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Never Gone (feat. Kat Ataca)

from You Can't Escape It by it's about good

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    Christian dance music for the awakening of humanity.

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about

When we first got this beat from Austin titled "Lonely Nights" the immediate vision for the track was to follow two different stories about being "Gone." This inspiration came from Kanye West's second album, "Late Registration" and a wonderfully artistic track called "Gone" that uses an Otis Redding sample to give three different rappers with three different stories about being gone: gone to jail, gone on from this human experience, and gone from the rap scene. I always loved the idea of different voices sharing stories around a theme and that is what this song became.
We connected with Kat, a rapper from Jamaica Plain, through Veronica Switzer at TMCYouth. I called her up, walked over to her apartment, ate a delicious vegan meal, and we got straight down to business. After hearing the instrumental within twenty minutes or so she had written her verse - the first rap she had written and performed in years.
After spending a bunch of her own money to buy beats and get studio time, she was worn out and felt as if all of her work and time put into an album was futile. The message of her album was to articulate how she had come to understand her relationship to the almighty Spirit without a conventional "saved" narrative so often found in contemporary theology. So she stepped away from the microphone and pursued social justice projects and volunteered and traveled through Mexico. So her verse is about facing your fears, returning from being "gone" - and proving that our hearts never leave what we love and are led to by our Creator.
My verse is a partly-true story about a man who feels disconnected from his church - caught up in the ritual and wondering what he's getting out of it. Then "Grandma Ethel" comes into the narrative, an old Sunday School teacher, who seems to appears suddenly with a phone call and gives him a reminder of what church is really about. She represents those who come to a clear perspective on the infinite nature of God and, unafraid of death, is ready to move on to the next phase of existence. By calling the main character, she awakens him to the understanding that church is really about healing (for oneself and others) through unselfish love.
And so the track ends with a statement for both stories - that we can't ever really be gone from the true idea of Church or separated from our purpose as long as we are living in love. "Love one another - for God's sake" is probably one of my favorite lines on the album because we’re still trying!!!

lyrics

John 13:36
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 583: 12-19

Had to set the birds free from my chest
and so I did.
Set a goal:
rocking' shows on weekends.
I made an album.
Dropped plenty of quid.
Had to tell the story of how I got to where I did.
I had to tell the story of how I was saved,
and not by saying yes to a conventional faith.
But only by the work of grace could I explain
how new life had come to such barren terrain.
Sockin' nip from my gut,
serving it to em' like what
always got a crew of ladies
come on up to the front.
When I took the mic
felt I was taking a stand
for everybody on the path of true soul healing.
But lesson learned -
I cannot do it alone.
I've got a lot to say and give
so I'm asking you, "Yo, Creator!
Help me share my gifts.”
I patiently await the next phase:
Manifest.

It's never gone, so just hold on
It’s never gone, so don’t let it be
It’s never gone, so just hold on
Worship in Truth and sincerity.
Yes, indeed.

My religion wasn't simple,
couldn't stand being in the temple.
Following so many rituals
more orthodox than I was a Gentile.
The services were boring - I always feel asleep -
I wasn't getting what I needed.
Every week I came no healing.
Church was all about receiving.
It's all about receiving - isn't it?
Then one day I got a call from Grandma Ethel on church business.
She told me she was leaving,
my old Sunday School teacher.
Not just the church, but all of her beliefs,
and her house,
and her money,
and her friends,
and her family.
That she’s tired of it all and she just wanted some peace.
Before she left this life she wanted to speak to me
about my being “gone.”

About how much she missed me and if anything was wrong.
There was a moment of silence in heaven for about a half an hour,
and in that time of silent prayer I felt the Spirit's power.
And Ethel never hung up - in fact, she's still on the line.
She made me realize that in Church there is no I,
only u, and with that I had my come to Jesus moment.
That if I gave all I could give I would have far more room to get.
And with that church totally changed and it became my heaven.
And not just in a building, but wherever I was led to,
because church is a state of mind - and that's what I'm inside of.

So play that hymn - homie,
let the congregation sing.
Church is just a building if it doesn't have healing.
Play that hymn - homie,
let the congregation sing.
Church is not a building and it must have healing.

© 2013 It's About Good

credits

from You Can't Escape It, released December 24, 2012
Austin Taylor; Kat Ataca; Michael Morgan

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it's about good Boston, Massachusetts

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