The Grandfather Clock
Aceyalone Lyrics

If you knew what makes me tick
If you understood what motivates me

It'll probably make you sick
It might disgust you

Lay my days of my life in front of you
Show you my entire life story

and I'll let you take your pick
And you can choose what to make of it

Come on
Let's go

Pull back the curtain but make sure that you are certain
Take a look behind the scenes, but be sure you're ready for it

That it will be worth the energy that you end up exerting
That it will be valuable enough to justify the effort

Now walk past the doorway step in the foyer
Enter the room through the entrance

Don't you bother knocking
Don't bother announcing yourself

I'm a grandfather clockin' everything you do
I'm keeping a close eye on you like a clock watches time

I'm seeing through you faultiness
I can see through your flaws

So sprinkle me but not with saltiness
Give me some attention, but don't be confrontational

The ghetto taught me this
I learned this from my experiences in tough situations

I fought for this, I fight for this, I spend my life for this
I struggled to achieve my goals and continue to do so every day

And if you put your brain to work it ain't hard to decipher this
If you think critically, it's not difficult to understand

Counting down the days boy closer to your doom
The clock is ticking, bringing you closer to your imminent end

Time keeper for the Reaper, the family heirloom
The clock symbolizes the passing of generations and the inevitability of death

Like staring at my grandfather clock inside my room
Watching time go by, like looking at a clock in my bedroom

It'll never miss a tick-tock, it strikes everyday a noon
It's always on schedule and never fails to strike at the right time

Every hour on the hour, it'll sing a tune
It chimes every hour with a musical melody

Every half hour ot'll croon and yell out at the moon
It also chimes every half hour with a distinct sound

You can't escape the master time, no one is immune
No one can avoid the passage of time

The hands of time will grab you when the moments opportune
Time will catch up with you at the right moment

Carved from a tree trunk bark
Made from the bark of a tree trunk

What a wonderful work of art
It's a beautiful piece

Well I usually wear my sundial
I often use a device that tracks the sun's movement

but it don't work when it's dark
It's only useful in daylight

(don't work when it's dark)

No electric parts spark as mechanical as he is
It operates on clockwork instead of electricity

He'll kindly say just wind me and then show me where the key is
It just needs to be wound up and there's a specific key to use

Then I go about my day and I flow about the way
I continue with my day and move forward

He never has nothing to say, he just sits there on display
It's a silent object, just there for show

I seen one in the cafe, one inside the cabaret
I've seen similar clocks in various places

Timekeeper for the Reaper, what a pretty price to pay
It's a reminder of the inevitability of death, which is a heavy price to pay

At midnight you will hear the serenade and don't you be afraid
It will chime at midnight with a melodic tune

It's like clock work orange lemonade with the bottomless glass
It's predictable, like the drink in the movie A Clockwork Orange

When it's time for that ass!!
When it's time for something to happen

Tick-tock
The sound of the clock ticking

My Grandfather clock goes
The clock that I'm talking about

The pendulum is swinging and it just don't ever stop
The pendulum swings continuously

Tick-tock
The sound of the clock ticking

My Grandfather clock goes
The clock that I'm talking about

I used to have this coo-coo clock
I used to have a different kind of clock

that would bother my Grandfather clock
That disturbed the quiet of the grandfather clock

Never gave it no rest so I flew over the top of the nest
It never stopped making noise, so I got rid of it

And then at my request I ask him to resign
I got rid of the coo-coo clock by asking it to leave

He was never on time, one hour behind
It was always late by an hour

But he did not fuck with mine cause I murdered that machine
I got rid of it because it annoyed me too much

If you ever beat the clock you know exactly what I mean
If you've ever succeeded in beating the clock, you understand

(exactly what I mean)

I hold my Grandfather clock in high esteem
I highly value the grandfather clock

My alarm clock screams cause he knows how long it takes me
My alarm clock reminds me of how much time I have in the morning

But my Grandfather clock leans over and he shakes me
The grandfather clock wakes me up gently

And they both race against time to see who will be
Both clocks try to wake me up first

the first to wake me
The first one to get me up

But when I became awoke my alarm clock was broke
When I woke up, my alarm clock was broken

And my Grandfather clock was staring right down my throat
The grandfather clock was right in front of me

And he leaned a little bit closer and he told and I quote:
And he whispered to me

"If you ever race against me, you will surely come up short,"
"If you try to compete with me, you'll lose"

He said, "I'm better than your Timex, your Rolex or your Swatch
He claimed to be superior to other types of watches

Your Fossil, Casio, Quartz, your diamond studded watch,"
Including fancy or expensive ones

He said, "I control how long you stay alive
He claimed to control how long someone lives

I'ma tap you on you shoulder at eleven fifty-five"
He'll remind me when it's almost time to stop living

When the time arrives and then and only then
When it's the right time, and only then

you'll have your five minutes of funk
You'll have a brief moment of excitement or fun

I said my final salutations as I stepped amongst the monks
I said goodbye as I went on my way

Then he took me exactly where I stodd like he should
He brought me where I needed to be

And I tried to reason with him and I tried knocking on wood
I tried to talk to him and asked for luck

But he said
But he replied

Chorus
Refrain of the song