Get all 23 Zamir Stills releases available on Bandcamp and save 20%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of ZGM, Vol. 1, Character (Complete Edition), Refresh, Character, Break It Down (From "Persona 5"), Extras, Makoto Stage (Spunky) (From "Street Fighter III: Third Strike"), Blood Drain -Again- (Eltnum Theme) (From "Under Night In-Birth"), and 15 more.
1. |
Maximum Effort
02:36
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I can't believe this is happening. Okay, are you ready?
(No.)
Just go. Let's just get this over with. Oh my god.
Young man. 24 going on 40.
Quote, unquote reporters bore me with their bogus-ass stories.
I don't subscribe to fake news from any Twitter Blues.
Ironically, you get the straight truth from someone named RUSE.
But you...sad that's something that you spending eight to prove.
Z and RUSE. Tongue and groove. The hardwood finish hater-proof.
Bots and burners try to bait, but you can keep on waiting, dude.
Ain't wasting time debating you. I'm just O'Neal Jermainin' you.
Interpret that as getting blocked or getting dropped.
Be selective, Monta Ellis, when you sending out your shots.
Better keep it in your thoughts if you can't keep me from my spots.
I know I rap about the paint, but you can't keep me in the box.
MEAN stock a clean lock. It beanstalk. I ain't even drop.
Settin' it off like Vivica Fox. I solo the job. I don't divi the pot.
Nui RUSE Harime, the rap game Grand Coutourier.
Cut up and dress down, Akimoto, anything you will say.
Huh?
(What should I say in here?)
Whatever's on your mind.
You think I write just to get a rise?
Never that. I just neither tell lies nor apologize.
Ask me why I'm not surprised when I looked you in your eyes,
Took and walked off with your pride, you ran to the car and cried
On some Draymond shit. No easy pass. Crash on it.
On some Trevon shit. I'm big ticket. 5 on it.
On some Kayvon shit. So don't get comfortable in that pocket.
You know the one you got on the same beat you've been dropping
For like 5 years now. Stop it. Need to change the topic on these
Crappy carbon copies that be thinking that they top me.
Discount Dillas. Mid Madlibs. Fumbling floppies.
Man, get yourself a day job, B. Keep this as a hobby.
It'd be best if you would get gone. Bottom out at beat battles,
Up shit's creek with need of paddle with your watered-down, stepped-on.
Teflon to your Telfair. Got your game on welfare.
You play pretend. Can't go for ten. I play to win.
Why I act like I'm over them? 'Cause I'm just so over them. Over you.
Take it back. I do apologize the debut overdue.
Better late than never. Two swords and maximum effort.
I turn Deadpool at the drop. 'Til then, get your act together.
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2. |
Uncle Dennis
03:22
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Intro:
Welcome back to WAFR: Among Friends Radio.
We are live, premiering a new EP from Among Friends Records artist, MEANRUSE.
It’s entirely produced by Zamir Stills.
Big day for people who are desperately alone.
Verse One:
This ain’t for the kids or the corporate gigs,
This ain’t even for the vids. Lord forbid, I make some shit for me.
This ain’t for the bigwigs doing horrid biz.
You gon’ need to up your bids. You ain’t getting this for free.
This ain’t kumbaya. More kumite. A milli rounds, men dou kote.
That’s stick talk like Uzu say, like Teddy say, like Future say.
Never ask what Oprah’d do. Just ask yourself what RUSE would say.
I look at my reflection like I know what we gon’ do today.
Chorus:
I’ma talk your shit. You just be a menace.
Z Kawhi Leonard. MEANRUSE Uncle Dennis.
Verse Two:
This ain’t for the- (Okay, you get it).
Y’all defaulting, overdue on my credit.
Karma a bitch, and she don’t be forgetting
Or forgiving when she giving out a sentence.
Bent on getting vengeance, your repentance,
Retribution, including everyone indebted.
Collecting, recalling all of y’all rejections.
Torment and torture me when I was too trepid to
turn the tables and cause trepidations.
Nowadays, there ain’t no reservations,
Hesitations, ‘quivocations to get it straightened.
Iron out the crease, crinkle the faces.
Make them so frustrated that they get to pouting and pacing. Oh, they can’t take it.
Thought of all that got me growing impatient.
Oh, I can taste it! We gotta take it!
Turn terminator on the next person to
Term a nigga underrated. Hate it.
Complex telling me I’m overcomplicated.
Don’t be asking me why I ain’t made it when they
Short me on wages, short me on playlists.
Pass on me when they publishing pages.
Rather be praising they favorites that caught up in
Being a rapist. Yeah, I’ma say it!
Chorus:
I’ma talk your shit. You just be a menace.
Z Kawhi Leonard. MEANRUSE Uncle Dennis.
Verse Three:
Tryna make a killing out a couple quarters.
De La Hoya, but they was never in my corner when
I was boxing shadows, fighting battles.
Felt like I ain’t matter when I had no supporters.
Why do you think I became a performer?
I wanted reception for me to be warmer.
I tried to be formal. Tried to behave.
Tried 500 faces. Tried to be normal.
I would go crazy. It was killing me.
Why they don’t acknowledge my ability?
Why they always giving me hostility?
I go home and I drown it with Hennessy.
Then, I see who they pushing. You kidding me?
I be working like there’s fucking 10 of me.
I be stressing ‘bout who I should pretend to me,
And you don’t care that they got no identity.
Silly me. Epiphany.
2020. It was hitting me.
The vision was clear. The voice in my
Head done said what I needed to hear.
Get off your ass and wipe your tears.
Know your class ain’t have no peers.
Walk out with no fear.
Announce to the world that you finally here.
Chorus:
I’ma talk your shit. You just be a menace.
Z Kawhi Leonard. MEANRUSE Uncle Dennis.
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3. |
Maki
03:43
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Intro:
Oh, this what we doing? Okay. Okay.
Start it here! (Hey, Zamir!)
Chorus:
All these deadbeatin’, comment-creepin’.
Debbie downer demons. Maki Zenin, can’t see them.
Steady steamin’. Knowin’ they could never beat him.
Never read ‘em. Just delete ‘em. You can’t redeem ‘em.
Verse One:
I could never wake up everyday up in a basement,
While I’m late on all my payments, quote tweeting a thesis statement.
Hollering and hating. I’m not one to tolerate it.
Rather exorcise a demon than exercise all my patience.
So blatant. You live for getting off on some engagement.
Obnoxious Green Day shit. I’ll punch in for seven pages.
Check yourself before I check your hip. I’m playing flagrant.
Ask about the fucks I give. What number is Jayson Tatum?
Chorus:
All these deadbeatin’, comment-creepin’.
Debbie downer demons. Maki Zenin, can’t see them.
Steady steamin’. Knowin’ they could never beat him.
Never read ‘em. Just delete ‘em. You can’t redeem ‘em.
Verse Two:
It’s the rap game Rika, the music producer Yuta.
While you live on the computer, we making shit from the future.
We some shakers. We some movers. Cutting off any losers.
Cutting leeches, cutting moochers, and removing every tumor.
You be online spreading rumors, straight lying,
Fabricating, falsifying, concocting, and straight contriving.
Put a little pressure on you, and you get to crying.
Ask about the fucks I give. What volume does [REDACTED] die in?
Chorus:
All these deadbeatin’, comment-creepin’.
Debbie downer demons. Maki Zenin, can’t see them.
Steady steamin’. Knowin’ they could never beat him.
Never read ‘em. Just delete ‘em. You can’t redeem ‘em.
Verse Three:
Extend the warmest of welcomes into my domain expansion.
What awaits is eternal torment from a terrifying tandem.
Live from a malevolent shrine that was once abandoned,
Now back active holding phantoms and their families for ransom.
No distractions as I practice. It’s the Rap Dylan Thomas.
Couple notches above uncommon, found in trace amounts in comets.
They’ll sell you snake oil. I deliver on my promise of
generational prowess. Montana, Muhammad, Giannis.
Papa Johners red in the face, ranting on red waves and reckonings.
Recommend you spend less time talking and try to get a win.
Pen game like a veteran. Varsity 4-year letterman.
Line-for-line 49er. Electric when in my element.
Periodic. Methodic. Conducting, composing classics.
Successor to Scott Joplin. Entertaining the masses.
The rapping is game breaking like something rivaling Madden.
Moving chains with the fastness and still retaining the masters.
Teaching nothing but the truth since the days of Zoboomafoo.
Take these demons straight to school. Nothing new, Iruma-kun.
Look like all anime and games to the public, but
I can write and speak volumes on a number of subjects.
Well-versed on really whatever field you observe.
Can converse on Huitzilopochtli or the Spurs.
Default demeanor demure, but be warned I turn Timur and turn
Non-believers into monuments should I be stirred.
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4. |
Prompt
02:51
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Intro:
Anyways…
Verse One:
I heard they got FN Meka headlining Coachella.
They took his rap from the opening act. That’s oh so clever.
I put out maximum effort, but that’s not the new meta.
Why break my back for my craft when I can type a few letters?
I’m more Ringgold over David Holz.
Everything you show everything you stole.
Funny that exhibit you ain’t got no code.
They say “Ruse, you can’t make shit like this ‘cause you gon’ scare the hoes!”
Oh, for real? ‘Cause when y’all on a spiel, it’s fuck how you feel.
Motherboard talking over the talent that need a meal.
Oh, you sly trying to slide in that fine print in the deal.
Keep a fine tooth comb and keeping keen eyes peeled.
That ain’t innovation. It’s imitation. It’s degradation.
Desecration. Straight disrespectful to us really creating.
You can say I’m hating if that helps you sleep at night.
To all the real ones left, come shop with me. I’ll get you right.
Chorus:
This ain’t got no soul! This ain’t got no heart!
This ain’t got no life! You ain’t made no art! Nah, nah!
Verse Two:
Soon, I’ma switch onto BET and see a cypher that’s written by GPT.
Tried to use money moves as a prompt, and it came out sounding like EBT.
Tough break. For fuck’s sake, you try to cut corners, you get cut-rate.
I’m a cut above just a running stitch.
Try to fuck with my cut, I’ll cut a bitch.
Y’all used to be rage against the machine. Now, you kill creatives in the name of greed.
They be breaking their wrist trying to paint you a scene, and you passing them off like it ain’t a need.
Taking funds from the programs just to give Lensa the whole grant.
Cheating Tom Keatings really thinking they’re their own man. (Oh, damn.)
Whole lotta Beltracchi running around, creating copies.
Whole lotta John Myatt in the Hyatt main lobby.
Whole lotta clones coming out. I feel like Carti.
Y’all moving like Gergo Vari. Shit look like ET on Atari.
Pardon my aggression. Won’t take part in no transgression.
I will not be lectured by someone who don’t care about expression.
You ain’t the one stressing over syllables over session.
Hope you deep learning this lesson. Stay the fuck out my profession.
(I mean, I thought that was pretty good)
Chorus:
This ain’t got no soul! This ain’t got no heart!
This ain’t got no life! You ain’t made no art! Nah, nah!
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5. |
Writer's Block
03:12
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Intro:
Yeah!
Let’s just get to it.
Verse:
The position the same as the batting average.
That’s a 1 if you can’t do the mathematics.
Figure figureheads couldn’t add it,
Couldn’t piece it together that MEAN is just better.
Outing liars and achieving ascendency.
Breaking molds and any measure of tendency.
In my mode like there’s motherfucking 10 of me.
(Wait. Hold on. We already did that bar.) Fuck it.
I ain’t budging ‘til there ain’t no discussion,
And any other argument got no substance,
And ain’t no question ain’t no artist is touching
The way that I does it, no matter the budget.
Major labels making major stinkers, and it
Make me think and then it make me snicker.
How the fuck am I supposed to call you contenders,
Contemporaries when y’all just some pretenders and peasants.
Royalty is in your presence.
Every damn minute from me is a blessing.
I bleed any jester and joker.
Holding the deck and the skeleton key to the dresser that’s
Holding the box of Pandora.
Let me unlock. I go off with no thought or no morals.
The oratorical house of horrors.
I’ma leap through the portal not meant for mere mortals who
Merely Bortles to a Brady.
GOAT of my craft. Even Robert would pay me.
I’m better than that. Why I’m lying?
I slay any giant that act in defiance.
Be it Elisha or be it Goliath.
I cut off the head, season and fry it.
Kick down the door hope the party ain’t private.
I wasn’t invited, but it’s perfect timing.
Weather pressure and the climate.
Steel my mind. Became a diamond.
Nothing lesser than the finest.
You can tell Calliope if she need some better writers
Or producers, I might know a provider.
Top of mind, I know a Midas.
Chakravartin. He can weave a gold Spida.
For the record, that’s a 4-5er.
33. Tack on 53 to
86 a disser that ain’t shit to me.
Teach a 101 to 187,
Send to heaven someone tryna send for me.
Shimomura with the symphonies.
Split the seas. Perfect fifth from a C.
OD. Cover game 4 deep, but
Way more OP when making OG.
Rap Game Hitori Gotoh!
He do it all like a shoto,
From the rap to the mix to the promo.
Still shy away from taking photos
Cause I like to live on the low-low,
But it’s high time to kick it high-tide.
Start a wave that make them call a lifeline.
You unagi swimming through a tsunami.
You can’t stop me. Rap Game Izanami.
Fire blaze blue. Sorta Dabi.
Peak performance. This immortal body.
Long way of saying you can’t top me.
If you keep it sloppy, though, you need to call me.
Entendre. I’m beyond genres.
Like the all-father if we all honest, ‘cause
Denial is not just a river in Egypt.
The Suns ain’t just a team in Phoenix ‘cause
I see a lot of people that need beatings.
Real talk, I probably need Jesus.
They call me a heathen while they speaking heresy.
Think a little tribulation would bury me.
To their credit, I survived barely, but
Almost only count in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Something that your granny say, but
That’s what made me what I am today.
What is that? Something they kept under wraps.
Like a grudge with Thundercats.
An almanac of hundred facts.
An underdog that’s upper class.
A shredder that don’t fuck with rats.
Whatever I want to be, I just know that you fuckers is under that.
Have fun with that.
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6. |
Atlas
04:12
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Chorus:
When the high come down, it’s on me.
When the sky fall down, it’s on me.
They don’t care if I’m running on fumes and the tank is on E.
If the ride stop here, it’s on me.
Ain’t nobody else around, it’s on me.
Ain’t nobody help out, it’s on me.
They don’t care if I’m only one man and got only two hands.
Better come up with a plan, it’s on me.
Verse One:
Desert gang bandit.
Covering back stab wounds with a bandage. Guess I’ll manage.
Fam ‘dem til you reach out and they vanish.
Nowadays, we just call that shit freelancing.
Granted, maybe I am too demanding.
Only my hand should be holding all the baggage.
My bad, the audacity of me asking.
Hold up the planet ‘til my skull in a casket.
Good thing I been hitting them squats.
And been building up armor that thicker than the plot.
You thought, but I think quicker than a fox.
Even through the hard knocks, I be building up the blocks.
Steady as stone, laying down the bedrock.
I can never let them see an ounce of sweat drop.
At the desktop going hard ‘til the heartbeat dead stop.
Welcome, all, to my TED Talk on
DIY. It’s do or die. Ay!
Taking breaks is suicide. Ay!
You won’t mind the gruel and grind. Ay!
‘Cause in due time, you’ll lose your mind. Ay!
Ain’t no gain without no pain,
So, don’t complain, and stand your ass in the rain.
Don’t look at umbrella, young fella.
You should make your own if you so special,
So talented and so gifted,
So damn smart and so different
Said you wanna go indie. Well, that mean independent, nigga.
Keep at arm’s reach, and don’t extend it, nigga.
You an outcast. Don’t forget it, nigga.
Damn sure I ain’t gon forget or forgive.
Damn sure that I’ll make you respect how I lived,
And I’ll drag your whole face through that shit.
Interlude:
Character. Noun.
Character is the particular combination of qualities in a person or place that makes them different from others, ones that are interesting and unusual.
Alternatively, character can refer to the quality of being determined and able to deal with difficult situations.
Verse Two:
Felt like I was born to die alone.
Ain’t feel safe in the class, on the team, or at home.
Couldn’t keep peace in the dome. I would pray.
I would plea for a sweet release with the chrome
But there wasn’t no guns in the house.
Good for ‘cause I would’ve put one in the mouth. No doubt.
Own damn blood had a brother held down.
It’s a wonder that I ever made it out.
I was sick of the chains, so I turned Andy Dufresne, and I
Broke out the motherfucking frame.
I done swam through sewers, made many maneuvers.
Whatever it take to make a change.
Ain’t nobody else in the circle. I was in the square
By myself trying to stop a whole tank.
Somehow, I’m still in good shape. You pick one of two names,
Z or RUSE. I’ma take that shit to the bank.
I done had a lot on my shoulders,
But ‘til hell frozen, I know that this thing isn’t over.
MEANRUSE Mr. October.
I go up to bat, and I swing for the stars on a closer.
Drive through the lane, putting posers on a poster.
Deliver the goods, Laura Postal with the vocals.
Hoping to go from local to a mogul,
Buy moms a house, give her the keys, say “I told you!”
Know you was nervous when you saw me do verses.
You was scared, uncertain ‘cause your son wasn’t perfect.
Sorry to the fam. I didn’t become a surgeon, but
I did better. I became my own person.
Stayed determined to get right.
One man is an army that got 110 stripes.
Long way from the end times.
Still a long way to go before I get mines.
Outro:
Alright, this has been “Character” from MEANRUSE and Zamir Stills!
Definitely an interesting project, but, let us know if you want to hear more of this!
Who are we kidding? He’s probably gonna keep doing this even if we don’t like it.
He needs this…
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7. |
Pardon Me
02:15
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Intro:
Hold on a minute there, playa!
Verse One:
Pardon me. I'm what you get when you put Carnegie next to Carnage and Key.
Business is business. I'm heartless. Regardless, I'm charging a fee.
My artistry is not for the free.
So, open your pouches and pockets and purses and coffers.
You wanna be talking to me. Let alone offering me.
I done dropped the EP and went perfect. 5 of 5.
Now, they Burfict. How they be targeting me.
I don't market to fleas.
You be bugging if you think you getting a lease.
Now that Z is at peace with unlocking the beast,
Name someone better who stopping me please.
(The beat go off?)
Verse Two:
If I may be candid...
I think y'all still don't understand it.
I was stranded, still got over on your underhanded tactics.
Passion. Practice. Bust my ass until my bust is up in Canton.
Y'all gon' act like I ain't planned it.
Talkin' 'bout they had me planted.
Man, kindly shut the fuck up.
Cry, bitch, moan. Cope with it.
That people-pleasing shit from when I was a jit is over with.
I'm 25. Take 4 and multiply to get my ownership.
Interviews with blogs across the pond. Nigga, hold that shit!
Ain't much left for me to say
So I'ma take my time to climb
Hope y'all don't mind. I'm here to stay.
Shit, it's better late than never. Not too bad for my first effort,
But get real and get together 'cause I'm only getting better!
Outro:
I done talked my shit.
So, bitch don't you forget it.
MEAN-fucking-RUSE. Zamir Stills.
We some legends.
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8. |
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9. |
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Produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered by Zamir Stills
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10. |
Maki - Instrumental
03:43
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11. |
Prompt - Instrumental
02:51
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12. |
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13. |
Atlas - Instrumental
04:12
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14. |
Pardon Me - Instrumental
02:12
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