Tokyo Freeze

***Tokyo Freeze*** is a series of songs by American rapper Lupe Fiasco, uploaded to his Instagram account from March 19-March 29, 2020.

## Tokyo Freeze 1

**Lyrics**
[Intro Skit/Sample: Robert Glasper]

*Konnichiwa*

Casey Benjamin saxophone vocals, tanktop! (\*applause\*)

Burniss Travis on the bass and being very ugly (\*applause\*)

Mark Colemburg on the drums (\*applause\*)

Where's Colemburg? (\*laughter\*)

Yo, where's Colemburg?

What song is that? (\*laughter\*)

Yo, where's Colemburg? (\*laughter\*)

What song is that?

[Pre-Verse: Lupe Fiasco]

Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah, yeah, uh

[Verse: Lupe Fiasco, *Frank Ocean Sample*]

Elegant dust falls like water off tall cliffs

What starts as icebergs and small drips

Gangs up in what you can call crips

*(Human beings in a mob)* Uh, yeah

*(What's a mob to a king?*

*What's a king to a god?*) What's that

*(What's a god to a non-believer*

*Who don't believe in anything?)* Uh-huh, uh-uh, let me get that

Blue seas, slipping like skis over the top like T's

Camouflage-colored chamomile on the battlefield

I relax and chill, yeah

Dapper Dan daffodils

Two G's worth of recording gear to make reports for your ears

I'm a little teapot, short and stout

But I'm a little ski shop, sports and routes

*(Human beings in a mob*

*What's a mob to a king?*

*What's a king to a god?*

*What's a god to a non-believer*

*Who don't believe in anything?)*

Let me get that, [?] is double black diamond

Took that shop to a resort, now I'm shining

Don't get a bullet lodged

I'm just here to lift 'em up, I didn't duck

Figure the flow icy so get a puck

Go, go [?]

[?]homie is sick as fuck

Look at it closely, but do it anti-socially

It's a winter wonderland but it's toasty

Two slots I work with both days

Two shots, dapper pants

Niagara used to fall on my pair

Step outside, hear the voice of Creasy Bear

All up in the air like, "Yeah"

Shit's the bomb, come talk to the derrière

Take every care, go blind stare in that glare

The air, Kool-Aid and Perrier

Three cheers 'til they get him to cheer

I be blessed, sports and routes

I play with paths like Professor X

Me on IG, that means you can snort the house

Tokyo freeze, look all this powder about, ha

## Tokyo Freeze 2

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

Uh, thank you Tokyo, 'ppreciate it

You know how it goes?

Indeed, indeed

Not my first time here

Always a pleasure to be back amongst you

*Konnichiwa*—that's how you say it

*Ohayo gozaimasu*

Welcome Tokyo Freeze, Freeze

Over Tokyo, you know?

And as we say, okay, uh, yeah

[Verse 1]

What is glory? Other side of the story

Lose your morals to be number 5 in the 40

But you're still trapped in the category

Shattered if you dapper poorly, surely your average habit forming

Havoc-wreaking attitude is half performing in this aftermath

For the bowing cast, casket closing, classic, cornerstoning is my forte

Paid for the foreplay, you might as well stay for the orgy

[?], that's gold in the panties

There goes the goals, more rose into fannings

Another chop-chop, what's the fast and furious to a chop shop?

Turn a jalop sob to a drop-top

Good as galop jamming to a Pakistani

I cop the first stone, thrown by the bone

Picky gavel handling

I love to judge misunderstandings

Throw it back at 'em like a javelin

They got me banned from the bar

When you can't stand like a man in the car

Gotta stand back, put your hand in your heart

You kicked off the force, gotta hand in your star

Like a ninja jobless

Or Kermit the Frog is

Referring to his puppeteer

Your noodles soba but you really love a beer, what a year

[Outro]

Ah, what a year, what a year, what a year

[Ron Isley]

I wash my hands, I said my grace, what more do you want from me?

Tears of a clown, guess I'm not all what is meant to be

Shades of grey will never change if I condone

Turn this page, help me change, to right my wrongs

## Tokyo Freeze 3

**Lyrics**
[Verse 1: Lupe Fiasco]

Scenery, man replacing machinery

Letting my phone sing to me

Sinking art, what it seems to me

Like a teenager taking the senior seats

We give so much to these devices

Life inside the lifeless, find a likeness, hope it likes us

Even plants fight, a weed would choke a ficus

A barely swallowed pecan chokes a vegan

To death right before the weekend, now

Will test fate testify on behalf of the victim?

On what he witnessed at cafe gratitude

And incriminate the kitchen?

Maybe implicate with snitchin'

But chef

Point is, nothing ever lacks a side effect

You could buy a vest and die from stress

Sometimes life may feel like one brick with 5 connects

But only you know if you really tried your best

Yes, yes, yes

[Interlude: Robert Glasper]

Casey Benjamin, saxophone and vocal, Casey Benjamin

Burniss Travis on the bass (\*applause\*)

Mark Colenburg on the drums (\*applause\*)

I'm Robert Glasper, arigato gozaimasu (\*applause\*)

Arigato, arigato, arigato

[Verse 2: Lupe Fiasco]

Uh, yeah, I'm just an author

Trying to optimize my ideals like Warby Parker

Kinda like Harvey's Harlot

When the game gets going, you gotta Atari harder

How you gonna deal with these eyes without the skills to survive?

How I lyrically take liberties

Paint literature of the walls of the embassy, yeah

I hope you find sense in the asymmetries, uh

Hands up, Tokyo freeze

[Piano Outro]

[Skit: Japanese Announcer]

[?] mashite [?] arigato gozamashita

Tadai mo [?] mashite

Ichibun no koen wa [?] itashi mashita

[?] koen wa...

## Tokyo Freeze 4

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

Yeah

*Kore wa, nan desu ka? Hai*

Uh

[Verse]

Father was a DJ, so he grew up in the clubs

Learned it from his father, plus he had it in his blood

Played a private gig for the dealers of the drugs

Daughter of the boss loved his grooves and fell in love

Wanted by another whose jealousy increases

He burns his turntables, smashed his records into pieces

Cuts his hands off before he shoots him in the head

Dropped off in the limousinе and leaves him therе for dead

Voice in the darkness said, "I'll fix this for the price

There's spirits that appear only if the music's tight

And if I get 'em all, I'll be ruler of the world

And you'll get your revenge, and your hands, and your girl"

What's up now?

Uh, yeah, what's up now?

[Outro]

Uh, uh, Tokyo Freeze all day, uh

## References

1. ↑ Ivey, Justin (March 22, 2020). "Lupe Fiasco Shares 'Tokyo Freeze' Tracks on Instagram". *HipHopDX*.