Scream Phoenix

It’s an expression I’ve come to fall back on over and over again – “Scream Phoenix.”

It’s rooted in Cannibal Ox’s album The Cold Vein. The meaning is obvious, rising from the ashes requires a declaration. But the magic is in the contrasting statement – “I’m just a pigeon.” 

Pigeons hole up in cities. They hideout in the structures of others, existing as scavengers, dependent on the system for survival. They technically can migrate, but – pigeons can’t be cold for too long. So they usually stay put. Better to not risk it.

Relating yet? 

There’s a pigeon mentality. There’s a pigeon reality. The prisons we put ourselves in, and the prisons we exist in.* 

The whole album is a musical and lyrical struggle with how to break out. Without getting too cold, without dying. Just… how to live, on your terms, without feeling trapped or dependent. 

The pigeon on a cold city skyscraper ledge is a world apart from the phoenix, screaming as it rises from the flames. Trapped as pigeons, trapped in the cold vein of a metallic existence – trapped in contrast.

It’s why the expression has stuck with me so long, I’m sure of it. 

The album sounds like early 2000s underground hip-hop. I don’t know how well it holds up or appeals to anyone who wasn’t there. But the mentality and the call to break out, from within, Can Ox tapped into something eternal. 

I’ll keep saying it. Don’t be a pigeon. And if you are, if you find yourself traped in your mind or holed up by others, there’s only one thing to do: scream phoenix. 

Ps. If you’re interested, two lyrical snippets and the four key songs on the subject are below:

Taking chances in life trying to get byAnd stop all the time gettin’ highGotta clear mind and stay focused, avoid serpentsAnd worship lifeWe like merchantsStreet peasants with these lessonsLive, build, and pass away, and keep stressin’Thinking how we gonna master daysWith passion, that’s why we rap this wayFrom Manhattan 115 to 1-3-5We pigeons became phoenix with open minds

Flying against the windBut now my shell is weightless and fireproofBut the truth is I’m proof of living fireI’m not made of organics, not even wiresJust felt my body light up and heard the choirSee to the common fowl the phoenix is sireMost high of all things to ever have wingsExistence is struggle, resistance is futileMeanwhile we now possess the power of ten sunsTo transcend and elevate into oneFamine, the disease and senseless dying is donePigeon bird got a breath left

*extra Cool Hand Luke

A quick walk through the links. These are the first two songs on the album, then the last two. The whole record is such a sonic vibe, this is just a taste. I still remember the night it “clicked” for me too. I was walking home in a heavy fog, way late with nobody else around. The concrete and brick of the campus I was on was only lit by pre-LED streetlights. The cold cloudiness and dull ache of the natureless environment – Cannibal Ox and El-P in my headphones, it just nailed the visual and the visceral vibes. The Cold Vein is still a favorite albums to throw on anytime I’m driving out of NYC in the dark too. Plus, that Jaco sample in “Pigeon” – I mean, COME ON.