"Life Lines"

Year created: 2003/2004

Written & Performed by: Dutchmassive & Surreal

Produced by: Jeremy Ian Thomas (aka Soulajit fka Surreal)

Intro/Outro Produced by: Dutchyyy

Scratches / Cuts by: DJ Balance

Record by: James (One Try Guy) Corey @ P.A. Studios

Mixed & Mastered by: Dutchyyy @ The Bed Room (Tampa, FL)

Album: "Crush Your System"

Track: 5

Released: Nov 28, 2007

Label:  Rawkus Records ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rawkus_Records )

Original Dutchmassive Logo By: Open Mic

Re-Designed Logo by: Barry & Dutch

"Crush Your System" was created 2001-2007 & has had songs added to the bandcamp version 2008-Present.

https://dutchmassive.bandcamp.com/album/crush-your-system-rawkus-version-bonus-tracks

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More About:  Jeremy Ian Thomas aka Soulajit fka Surreal

Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/346045-Surreal-6?superFilter=Credits

IMDB:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3578275/

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Lyrics:

(Verse 1 - Dutchmassive)

 "I grab a strong hold cus life's long (get it?) / and stay up late and cheat day cus lights gone / hours pass, I never turn my mic on / different direction i'll explain through my life's song / Ayo I see and hear in earth tones, married to the night I often earth roam / prone to travel, I build with the unknown and when the journeys over, we head back home / yo it's just me and my walkman, cus life's a B.I. and the music keeps me calm and / that's my life in a bottle / spit a verse and seal it up / place in the ocean, sail into tomorrow.... / now my sound is futurebound / I found soul searching is the common ground / and we all have different ways of getting down / your man Dutch, loves it when the drums are loud / Yo.... I lost a lot this year (keep your head up) Surreal said i'll persevere / I told him what I lost was dear / He said "Dutch, at least you didn't lose your ears!" (For Ears) / My man was on the right track / cus when I show love, it always seems to come back / I guess that karma theory really just takes time / and I occupy mine writing life lines.

(Chorus 1 - DJ Balance)

"search & find lines of life in scripture, search and find... Life Lines"

"every rhyme I write"

"I breathe life"

"Life Lines"

(Verse 2 - Surreal)

"Things are fine, like saturdays and sunshine / taking my time while i'm creating these lines / god speaks through me like wind through the trees, have a seat, press play and just feel the breeze / kneel to my knees, so I remain humble, pray for freedom, cus it's all the same struggle / insane juggle, bring home the bacon, music's what I love but it takes money to make it / I don't like swine but let's face it, these days in time we rat race see cheese and chase it / elevation, now that's my main goal / spend very little time in my mind and find gold / unearth the birth of the sound that came first, this the final destination if you wanna soul search / this whole verse is dedicated to the whole earth / love all things, but my microphone first / did my homework, never fly by night / a lot like ben when I fly my kite / shine my light and refine my sight / define life with these lines I write, these are life lines"

(Chorus 2 - DJ Balance)

"search & find lines of life in scripture, search and find... Life Lines"

"every rhyme I write"

"I breathe life"

"Life Lines"

(Outro - Dutchmassive / Dutchyyy)

"Definitely the sleepness..."

"Ima put y'all to sleep every time..."

"Dutchmassive"

"See, we don't only write life lines..."

"Life just like, flows through our veins and music is just how we put life out"

"I'll put ya'll to sleep with life"

"Surreal"

"chika uh"

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Backstory:

We made the beat in summer of 2003 at Jeremy's Apartment (Tampa Bay) on his Mpc2000XL.  After he finished making the beat, I wanted to see if I could flip the sample differently,  per usual..  my signature sleepy sound ended up being the direction I took and we agreed to just use it as the outro.

The song was originally intended to be on Surreal's debut solo album titled "GODSPEED" which Jeremy released via RappersIKnow exclusively, before quickly having a change of heart and removing the album from existence.

On Feb 4th 2004 Our friend and fellow BeatFanatic Producer, Milton (RekOne) Cerda aka Tron ended up passing away from a fatal car accident on the way home from show, Our other friend and Beat Fanatic founder, T. the Beat Specialist (SlopFunkDust) was severely injured and Jeremy was supposed to drive with them, but ended up cancelling after working a long day and remembering he was supposed to watch a movie that night so he could debate it at work the following day.  This choice/path obviously weighed  heavily on him. Never knowing if he would have gone to the show if Rek would still be alive, or if he would have died or been severely injured also.

He was already very spiritual, but this event really sent him down deeper paths.  In the end, He chose to pull the album.  The title track "GODSPEED" was produced by RekOne.

We recorded this song in the studio along with the title track produced by Rek "GodSpeed" and a few other songs during the same session.  We cried a lot during that studio session wishing Rek was there to witness it all.

****

You can still view all the artwork, tracklist, backstory here but "GODSPEED" in it's original form would be lost forever, with select tracks from the album landing on his 2008 album titled "Pardon Our Dust" which was released on CD in Japan and a digital version still exists on dsps

+ https://rappersiknow.com/2008/11/10/surreal-pardon-my-dust/

+ https://open.spotify.com/album/6VZehEvXx0Gr8UjymxJrmr

****

A few years later, when SlopFunkDust hit me up about releasing my sophomore album on Rawkus,  I reached out to Jeremy and asked If I could have the stems for "Life Lines" to put on "Crush Your System" He sent the 2 track instrumental and the Vocals, so I just added some things to the intro, and Processed and mixed out Vocals quickly.

This track ended up being one of my favorites songs in my catalog and also a fan favorite.  It was definitely my favorite era in terms of writing lyrics,  early to mid 20's hopeful for the future pushing through adversity with an unbreakable spirit.

and thus "Life Lines" was born.