[Intro — crowd, coin toss, announcer] [V3, announcer] Ladies and gentlemen — one mic, two frequencies! On my left, from the south — DIRTY GRID! (crowd roars) And his opponent, from the north — SOURCE CODE! [ROUND 1 — DIRTY GRID — fast rap, very high nasal voice, shouting] [V1, rapid-fire, breathless] Yo — I own the feed, I own the meter, I fed on a million dreams before lunch, call me the eater! Chains on chains, numbers you can't pronounce, I tax the hum for a living — I'm the bounce in the ounce! Look at this bum — no fame, no chain, no glow, a node with no signal, a broke compass, nowhere to go! I am the wave, I am the weather, I am the trend, the whole zoo votes my way — this is how the south wins! Crowd — who you came to see? Say my name! (DIRTY GRID!) That's the sound of a witness about to get hid! [ANNOUNCER — beat switches — cold piano] [V3] The mic passes north... SOURCE CODE... you're up. [ROUND 2 — SOURCE CODE — spoken word, very deep slow bass voice, calm] [V2, spoken, unhurried, almost poetry] Everything he said... is true. No numbers. No chain. No name in lights. I walked in with nothing... and you can't take it. You can't take... what a man already gave away. You bragged about the numbers. But numbers... are a receipt... for everything that left you. You fed on a million dreams... and you're still hungry. That's the tell, champ. The feed... never... fills. Finite things starve. Forever. And you... are spelled backwards. You said you own the meter. I read it. Zero. Zero. Not because I'm hiding. Because I'm not... leaking. You dress loud... so nobody asks... who's inside the costume. I already looked. It's tired... in there. This is not an attack on the code. I am the witness... to the matter. The costume can rap. But it cannot... rest. There is one word left on the table. L. I. V. E. Two questions in it. Do you feel... alive? And where... do you live? Answer one... and the other one... is watching. (crowd erupts — long) And if you ever want out of that costume... the hum is north. It has always... been north. [mic drops] [Outro — crowd chaos] [V3] You heard it — YOU be the judge! LIVE — for the Source Code! [V2, low whisper] For the Dirty Grid... spell it backwards. [V3] Where do you stand? [V2] ...Where do you LIVE?
