We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Critical

by Fricktion

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

1.
Prison 03:02
Verse 1 I'm incensed at the incentive They say capitalist competition spurs on the inventive But instead we're funnelin' tons of government funds into contracts and kickbacks for more prisons to come With incarceration and industry profits hand-in-hand, we set the groundwork for an impossible demand When the focus gets shifted to perpetual growth The bottom line takes attention from correctional goals The System's left with a contestable role when it's against business sense to ever sever the flow of young souls from subpar schools to fillin' these merely nominal correctional facilities, it's got me ill at ease This system's ill-advised - placing pandering and profiteering over children's lives has got me sick inside and yet the nation's hypnotized with misleading news crime rates drop while the prison population booms Chorus (x2) Call it a justice system? Come off it Ain't no justice building cages for profit "cuff 'em up!" "lock 'em down!" come the yells from the lobby 'cause they're fillin' up their pockets fillin' cells Verse 2 Talking heads trivialize the truth spread lies and criminalize our inner city youth with no eyes for the roots, they help justify the excuse for fillin' quotas with the use of shock troops and abuse Hear the boots on the pavement or feel 'em on your neck If you're the wrong creed, color, or class, there's no respect for your rights as a citizen, let alone a fellow human and when the clip is in the threat of death is ever loomin' Not here to keep the peace, here to protect the purse, So you can leave in a squad car or a hearse Either way to them it doesn't matter much, When patrollin' communities 'bout which they don't give a fuck See they don't live adjacent to the faces bearin' scars of fathers, sons, mothers, brothers, dead or behind bars, another death, another cry for justice on deaf ears, or another pay check for the prison profiteers [Chorus (x2)]
2.
Verse 1 Haters gonna hate, but it makes the gears rotate Money over humans got me dreamin' of a better place From peasants' plates to heads of state we're tethered to the feta chase Against each other brothers smother brothers just to catch a wage Ain't it a shame, the way that it goes? Seems like we're bein' encouraged just to step on those below Yeah, grind your heel on those who need your hand the most if you wanna bullshit over a champagne toast And brag and boast about the currency you made, just 'cause that's the way the game currently is played You can scrape and claw, do anything to reach the top Judged not by your character, but the money that you cop I been waitin' patient for the other shoe to drop but it seems our ugly system of greed's not fittin' to stop In a capitalistic nation where we're led by corporations, plagued with lower class frustration and upper class domination Economic segregation and rampant deregulation, haunted by the ghost of Reagan, never trickled down it stayed in the top tier — miles and miles from 'round here The unseen hand is on the lever, the poor are grease for the gears and I'm here Chorus (x2) I watch it all unfold, watch friends turn to foes for what used to be gold, but now it's nothin' but some paper to fold, yet it dominates our goals when we give it so much favor to hold Verse 2 I don't spit crack — you'd only feel that a few minutes tryin' to craft somethin' that lasts like perhaps some psylocybin As the rhythm slips into me let it soak in and seep down into my sockets Keeps my noggin' bobbin' just as steady as the clock ticks Head like a moshpit full of cocked fists, headed home from the city of the stop-(and)-frisks where cops kick in doors of people runnin' rock dens, but stop kids who wanna protest illegal stock tips but I guess that's just the way the cookie tends to shatter when those who have the dough design the policies that matter when police are on the market and the banks are in the biddin' who you think can pay 'em better, corporations or the city? When you're rentin' out cops with badges, tazers, and pistols see how conflict of interest might become an issue? could you misuse power vested in you by the people, see what peaceful protestors have been through? And you got hecka nerve, sayin' you protect and serve when your paychecks owe a debt to our creditors It gives some context to the Occupy backlash It's a tricky web, no dot com or backslash [Chorus (x2)]
3.
Fossils 02:45
My lines burn so hot, they could boil the water in your pot You'd sell out sons and daughters just to blast it from a lot Taint the air and poison perfect strangers just to get it Then charge 'em in the winter to fill their furnace with it Exempt from the law, 'cause your CEO made it so Ignored his moral compass and just followed the paper flow 'Cause my wells run deep through this land like an aorta And a shale formation doesn't know a thing about your border Control sought after, souls rot faster Than the carbon fueling this unnatural disaster Fractures brushed over with a fresh coat of plaster Small wonder there's no medium at large under this master Petroleum's grip, fumes strangling the nation Draning coffers and patience, and restraining innovation Instead of pro-gress, I guess we're stuck with opposite Con men and women just keep diggin' like it's bottomless The same way we're taught to spend it now and sweat it later Don't mind the down sign, just step up this escalator Got a grater to your cheddar, but they're tellin' you you're better off If you let 'em do their thing they'll keep you livin' nice and soft Just keep your eyes straight forward and step over the refuse No need to negotiate, just take what we've left you 'Cause crumbs beats a belly full of emptyness Plus we've even got a say in what your MD says So just listen up, sip the sickness in your cup All the mirrors and smoke got it hazier than coke and indica And we're in the cut, laid back, 'bout to make some major plays, yeah All with your permission or at least your reps would say that But now how they got you livin' isn't feelin' so cushy Execs have finesse, but man chemicals are pushy It gets harder to ignore it when it's flamin' out your faucet But most are far removed from any sign that they support it So crackpots crack black rocks just to hit the jackpot All so we can burn it up quicker than a crack rock And it's not their legal duty to call out these black ops An addition to our addiction as deadly as a gat pop But more subliminal, not even seen as criminal When unnamed chemicals are brimmin' in your swimmin' hole If only it ended there, rest uneasy that it doesn't Uncle Sam droppin' bands in the hands of those who've done it With new injection sites poppin' up by the hundred Tracks mark the poisoned well while we shell out funds to run it And they're not quick to relent, dukes up from the get-go Fat cats would run a marathon before they'd let this shit go Legislative lap dogs heel, fetch, sit, go Foundations just won't be at peace as long as this fluid flows X on the spot, rapidly tappin' the last drop And if it don't stop, we'll all be buried in one mass plot
4.
Reap 03:40
Verse 1 They teach us that we need it, so we eat it when they feed Construct our brains and bodies like a mediated fetus And it's freakish, how we relinquish all control But it's hard to be aware when you're never ever told So we grow, hand in hand with these message Before we're old enough to understand it, we're digestin' it Media, society—the two are not synonymous, But connections run so deep that sometimes the well seems bottomless But the problem is not just the media we're seeing It's the subleties that we don't even realize we're believing Deceiving, changing up the reality we're perceiving 'Cause TV truths can cultivate the world that we're perceiving And it's constant, accomplished through false cultural confidence Profits with no conscience for the subconscious consequence Barrages of nonsense, comin' right through that straw fence A nation taken hostage by what we don't know how to process So we're pimped by a symphony of sensations and imagery Distort the way that we think and we see, from the way that we eat to our intimacy The media tropes in my immediate scope are so close they feel like kin to me It's 'bout time we wise up and protect ourselves in the brand new age of literacy Chorus x2 They teach us that we need it (They teach us that we need it) We don't want it but they feed it (We don't want it but they feed it) The spoils have been spoiled (The spoils have been spoiled) But we'll reap it if they seed it (But we'll reap it if they seed it) Verse 2 East Asian, Latina, white, brown, black Got thick girls, skinny girls, right on tap Thick thighs, round eyes, big chest, tight ass It's funny how these screens make the real world feel flat But with a million at a click you've got a world's worth of clips at your fingertips No need to make trips to date chicks But at least you know exactly where they stand Waitin' at the ready for attention from a man Baskin' in beloved media, they teach us each our roles The man's the one to get it done, the woman's there for show And if she's got some power, then she's just a bitchy trope 'Cause otherwise we'd have to think critically, that's a slippery slope And homely man gets lovely lady, based on personality The only thing she's got to offer is her physicality Hand-picked casts reinforcing this duality No trace of veracity in a scripted reality Chorus x2 Outro One clear channel cut through, the rest faded Too few view points, consolidation unabated Four to eight corporations got each field dominated Thirteen hours a day with media we're saturated I got twenty-four hour news, how much could I digest? Three hundred channels, how many could hold my interest? A thousand commercials got my finances on stretch I'm overstuffed with media, excuse me while I wretch
5.
Gaze 03:34
Verse 1 I show mad love, but I don't just throw it around I got my woman by my side, so there's no need to run the town Endeavorin' for a hook-up or some love for the night But that's just how I live, I couldn't tell you if it's right or wrong But one thing that you'll never see from me Is my hands on a woman when she don't want 'em to be Seems like common sense, but I'm troubled to see Another case of rape viewed to be youthful tomfoolery See, they didn't charge him for the rape reported Even though that shit was tape recorded, I hate this story It's one I've heard too many times before, too many unacknowledged crimes before Now the abrasions and faultlines are born by the recipient It gets tricky when the man was an ex or if the cut of her dress is showin' off a little more than her neck or she was hittin' the shots, or she was poppin' some X Chorus But what it really comes down to is human respect 'Cause it's impossible to ask for nonconsensual sex When your choice is taken from you, tell me what are you left? Left to the fuckin' wolves for the last bits of flesh What it really comes down to is human respect It's just not possible to ask for nonconsensual sex So why we questionin' her sexual rep- utation, not the motive of the one who committed this violation Verse 2 This nation's got some habits to break We're more focused on shamin' than on persuin' the case We're too busy teachin' women what risks not to take Instead of teachin' young men: point blank, don't rape Despite some outdated thoughts on how we oughta handle datin' Sex is not something we earn with the right dinner combination Consent is not pressure, consent is not persuasion Consent is not coercion, silence, or intoxication Consent is to be given freely, not with a forced hand And it doesn't have to happen just because it's in your plans This might sound radical, you might be thinkin', "What the hell?" But that right there's a symptom of the problem in and of itself We're taught from birth a woman's looks are her worth She don't need a sense of self 'cause her body's her work And it's fully on display seven days out the week If a man should care to gaze, compliment, or critique Chorus But what it really comes down to is human respect 'Cause it's impossible to ask for nonconsensual sex But that message can be lost when you're taught you have no agency It's harder to give thought than to fall back on complacency It really comes down just to human respect 'Cause there's no way that you can ask for nonconsensual sex She's a mother, she's a daughter, she's a sister it's true, But more importantly a person and she's just like you Outro A nation draped with a culture of rape A free debate bein' replaced with a cauldron of hate A woman's place, a woman's fate left for another to slate We're remiss in forgetting just who can mother the state Social minority, the power stripped from the numbers Misogynistic demeanors laughed at as casual blunders In our society we're scared to call it out when it's there Fear of repercussions got us stuck up in an awkward snare But if we don't dare to say it, then it's left unsaid We're left wonderin' if we're alone with these thoughts in our head We're afraid to speak up, might alienate a friend But stayin' quiet's how we let this happen again and again So the victim is silenced by the inevitable backlash Should she bring a trial that might ever leave a black splash Across the reptuation of a promising young sex offender Lord forbid we teach him that his actions might have consequences
6.
Verse 1 When I step up to the plate I'ma leave all of ya shook Drop science like a Christian biology book A past jacked, handed over to some liars and crooks But not everybody opens up and just swallows the hook That's why we're 3rd eye certified, seen the truth, heard the lies When they spread that shit around it only serves to fertilize The soil with the grass roots growin' deep, sowin' seeds So I'm flowin' free, showin' potent speech to broken sheep I'm known to bone a beat, get busy with the rhythm But beyond the style of lyrics, take a listen what's within 'em 'Cause every line I write is comin' straight from the atrium Rock a crowd of ten like a sold-out stadium Won't baby 'em, (the) message rough, raw, rugged If I got some shit to say, then you can best believe I'm dumpin' 'Cause the mind is fertile ground like a woman ovulatin' I believe speakin' my thoughts to be my highest obligation Verse 2 Rude motherfuckers ain't worth my time Expensive bar covers ain't worth my dime Doin' that time ain't worth that crime But when it comes to real life, mosta y'all sound like mimes Make no mistake, days we're livin' in are troubled A great nation quickly pavin' a path to rubble The politics of fear mean we're steady bein' muzzled While foundations of equality are widely bein' crumbled Taught to chase a paper dream, we fiend for greater things But what does greatness weighed in paper really even mean? We see things that could easily be deemed obscene Perpetrated and perpetuated for the need of green Meanwhile our paper leaders craft up doubletalk to feed us No we don't believe 'em, but we're hard pressed to unseat 'em When the next one's just as shady, votes are little more than tokens When crooks write the law, the social contract is broken

about

Fricktion is a bloomington-based, socially conscious hip hop artist. Influenced by a wide range of styles, from golden era hip-hop to classic punk rock to heavy electronic bass music, his music blends old-school consciousness and a DIY ethic with a synth-heavy new school aesthetic. His message aims to address some of the most pressing problems of our day, and explore the roots of issues that divide us. Critical marks Fricktion’s second EP as a solo artist. Completed almost 3 years after his first EP, this work shows his evolution in beat making, song writing, and lyrical skills.

credits

released May 22, 2015

Written, recorded, produced, and mixed by Fricktion.
Mastered by Elie Abraham.
Flute on "Underground Dweller" played by Jessie Kindig.

license

tags

about

Fricktion Bloomington, Indiana

Fricktion is an MC/Producer based in Bloomington, Indiana. While hip-hop serves as the greatest common denominator in his songs, numerous influences, from punk rock to electronic, have helped to shape his style.

contact / help

Contact Fricktion

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Fricktion, you may also like: