Real You intends to capture the human desire to make sense of the world and be heard, to question the powers-that-be, to cry out our truth and feel empowered in a society full of illusion, cultural contradictions and perceived brokenness. Our voice is our essence. We must speak the truth loud if we are to be heard. We must be encouraged to do so, rather than told to obey orders. We wear a mask covering up the "real" us in order to move through society and adapt to the devastating circumstances of the modern paradigm, such as dysfunctional government, human impact on the environment, martial law, basic human rights or lack-there-of. The circumstances we are born into condition us to separate from our true selves. This is song is made to bring the listener back in touch with the underlying soul that each person has within his or herself. The world must hear us from our essence, our true selves, what we know to be true, not just what we are told is right and wrong. Letting go of fear, we are able to speak out with courage and transform the troubling conditions that we face as a global community, in time raising consciousness and being with what is. Revolution is happening all around us.
The relationship of the individual as a part of the collective human community is a primary theme in the song. How does one person engage massive change? Can we positively shift the human experience by being the best we can be in our personal relationship to others in our life?
Jackson Whalan and Robby Baier wrote, produced and recorded this song together in 2007, and this version on Bard Aposoulypse includes re-recorded lyrics, additional mixing, and revised mastering. Personally for Jackson, Real You is a manifestation of his inspiration for rapping and being a hip-hop artist. Rapping for Jackson, is an act of sense-making, a spiritual connection through music, that carries the potential for others to make sense of the world too, and to invite others speak out.
lyrics
Boom to the bap to the drum to the track/To the thought the idea like this beat what is that?/ Future is an if while the past in a myth, but I'm feeling that a higher meaning has to exist/Persist as I drift with a gift to uplift/Past diamonds on a wrist/True happiness/Elevate the vibe as I speak from inside/It's the power of this beat, the method of the mind/Trying to warn yah, eye inside the storm/And you better never let them stop yah/American dream, a re-run soap opera/ Searching for the light... Candelabra/ I'm with the girl that I like like a girlfriend/Though we're all caught up in this whirlwind/both going down the road swerving/ And she's beautiful like the world turning...
[Hook]
To the real you sitting in the background
Everything moving real fast now
Want to be heard keep your voice loud
Until the whole world hears what you say now
Loud like that, so we can stand proud/Deep in the crowd until the answer is found/See the clouds shroud the horizon?/Everyday seems so surprising/Trying to see the silver lining/In a broken system falling as we're climbing/Economic destruction a record that is off-beat/Moving in a mob-deep building crushing Wall Street/She winks and I know what she's thinking, hoisting sails on a boat that is sinking/Love I'm bringing, freedom singing/ About unfinished work like Abraham Lincoln/ Unite as a force of empowerment/So the powers that be let go of the government/Greed is rotten forgotten for profit/My real love to the real you... you got it?
[Hook]
[Bridge]
[Hook]
credits
from The Aposoul,
released March 18, 2014
Jackson Whalan 2014
Produced by Robby Baier
Mastering by Will Schillinger at Pilot Studios
