Lyrics to “I Know”

If you feel like singing along, here’s the YouTube link… http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=r79SPKx52U

*Tina Turner vocals in brackets

(Though I hardly know your name/
I know about love and I knoooooow/
Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)

Wama Tina, stay close to me, I'll protect you from harm.

VERSE ONE:
From the moment that I saw you, I couldn’t ignore you/
It was obvious to me that I would always adore you/
Made me lose my breath, but not because I’m asthmatic/
From the shape of your hips you could satisfy my ass fetish/
Looks only capture the eyes, character grabs the heart/
You’re off the charts, I could never see us apart/
Your voice real husky, you could pull a dogsled/
Told me I’m a nobody and to get lost with my nonsense/
I’m perfect as a nobody, since nobody’s perfect/
Scratch below the surface, then you’ll see it’s worth it/
Looked into your eyes, and our souls intertwined/
All I had to was find you and now the world is mine/
Like minded individual, divine and so spiritual/
Surprising you’re single, all the guys wanna get with you/
No hope! Fell for you like bungee with no rope/
You’re so dope, and I quote, this must be love because…

HOOK:
(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
Yeah, I know a thing or two
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
That I can teach to you
(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
Forever staying true
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
Yeah, long as it’s me and you

These are the clues I’ve had to resort to…

VERSE TWO:
Ey yo, verse two, preparing for a date and my nerves blew/
Standing in the mirror and I’m doing rehearsals/
Wanna immerse you, in euphoria and merriment/
Nurture and nurse you, cos I know you are heavensent/
Uh, we went for movies and ice cream/
Inception, no exception, you’re the star of my nice dreams/
And I know that this might seem/
Premature, but we should have babies, you’re my queen/
You’re easily the most amazing girl in Kampala/
You ain’t Illuminati, you don’t have your eye on my dollars/
Searching for you since the day I was born/
If raindrops were kisses, I would send you a storm/
So it’s on, like Katrina! Fall back, I know that/
Kisses are like tears, real ones you can’t hold back/
Hope that you call back – never be fakin this/
I’m your stallion now in a stable relationship.

HOOK:
(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
Yeah, I know a thing or two
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
That I can teach to you
(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
Forever staying true
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
Yeah, long as it’s me and you

VERSE THREE:
I wanna kiss and hug you and you said (I Know)
No one else above you and you said (I Know)
I will always love you and you said (I Know)
(Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
I wanna kiss and hug you and you said (I Know)
No one else above you and you said (I Know)
I will always love you and you said (I Know)
Well, I guess there’s nothing left to say…

HOOK:
(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
Yeah, I know a thing or two
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
That I can teach to you
(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
Forever staying true
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
Yeah, long as it’s me and you

(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
No man knows more about love than I do
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
And I know absolutely nothing at all
(I know about love, love, love-love-love)
No man knows more about love than I do
(I knooooow! Ooh, ooh, oo-oo-oooh)
And I know absolutely nothing, nothing!

Stop asking me about Tina Turner beats! Just appreciate the lyrics...

Enygma Of The State Decoded

Okay, by now regular readers would have noticed that every now and then I decide to decipher the thought process behind my lyrics in a series called Decoded (named after Jay-Z’s book of the same concept). This time however, I’ll be doing things a little bit differently as I won’t be decoding my writings, but the artwork on my mixtape cover.

Is it me behind bars? Or is it you?

BARS 1
The first thing that stands out is the bars. To those who are uninitiated, a bar refers to a unit of music, it’s musical notation for a repeating pattern of musical beats. It is common for rappers to write one line of their lyrics for each bar in the beat and as such, the terms rhymes, lyrics, lines & bars have become so synonymous with each other that they are now pretty much inter-changeable. This has given birth to plenty of creative lyrics where an MC will boast of possessing “harder bars” than anyone else and other such statements.

With a knowledge of this background, it becomes pretty obvious as to why it would make sense for me to have metal bars on my mixtape cover as a metaphor for the lyrical/musical bars that will be heard on the CD. Listeners need only take one look and know that they will find some hard bars on my disc!

BARS 2
The prison bars also represent something else a little less obvious. I am standing up close to the bars peering through them almost in an expectant manner. My demeanour is that of a prisoner who has concluded his time locked away from the society and is now ready to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting public! This is a metaphor for my position in the hip-hop industry.

Many don’t know I had actually retired from rapping several years ago due to a variety of factors. My return to the mic after all these years of silence is akin to my being locked up in a prison cell and finally being set free.

BARS 3
To complete this graphical triple-entendre, the imprisonment of Enygma also has a relevance relating to my style of rap. From the very beginning, when I came out I was determined to be a little bit more interesting lyrically, even complex. My favourite lyricists do not spoonfeed me their thoughts but deliver them in more intricate ways which are often hidden and sometimes take multiple listens to be fully appreciated. This is the kind of MC I feel I am (or strive to be depending one’s viewpoint).

Unfortunately, most listeners prefer simple, easily digested lyrics that are delivered in bite-sized chunks. Proof of this is in the record sales where the majority of critically acclaimed lyricists are lagging behind, while characters like the oft ridiculed Soulja Boy, Wacka Flocka Flame and Plies are raking in millions. Thus, when I started recording for this mixtape, I was told over and over again that the listenership is not ready, that people don’t understand metaphors, that my punchlines will fall on deaf ears. This made me feel like I was in a psychological prison, as if I have to conform who I am as a writer to make everyone else comfortable. How can I express myself effectively if I am restrained from doing it in the way I choose?

Thankfully, there are enough listeners out there who did not find my writing that complicated or difficult to understand. These are my fans and I appreciate you all for embracing a style of lyricism which was very rare to hear on radio. Without you, this mixtape would never have come out.

TABLECLOTH
On most CD covers, you’ll have the artist name and then the title of the mixtape/album. On this one however, only the title “Enygma of the State” is very clearly emblazoned across the face of the CD case.

Some eagle-eyed observers however, had managed to locate the logo of the name “Enygma” written on the tablecloth in the background. Seeing as I am all about being Enygmatic and mysterious with my hidden meanings, it’s wholly appropriate the my name should be a little hidden, even on my own CD cover 🙂

NUMBER 16
Earlier we talked about bars and their significance in music. Usually, a conventional hip-hop verse would consist of 16 bars. As such, the number 16 has a special place in the heart of many MCs. This is the reason why there are 16 tracks listed.

HIDDEN TRACK
Need I say more? There are 16 tracks listed, but there’s actually one more hidden in there somewhere! I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that though…

– – – – – – – – – – – –

Props to Loukman Ali for designing the artwork.
You can buy my mixtape from MusicLand (Kampala Road), Yego Productions (Bukoto), Talent Africa (Kamwokya) and Roota Records (Namuwongo).

Work on the second mixtape has already begun…