Listen: The Ghost Inside Drummer Andrew Tkaczyk Raps About Band’s Bus Crash

I’ll be honest: when I first saw that The Ghost Inside drummer Andrew Tkaczyk had posted a rap about the band’s tumultuous past year, I cringed. There are simply not a lot of examples of musicians successfully straddling the line between rock and hip-hop. So I assumed the worst.

I assumed incorrectly.

Not only is Tkaczyk’s track really good — like, “I’d listen to it for pleasure” good — but not hurting is that he has some real shit to rap about and isn’t just concerned with nookie or making himself out to be some gangsta he’s not or bawitdaba or whatever. I sincerely hope this track gets an official, proper release at some point.

In the meantime…

Just like my profile says, I like heavy riffs and hip hop. I’ve posted some heavy riffs. Now here’s some hip hop. This is the music I fell in love with before anything else as a kid in the early 90’s. That’s your boy on the mic too ????. Lyrics below. . . . “Life dealt me the cruel hand Try to picture and envision Not a split second to make a decision The next thing I know I’m getting chopped and split with incisions Frozen in linens Dilaudid got my mother fucking brain spinnin Blood clots formed and now the Warfarins thinnin Could this be karma coming to collect the years I’ve been sinning? And now My back is in a brace I’m down a limb and I’m wishin That it was different now my nerves are shocking, stabbing and pinching Maybe this is punishment for all the bitching I did back when I took my life for granted playing drums for a living So now I pop a couple Perc’s when it’s the pain that I’m feeling And when the phantom feelings hit I choose sedation as healing I’m crawling in my own skin so I start digging and peeling Into the depths of my soul so here’s my heart that I’m spilling Inspiration, determination, defeat, adversity are just a couple of things I’m told I evoke when I speak After only 1 year on 1 knee I finally see That if you put your mind to it you can do the same thing.”

A video posted by Andrew Tkaczyk (@mtndrew) on Nov 13, 2016 at 12:09pm PST

[via The PRP]