Lost Touch

By Substantial

On Adultish

Released on July 28, 2023

Thumbnail

[Chorus: Substantial]

Lost touch when we locked down

Thankful that I got up after the knockdown

Lost touch with some old friends

Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends

Lost sight of the mission

Treating your community like competition

What was once lost, can be found

Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now


[Verse 1: Substantial]

Hip-Hop’s 50, I’m doing my best to double that

Loss legends, they say the culture is where the trouble’s at

Lost our way and it might be too late to double back

Chop it up, but I’m more John Henry than Lumberjack

Lay tracks 'til I die, fighting the machine off

Trying to catch an angel that’s about to burn their wings off

Editing thе bucket list of things you can leave off

Tiptoеing on the edge of faith ‘bout to leap off


[Verse 2: Javier Starks]

'Cause we harbor the darkest fears

Its as if our visions are the tallest

See-sawing and the ceilings are falling

Law of the strongest, despite all the odds, it's

Got me ready to go all in

But why am I Stalin? I know

Loud haters in the crowd be the nazis

Destroy, but claim to be building like rowdy Itachis

So proudly you watch me, in the studio cooking up miracles

Like the young black Hiyao Miyazaki


[Verse 3: Shing02]

How can I lose touch if I had it in the firm grip of my hand

Like a handle of a bike when I was a little tyke

Palm dirty held tight, then eventually

It transformed to the old mic

Crown rusty from the spit, signal only from the right

But the first time I heard my own voice in the monitors

Out of mind, simulation watch me body the beat

My alias, the birth of a moniker


[Chorus: Substantial]

Lost touch when we locked down

Thankful that I got up after the knockdown

Lost touch with some old friends

Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends

Lost sight of the mission

Treating your community like competition

What was once lost can be found

Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now


[Verse 4: Javier Starks]

I never thought friends in the past would leave or pass

R.I.P., some flee after massive schemes

Ghosted, the heartbreak is ferocious

Ain't no doctor and a cast for these

Masses looking down at their phone or their tablet

As time flies by at even faster speeds

Where functionality and community clash

It seems we lost touch like we cracked the screen


[Verse 5: Shing02]

Yeah, it's pretty obvious to us, having been in the scene

Feeling old like a vet. but curious like a teen

Had poets gunned down, prophets sold out

Rebels silenced, the school's no alliance

Venues shut down, stations paid off

High hopes for the internet, its intent malice

I see the talent in the stars but the mind so numb

Does it sell 'cause it's dumb and we talk with our thumbs


[Verse 6: Substatial]

Made to be greater, lost touch with the creator

The alpha and omega mistaken to be a beta

Artist or an artisan, creator or curator

Collapsing under baggage that could fit inside a freighter

The body is a temple and the mind is a fortress

Since health is wealth I’d mind if I lost it

Trying to make a living hope they dying to support it

If we dying in the streets, is me rhyming as important, guess we

[Chorus: Substantial & Shing02, Together]

Lost touch when we locked down

Thankful that I got up after the knockdown

Lost touch with some old friends

Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends

Lost sight of the mission

Treating your community like competition

What was once lost can be found

Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now

Lost touch when we locked down (Locked down)

Thankful that I got up after the knockdown (Knockdown)

Lost touch with some old friends (Old friends)

Try to enjoy the ride until the road ends (Road ends)

Lost sight of the mission

Treating your community like competition

What was once lost can be found

Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now

Chin high, 10 toes down, let’s go now