"A heart that is jaded is only a stone's throw away from happiness." - Dwele Harris.

Track produced by Jomy, and Engineering by Eddy Royce

Hook: (Dwele leads)

They say I’m jaded
My heart is hardened
Gotta stay patient
I put up my guard and 
Still brokenhearted
Water my garden
 
V1: Tim’m
this pillar can crumble when  in a war of hearts.
I let my guard fall to make falling a lost art. 
and opened up my shell to expose my soft parts.
backhanded compliments only leave me with purple hearts
Love is like a scrimmage with all of its false starts
Had me waiting to exhale like waiting for Noah’s arc
Promised a carat, that magic was tragic Irreparable damage searchin for love looking for diamonds the dark
So I dug in the dirt to unearth the black gold, 
but it was cold 
my fingers couldn’t seem to grasp hold
Dug even deeper mining for blood diamonds 
so much I cut my hand on glass trying to find him 
Distracted, I lost sight of the real gem shining, 
In my reflection cryin
But I ain’t come all this way to give up dyin
Someday a brotha just gone have try again

HOOK 2: (Tim’m leads)

Dwele V2:
His heart black as obsidian, don’t pity him
He played his own part in being put into the pit he’s in
rock in a soft place, had assaults every  season and
I’ll slate, he never thought that we would meet again
Don’t flinch, flea flicker leave you ‘flicted like
Kyrptonite, you’ll be sleeping in a crypt tonight
Now granite, I might need to change course
I’m drinking, I might need a few quartz
Like chalk on basketball courts, you crossed the line
Every time, now it’s fouls of all sorts
I Marvel, crazy how the Vision of me wonderin’
Made you lose your marbles
Petty squabbles,
you thought I was a rolling stone
But location was either work or home
with you, I felt like I was in love alone
I hate I have to say it, 

Hook 3: (Tim’m & Dwele)
Used to be jaded
Heart was so heart hardened
Had to learn patience,
I let down my guard and
Watered my garden, 
my heart is open

stone

Track produced by Jomy, and Engineering by Eddy Royce

1st verse: (Dwele Harris)

Hey Black Man, 
I know you feeling less than hopeful
For the hunger that’s inside you, 
I’ll provide you with some soul food
I told you, 
life is hard and times are tough
But it’ll all be for naught 
if you choose to give up
So get up, 
and take your rightful place as Ruler
You reign over everything, 
including your Medulla
And when the rain can’t wash away the pain
It leaves a pool of 
years of broken hearts
with cuts that’s sharp, you picked the tool up
I know you feel you never knew love
And you don’t remember who you was
Back in a time when things were fine
You’d press rewind, 
invade your mind with rays of light
To change your future
Glory Hallelujah,
Define “divine” and it's who you are
You’re on the shore, please don't go too far
I Know your grip is getting looser but
What would we do if we were to lose ya?

(Hook)
He ain’t heavy
He’s my brother
We gotta be there
For each other
So I’m gone lift him up (yeah yeah)
I’m gone lift him up (yeah yeah)
Living is heavy enough
So I’m gone lift him up

Verse 2:  Tim’m West
When you asked how can I be down I didn’t realize
The pain so burning you up behind your cool disguise
You always seemed to have a joke, but the jokes on me,
And all the ones you left behind unexpectedly
So painful to sit with the fact that we never knew
You were a mirror reflecting that I sometimes feel blue too
Life is hard for us Black men 
Feeling we damned whether we do or we don’t 
(damn)

But you dying, it was a lesson to me, 
and all the times I’ve thought to end things indefinitely
Wantin’ to join the ancestors thinking its that time
Forgetting all the love I would leave behind
especially how disappointed my daughter would be 
If I took myself out forgetting her love for me
I had to face the reality that therapy, can lighten when I’m heavy
and not practicing patience with me 

(Hook to fade

heavy

In this third single on the highly anticipated debut release, Tim'm West & Dwele Harris present...Gravel & Grit, the GenX-OG and Millennial rant and rap about how experiences from previous relationships and situationships have shaped both me. Produced by Jomy, and engineered by Eddy Royce, the track is definately carries Golden Era throwback with a good share of wit and good humor about heartbreak and heartache. After all, these two are far more tender than toxic.

Tim’m: V1

Looking through my ex files
Many lessons learned 
Pages left unturned
Potentiality unrealized 
y marks the tab
Of where the love of x died
The question of whether or not the truth is told sometimes hides
Trying to decipher when in love
Red flags from the blue
Why love shown in the beginning don’t continue
eX files hold the history
Romantic symphony
This foolish heart’s blood memory
So I beat myself up when all hits the fan
Man up through heartbreak 
but a broken boy ain’t a man
flip through the files for good memories and moments
Laughter, lovemaking, hurts to remember (don’t it)
Wanting to try again is in my DNA, 
Think i prolly fall in and out of love erryday
But after Dark Knights looking for the one who’ll stay
So I can put these Ex-files away

Hook: 
My heart was yours
And you were mine
And when the season changed i wasn’t ready
Heart so steady
Had to see it as a lesson (Ex)
Know it was a blessing (Ex)
A reason (wrong)
A season (long)
In search of my lifetime

V2 (Dwele)
Ooo Wee Lordy Gee
Got exes in my mentions, keep texting me
Got haters wondering who’s next to me
Who sexin me, who’s next to be my ex?
Searching through my rolodex, send out that BOLO
Text, for the right one. And if I like em, we might try some
But only for the night, love. Sounds bout right, huh?
I need a real love, that givin him something he can feel love
That, couple of forevers til we keel love,
That moving as a unit, so we build love
might even steal love,, Get down and I’ll kneel to reveal love
I wanna feel love
But I tried that, and I’m right back to only entertaining niggas who don’t write back

Hook

V3
Rolodex is a file of ex, why’s and quite a few hoes
Numbers I don’t call anymore files closed
Some remain open so we remain friends
Cuz that what you should be as foundation when you begin
But a best foot forward ain’t always a true foot
Months later they like 
“Cyke, I made you look”
You played the game and got played
And they just got laid
cuz that’s all you wanted from the first day
Cuz if it walks and it quacks like a duck better duck, if you ain’t got a bullet proof soul or lady luck
I”m a big buck but with a deficit on trust protecting these exfiles is a must
I’mma close these ex files before I get all emo
Real talk, I need and ex like cancer needs chemo

Gravel and Grit is the multi-generational, spontaneous Hip Hop come-bust-son of Millennial Dwele Harris (MD) and OG/GenXr and pioneering queer Hip Hop icon, Tim'm West (Cincinnati). Aligned in their love for lyricism and singing and also the genres of Neo-soul, Hip Hop and House music, the two became partners in rhyme and decided to launch a collabo project celebrating the gravel and grit that define voices that are both symbolically and literally textured. With two different styles of Hip Hop, the artists align in the desire for authenticity.

(Photography by Hatcher Studios, Cincinnati)

Gravel and Grit

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