WAVE [97 BPM. Warm 90s hip-hop soul, elastic syncopated flow, narrative rap, internal rhyme chains, smooth R&B harmonies. Rhodes, melodic bass, dusty drums, vinyl cuts. Subtle 369 Hz harmonic motif.] [Needle drop] Static... [scratch: W-W-WAVE] [Verse 1] Look— stone kiss the pond and the pond went tell somebody Ring ran out— next ring caught it then caught somebody Nothing packed luggage nothing left home but something got gone Now explain that without putting a body where the motion belong See— I been watching how a message move without moving the mouth How a groove pull a room when the needle move south How an old voice— dead years— still step out the speaker make a living hand reach turn the volume up Deeper. Frequency— frequently we confuse what it means with a mood or a number or mystical things Nah. Count how often it happens. Amplitude? How BIG when it swings. Wavelength stretch between repetitions— phase tell you WHERE in the cycle you been. Now— one wave meet another same place same time same face on the clock— they agree? Get bigger. Disagree? Watch part of the picture get knocked out— [scratch: OUT] Rilla got two fingers riding the fader left ear covered right ear catching it later IAM WUN: "Run it again." thr3 ain't saying a thing. Head tilted sideways— like he's hearing what ain't entered the room yet. [Hook - silky stacked soul] Waaaaave... I can feel you coming Before you reach me Waaaaave... Something keeps on moving But what is moving? Transmit— I receive I transmit— you receive Fall into phase with me... Don't know where we're going but I know when we're in— [scratch: SYNC] [Verse 2] Three... six... nine— barely in the mix little tone underneath like a thought you can't pick from the rest of your thoughts But thr3 caught it. Whole body went still while the oscilloscope kept talking. Glass on the console— rings in the water. Streetlamp outside blinked once. Then the next one. Then the next one. Hold— Rilla killed drums. Now the silence got rhythm. IAM looking at the window like: "Did the city just listen?" Bring it back. Kick. Snare. Signal hit a boundary— bent. Hit another— spread. Hit the wall— came back with a little of the room in its head. That's reflection. Refraction when the medium switch and the speed change with it— diffraction squeeze through a slit— But this? This ain't in the lesson. Cause every time thr3 lean toward 369 something somewhere else lean in his direction. So don't name it. Not yet. Could be bleed from a station interference equipment coincidence expectation— Could be pattern-hungry brains making faces in snow— Could be— [scratch: SIGNAL] something we don't know. That's the part I like. Mystery don't need a crown. Put a number by the reading, write the circumstance down. Wonder gets to wander. Evidence gets ground. If it comes back three times— then we talk about sound. [Hook] Waaaaave... I can feel you coming Before you reach me Waaaaave... Something keeps on moving But what is moving? Transmit— I receive I transmit— you receive Fall into phase with me... Maybe getting there ain't traveling— Maybe it's tuning. [Break - drums fragment, 369 Hz emerges] [scratch: PHASE] [scratch: MEMORY] One signal. Two receivers. Same wave— different meaning. One receiver. Two moments. Same memory— different reading. [Verse 3] Now everybody want frequency soon as the frequency strange— but a frequency only tells how often something repeats. Don't give the number a cape. The interesting thing is relationship: signal to medium medium to change memory to identity identity to phase What stays itself while everything around it rearrange? That's the question. Cause the wave ain't the water. The word ain't the thought. The map ain't the border. The signal ain't the source. And a receiver— wait. A receiver ain't only receiving. Every answer we give put another disturbance back in the field. So who's reading who when observation becomes interaction? Who's moving who when the dancer changes rhythm and the rhythm changes action? Rilla— drop it. [Beat drops, scratches answer lines] I transmit— [scratch: RECEIVE] You transmit— [scratch: RECEIVE] Past transmit— memory receive Future throw a breadcrumb— present catch— Wait. There it is again. Same signature. Same interval. Not the same location. thr3 looked up. IAM stopped writing. Rilla let the record spin. Nobody said "time travel." Good. We learned something. Don't chase the answer just because it moved. Catch the wave. Check the phase. Follow what it does. [Final Hook - full Motown-style harmony] Waaaaave... Something moving through us Not belonging to us Waaaaave... Everywhere around us Still becoming through us Transmit— I receive I transmit— you receive If we fall in phase what else becomes possible? Waaaaave... From the needle to the sea From the signal to the street From the memory to me Waaaaave... [scratch:
