map the soul

Did this person seriously just classify Epik High as J-pop?

Oh, no you did not.
No.
NO.

출처 (Origin)

If beauty comes from wretchedness, is it really beauty? Tell me.

This cup of coffee
Its origin is in poverty
The small hands that should be reaching out for dreams
While holding a paper plane or a pencil
Are instead wet with coffee-flavored sweat
Hand-drip
Thank you, child barista
“I acknowledge that this reality pains my heart
But I need caffeine so hurry and add another shot”
It is a repeating system of a corrupted cycle
My consumption is a leech
One person’s poverty becomes another person’s luxury
The people who made the shoes that I wear
Are probably barefoot right now
Even the warmth that wraps my body
Its origin is in a pit full of blood and bones
To make myself look like I have something
I make people who have nothing shed tears
Everyone says that ignorance is the medication
Because awareness has become an illness in this world

Suddenly
Gasoline that has become holy water
And energy sources became the greed in war and chemistry
A greater problem than blood diamond
But they are all lesser problems than gas prices
Because cars take people to work
Someone crawls in a battlefield for a child to walk
The origin is in fear and in the ensuing system
We dig the ground and raise a crooked flag
“But I need technology so hurry and build me another factory, please
It doesn’t matter if the roots, the trees, or the forests are rotten
As long as there is an apple on the branch, it’s a sacred garden”
Cliffs are slowly forming behind me just so I can go further
Everyone says that time is the medication
Because the present has become an illness in this world

Everyone who is uncomfortable because I am comfortable
Thank you and I’m sorry
Everyone who is breathless because I breath
Thank you and I’m sorry
Everyone who collapsed because I am standing
Thank you and I’m sorry
Everyone who is the origin of everything of this world
Thank you and I’m sorry

- Tablo

From the Bottom

You…
who I met when I was at the lowest point of my life
It hurts whenever I see you smile and all I have is this guilt
Because I wonder if it’s just half of a smile
or maybe it’s a smile that withered away from the inability to understand this world
You say “I’m fine.”
So maybe fine is all that I am able to give you
I hate reaching out with my small and empty hands
So I have to foolishly empty your reached out hand as well
Damn.
Couldn’t we have met before all of this, or maybe afterwards… when we had good news to share?
You could have stayed somewhere in the evergreen forest under the sun
but now you are walking on the same storm-ridden path with me, through the rain.
My love.
My pitiful self.
This isn’t what my heart really wanted.
I didn’t become your other half so you could take away half of my misery.

You…
who I met when I was at the lowest point of my life
It hurts whenever I hear you cry
I want to lull you, calm you down, but I’m just too exhausted
and my face grows too dark to make you laugh.
So I just tuck you in after letting you cry yourself to sleep
My two frozen hands are supposed to be your clock
And rather than myself, your future lies destroyed
Why?
Whenever I see you wake up the next morning feeling happy
All I can think of is the pitiful reality that I haven’t grown a single inch
“I’m sorry.”
I’ve said those words a thousand times, but once again
I’m sorry
that this low ceiling has to be your sky
that I have to be both your umbrella and the rain

Good night.
Good morning.
Even if I had to cry every tear in this world
I would cry them for you

Run

내 삶은 365일 비가 쏟아지는 밤.
24시간속에 좁아지는 마음.
작은 여유의 쉼표도 그 꼬리를 감추고,
날 마주보는 미래는 마침표가 되지만…
아침을 짊어지고 달려.
뭘 향해 뛰는 건지?
해가 지는 건지, 내가 지는 건지…
I don’t know.
But I go. Keep on running running running high.
거대한 은하수가 버린 어린 별인 나.

Dear TV

Dear TV, desensitize me.

Give me more genocide please. The world is your aphrodisiac, so you stay turned on every minute, every second I breathe. You weaponize greed, kill me with incessant I needs. Got me checking out those, and checking out these. Mainstream me, disinfecting my breed. I’m looking for nirvana but you Geffenize me. Point me to the skies till heaven’s eye bleeds. Anoint me with your lies then divinize me. If heaven is a show, well, televise me. But I won’t lie my way in, no faking ID’s. I’ll die standing. Try breaking my knees. I’ll do a handstand like I’m breaking.

Now freeze.

Don’t act like you know me because you recognize me.

You sell my record. Not me.

- Tablo : “Dear TV (해열)”