms.html

Lyrics:
Yo. 
(Alright, what's this? This is gonna be silly.) 
This song is about... uhh... the internet. 

We are distracted from distraction by distraction, 
And that's a quote from a 1930s poet (T.S Eliot: http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/fq.html) but what's happened between those days and these has got me considering how much more a sense of presence for us might soon be completely absent. 

Let me explain. 
So, for example, the next time that you listen to this song make sure that you've got an apple, 
And right now is the moment you'll take your first bite out of it, 
And then focus your intention on the internal battle- 
Between the mind's unexplainable gravitation away- 
From the present experience of chewing- 
Whether it's tasty and the thoughts are already on the next bite- 
Or maybe the mind has gone to reminisce on the other night. 
Alright so maybe you're just distracted by listening to me. 
Just take a moment to notice wherever it's off running. 
Because there's something kind of funny in how much effort it takes to try to keep ourselves from time traveling. 

So take a bite, again, and keep on bringing the inner vision on back to feeling the sensation. 
That's something that we can all benefit from; presence. 
So enjoy it. And then maybe swallow, 
And then bite, again, and keep on bringing the inner vision on back to feeling the sensation, 
And that's something that maybe we should all practice. 
Bite, and chew, and enjoy, and swallow, and bite, and chew, and then be present. 
And then bite, and chew, and enjoy, and swallow, and bite, and chew, and enjoy. 

When life's like that, (you know just what I mean by "that"? It's like "yeah...") we've all been there... we know that. 
Remember that? Back when you said "I'm never coming back"? 
It's just like that sometimes, we understand. 
(I understand.) 

So take a bite, and then take a moment only to feel like you can be at pease with what you bit off, 
and find if the mind's decided to categorize what's inside you right now as all wrong, or alright. 
(Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright, now ladies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWgvGjAhvIw) 
So just notice, and then hold this close, as you commence chewing, 
and really see if you can focus on whether the judgement is that it's negative or positive. 
Is the sensation fixed, or is it broken? 
(Is this shit broken?) 
So find exactly what the mind says, and then don't judge. 
Only let it be what it is. 
Maybe notice if the judgement shifts from something in control of the self to purely emotions. 
Because you see emotions are nothing but a thing we have. 
Like a bentley, or like a crockpot, or an iPad. 
And they're created when the mind says "This is good! This is bad!" but if I feel mad, why should I have to be that, you know? 
So maybe I will judge this experience of using my mandibles, 
But I'm not controlled by it when I relinquish time travel, 
Bring my conscious to the present, and acknowledge how it feels to be smack in the middle of my life, omnommin' on this apple. 
(OMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM) 

(Read more at https://forefeather.bandcamp.com/track/eat-dennis-b-side)

Eat (Dennis B-Side)

NSTRUMENTAL TRACK: 
Mr. Soft - Kormac 

This beat is not my intellectual property, and I don't permit you to give me any money for the song I made out of it. That said, I hope you enjoy the song. 

3Rhythms is an album inspired by and built with sounds from a trip to India, as part of a collaborative multimedia project with Summer HB. 

More information on 3Rhythms the album and project: www.forefeather.com/3rhythms.html

Lyrics:
D'ohh no... 
(Muttering) 

So let's talk about love, right? 
Let's talk about this thing that’s always tangling all of us up in these problems, 
I mean, well, problems? 
Well, maybe not "problems". 
Yeah, I guess I shouldn’t project that assumption on everyone. 
Like, umm, maybe y’all ain’t never run into the difficulties I’ve been encountering since a lil young pigeon, 
Stricken early with the syndrome. 
Yes'm, I've been addicted to love since I learned how to function. 

And I’m the type that might decide my intuition’s got a better idea for me to craft a life I’m trying to live in- 
Than anything I’ve ever been told that I should believe in. 
So you can keep your two cents, sucka, I’m funna be leaving. 
Me and lady libra got plans this whole damn weekend. 
So have fun kickin' it here by yourself with your "feelings". 

Yup, go and keep 'em all boxed up and stuff. 
Cause lawd knows emotions can be so dangerous. 
Uh-huh, it’s like, seriously rough, right? 
Being vulnerable to another human being? 

But yo, check it out right quick, here’s the thing, 
Imagine if we all just gave ourselves permission- 
To live out loud without building ceilings- 
To keep us all boxed in and afraid. 
Put up a wing, y’all. 

So if you’re on your way, don’t get caught in the maze. 
It’s always easy to forget them wings when everybody’s so afraid of the sky. 
Can you believe way back when, there was a day - before feathers - that our limbs were all covered in flesh? 
But I’m here to remind you that you’ve got this. 
We’ve got this. 
Y’all got this. 

So if you’re on your way and need back-up, just call me. 
It’s always easy to forget them wings when everybody’s so afraid of the sky. 
Can you believe way back when, there was a day - before feathers - that our limbs were all covered in flesh? 
But I’m here to remind you that you’ve got this. 
We’ve got this. 
Y’all got this. 

You see, I’ve got this affliction. 
I’ve got a love addiction. 
I’m a serial crusher, and I’m in love again. 
See she’s a pisces, and I wanna be everything that she’s swimming in- 
But now I’m worried, cause I remember falling for that aquarian. 
I’m like "Damn, Zac! Why you gotta be like that? 
Fallin so completely at the drop of a hat?" 
It’s like, "Can that, even be legitimate? 
When every time you turn around another one be like-" 
(SMACK) 
Ow. 

But yo, gimme a moment of music for me to articulate how I be feeling because I believe it is really something real. 
I’m just somebody with a whole lot of romantic energy for somebody special, and I be really feelin it when I think she might be right here. 
I might fear opening my heart up to another, since I’ve already been broken enough to know my capacity to suffer is significantly larger than ideal, but why would I want to live if I wasn’t here to feel? 

(Read more at https://forefeather.bandcamp.com/track/the-vulnerability-project-aquarius-b-side)

The Vulnerability Project (Aquarius B-Side)

INSTRUMENTAL TRACK: 
Bee's on Mars - TM Juke

This beat is not my intellectual property, and I don't permit you to give me any money for the song I made out of it. That said, I hope you enjoy the song.

Ballad of the Absentee

(October 26th, 2015) 

Take Two is a song that I made with my good friend and mentor Kristoff Krane. It’s about mortality, memory, and legacy. 

Regardless of what beliefs you may have about the afterlife, I think it’s objectively fair to say that a person’s presence in this world goes through a significant shift once they exhale for the last time. 


When I’m no longer living, you will have a very different relationship to either Forefeather, or Zac Hills-Bonzyk, depending on how exactly you knew me in life. 

This may seem obvious, but my point here is the acknowledgement of the transition. Obviously, I can’t offer much detail on what the experience of dying is like, but I can safely say with conviction that for everyone remaining alive, it’s a hell of an adjustment to not have that person around anymore. 

Read more at onefeatherforward.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/track-3-take-two-ft-kristoff-krane/

Take Two (ft. Kristoff Krane)

Before BVLC, before moving out to NYC, before even living at the yoga retreat center, I put out this album called "Goodbye Party" in 2015.

This track from it has for sure gotten the most buzz since then, probably because it features the homie deM atlaS, who's been a good friend since we cut our teeth together as youngsters in the Minneapolis hip-hop scene. The beat was produced by Irenic, a close mutual friend of mine & deM's, and an incredibly dope and underrated artist in her own right.

deM atlaS doesn't appear courtesy of Rhymesayers Entertainment, because this track is from before he signed with them. Shouts out to RSE anyway though.

Goodbye Party

Jones' Lotus Harvest Block Party (ft. deM atlaS)

Sometimes all you need has already got you surrounded, 'cause when it bounces like this - and we REALLY get down - you can literally TASTE that we found it.

Forefeather

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