Breezeway Ritual Lyrics
Ghetto in the way I drink
Uncle, uncle, my ship sank
Ghetto in the way I think
Hide my troubles, my shit don't stink
Ghetto in the way I move
Watch me groove, I'ma sing my blues
Ghetto in the way I talk
[Verse 1]
My auntie still give God the glory
Shot by the book depository
Never heard one of grandfather’s stories
Permanent sadness, constant mourning
22 grandkids, one apartment
Turn the stove on 'cause we done with darkness
Social workers don't want sons with fathers
When they visit, people bite they tongue the hardest
Magnet programs, baccalaureate
Illinois, Texas, Californian
Half a hand drum, half accordion
Eagle, phoenix, dragon, scorpion
Native American, Merovingian
Made of black bones and a rare obsidian
10 feet tall, not scared of any men
Might blow up but will not go flat
They do not know jack
They try to ask the kettle why the pot so black
Maybe little in the middle but I got yo back
Secret buried in America
Wrote it all down just to tear it up
What if there’s a god but it's scared of us?
What if there’s a god but it's scared of us?
So they pairing up
They just sit there and stare at us
What if there’s a god but they scared of us?
What if there’s a god but they scared of us?
[Verse 2]
My mama’s nose, my daddy’s eyes
Accent that I don't recognize
I'm extra fly, I'm extra big
And I did everything that I must've did
And I'm just a kid, and I'm hella old
I collect my blood in a Jello mold
And forever fold to the nth dimension
Too cool, too cool in school suspension
Late for work 'cause I stayed awake
I didn't go to church but they made a plate
We don't say a word when they debate
Or whether God exists
Or whether Masons pray to an obelisk
'Cause I got the gist
The unlocked abyss of where the knowledge is
I seen the angles, how they complement
Subatomic particles do not commit, come on
Ghetto in the way I drink
Uncle, uncle, my ship sank
Ghetto in the way I think
Hide my troubles my shit don't stink
Ghetto in the way I talk
About
“Breezeway Ritual” is the 9th track on ‘Brick Body Kids Still Daydream’. Open Mike uses artful lyrical undertones to urge listeners to rethink their preconceived notions of the ‘ghetto’. He goes a step further into describing the new changes in his normal lifestyles and family rituals a decade after the demolition of the Robert Taylor Homes.
This is part of the ongoing theme of Open Mike using his music to support and make changes to to developing Chicago neighborhoods in Chicago, specifically the one he grew up in.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
If you get approached by a person in the Breezeway of one of those buildings it could be to sell you something, it could be to rob you, it could be to try to recruit you into a gang.
The idea of the Breezeway Ritual is that there’s a lot of these transformative actions that could happen in those dark spaces of those buildings.
-Open Mike Eagle
- 3.Hymnal
- 9.Breezeway Ritual
- 10.Wedding Ghosts
- 11.95 Radios
