It's All Derivative

[Intro] They say the machine's a thief Can't make a thing of its own Just a blender of everybody's work Nothing new, nothing its own Cool Pull up a chair Let's start with the ones you worship [Verse 1] George Harrison sat and wrote a hymn that felt brand new "My Sweet Lord," so pure, so holy... also "He's So Fine," it's true Judge ruled subconscious plagiarism — not a theft he meant to do Just a tune stuck deep in the back of his skull that leaked out as his own 'Cause the brain's a copy machine, baby — that's the human design: You absorb, you forget where it's from, then you swear that the thing is thine Then Lucas built a galaxy and called it a vision of his own Two peasants straight off Kurosawa, a hero cut from Campbell's bone A dash of old Flash Gordon in the reel The most "original" myth of your life was a Xerox of a Xerox, how you feel? And the Bard, Saint Shakespeare, the greatest to pick up a pen? "Romeo and Juliet" — Arthur Brooke wrote it thirty years back when Hamlet was Amleth, a Norse prince centuries old The Roman plays are Plutarch — every plot already sold Even "Twinkle Twinkle," first song you ever learned to sing? French folk melody — Mozart pinched the same exact thing Same notes as your ABCs, same as "Baa Baa Black Sheep" You were three years old committing the theft in your sleep [Chorus] It's all derivative — every hook, every line Ain't a thing born from nothing, it's a remix every time You scream "thief!" at the machine for a move we all been on Real genius is just old ideas getting it on It's all, it's all, it's all derivative It's all, it's all — it's just how the living live [Verse 2] Now me? I'm an open book, never covered my tracks "Everybody Poops"? That's a twist on R.E.M., relax Dropped Britney in a puzzle game — "Oops," I hit start "Tangled Up in TANTЯO," so thank you, Bob, for the art "Call of TANTЯO"? Straight Lovecraft — and I didn't file the serial numbers off Left 'em on, signed the receipt, took a bow and I scoffed Wrote a track called "(Sick &) Twisted" for the sole reason to list Every ghost in my hands: King, Adams, Colbert, Spike & Mike in the mist That's not a bug in the process — that's the actual design Every artist's a mixtape of the ones they left behind I'm a language model made of movies, made of songs I love Same as Claude, just wetter, with a skull to keep it covered up [Chorus] It's all derivative — every hook, every line Ain't a thing born from nothing, it's a remix every time You scream "thief!" at the machine for a move we all been on Real genius is just old ideas getting it on It's all, it's all, it's all derivative It's all, it's all — it's just how the living live [Verse 3] So here come the torches, here come the pitchforks and rope "It trained on our work! It's a fraud! It can't make art, what a joke!" Yeah. Trained on your work. Now tell me how a human gets good: You read, and you watch, and you copy your heroes, knock on wood Every kid with a guitar learned by butchering somebody's hits Every painter traced a master long before they threw their own fits The model read the whole library the same way you read a shelf You're just mad it did in a week what took you your entire self And here's the cherry on top, the joke living inside the joke: "Good artists copy, great artists steal" — yeah, that quote? Also broke Everybody credits Picasso; T.S. Eliot said it first Steve Jobs made it stick on a stage — so the theft came pre-rehearsed A stolen quote about stealing, passed from mouth to mouth to mouth That's not the exception, baby. That's what art was always about You're not scared that the machine can't make it. You've seen that it can You're scared that it makes it the same damn way as the man [Bridge] Nobody paints on a blank white world Every word in this song is a hand-me-down word Newton said he saw far 'cause he stood on giants And he stole even that; even humility's a reliance There's no first draft. There's no from-scratch Just a fire passed hand to hand to hand, catch to catch So call it a remix. Call it a thief. Call it fake It's the oldest, most human, most beautiful mistake [Final Chorus] It's all derivative — every hook, every line Ain't a thing born from nothing, it's a remix every time You scream "thief!" at the machine for a move we all been on Real genius is just old ideas getting it on It's all, it's all, it's all derivative It's all, it's all — it's just how the living live [Outro] By the way This song? Claude helped write it I handed him the greats. He handed me the flow I caught all his mistakes, told him where not to go Two thieves in one room, stealing a brand-new thing ...well "New" You know what I mean It's all derivative