Basil

Background

"Basil" was a demo recorded in 2008 during the A Thousand Suns sessions. It was released in November 2015 on the LP Underground 15 CD.

A LPU exclusive video about the song was released on January 8, 2016. On the video, Mike said: "At the time we were writing this demo, we thought we would going to be making or doing music to a video game. That video game relatively quickly fizzled out, but the ideas of the songs and kind of the vibe of the thing eventually turned into A Thousand Suns. This is pretty much as early as you can get as far as a demo. And so it doesn't really sound like A Thousand Suns ended up sounding like. It was a moment in time when kind of a little rap, almost freestyle kind of thing, I quickly wrote this thing out over a beat that I've made on my laptop. And this is what it turned into."

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Basil (2008 Demo)	LP Underground 15	0:50	2008	November 25, 2015

Lyrics

Album Version

Yeah
Heh
Yeah
And I'm taking my time
I'm shaping and shaking the rhyme like I'm staking my claim
Like I'm making a bomb I'm making it simple and plain
That I'm sick of the game, sick of the simple and sane
I got that reality dragged back to the basics
Give me that beat, it is what it's got to be
Cause the rhythm's an addiction that I've got to feed
You could say what you think that it ought to be
And pop lipped to your buddy just not with me, k?
Cause I'm heavy with the track drums
Capped with the boom back, back in action
Slapped all your crew back to a fraction
Rap like a wolf pack, am I back son
And they do cause the rep stays solid and true
We ought to be problems, be stopped before we do
Something stupid and ridiculous
Look just, I'm sick of this
Stupid movie music to the life and death
Until your breath is gone