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Blood Meridian

by Trademarc

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1.
Verse One I've been Suicidal a political activist with a active list of people i'll go after with active fists Or put a pen in my hand It's like i'm holding a pistol loaded with homing missiles explode you to bone and gristle I got a sickness believe me it never leaves me My issues are grounded deep rooted and founded in friction of non fiction while The up and downs of life move faster than hot pistons when the fuel injection kicks in Went from victor to victim and came to grips with this fight everyday i push away like sisyphus A fucking uphill battle Believe me I'm a black shadow a raven a maven a plague in a city sick overflowing the bloody shores of the river Styx In midst of a personal crisis so indecisive Still can't grasp which version of christ is most Appropriate to fight with or leave lifeless Verse Two Like i was looking for trouble pills booze knife in the duffel Poster of Jesus it don't seem that subtle-The scene is grandmama cena's with a black and white zenith reruns of reruns police watching me run flight footed the night's wooded He's stunned The death of reason the smokey breath of the season Freezing i was seizing up my focus broken Left out in the open A token silhouette Doing drunk pirouettes In some hospital gear a pair of wet socks half cocked with my opticals smear I could cop a career off that debauchery there But the option care disappeared the second i persevered rear my head to the world I finally read Husserl, Heidegger the dagger that badger Damocles This aint swimming with sharks Your just manatees I tried killing myself you couldn't damage me
2.
Verse one So i sit right here for the honor killing Flawed villain vaudevillian god willing I will live again or die off the dividends But the contrary lies are the difference And the ordinary eye is the impetus tool of the action crueler reactions fuel the attraction of fools when their acting By appointment flies in the ointment struggling to move bloody stumps where joints went At the point when pain and pleasure is a brave endeavour you can aim however Never came close to a brain that's clever I was in the game when ya Dad's balls Came You was on a tittie when. Last. Call. Came. I was getting shitty but the past. Al. Came. Unravelled and Crashed on its frame I was better putting masks on the pain It was hidden but it lasts all the same unscripted the cast is all the same I'm gifted but hapless all the same Verse two Don't-try-tell me the meds are reason I'm seasoned the reason i'm even breathing i'm even keeled but i've even killed too much time and emotion to even feel The hope in stretching up to heaven at least five foot eleven was the level i reached The highest peak i would speak from to the meek um, Black Ash Days is the book i teach from, past that phase where the gats and beef from, laugh at the ways i was apt to be dumb, a castaway the past has to be from, Just that, or ya apt to be done In by the thing you were drowning in son See those things you were grounded in hung Up in the stockade bound and been slung In a blockade where the bodies bloat And rain so torrential the storm that broke On terrain til a trench'll form a moat And ya gastric gasses are born to float Like ghosts of the hopeless razor on a soap dish ....shit
3.
Codebreaker 02:33
First Verse i dust off the seat of my pants after planting the seed of my rants see that my hands are fully calloused And my talents were balanced/ with you as a ballast (when)/ Now i sink to the depths of despair/ caught up your nets i get snared but compared to the hospital care/ it's (only) fair or fittin i'm left smitten/ by what's sadistic... cryptic and the cryptids i share a crypt with and i'm equipped with the diagnosis i'm afflicted and hit with (or) maybe i became addicted to the excuse that my life is scripted by what psychiatrists scripted That little notepad got my moods lifted everything i hoped had simply sifted/ through my hands like the sands of the sereghetti I was never ready for what i was hit with So you don’t know the half of it The hassle of my heart being blacker than the shadow of Baphomet baffled by thoughts These meds are trying to battle with The catechism of cataclysm the prison of being the sole catalyst of bad decisions That left my (whole) life (just) looking like a bad rendition And my personal landscape is war torn So my perpetual personality's forlorn Second Verse You want war i could show u the gore guts and raw footage From what i understood it's what i'm good it(at) A stones throw to where the bones go All the bullet points i throw into caches now i'm self conscious Cuz my battle rap days past seem passé i felt heavy losses/ were pretty much self inflicted I was so vindictive and vicious i lashed out grew listless and passed out in public too often to soften the fact that i was up shits creek to uplift the-people-i-eat-alive grinding-my-teeth-and-i've Spoken for the disenfranchised and the disadvantaged my heart is mismanaged by man the manner in which i was damaged Was handed a bandage and granted i was basically branded i hastily panicked Abandoned and banished every nightmare or emotion every time i think i might care i need a new potion. New pill bottle to openMore serotonin to soak in like an ocean of dopamine my copin' mechanisms broken Eloping married to melodrama just ask karma i aint tryin to be a martyr
4.
Verse 1 I got social anxiety like a muthafucker While they instruct ya ta wait Til the meds struck ya to break The nightmare u dream when awake The puncture they make punctual shakes you get from drugs when they race To erase those bad feelings you can't take And made a roadmap right outta ya face That your thoughts can all use when they race If ya u gotta pop the E brake Maybe escape with with a knee scrape Or fuck up brain up make ya feel like ya freebased or smoke some some shit and freak out Cuz it seem laced or Like a magnet on hard drives that erase tha Data you need and leave a negative space and leave ya own reflection looking like a hesitant face And ya girl and you are living just like celibate mates And your shoveling the shit until the sediment tastes So much better than the food that it's due to replace I hate to hasten the pacing while the grace periods erasing The timeframe i place on all these mind games Verse 2 I went from being so aggressive To being so passive it makes deep depression looks festive That kinda shit'll leave an impression upon a young mind and sometimes i felt like both the joke, and the punchline Like somekinda deaf dumb blinded creature by design featuring my maligned teacher the black beast-ah the bloody bautista As i cease ta give two shits I take a look at these two wrists the lines i sliced with a buck knife In 96 talking bout fuck life fuck playing nice Fuck praying nights for what little relief To be relieved of the grief at what price Would i be willing to pay it in blood money Prescription drug money Therapists and psychiatrists are just fuck buddies I just leave em pieces Like the piles of pills i spill and pop while i'm writing this thesis Til my hand and arm are number than a plastic prosthesis A checklist for suicide off to meet Jesus at least it's pragmatic plan for a desperate man A desperado with the mark of cain on his hand I'd rather wake up with a horse head in my bed than a crackhead. It's easy to act so zen when you're half dead. But it's not really zen... when you don't know where your depression begins and where your happiness ends. Hungry for fulfillment, but your spiritually famished. I watched the snake eat its tail 'til it eventually vanished. Now my answers are too loud for the world and too shy for girls. They come together late at night and they make me write them job referrals. I'm reduced to a reference. I prefer to refer back to the application and prove we were once best friends. Now we’re barely acquaintances. In a quaint connection we share amongst care-free relationships. Lets convene in the crawl space with the rest of our fallen breed. A family meeting at a halfway house, I’ll intervene where we lost the deed. divvy up the speed, liquor, weed, and opiates of the bastards. Overload the motherboard until she crashes. Bare witness to the funeral. Business as usual. In a business suit. This isn't suitable. Now kids slip me albuterol to untighten my upper chest region. I've been under the stress of succubus demons but I ain’t done breathing. It’s hunting season for the anti-fun curmudgeons who got nothing to believe in. Sometimes that’s just the drugs speaking. Any last words? 'Cause I was just leaving. Forever hold your peace when I’m deceased. There’s been enough grieving
5.
Man i'm running outta shit to say And creative ways say it I'm tired of the game at least the way we play it Considered crazy, a loser, too lazy to turn the venom i stored as momentum to maneuver If this moves ya We in the same shoes, sneakers, loafers where no hope is And at most its a zero sum game of addition in the midst of a war of attrition looking for ammunition malnourished by nature i flourished on hate ya find once it pays ya it don't phase ya I'll amaze ya with wordplay wit and a sense of humor i use to deflect rumors as soon as i sense the tumor Cuz hearsay is malignant and artists these days stay indignant I keep em terrified turning lighter shades than my pigment Like they seen a poltergeist every time i touch an open mic But i'm broken like concentration like Ginsberg saw the greatest minds of his generation eaten by Madness wore their skulls like a decoration ...shit, (i know) this sounds like desperation Verse 2 My brain's three quarters rigor mortis frozen in death throes darker than caves lit by torches and i'm tortured by the still frames ... the imagery of these ill games that gains access to low hanging fruit like a poisonous abscess in roots of a tooth decaying the truth relaying the proof in the pictures i paint i'm no saint but i scribble these scriptures in quaint rooms I sit where the pain looms and lingers in my body like the stingers of a brown recluse through (my) fingers to the page so when the crowds let loose let the predator prowl upon my enemies now Most are dead to me now They pretend to be down and then depend on me for tender mercy It deserts me in the moment I'm bloodthirsty Beyond rational thought so when the natural part of my frontal lobe(s)(goes) dulling like a savages - heart running overtime thumping like a rabbit that's caught ravenous brain analogous with that which is art I'm so callous to the point of seeing malice as smart That when we to eat our own young i think we're doing our part
6.
Verse One I've had enough of being polite I've had enough of being in light Whether it's lime colored I feel freer at night-free to recite this rhetoric heretic heathenous blight for all you derelicts in delight Hieronymus Bosch like Anonymous lost life'll linger in the foreground lacking foresight So when of course night roll around I had a 5th peeking outta my goose down Nips in the pocket click together like loose rounds and klonopin passing out between couch and ottoman I was artisan A hunger for the art of sin Anxiety had me feeling' i was never where i outta been I've heard i light up a room But i assume what loom in the luminescence Leftovers from my prepubescence Cuz those lessons i reap since Left whatever glows artificial like cheap synths Verse Two I've been much maligned My malignant mood disorders designed to sorta brutalize the natural order And my mind is a mine field fire team hot LZ whatever tired meme litters ya internet screen I'm a liars dream a murderers mean spirited gene a sociopaths sick blood fetish treating it like homeopathic love letters in new age magazines filled to the hollow tip shooting in public headphones blastin what's blasphemous i love it And I covet the killer in me's spirit so i bear it like the summit where they off ya like Golgotha The odd author anonymous all monster Wallace, Christopher, David Foster peep the footnotes if i lost ya Cuz approaching me is ill advised That shit'll cost ya I’m grasping at straws, Every pass is a hail mary, No care free living I’m grinning through bared teeth, This a breeze, transform into the gale force, Emerald city hit the brick road on a pale horse, Trail blazers, Make way, we ornery, Leave ya piece of the pie, yeah baby it's more for me, Hold a forty like my first love, Learn suntin, younging, that malt liquor prolly the worst drug, First up, and I struck out, What now? Whole team shrugging, looking ugly in the dug out, Fuck around, And we still make ya top five, Crack a can of suds, like it’s spinach and I’m Pop eye, I’m Spit balling, It’s written on the wall, Theres riches in the vault, Hit em with a pinch of salt, Seasoned vet, in the old flannel, This that Judge Holden vs. the kid with no ammo
7.
Verse One It's real, it's been twenty plus years I learn to love living forgive the plenty of tears In between what I would hear Word of mouth about who you were with why where no matter how much I cared I couldn't grasp the fact you wasn't here Every time i though about you it's like saying goodbye it's so weird, the way it played out pictures in my mind of you would never fade out, slowly phased out ya life Caught the last glimpse of you in mirror, i hit the headlights And drove off, your voice so soft you said 'It was nice to know you' i said "i'm sorry" You said 'apologies were something that you never owed me' i said "we'll talk soon" you said don't wait around for you to call me Coldly shook my hand i said i loved you for the last time you walked away calmly It felt like a flatline the conversation ended promptly, I'm sorry i was that blind Verse Two I sit alone amidst the light for regrets the things we set in stone, i'd just like to forget, being locked up leaving messages you would never get Calling collect, charges you would never accept I came around and found god never credible He said the writing's on the wall it's just never legible your friends told you I was crazy man let him go And like a movie you just sat and watch the credits roll Stories change, we exit the stage, you was on the next chapter i was stuck on the same page A picture may be worth a thousand words But it's tough when the line between the past and the present blurs I lost focus on these dead man curves I'm sorry i was lost but i guess i got what i deserved, i lost everything i had in my life And i'm not saying that this song could ever make it alright Verse Three I guess I'm moving on I guess I'm doing aiiiiight They say forget about her I try to heed their advice it's like swimming upstream bad dreams every night i bet every now and then ya still know what i mean S'Like part of my life is always off never gon be right sorta like the afterthought of you becoming my wife and hindsight is just another way to see what you lost Of course it never leads to insight (but it might) All caught up in what should have been nice Despite what that hole in my life had just put us in But more than ever I learned to sever ties with whatever brought pain in my life or ever could again This ain't a love song it's me moving on the only way that I can the only way that I know the only way i can stand the only way i can show you help me grow as a man you should know
8.
Verse One I'm a wild man maybe it's a sign that my minds rants will finance the way I'm living it's given i'm violent You silent types Chillin huh, Take it literal i'm killing you in plain view rearrange you that's more than average villains do i'll riddle you with rhymes like stab wounds Litter you in back rooms more like black tombs So consider your fame when I frame the crime scene Van Gogh starry night bones play Monet bobbing spotlights but I'm Bobby Knight when i borrow mics I don't play My lines make lifelines go from spike lines to straight bright lines every time I rhyme that means I'm killing more than just your mic time By design my sixteens are vivid like hi def split screens color schemes iller than dream scenes you adolescent rappers better get it right Your rep is equal to a hill of beans in dead of night bibles and vernacular disembowel attacking ya medevac-in’ ya baggin you and that crew that ya braggin ta And i aint mad atcha, but if my name in ya songs you be gone they'll be half mast flaggin ya Rain fire like its lighter fluid The page ignites when im writing to it More lives than an Irish Druid There ain’t nothin to it but to do it Score a triple double then the game starts Diplayed the gift since Paleolithic cave art Swell and Trademarc rap Hamish and Braveheart Push the pedal to the grindstone and watch the blade spark Gotta acumen for time traveling Mind’s unraveling when this life is kinda baffling Sometimes just wanna pack it in Ain’t shit saccharine Tryina find my mark like Odin with the javelin Grab a pen and stab it in to stone tablets Shrapnel’ll shatter bone fragments These trap clones are so average Those who cut a butter cookie Ya nothin but a rookie n you playin with the top seed They gettin washed at Mach speed its Chuck Yeager Bringin the ruckus with that Shaolin style Loud flavor Foul behavior got em fightin the fuzz Writing this right in the moment before biting the dust Rain fire like its lighter fluid The page ignites when im writing to it More lives than an Irish Druid There ain’t nothin to it but to do it
9.
My brain zero to infinity in no time flat Chewed the fat, Jehoshaphat, cosigned that Believe him Son aint lie l i'm a funnAY guy Told yahweh it's ma way or the highway What i say go Would i play? No. Take a spa day kill ya crew Until u feeling this too in the pit of your belly where that fat sweaty deli meats'll turn into jelly til you shit it out too Chew a couple benzos Just so i can blend tho Trust me i aint tryin to get fucked up I'm too mellow plus i fear death The breath of the reaper rest in my ether That aint the most flattering feature Art school major philosophy minor plowing through Hume at a diner looking for the finer points of existentialism in the liner notes looming in the back scribbling public enemy quotes Lord willin, I'm chillin like a Garth Ennis villain It’s endless killin, my pen is illin, need penicillin The new bird flu, I’m feelin guilty in a sense Pleading innocence, eating after dinner mints While these cowards actin stupid dense I’ll be out in Maui gettin rowdy with the Supermensch Threw a wrench in the proceedings Spoke French for the whole meeting Ah oui then Hold my soulmate close in the cold evening Knowing moments like those are so fleeting I’m Basho with the haiku Sky’s blue when I’m roamin around Hyrule Play the ocarina, stop and pop n lock in rock arenas Do hip-hop collage Bahamadia Rhyme or reason, no idea You’re befuddled in the best way Soliloquies you won’t get until the next day Say hello to the stumbling drunk he’s on his stool again, The no good, down and dirty rotten pale hooligan, He’s losing his touch, Trust no one, He’s not sober, For over 10 minutes, The kids just not kosher, What a joker, Living a hoax, Smoke and mirrors, White as a ghost, Have a toast, Hold ya spirits, Don’t go near him, He soaking in beer, Hoping to cope with his fears, Barely coherent, Still fighting the good fight though, In his own head, He feeling like a maestro; Let the dice roll, leaving it up to luck, Hoping that up above, they believe in the ugly fuck, Watching them things tumble is giving em, Such a rush, The gangs all here, But nobodies huddling up, Lucky us, seems the glitters is gold, He’s a loner roaming solo on the yellow brick road, Lord help me, the youth losing health All selfies and no knowledge of self New offer My mind in a flyin saucer Left from bets on the television set Life is what it costs ya People gettin stabbed in my city Over petty shit, Not caring what you ready with Low key livin in the gritty Wearing clothes that my friends give me Life isnt pretty Raw, just like your connect get Before it ever even took its first step Yeah the kid slick Get around like a cow lick Olive oil plated Like Popeyes dick Pull up quick, leave em with the case and point High stakes, gettin caught with some beef and a joint Amountin the troop And we spoutin the truth Jack knifin in the fountain of youth
10.
Go Or Stay 04:16
Verse 1 I spent 30 years living a eulogy fluently discourse the missed course-that-cause-my-truancy Like you were doing me a favor when you ruined me What nearly killed me had clearly healed me In time peeled the yearly layer-of-grime-off-the-rind And there goes the shine I left behind a husk the color of dust at dusk so thin you could see the heart within-Pumping like something outta John Galt junction, Try to be objective but being an asshole's subjective regardless of perspective Fuck it, even i'm confused And my ego's still bruised from ya festive mood of ya life and the attitude shit's alright Like the past don't bite, and memory destroyed by blight or the fires that you burn every night of ya life to keep from dying of fright But fuck it, who am i to gripe? Despite the fall in fahrenheit i'm a callous acolyte of might over mind over matter So i chose the latter I aint mean the one that comes after I mean the one to the noose in the rafters That loosen the laughter outta chests of the rest i wronged all along Or take the long view And i could comp u an impromptu meeting with all you to argue the merits i considered inherent that fall thru the crack that you step on That breaks ya mother's back from then on led on a wild goose chase turkey shoot That left me with the urge to puke I return to the coup crippled and callous like Alice confused by the cheshire grins thru all the malice So pass this chalice or sippy cup of cyanide And divvy up some uppers after supper for a giddy up Verse 2 I beckon Chronos chewing on NoDoz full of more oh noes then yes yawls in the mess hall desk all Full of manuscripts I lift to a lighter i live thru a life a the type a shit that made a poor poet a pretentious writer I don't need an all nighter off the cuff I'm confident enough competent that a bluff can buffer enough of this suffering succotash you suckas pass off as ya cut In close quarters like most hoarders my floor is used more as open storage and most orders I ignore it like the heightened hype i feel when i type the most porous argument for these things that i write about life and insights like they might be right Shit i more lost than if i was accosted at night and dropped at black site darker than a blast site So why trust me, it's just me and my reflection at home alone trying to atone For the collection of bones in a shoebox That move me like doo wop pursue me like you walked back and let the truth talk About true loss true lies who lost who and why left staring at a ruined sky i was broken and focusing on the negatives soaking in beer liquor and sedatives day after day it got competitive Night after night so repetitive i never lived so close to comatose These societal ills have got us stockpiling pills miles of hills of crushed dust A pill for every letter in the alphabet the beta and the alpha sit cross legged slit wristed fog headed And I'm wedded to success Indebted to excessive duress I'm an emotional mess at best

about

Limited edition 7-Inch Lathe Cut Records (including Instant MP3 Download of the full LP) & exclusive merch packages are available at TinyURL.com/TrademarcSFR

"Blood Meridian" is the Strange Famous debut LP of the versatile and ferocious Boston, Massachusetts-area emcee TRADEMARC. It is also the latest milestone in a decades-long career that has taken the man born Marc Predka from the deep underground of the Northeast hip hop scene to signing his name at the bottom of a contract with the vaunted Columbia Records label to the brink of an internal abyss that he was never guaranteed a return from. Trademarc’s tale is one that has been hard-earned. It is a story that is worth telling, and it’s also one that he wouldn’t mind taking a break from speaking on.

When the world last heard from Predka, it was 2015 and he had collaborated with producer DC The MIDI Alien to create the album "Black Ash Days," a deeply personal documentation of his descent into complete emotional and mental breakdown. The album was a stark and harrowing look into his darkest moments, including accounts of his multiple suicide attempts. It was also an important step in his catharsis. Marc explains the decisions he made when deciding how to follow such a heavy and intimate record: “I felt the need to expand my reach beyond that subject matter. I didn’t want those experiences to define who I am as a person and artist forever. The 'BAD' album will always be there as a document of that side of me. I live with Bi-Polar Disorder, which many people do, but with this project I felt it would be healthy to display more range than just being ‘the depressed, suicidal guy.’ I’d covered that ground in depth, and wanted to show what it was like to spend some time in the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The sound of "Blood Meridian" was shaped by the Filthy Animals production team, and the vibe came about in part due to the influence of the producers’ PENPALS crew. “I feel like being around those guys really helped open me up to different, more positive, even humorous avenues of music I probably wouldn’t have explored without them. They really helped get me out of my comfort zone with their amazing work,” Trademarc explains. “The one song I had the most fun writing and recording was 'Set It Off', a posse cut with Penpals and Lars Viola.” The lighthearted, upbeat affair allowed Predka to return to his roots in hip hop, to a time when bonds were formed through good-natured competition among emcees battling to put down the best rap on a track. “This was just a bunch of dudes laughing and recording in Brooklyn for a weekend. I really think that energy is well represented in that song.”

Trademarc is no stranger to forming and furthering friendships through music. He began his musical journey with fellow indie rap heavy-hitters 7L & Esoteric (CZARFACE), forming his first official group (under the name God Complex) with the duo and other college friends in the mid-1990s. After the crew’s amicable split, Trademarc hooked up with another (more literal) heavy-hitter: his cousin, professional wrestler (and rapper) John Cena. The pair released the RIAA certified-platinum LP "You Can't See Me" on Columbia Records, touring the US and Europe and making high profile appearances on TV’s Monday Night RAW. Predka struck out on his own with his follow-up, the more conceptual "Inferiority Complex", and in 2008 joined old friends Esoteric and DC for 3 releases as the indie rap supergroup East Coast Avengers.

After the Avengers disassembled, Trademarc’s next endeavor led to a fortuitous connection: “Sage Francis liked the video that was released for the title track of 'Black Ash Days' and we started a dialogue. It was an amazing moment for me as I remember bumping 'Personal Journals' (Sage’s 2002 debut LP) quite a bit when that dropped.” The two continued to trade emails and demos, and after hearing what was in the works for Trademarc’s next project, an official alliance was inevitable. “Sage graciously welcomed me to the Strange Famous family, and 'Blood Meridian' is the result.”

Francis makes an appearance on the "Blood Meridian" track “Latuda”, a critique of Big Pharma and its effect on our over-prescribed culture. Other standout cuts include the first single “Codebreaker”, where moody horn stabs spar with gritty breaks as Trademarc punches himself back to life with full zombie-fist action, and “Honor Killing”, a two-verse double-time assault that showcases the rapper’s verbal dexterity, putting to rest at the outset any question of Trademarc’s bona fides.

"Blood Meridian", the SFdigi debut LP from TRADEMARC, drops November 22, 2019 on all digital and streaming platforms (including Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and Tidal).

Limited edition 7-Inch Lathe Cut Records (including Instant MP3 Download of the full LP), exclusive merch packages & Digital Downloads are available at TinyURL.com/TrademarcSFR

credits

released November 22, 2019

ALBUM CREDITS:
All tracks produced by Filthy Animals (Squires, Rapswell, & Killclaw)
Sax on “Not A Love Song” by Rapswell
All tracks mixed and mastered by Jeremy Torres
Cuts on 7-Inch B-Side track “Werner Herzog” by 7L
Press photos by Stephen Ciampi (Stephen@juneof87.com)

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