[Intro: Reedy high-voiced rust-belt male MC, tape hiss, kick only] Engineer leans over, says we gotta trim the top There's a kid laughing on it and he says it's gotta stop [Verse 1: Reedy high-voiced rust-belt male MC, slamming boom-bap drums, dusty bass] Sixteen in a basement where the furnace used to bang Marcus on the tape deck and the two of us would hang Mic was from a karaoke box his mother got on sale Taped it to a broom handle and stood it in a pail Every time I hit record he would look at me and crack Couldn't keep a straight face, he'd be cracking up and back I would yell, man, Marcus, we got one more tape to go He'd be doubled on the carpet and I'd laugh and lose the flow Forty takes on one cassette and every single one Starts with Marcus laughing before the drums would run [Hook: Reedy high-voiced rust-belt male MC, full shout, drums slam] Leave it in, that's my man on the tape Laughing first before the drums begin Every record that I ever make again Starts with Marcus, so you leave it in [Verse 2: Reedy high-voiced rust-belt male MC, harder snare, bass up front] Twenty-three, a Tuesday, I was at the bus stop when it rang His mother on the line, she didn't have to say a thing I went down to the basement and I knelt beside the deck Pressed play, and there was Marcus, laughing, arm around my neck Now I got a studio with glass and leather chairs Engineers with headphones and a manager upstairs Everybody's polished and they want it nice and clean Say the laugh sounds amateur, the worst they've ever seen I said you trim the kick, you trim the hiss, you trim the hum You touch that laugh, I'm walking, and the tapes go where I'm from [Hook: Reedy high-voiced rust-belt male MC, full shout, drums slam] Leave it in, that's my man on the tape Laughing first before the drums begin Every record that I ever make again Starts with Marcus, so you leave it in [Verse 3: Reedy high-voiced rust-belt male MC, quieter drums, closer] First show at the big room, house lights going down Crowd heard Marcus laughing and they laughed back all around Thousand people laughing with a boy they never met That's the loudest that he ever got, the loudest one yet His mother in the balcony, both hands across her chest Laughing with her son again, the loudest of the rest [Cassette in the gap: beat stops dead, the old basement tape plays] [Final Hook: Reedy high-voiced rust-belt male MC, drums slam back, full shout] Leave it in, that's my man on the tape Laughing first before the drums begin Every record that I ever make again Starts with Marcus, so you leave it in [End]
