Sunburn
Witness Lyrics

Well is that cloud painted on the sky?
The singer questions whether what they're seeing is real or fake.

Or is it simply where the canvas is blank?
Perhaps what they are seeing is a void where there is nothing.

I realize as I stand at the banks
The singer comes to a realization as they stand by the river.

Of the river at the feet of the city
They are standing at a waterfront within a city.

Where I can see the bigger picture
From their current vantage point, they can perceive a more comprehensive view of things.

And it triggers something deep within me Philly
This epiphany is particularly significant in Philadelphia, which is where the singer is.

That would be the backdrop
Philly is the milieu against which the rest of the narrative plays out.

Home to a million little cafes
Philadelphia is replete with cozy places to get coffee.

With lattes and laptops
These cafes often have patrons with portable computers and fancy coffee drinks.

And that's when I noticed it
This is when the artist becomes aware of something important.

People only seem to leave their homes
Most folks from the city tend to spent time outside their residences.

To float in daydreams and postpone the loneliness
Many of these people visit the cafes to fantasize and evade their sense of isolation.

But sunshine don't mean sunburn
A sunny day does not imply you won't get burned.

And a stone is only a stone if you're gonna leave them unturned
A rock you don't examine is not fully appreciated as such.

Some learn just a little quicker than others
Not everyone understands things at the same pace.

You've gotta live like you never knew the definition of it
To truly live life to the fullest, one must disregard all previous notions of it.

I met a girl at the Jersey Shore
The artist describes an encounter with a girl they met at a beach in New Jersey.

That wore clip on earrings and stumbled in high heels
The girl in question had fake earrings on and was having trouble walking in her footwear.

And no I wasn't sober when she tapped me on the shoulder
The singer admits he was drinking at the time of their meeting.

But I told her that I thought her smile wasn't quite real
Despite his inebriation, the artist delivered a slightly impolitic comment about her appearance.

And it must have been the drinks
The artist believes that his statement was caused by his imbibing.

Cause I ain't that smooth
He acknowledges that he's not exactly suave with the opposite sex.

Well it could have been the ink
The other possible explanation for his behavior could be his tattoos.

She had a few tattoos
The girl had some ink on her own person.

But dude it's hard to find a woman at a cover band bar
The singer laments the difficulty of meeting woman in a dive bar with a live band.

That prefers a conversation to another man's car
He's looking for a woman who enjoys talking rather than being impressed by luxury cars.

On the real
This is his earnest opinion.

And maybe all she wanted was a cigarette
The girl may have had no ulterior motives and just wanted a smoke.

Or may she was just a shadow in my drunk dream
It's possible the girl's existence was only a hallucination caused by his drunkenness.

She gave a name and a number that wasn't hers
The girl gave him false contact information.

Said we all got a shadow moonlighting as a sunbeam
She gave him a philosophical musing about the nature of humanity before disappearing.

They tell me sleep is the cousin of death
The artist mentions a common saying that suggests the similarity betwen sleep and death.

So I would guess that a dream is the daughter of sleep
He extrapolates from the previous maxim to suggest that a dream comes about as a result of slumber.

Sometimes I wonder whether Witness even exists
The artist reflects on whether his own persona is real or not.

Or if it's just a dream that was caught in the beat
Perhaps Witness is simply an idea set to music.

They're like kid, you got it going on
Others have praised his skills as a musician.

Tell me that my flow is strong
People have praised his rap delivery.

Now I'm in the basement til the break of dawn
He's spending all night in a dingy basement working on music.

Making songs
He's writing music.

Seeking validation from the Hip Hop heads
He's looking for confirmation from within his own genre that his music is good.

Like the praise and adulation is the only thing I got left
He seems to feel that accolades from peers is his only source of self-esteem.

But on the surface the water appears still
He describes the appearance of water that looks calm and placid.

Unaffected by the children skipping stones on it's skin
The superficial smoothness of the water is belied by the ripples caused by children playing near it.

Sometimes I bet it wishes it could just disappear
Even the still waters may have their own desires and regrets.

Like a feather in the city being blown by the wind
The artist describes a feather at liberty in the urban wind.

We all wanna disappear sometimes
Everyone has moments they would like to be invisible or non-existent.

But we wake up every morning just in case that sun shines
Regardless of our desire to disappear, we wake up daily in hopes of having good luck and feeling happy.