Ink Don't Bleed

Some got hits about the racks that they earn

Say there's Benjamins and Jacksons in their pocket to burn

But when they shoot the video producers pass around a bucket full of rented jewelry for them to rock and return

I know a straightedge rapper who acts like a sheep herder

A vegan on the mic who's screaming that meat's murder

but when everybody's sleepin, he be creepin

slugging back the whiskey, hating himself and sneakin a cheese burger

There's a pop idol at the top of the charts

and while her record's being cut she's on the beach in St. Barts

while a session singer who didn't have the face to make it

signs a nondisclosure agreement and belts out her parts

It's hard, cause I got bars that are big uppin Woody Allen

But maybe he's a predator who's digging in his talons

there's a balance and often i don't know how to feel

In a fake and tainted world, seek the real

Now I can't change the past but a man's gotta man up

It's hard to believe sometimes I get the best of me

Now, I'm doing what I can but I'm a man not a damn chump

I can say it if you need, but I'd rather let the ink bleed

We dismiss our heroes' skeletons no matter how grim

my fans saying "I'd be honored to be injured by him"

well fam, this branch is thin, but i'll go out on a limb

to say she didn't love her ulna poking out of her skin

being pumped full of morphine and tied to machines

they cut off my jeans, I heard her in the ambulance scream

she's in school to do tattoos and might've had nerve damage

So I could've cost a girl a chance at her dream

Meanwhile he pops painkillers, until the dude is numb

knew I was a stupidass just not that I'm a ruthless one

youth is easily influenced so should you be rooting for me

if I touch a thousand lives but on the way I ruin some

the rule of thumb is all publicity's your advantage

but human lives are not collateral damage

bandage the wound and then vanish, blank as the newest of canvases

when they zoom in the cameras give em the truth

I can't change the past but a man's gotta man up

It's hard to believe sometimes I get the best of me

Now, I'm doing what I can but I'm a man not a damn chump

I can say it if you need, but I'd rather let the ink bleed

Megachurch leaders sleeping with male hookers

mayors hitting crackpipes with their cookers

Each week a crooked politician gets caught

we're not shocked when they're cheaters, these days we're shocked when they're not

are they the person you thought? if they're perfect and hot

often we blame the victim, scoffing "they deserved what they got"

actors sweep it under the rug and resume with the plot

but they're amateurs and we can see the boom in the shot

If perception is reality then this could be a shocker

I've done my share of fucked up things that didn't get on Gawker

lots of tiny indiscretions way beyond the public eye

that if you saw would out probably out me as a complicated guy

Mike says you gotta separate a person from their art

but if the art's about that person you can't pull 'em apart

so you better watch the choices that you makin now because

they aren't something that matter, they're the only thing that does

Everything they say conflicts with everything I do

But I must admit I did it so I guess it might be true

Everything they say conflicts with everything I do

But I must admit I did it so I guess it might be true

Everything they say conflicts with everything I do

But I must admit I did it so I guess it might be true

Everything they say conflicts with everything I do

But I must admit I did it so I guess it might be true