SHOES (feat. Virgil Abloh)

Uh
 Yeah, uh
 Been standing in line since Thursday
 I heard a rumor they might be dropping them early
 Should have 'em just in time for your birthday
 Irrelevant holiday affair
 Got one of those three-leg folding chairs
 I am what you call prepared for the camp-out
 Evening brings the battery-powered lamps out
 Warm clothes but blanket 'case it get cold
 Corn chips and basic staples to hold
 Hunger over 'til Uber Eats is ordered
 Maybe pizza, or quesadillas and sopa
 Got a little cooler with assorted waters and sodas
 Cinnamon sugar-coated malassada, the odor
 Makes me the envy of the line
 If not the enemy, not my energy
 I'll be spending plenty of time
 Inside the books that I bought
 Got audios and regulars
 Quite the party goer and reveler
 So
 On today's to-do list is to design
 A pair of running shoes
 The goal is as always, in my work
 Is, to add emotion to inanimate objects, so
 Uh, release day is finally upon us
 More celebratory than the former
 But mixed with bittersweet vibes most certainly switched to different beats
 More policed than Justinian's Byzantinian Christian beliefs
 There's a risen rhythm you can feel it all in the streets
 Like a marathon or a parade
 Poets might wanna pull they pens out like grenades or
 Or that model for a year and a half
 And write down all the tears and the laughs
 A shot across the bow of the tyrannous class
 Quote from man standing on float
 The whole event is just biggest-fan-channeling dope
 I mean, one just feels privileged and esteemed
 Inwardly serene and spiritually clean
 Even the line feels like a team
 In stark opposition to a competition for things
 With that
 These shoes that we are about to design with words
 Starts with a sole
 Not a sole, but soul, you know, what touches you to earth
 That's floating in nowhere, the soul
 Yeah, uh
 With touching signs of equality to match
 White kid at the front let me go first 'cause I was black
 Said it was only right
 He was used to having head starts his entire life
 Maybe it was time to step aside like trilobites
 Touching, I never forget it like riding bikes
 The ordeal starts to spring feelings like guiding light
 Permanent villains go about chilling they psychic fights
 Nice, and to a buyer's delight
 You're limited to two so that means I'm buying them twice
 One pair to wear, one pair on ice
 Aftermarket speculation will surely hike up the price
 Call that all in the plans
 Feeling like Mike with the ball in my hands
 Swear to God, it's like the best game he ever played
 I get to wear the first pair possibly ever made
 What does that sole look like
 It's soft to run on
 But tough enough to withstand the reality of the ground
 Or the reality of the context we're living in
 That's the soul
 Let's just call it black
 Uh, yeah
 I get applause as I step outside the pop-up
 The shop resembles the unfinished house he was in before they shot us
 We fell down, then we got up
 Pick Pac up, pick Nip up
 This is the type of tripping that scuff kicks up
 Traditionally creases was a style to refuse
 But now they represent every mile in your shoes
 Any mud on your sole gets toweled and removed
 It's like I'm retracing every trial, know it took strength
 Giant steps flowers growing out of the footprints
 Liberation, here's your invitation
 It's a relay race, continuation
 Get the baton and keep bringing it back
 That string theory means we'll keep being attached
 Last thing, this is something of a sight
 Even when you take 'em off they keep running for your life
 You know, can withstand multiple beatings by the ground
 But it's tough enough to continue on, that's the sole
 Now there's an upper on top of that sole
 The upper is made of leather
 Or maybe knit or maybe both, you know?
 That sole and that upper combined by stitches
 Leaves for a dynamic enclosure around the foot
 There's a tongue, there's even shoelaces
 You know, those shoelaces
 They are, literally, as elastic as a rubber band
 But as tough as links of steel, let's call it chain links
 So, here we have the shoe taking shape
 There's a logo on the side, fill in the blank of your favorite one
 They're all man-made, it's all good
 But this shoe, these Air Ahmauds or these Air Arberys
 Are starting to take shape now, you know?
 They connect man and earth, they allow you to run
 That running is freedom
 Accelerated heart rate by design through design
 Air Ahmaud, Air Arbery
 What color are these shoes?
 The upper of these shoes
 Maybe white, maybe black, pick your favorite
 But, you know, the world's black and white anyways
 So might as well limit the whole color palette to that
 Signed, Virgil Abloh, in quotes of course
 Oh yeah, there's a red zip-tie on this thing
 It makes it our own
 It's tied into a history of art that's now
 Copright 2020