I flew in from Chicago

Back from school and my studio job

I engineer through the night on the weekends

Ride’s smooth, dodging potholes

Sneak a verse in when the artists are gone

They say I’m good, but there’s nothing they’ll keep yet

I’ll keep on believing

But as we touch down, my mind starts to drift to

The one who’ll get out, the one I can’t get to

I never had a gap

To make my play, make you stay

You were our star, the light we would strive to

Approach and fall far, I’d wish you were mine, you

Were meant for so much more

Than I could be, out there, away

So what do you think of forever?

Dancing within the sparks

Dreamers scrounging for heaven

Rest in each other’s arms

So what do you think of forever?

Nothing we have to lose

Running after the sun’s what we do

It’s like being in love with you

Well, the summer’s the same

But there’s something that’s changed

Talk with restraint, someone else had that name

Ride down to that new spot

Then reminded to new thoughts

I forgot you work here

Dreaming now that we turn here

I’ve been looking at you for a long time

Never the one you would turn to

So I’m saving my shot

Regaining my heart

To reach for my star

There you are

So what do you think of forever?

Dancing within the sparks

Dreamers scrounging for heaven

Rest in each other’s arms

So what do you think of forever?

Nothing we have to lose

Running after the sun’s what we do

It’s like being in love with you

Am I gonna let you walk out my life again?

And keep dreaming that you’ll meet me some time ahead?

Let your memory dwell

With all I left unsaid?

Take me if you choose

Leave me if you want

This is all that I can do

‘Cause I am still in love

[guitar solo]

So what do you think of forever?

Dancing within the sparks

Dreamers scrounging for heaven

Rest in each other’s arms

So what do you think of forever?

Nothing we have to lose

Running after the sun’s what we do

It’s like being in love with you

Running after the sun’s what we do

It’s like being in love with you

Trivia: the first iteration of this song was sketched for 2020’s Midnight Drive. The original beat was used for K-Wal’s one-act musical “Petrarch,” but both the original and final compositions have the same chord progression.

Let me take it back to the eighth grade

Lunchtime rhyming, writing my first mixtapes

Got the spark, but not the heart to let the flame blaze

Was ashamed of what I’d faced, kept the pain chained

And my name safe

Dropped to polite applause, good job, K, they don’t feel it

And after that, yeah, the grind is on, narrate the real

Switch the perception from misdirected to excellent

Step into my center, this kid’s special, it’s evident

Forward four years, transformed to a beast

Eat beats, stages, pages, each arena, elite

I’m preferring to work, mind and demons don’t sleep

Bleed for the rebound if it bounces out, the dream’s MVP

Scintillating, skating on a hater, shaking fakes, making paper

Take the blade, erase the snakes, you wait, then you’re paying later

Wunderkind mind, mark of an art savior

Take the favorite, Rich Striking, claim the Darksaber

Here’s the case: my pen does your favorites favors

They and their teams don’t equal me. a one-man Lakers

Music with the movie and the prequel, sequel shows

Hanging with his bae in distant places y’all don’t even know

Listening to mid, Ketamine K’s the prescription

An injection of the best from DTX, get ‘em fixed with

This new brew, the solution to dilute all the wack

So, ditch whatever you’re spinning, ‘cause K-Wal’s back on the track, yeah

Put one hand up if you feel the beat

Put two hands up if you’d leave with me

Come repeat the creed and shut down the place

In pursuit of the sun, come and join the race

Put one hand up if you feel the beat

Put two hands up if you’d leave with me

Come repeat the creed and shut down the place

In pursuit of the sun, come and join the race

They told me stick to rapping, gave ‘em Fish in the Sea

Then they told me stick to singing, I cremated the beat

Then they told me don’t go acting, had ‘em out of their seat

So don’t say the K won’t, because I’ll have the receits

Don’t compare me to these Twitter hits, vapid and cheap

Lauded for skimming the shallows, kids are trapped in the deep

If we only make reprieves, it’ll have to repeat

Internalized the nights, fractured fragments in me

We came from the woods, running with the wolves

Not with the squad, there’s no dog in your soul

Used to the crucible, I put myself through it

No critic so vicious, you didn’t, and you losing

Why the cast asshole and I vibe, ‘cause we lived it

Music religious, you using it like business

The vision puts a city and a state at the top

Yeah, I’m Dallas, so Maverick, rap Luka, I’m gone

Put one hand up if you feel the beat

Put two hands up if you’d leave with me

Come repeat the creed and shut down the place

In pursuit of the sun, come and join the race

Put one hand up if you feel the beat

Put two hands up if you’d leave with me

Come repeat the creed and shut down the place

In pursuit of the sun, come and join the race

Put one hand up if you feel the beat

Put two hands up if you’d leave with me

Come repeat the creed and shut down the place

In pursuit of the sun, come and join the race

Put one hand up if you feel the beat

Put two hands up if you’d leave with me

Come repeat the creed and shut down the place

In pursuit of the sun, come and join the race

I know the road ahead

If you get lost in the dark far off on the way, might wish you never left

Is it better to stay, never lose but never try

As the years drift by with your dreams, would you choose tonight to take the ride?

So, goodbye to the city,

Farewell to the skyline

I’ll be keeping you with me

But right now, it’s my time

Will I crash, turn back

Maybe never arrive?

Know I won’t if I don’t go, so

It’s gonna be a long drive

[outro]

Trivia: “In Pursuit” touches back to both of K-Wal’s previous projects. 2018’s “Fish in the Sea” is mentioned by name, while “In Pursuit” shares a crucial piano chord with 2020’s “Amber.”

Came out the womb and 808s played

Straight out the tomb that my old state made

Go Doctor Doom, all I’m faced with

Seeing the rules that I’m enslaved with

All of these goons that need me basic

Plus all the ghouls that love’s engaged with

Dance in the dark, and the plotting was hard

You’d rather regret that you didn’t or start?

I am a star, so I’m chasing comets

Bots wanna watch, then wanna comment

Talking though they never stepped on the court

Never felt pressure, you know of the sort

You know that I’m grinding like Mamba

I’m Polish Victor Wembanyama

Got their draws off in the sauna

I’m Zach Wilson to yo mama

Suckers are munching my style, Kirby

A&Rs worried, say I’m too wordy

Probably their girlfriend is trying to learn me

She wanna become a muse on my journey

Give me a trillion, the money won’t turn me

Stayed in the game while my pockets were hurting

Know that the city will hang up my jersey

Know that the love I give out is returning

Know that they love me and I’m not deserving

Reason I bring back the people who spurn me

Not watching our brotherhood churning

Not when you were there in the dirty

Not when you were there in the late nights

Not when you were there in the stage lights

Because we were deep in the same fights

Because we would dream up the same flights

Now it’s pain twice and I paid a few times for wanting to trust you

I kept forgiving your sinning and saying there’s much that you have to adjust to

One thing to take back the Prodigal Son, another to sponsor the vice

And then you spread lies on my day one cause you want her and that was the line

Things die, we arrive at another life

And then under pressure, become a lie

Seen orphaned dreams in a blank stare

Too scared, then take it when the rank’s there

Say they settled down, yeah, they settled

At home, my soul was made metal

I could never let the dragon die

Chance a fall if you’re gonna fly

[outro]

Trivia: this is one of two songs on “Running After The Sun” to sample an Apple Loop. Additionally, Zach Wilson’s inclusion in the yo mama joke here is still his greatest professional accomplishment.

She only comes here for the bottles we got

Dude mute on the wall, dog, I’d rather not

I lock in, pick the beat, wring my heart, drop a verse

We record in the morning, send Novo a hearse

I want none of these girls, that’s a dub and a curse

Flop or go ghost, you tell me what feels worse

Might get slick talk, the comments, they don’t even hurt

It’s 3AM hearing you screaming these words

They fiend for the real, see the streams that I’ve earned

Got songs for the moshing and when the night’s turned

Down catastrophic or learning her curves

You might get why I need some more CDs to burn

You might get why your girlfriend would plead for the worm

She said K, you’re the dopest MC that I’ve heard

Well, I’m nice, I ain’t great, that’s the aim, dream, for sure

Now I’m giving a speech as she’s thirsty, let’s serve

Now in the audience watching, dog, it feels like I’m lost in

All adulting and toxic adolescence, no clock switch

All my thoughts when I’ve got it, what’s the cost of my college

Wish I knew ways to replay this or an alt, I could drop this

Five years of waiting, I’m impatient need the reins and

A blank check to spend on my message, not waste my days and

Nights in these frivolities, I feel they grey a part of me

For my part, hope He pardons me, He knows that I go hard on me

Latter cast goes dark on me, can I exchange the faces?

Sparks I felt too small so they ain’t caught and it’s enraging

I guess I get the lesson, go the most, so I’m engaging

But how much is self-destructive, who among ‘em is a favorite?

Who’s staying? Who’s fading? Who’s paid, who has a rain check?

Who go’n play the inspiration for the play that I ain’t made yet?

Fear the pain that I ain’t faced it, dream of planes that I can’t take yet

And keep praying when I fly home for the one I ain’t replaced yet

Damn

[outro]

Trivia: the music for this song began as the soundtrack for a staged reading of a play. This is the second time an instrumental piece for a play has become the beat for a K-Wal song—2020’s “Midnight Drive” did it first!

I’ve tried to be your light when the night came roaring in

Outside, the demons lie, you say stay with me till my morning

In this tiny room we’re free

Somewhere that the world can’t reach

We’re dancers in the dark

‘Cause only here we find our peace

They ask why don’t I come by

‘Cause they heard I found someone

I know what they always thought of you

Can’t show them who they want

I can’t have them tear you down

Whispers drifting through the crowd

I can’t add to all that haunts you

I leave you when I go out

In this tiny room we’re free

Somewhere that the world can’t reach

We’re dancers in the dark

‘Cause only here we find our peace

Hold our love behind these walls

Past the city’s rage and shots

We found everything we want

But don’t you let it see the sun

Yeah

You taunt me as we’re walking, “Should’ve brought me to their party”

You’re hopeful, we both know that they’d explode, so I’m not sorry

You sit down on the bedside, eyes are down, expression vacant

I can’t evade this conversation, join you, turn to face it

“Are you ashamed of this?”  “No, I’m afraid

“They remember you too well, and we know all that they would say”

“Well, do you need them to accept this, bless this? Tell me the truth”

“They’re my brothers, only friends, something I don’t know how to lose”

“So, you’re not shielding me, you’re hiding to protect yourself

“Outside this room you live disguised, you lie, tell, how’s it felt?

“Are you content to go on with the act, love a mirage?

“Because, babe, I once was, bluffed or else they would discard

“Let me be your light tonight, it’s true, that they just might leave you

“But the worst of it is worth it for the ones that will receive you

“I’ve known this fight most of my life, you’ll wage it with me

“Some embrace you, some will hate you, but you’re going to be free”

In this tiny room we’ve lived

Somewhere that the world can’t get

Past my people’s claws and glares

Snares of the unknowing and scared

But if we want to make this right

We’re gonna have to face the light

We’ve been dancers in the dark

But it’s time we let them see

Trivia: during the spoken word verse, the pitch of the partner’s voice has been digitally raised. One of K-Wal’s favorite artists, Frank Ocean, has used this technique throughout his work.

Heard there’s a lot of talking when I’m not there

‘Bout who she loved and why I’m up, like does he not care?

Feel them peering, secret stares all across the room

She whispers, “We can leave them, tell me what you need to do”

Well, I wanted to stay

In this world that we know

But we’re not who I was

And I don’t know where to go

If what we wanted was here, we’d have found it by now

We’ve become too old for hope, season went, let’s head out

There’s dragons past the skyline, and the dream, yeah, I know

Well, can you show me how I’m s’posed to let go?

If what we wanted was here, we’d have found it by now

We’ve become too old for hope, season went, let’s head out

Oh-ooh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh

Going lonely on our road

You took the city out your bio

Guess you weren’t kidding when you said we should move to Atlanta

Get past my parents

Five years, your four-letter word, and we’re banished

And all my friends still cast you out

Play you monster to the crowd

Keep my love in enemy lines

But tonight I’m taking your side

I’m trying to hold

To this world that I know

But we’re not who I was

And now it’s time that we go

If what we wanted was here, we’d have found it by now

We’ve become too old for hope, season went, let’s head out

There’s dragons past the skyline, and the dream, yeah, I know

Well, can you show me how I’m s’posed to let go?

If what we wanted was here, we’d have found it by now

We’ve become too old for hope, season went, let’s head out

Oh-ooh, oh-oh, oh-oh-oh

Going lonely on our road

As a child I’d fantasize that I could fly out, change the world

But I can’t sway a single person’s heart now, you still hate my girl

Remember, pastor told my mom I was a person of consequence

Now I live in this invisible prison, thirstin’ for common sense

Facing now true human nature, there’s no use for confidence

They mute for what the content is, imagine what they’re calling this

The sharpest kind of smallness yet, reunion, I can’t play a savior

Only solace is this darkness has a dawn, this life or later

[outro]

Trivia: the line “There’s dragons past the skyline” references two of the most common symbols in K-Wal’s discography. “Ketamine” also uses the dragon symbol, but there, it is a positive icon, corresponding with 2018’s “Dragons.” The skyline is omnipresent, holding the same metaphorical significance here as on “In Pursuit.”

Ah, floor the foreign as the champagne’s pouring

‘Til the words distorted and we’re turnt to mourning

For the sacrifice packed as a past life though the

Passions, lashings last until the flat line

Got your timeline’s asses shaking out here

I’m with my partner in crime, ain’t flaking out here

Taught by my grandmother that love is built like diamonds are

Bohemia was rougher waters than the siren song

Two hundred sixteen eyes from lynx hid as lambs

Sibling disses, on the brink, had me switching camps

I couldn’t make the band but now I’m making bands

I’m in that faux wool coat tonight and take the Lamb

I always roll low-key, but still in high demand

You’re biting trends, that’s why it’s quite hard to find your fans

Only post your clothes, you a rapper or a model?

I’m laid back crafting classics, all of y’all, let’s crack a bottle

To the mixtape days

Feeding off your dreams ‘til you skip this place

At your lowest oscillation wanna quit this race

At the center of a tempest where the victor’s made, ay-ay

It’s to the mixtape days

Feeding off your dreams ‘til you skip this place

At the lowest oscillation wanna quit this race

At the center of a tempest where the victor’s made

You believe in yourself to stay?

Back in Manhattan but it feels like Vegas

Couple primetime placements, now I’m with the A-list

The faces world famous, say I’m their favorite

Icons talking of my future coronation

I gave my story and made it

Cum laude of the new school, I’m always debated

Stayed present with my city, so the K is paraded

Got adopted by Atlanta, wish it wasn’t belated

Every pain from the mixtape days

Every link in the chains that had kept me caged

Thank them all for the man I became

When I learned that the hurt was my deepest strength

No prayers answered, and no reprieve

Only had me and my partner in which I could believe

I was waiting tables, then I made us a seat

Put my faith in my spirit, come and tell them with me

About your mixtape days

Feeding off your dreams ‘til you skip this place

At your lowest oscillation wanna quit this race

At the center of a tempest where the victor’s made, ay-ay

It’s to the mixtape days

Feeding off your dreams ‘til you skip this place

At the lowest oscillation wanna quit this race

At the center of a tempest where the victor’s made

You believe in yourself to stay?

Mixtape days

Feeding off your dreams ‘til you skip this place

At your lowest oscillation wanna quit this race

At the center of a tempest where the victor’s made, ay-ay

It’s to the mixtape days

Feeding off your dreams ‘til you skip this place

At your lowest oscillation wanna quit this race

At the center of a tempest where the victor’s made

I’m believing that you will remain

(And I’m believing that you will remain)

[outro]

Trivia: there is a no-royalty, no-attribution sample on “Mixtape Days” of people talking in Polish. Did you catch it?

What you mean they don’t look that part, let me elucidate it

Your people don’t wanna see them and this is you evasive

Your thesis, don’t really mean it, you ain’t eschewing payment

You’re always calling us wrong, that’s why the fewest make it

And why we’re only getting high to your new shows

And why we’re only going thrifting for some new clothes

Well, we, but I mean, they pick

Because I’m tragic at fashion, my style’s sitting at zip

I’m still engineering, they ain’t wanna hear my bars though

Only want a song of money, how the cars go

Me and my partner’s, it has no AC

You gotta keep your drink there, cupholder’s holding the Beats Pill

Still waiting, wait tables in the meantime

On the order notepad is where I keep lines

Every night, a verse about a patron that I see

Rap it back to them at home, something’s happy ‘fore we sleep

There is no haven for us

We are your harlequins

This town is no place for love

Oh, show us how to start again

Driving back to Dallas, at a motel

Had them change your hair up so y’all won’t tell

Fall asleep with the beat still open

And a verse dispersed, in some phrases broken

It’s the grind, rise and shine for the warehouse

This the ride to forever, are we there now?

There ain’t a red light that we ain’t hit

Well, at least it’s how it feels, still we won’t lane switch

On principle, four jobs, so tithes are paid

Swim in place, we stay afloat, say the tides will change

As we’re rolling up malaise on the fire escape

Cause every time they go outside, feels like a firing range

We’re the bags in the wind, we’re the trash on the street

See your ethos as fallacy, you’re still passing on me

We’re praying in our way and we are staying fighting

But our angel’s on vacation and our God’s got bigger clients

There is no haven for us

We are your harlequins

This town is no place for love

Oh, show us how to start again

There is no haven for us

We are your harlequins

This town is no place for love

Oh, show us how to start again

Trivia: the central pulsating synthesizer on “Prism” is a modified loop of synth strings. It’s the second Apple Loop used on the album, after “Ketamine.” Additionally, there is a lyrical mistake in “Prism.” In verse two, K-Wal raps “Have them change your hair up so y’all won’t tell” instead of the correct articulation “Have them change their hair up so y’all won’t tell.”

Looping through dukkha, the ruse, the American Dream

Despair in the booth as I stare at the scene

Narrate the truth and I’m sharing my seams

But they just need beats, they don’t care what it means

Lacing these 808s all for the meme

Plus teching their shows, payment is cheap

They’ll go for the chorus downtown next week

Last show of the season, still hope for our dream

We can’t feed ourselves with ambition

What good is some brilliance unwitnessed?

And why are we still on this mission?

Is it destiny or an addiction?

Is the best of me already written?

Is the rest for me only in fiction?

I could pivot, so why can’t I kill it?

Unblossomed dreams on my children

Then I pay your rehearsal a visit

Feel your joy and your hurt in your figment

Tie me up in your lines and I’m lifted

And I’m crying, receive how you’re gifted

I’m reminded that people should get this

Faith, hope, and love, how we’re living

I guess we’re not your typical Christians

Pray I’ve shown you what typical’s missing

I wanna run away

I wanna disappear

Let’s find our own adventure

Anywhere but here

Nobody can hold us

This is something new

Something they call freedom

My freedom is you

I wanna run away

I wanna disappear

Let’s find our own adventure

Anywhere but here

Nobody can hold us

This is something new

Something they call freedom

My freedom is you

A room without AC, I dreamed a sea of gleaming towers

See us drifting in the streets, the sun is running out of hours, thousand

Years between us, feel it in each glance, you hold my hands

Lifetimes flying by us, turn to me repeat the dance

It’s the spray painting I’m making, one knee on the dusty floor

I hold the metaphors, my life’s enough if I can just be yours

The brightest ring I could afford to match your shine, my light

My North Star to shores beyond our thoughts, lead through our darkest nights

Well, can I call you mine?

I wanna run away

I wanna disappear

Let’s find our own adventure

Anywhere but here

Nobody can hold us

This is something new

Something they call freedom

My freedom is you

I wanna run away

I wanna disappear

Let’s find our own adventure

Anywhere but here

Nobody can hold us

This is something new

Something they call freedom

My freedom is you

I just wanna be free

I just wanna be free

I just wanna be free

I just need you with me

I just wanna be free

I just wanna be free

I just wanna be free

I just need you with me

I wanna run away

I wanna disappear

Let’s find our own adventure

Anywhere but here

Nobody can hold us

This is something new

Something they call freedom

My freedom is you

I wanna run away

I wanna disappear

Let’s find our own adventure

Anywhere but here Nobody can hold us

This is something new

Something they call freedom

My freedom is you

[guitar solo / outro]

All lyrics written by Ayden “K-Wal” Kowalski

Trivia: “Make it to L.A.” is the first track in K-Wal’s discography to have a beat switch. If what sources are saying about the next album is true, though, it’s not going to be the last…