Kodak Black's "Dying to Live:" The Most Emotional Bars

Kodak Black’s Dying to Live is naturally a record that leaves you thinking and feeling things. Easily one of his best attributes is his ability to convey themes of paranoia, neglect, anger and terror with the easiest turn of a phrase. Less about "BARS" in a punchline or quotable sense, but rather a man who can provide an impressionistic sense of where he’s at in life; a surprisingly resonant one at that, despite how chaotic and unreal his own life often becomes in the public eye. It's hard to call Kodak a relatable figure, but his music manages to humanize him in a way that simply watching him in the public eye could never manage to accomplish.

Dying To Live is a record that at its strongest, can manage to project massive feelings of gloom, frustration, while simultaneously never losing its sense of urgency and desire for survival. Kodak Black, to his credit, is a rapper who certainly registers that he can easily live life wrong and wants to do better. Its a message he recites again and again; maybe for those he clearly understands he can influence, and maybe to finally convince himself that he’s capable of changing his ways. And likewise, maybe one can use so much of these quotations to reflect on the nature of him as both a rapper and a person.

I'm God-sent like He sent me up so I can relay these messages
Like He use me as his vessel, like He use me as an instrument
They locked me in a box, they hate how God just keep on blessin' me
They locked me in a box, I pray to God this ain't my destiny

Lil' Jackboy shoulda just been my brother, I swear I love that n***a
I don't even need your love no more, I got a little heart
I do my own time, I don't need no n***a to take no charge
I couldn't even get a letter from you and that was your gun
You ain't send me nothin' or ask no boy, "How your lil' brother doin'?"

Back of the Maybach with the tints so you don't notice me
When the money bring the fame, you can't even roll in peace
Guess all the pain that I went through had to be the recipe
I stood tall through it all and brought out the best of me
Ayo, dismiss all them charges, that ain't my destiny
Everything I said, I stood on it, I got integrity
G.A., I put my hood on it, I bring the checks with me
You need security by your grave so you can rest in peace

I don't even feel the love be real no more, so I keep my distance
Remember I ran me up my millions, you was in your feelings
Even that time you shake my hand and you don't even grip it
But if I put that shit on blast, they gon' say I'm trippin'
I'ma just follow my intuition and I'ma keep on livin'
I wonder sometimes if you wishin', shit could've been different

They don't know how I feel inside, traumatized, criminalized
But yet I'm idolized, I swear to God sometimes I wonder why
It got me brainwashed, lil' ones off the same block
Remember I had to slang rock, remember I let them thangs pop
Damn, I just wanna raise my son, wish it could've been how it was
Sometimes I wanna grab my gun
Sometimes I don't be wanna hear none

Say ain't I resurrect, how I pull up in the flesh?
You ain't understand me, I got more precise
I say ain't I resurrect, how I pull up in the flesh
Just got out today, already sent my dawg a kite
Remember I was on that flight totin' pipes, out here rollin' dice
Now I get a hundred K to rock the mic

All the people that was 'round me, they ain't have my best interest
You ain't have my best interest
You lazy with yo' loyalty and yo' position
And now I gotta execute 'cause you don’t listen
That throwaway on me dumpin’ with precision
I know shawty only on my trail 'cause she see a ticket
I’m readin' between the lines and peepin' they intentions
Can't have you n***s around me, shit gon’ go to missing
I had to press that bump, I had to feel it
You know if it ever come down to it, a n***a with it

I can't lie and say that I don't love you, shawty
You know that you want me right there, well, you got me
All this fame got me nauseous
Tryna dodge the reaper got me boxed in

They wanna see the day I turn a rapper n***a
Let this money make me soft so they can bash a n***a
Like a n***a water whip, I'm comin' back hard
With the same vibe when I used to jack cars
How I boot up on these n***s, ain't got no remorse
I'm droppin' knowledge on you young n***s, no charge
And a n***a still thuggin' with this Prada on
Hundred thousand dollar watch, you know what time I'm on

N***s gettin' kidnapped just to show you that it's real
N***s gettin' snatched, showin' you n***s know right where you live
When you dissin' me, n***a, that better be really how you feel
'Cause I ain't takin' no apologies, I don't care if it's sincere