Illogic - Celestial Clockwork

A friend of mine pointed me towards this dude and asked me what I thought, and I thought “wow!”. So here is Illogic, an artist that I literally don’t know anything about save for this particular track he did called Celestial Clockwork which is also the name of the album. I loved his style the minute I listened to him and the fact he can speak fast and still be articulate is something that I envy.

Here is the video with the lyrics below, lets get down to looking at what he got to say!

I walked into a life of tainted dreams and gum ball machines
Nestled between the window seat and the drain of the main stream
Watching chaotic daylight stands thermal horizons table
Mock the moon with liquidated stars lap from a ladle
Looking glass has limited view when you’re trapped in a label
Still borns turned action figures when they’re stacked in a cradle
Thorough bred disorientated from running laps in a stable
Loss of direction sparks the search for a map in the fable
Leave me to hunt for scavengers with eye patches and peg legs
Use planks to punish perpetrators so the seas will stay fed
I told that snake in the grass to roll over and play dead
When the seed of the righteous is planted in belly of hybrid companion
They fled with torn a silver spoon and lips grasped
Cherishing the John Hancock or some jock on your hips clasped
Find your own only path this is my territory to tell a story
Tailored in three pieces flag, oxygen and thesis
I’m nursed by the bosom of a Columbus compass
Since birth walking the line of life or rhyme to see which will die first
It took me awhile to realise the fact that I’m cursed
With the given gift of anointing so only the truth can be dispersed

It disappoints that conjoint twins are more individuals than most
So I hunt the industry as a phantom until all my words become ghost
Celestial clockwork is an elixir
Simplifying an obscure picture
So sip the defiled mixture
Concocted by purity’s twisted sister

Now the trees are more beautiful on this side of the mountain
Plush springs run in abundance I drink direct from the fountain
But the dream was opaque the stream was perfectly clear
That an acute disorder of paradise would exist if I die here
So lay down your pitch forks and raise your pins to the clouds
Till their struck twice by lightning sparking styles to move crowds
Fish in the pond can’t understand the concept of dry land
So they swim aimlessly unbeknown to the purpose of which I stand
Don’t ask a question, if you don’t want the answer given
Time is an illustrious liquor if the candle ceases to flicker
Driven to a life of constant death no choice but one
Children rise from the shine hide in the shade to evade the rays of the sun
Glaciers become oceans and boulders become bevels
Icons become gods and the birth of a spawn is the birth of a devil
Individual once realised is the birth of a rebel
When I’ve dug my own depth in your faith rest in a shovel
The pedestal is crowed over bearing with trinkets a silver lined sink
Which drown me in sounds of de-evolution and if it’s not your calling to be enlaced with the evolving of hip-hop
Then stop is the inevitable solution

[sample]
I’ll work harder. Amy (I’ll work harder), I promise I’ll be better
Better isn’t good enough
I don’t think you’ll ever be good enough
You don’t have it
I know it’s a hard thing to hear and it’s not a pleasant thing to say
But it’s the truth and I’m saving you a lot of time and pain by saying it to you now
I don’t want to be the best

“I walked into a life of tainted dreams and gum ball machines
Nestled between the window seat and the drain of the main stream”
The first couple of lines seem to be about his beginnings as a hiphop artist. And it seems to be described as one where you are immediately aware of the mainstream and the not so mainstream.

“Looking glass has limited view when you’re trapped in a label”
Some people argue there is not as much freedom of art expression when you sign up to major record labels, and illogic is one of them as you can see it.

“Loss of direction sparks the search for a map in the fable”
Not very sure about this one, maybe he is talking about how if you are lost in terms of fitting in you will try to find your way or find “a map” that tells you where you need to go. But that map is a fable, there is no place to be except yourself. But really, it could mean anything.

“Since birth walking the line of life or rhyme to see which will die first”
Separating his life from his lyricism indicated that for him lyricism is something beyond his life or extremely detached from the rest of it. It as at these moments that I wonder; what do these artists do in their spare time? Where do they work? Do they have family?

“It disappoints that conjoint twins are more individuals than most
So I hunt the industry as a phantom until all my words become ghost
Celestial clockwork is an elixir
Simplifying an obscure picture
So sip the defiled mixture
Concocted by purity’s twisted sister”
The industry, I am guessing, is the music industry. Conjoint twins being more individual than most is a touch of irony that he adds, he does not mean it literally but uses it to say that we are not all that unique. For me it seems to paint a bleak picture of all of us being social automatons in society, and he is just another victim who is not higher than the rest. He is being humble.
The elixir is perhaps an acceptance of things as they are, seeing the cycles of how people rise and fall. I like the whole “purity’s twisted sister” part because it reminds me of a Hellenistic view of Gods and Godesses being within every abstract aspect of our lives. (I read a lot of Greek mythology when I was a kid)

“Individual once realised is the birth of a rebel”
This is another hint I thing at the importance of someone being themselves…

“Which drown me in sounds of de-evolution and if it’s not your calling to be enlaced with the evolving of hip-hop
Then stop is the inevitable solution”
Hip hop here is evolving, and it is changing but only at the pace that the artists allow it to. If we stay the way we are with the same recurring themes and focusing on nothing but the beat then that is what will become.

All in all I found his lyrics very abstract and hard to decipher and who knows? I may have got it all wrong. Nevertheless it was a pleasure trying to work it out as I went along unlike with my other previous articles where I had listened to the track a fair few times before. I will definitely be looking at more of his stuff.

It has been a pleasure writing this, peace to all!

 

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