Aesop Rock
Catfish
[Intro: Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman]
Yo, I go first
I'll go first
All right, man
I'll go first

[Verse 1: Homeboy Sandman]
You'll understand my sense of urgency
I'm the cat that put "emergence" in emergency
More than a half a mind to save my whole community
I'm just not certain what something like that'll do to me
Sandy's on the mound and pitching for the home team
All the information's listed on the home screen
Once I start it, ain't no switchin' out to Plan B
Once I start it, ain't no screaming out, "It can't be"
You can catch the bluest ribbon in the Red Sea
You can catch the true and living in the Dead Sea
Magic lingers whilе the fingers on your screen scroll
Pleasе believe it—you can read it in the Sea Scrolls
Fortune frowns on anybody out to take lives
If you're considering a silly thing, then take five
I am avid as I'm having me a great time
I'm aware you might have heard this through the grapevine
When I'm chompin' on the bit, it ain't a bit dull
If you want it, you can get it through your thick skull
See, I grew up on Atari playing Pitfall
See, I grew up on safari of the brick walls
I'm a composite of many different aspects
I'm a undercover operative of Aztecs
Bastian riding Falkor, tryna spot Artax
Examining the outdoors for the spot marked "X"
Behind the wheel of True's Land Cruiser, I cruise land
Listen and you'll hear it—it's the spirit that moves man
Picking out a jacket for highjacking a news van
Rappers don't know diddly, but me, I'm a bluesman
I be on it like I saw it with a bird's eye
If it's doable, I done it on my first try
Breaker, breaker, peep the phantom about to break fly
Every bit of data fatter than a steak fry
Doin' what I gotta to remain on the blacklist
Up until you find out that was only a catfish
Every other human come including an asterisk
Thank you all for snoozing—now for using my last wish (Ugh)
[Verse 2: Aesop Rock]
Pitched a few snowballs, skipped a slew of rolls calls
Dipped into the sewer, grew his hair out like a Troll Doll
Blew the man-hole cover up to the sand bluff
Down to the river, took a knee with my hands cupped
Man-Ape free to hydrate or be ambushed
The slant grow from "Look at him go" to "Heavens, I can't look"
King Upsetter, surely cursed be the name
Every word an urgent love letter bursting into flames
Editor-in-chief at the Bloodletter Gazette
Every drip on the cement could fill up another cassette, and does
Reaper knocking at me through the diner glass—invite him in
Yes, I know the die is cast—now, try the grits
Let him get the check, and offer thirty seconds clear to run
It's ten before he skip the other twenty on some "Here I come"
Which way'd he go? Strafe and follow any trace of spirit gum
Mustache and glasses disappear into the zero-sum
No road atlas, only roads to Damascus
Where the roses are for growing, not for throwing at some pageant
Y'all just pinning little ribbons on each other as catfish
Swimming in the chasm between what you publish and practice
I wake up every day and move different than I used to
Smarter than whichever bear's assuming that you do, too
Doozy after doozy, up and brushing off the lab coat
Cold bath, bo staff, back on his Max Roach
Tap into the tape gun, mail you back to Hasbro
Bring me to the big cheese, all I see is crab toast
All you see is parachutes raining from the Matmos
All I see is parody and parroting and plateaus
'Round here, that's pretty much a cousin to the flatline
I would rather level up than fraternize with magpies
Patron saint of isolationism, heart of palm and graphite
Teaching kids to put away the crack pipe—that's Lice