The Anecdote

E SENS - The Anecdote (cover)

E SENS – Unknown Verses

 

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Verse 1)
Forever young, what was it that I’ve been wanting to achieve all this time?
I attacked everything fearlessly with an expression as if I’d destroy it
but after getting hurt for the first time, I started to worry about
when I’d fall. If I say that I was at the edge of happiness,

I was gradually being pushed off
Time seems to go fast, all I have in hand is a map
without an indicated destination. It looked endlessly wide
Is the treasure I’m look for something at a place that I cannot reach

at my walking speed? Does something like a treasure exist?
When time passes, I can’t hold it back
As someone said, is it really worth chasing it when you’re young?
Nobody explains it to me exactly, so

Hook)
All I can do is walk
The weather outside is fine
Contrary to my mood,
the weather outside is fine

Verse 2)
For a few years, there was a cold summer in my heart, a hot winter in my head
After barely a few seasons, I just follow the road sign
There is not one easy day. Even when it’s too much for me and I tilt over, another drink
Even though I put a finger in and shove my face into the toilet

the confusion doesn’t go away. When I snap out of it, I’m here
Since I can’t believe in myself, others can’t easily do it either
How honest am I, who talks bad about pretenses?
As I stand up, clutching my burning stomach, I am a lonely island

Someone [tell] me .. “Hey, cool off that heated body!
Hey, learn how to step back a bit already!
Hey, why are you dissociating yourself from others? You can’t make it by yourself.”
That’s not the problem though. Why I want to do this?

Hook)
There’s nothing else I can do
Someone envies me
Contrary to my mood,
the stage I stand on is glamorous

Outro)
What’s goin’ on brother?
What’s goin’ on?

((The following are lyric extracts from E SENS’ mixtape ‘New Blood, Rapper Vol. 1’, credit to demonade on HiphopLE))
I wonder what my crib was worth
Will I be able to provide better for my son one day?
As I haven’t been able to find love yet
I wonder if my father had the same thoughts one day((From ‘부르마블 (Blue Marble)’))

Music, my rhymes that move strongly
shall cut out everyone’s illness((From ‘M.C (Feat. Gaeko)’))

Wounds shouldn’t be exaggerated
Although letting them pass wordlessly is hard,
that is something quite important to me
If you know me, just pretend to be fooled,
I can’t hide it perfectly from everyone anyway

More talks about values
People and love are very different from me
and I’m saying I’m better((From ‘부르마블 (Blue Marble)’))

Everybody wants a job with good possibilities
When the greed of wanting to put on airs and the probing glances from the people around
choke them, the topic of Korea is money. But I don’t give a fuck((From ‘열정 (Passion) (Feat. Beatbox DG)’))

Worn-out, old fashion, giving the soul a break
Like a Hollywood movie
Knowingly or unknowingly, I talk about forbidden things
The scalps of smartasses stiffen
The melancholy of art((From ‘Make Music (Feat. Absolyte)’))

You can call me E SENS
After I nail words into the ears of fussy kids,
they’ll split,((= their heads will split)) this kanji:((‘kanji’ is the Korean version of ‘swag/style/coolness/swagger/…’)) a qualification((From ‘피똥 (Bloody Shit) (Feat. Simon Dominic)’))

E SENS - The Anecdote (cover)

E SENS – Next Level

 

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Verse 1)
I quit school full of spirit and became dejected after only one month
Without anything to do, I played online games all day long
I dumped my initial attitude, “I need to do something, anything((The lyrics jump back and forth between past and present tense, so for them to make sense in English and also to avoid having to change the tense everywhere, I added quotation marks.))
In this pathetic state,((= situation, sight)) saying that I do music is nothing but an excuse for bumming”

“If you wanna be a rapper, you gotta be a few levels above the noraebang kids((Reference to so-called ‘noraebang rappers’, people who only rap at noraebang))
There’s a competition,((Youth Hiphop Festival (청소년 힙합 페스티벌) in Daegu))  shall I participate?”
My first challenge at the age of seventeen. “There’s no other kid
who quit everything like me so I should participate and win against them all”

I went there and the judge was Onesun. JJK who had won in the previous year
held a congratulatory concert with rappers from Daegu
I didn’t know that there were other rappers
in the Korean underground besides Master Plan

After seeing them, I realized that there were others like me who quit everything for rap
I was probably thinking too naively and got a bit nervous
After rapping in front of passersby who stopped to watch,
the result was that I won, yeah

When it ended, someone who rapped on stage earlier called out to me:
Virus’ Minos. He told me to come hang out at his place some time
I went. He said there was going to be a hiphop concert at club Heavy((Hiphop Train))
so I should go and rap one track. Shit, on that night I went wild

Hook)
On to the next level
Just on to the next level
One step after the other in order
If I’m going to do this, then I do it properly
Now just on to the next level

Verse 2)
The first concert of my life, the entrance fee were 3,000 won
I was definitely rapping with my eyes open but I didn’t see anything
At that time I felt it, “Ah, I’m still just an amateur”
Afterwards, I followed the hyungs around, went to clubs too

Five months after having dropped out of school, I participated in a competition in Seoul((According to this source, it was the ‘5th Hiphop Festival with Topics’ (주제가 있는 힙합페스티벌) which was held by the Women’s Center as part of the Cultural Activities for the Youth and the topics were The Youth’s Thoughts on Relationships/Dating and Messages against Bullying, School Violence, Corporal Punishment.))
I went to Dongdaemun for the first time, there were quite a few guys with stylish clothes
The judge was MC Meta, I won again,((Winner: Kang Minho, first-year student of Dukwon High School with the song ‘수줍은 용기’ [Shy Courage] (topic: Youth’s Thoughts on Relationships/Dating), he received high points for his excellent storytelling; you can watch a fanmade video with the song here.))
smiling as though naturally everyone from Kyungsang-do had this attitude

Third place was Fana, who was second place again? Anyway,
at the congratulatory concert performed the competition’s previous winner, The Quiett
It was since then that I went back and forth between Seoul and Kyungsang
I’ve seen a lot of people, I also have a label now

But at the time we hadn’t been to the center of this game yet
Paloalto, Deepflow, Simon D in Busan
21-year-old RHYME-A- was the jungle prince((Possibly a reference to the manga and anime series Kimba the White Lion; the Korean title is Jungle Prince Leo))
I was the best high school rapper, it was my source of pride all the time

When we all held a concert together, there were about 60 people in the audience
At the afterparty we said: “Let us too turn the scene around!”
From Blue Oyster Farm, MP, to club Geeks
After changing [location] twice, I stood on that stage for the first time

Hook)
On to the next level
Just on to the next level (don’t talk about it, be about it)
One step after the other in order
If I’m going to do this, then I do it properly
Now just on to the next level

Verse 3)
After the contract with Karasadae((가라사대, former hiphop label of e.g. Primary, Koonta, Jinbo, P-type, Isaac Squab, TKO; dissolved due to the leave of its CEO Saatan)) we dissolved, and then after the contract with Tyle Music
I elatedly moved to Seoul where I lived at a stranger’s place
I thought I had come closer to my dream, but in only a few weeks
the contract fees of 500,000 won were spent and I started feeling the pinch

The label went broke and, “Fuck it, I don’t need the deal, son”
My position was a bit different from Dok2 who didn’t want
to appear on TV as All Black. I couldn’t pay my rent so I helped out at construction sites
I was ready to row, but the water wouldn’t come in

Ten days a month I worked, made music for fifteen days, and went to drinking parties for five
Because of my damned attitude of staying true to myself, my music was in reality profitless
Four rappers living together on a rooftop in Yeongdeungpo
miserably ordered one chicken and shared it

“It can’t go on like this.” I formed a team with Simon D and went to Busan to work part-time
at a b-boy musical((Here‘s a short video of the musical B SHOW, hands down if you can spot E SENS and Simon D)) where I received 3 mil a month
However, that became a big hit every weekend in Hongdae
The first solo concert under our name had an audience of 1,200, wow!

E SENS - The Anecdote (cover)

E SENS – Writer’s Block

 

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Verse 1)
I watch the news expressionlessly
I turn them off in the middle and look at the text I just got
“Hey, where are you going today?”
“Dunno, gotta work, are you out having fun?”

Because of needless worries, I search through
the unfinished ones I wrote yesterday but the lyrics all suck
There was a reason why I threw them away, shall I just go out?
Is there still some of the beer left I bought the other time?

Nope. It seems like I had about a fifth round
at my place the day before yesterday or something
My place is full of dust because I don’t clean up
There are only me and one dog lying around

Trying to at least do something, I took out a pen
but kept drawing nothing but dozens of lines with it
I can’t concentrate, I put on some clothes matching the weather
and call a taxi, the destination is my studio

Hook)
I got the writer’s block so come to my block
I got the writer’s block so come to my block
I got the writer’s block so come to my block
I got the writer’s block so come to my block

I got the writer’s block so come to my block
I got the writer’s block so come to my block
I got the writer’s block so come to my block
I got the writer’s block

Verse 2)
My workplaces are my place and my studio
I don’t know if it’s a good thing that I’ve gotten used
to the way there. I need some kind of a new sensation,
well, so that I can write something. I see these streets every time

This is what I say
but my playlist has been the same for months
Nas and Jay Hova and Biggie, M.E.T.H.O.D Man
And a bit of something new in there. It’s playing on repeat every day

At night in Korea, my jaw drops at stories
about New York where I haven’t been to
Had CEOs seen it, they’d have laughed,
but so what? I still find those((This probably refers to “stories about New York”)) the most dope

Unnecessarily insisting on the impossible like a little child,
that is me, they say. But I didn’t like anything I’ve heard
by Korean rappers lately. I just gotta do it myself
Back to basic, everything starts from this basement ..

Hook)

Verse 3)
I sit there doing nothing for a few hours
Beer cans I emptied earlier and smoked cigarettes
Dawn comes and now I even hold back sleep
Nevertheless, this is way better than having two jobs

My head hurts but I don’t let go until the end
and I don’t feel like going home
There is something I couldn’t get out yet
If I only find that, I can distinguish myself from the fakes

They who have completely forgotten how to sing
have learned how to make deals. Saying that is
how to stay here for a long time, they teach me
My first motive was that it’s((rap, music)) the thing I do best

There was nothing but that
Now all that’s left for this process((= making music))
is my hope that I can do it and I move a bit
everyday. I’m still in my studio

Hook)

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