Behind the Mask: The Story Behind “Watch Yah Mouth” by Travis Omen
The first single and intro track from 89 Octane dropped on March 31, 2023, titled “Watch Yah Mouth.” It was produced by Devize Beats, like the majority of the album.
Before we dive into the lyrics and concept of the track, I’d like to take a minute to tell y’all about Devize.
Who Is Devize Beats?
When I first started making tracks at age 16, which was 20 years ago, wtf, the popular site for sharing music was SoundClick. Not SoundCloud. SoundClick.
The site still exists, and if you go digging, you can find a lot of my earlier releases. Devize was a popular beatmaker back then. Some of his beats must have hit the top of the hip-hop instrumental charts, so if you’ve been a longtime fan of my music, you’ve likely heard me rapping over his drums for many years.
Devize is a beast from down under in Australia. I’ve never met the guy, but maybe one day this music will pop off enough that I can afford a ticket to Aussie, play a show, and maybe sit in the studio with him while he cooks.
Anyways, I just wanted to give him a shout-out. You can check out Devize Beats on BeatStars or find him on most social networks.
Finding the Sound of “Watch Yah Mouth”
My memory is a bit foggy on some of the details, but I’ll try to recall everything the best I can.
By the time this song was dropping, I already had the concept for 89 Octane in mind. I had a good handful of beats from Devize that I was already working on, and the second I heard it, I knew it had intro vibes written all over it.
If you listen to the single that’s already out on my Spotify or Apple Music page, you’ll notice the song drops immediately after a quick ad-lib from Rick Ross.
“Huuuh!”
I knew listeners’ attention spans were short nowadays, so I wanted to get right into the bars. However, depending on when you’re reading this, the real album version has the original introduction with these ’80s-style guitars. Those guitars were a big part of what made me think this was the best way to start the album. They remind me of some classic ’80s metal shit.
Then the drums kick in, and the rest is history.
Devize’s...his name is Dane, by the way. I’m gonna call him Dane from now on haha.
Dane’s drums have always been so hard-hitting. They’re the standout element of his production. If you hear these beats on good speakers or headphones, they just shaaake whatever system you’re listening through.
It’s funny too because he mentioned that he still uses the same software he used from day one. I dunno what the software is, but he swears by it. Even with all the new technology in the world, he sticks with the fundamentals and produces around them. I think there’s something in that software that allows those drums to go crazy.
Fuck, this is going to be a long blog if I keep rambling like this.
Writing Verse One With Luna
Aight, verse one.
I wrote verse one without the beat playing. I was still in my “freewritten” kinda era, where I would come up with frees while showering, driving to work, working, driving home, and later in the evening while walking my dogs.
For this one, however, I was actually working and walking a dog.
When I was running Truability full-time in 2023, I had to try to make money any way I could. My wife said, “You’re always walking dogs. Why don’t you walk other people’s?”
I thought, why not?
I found a nice family in NW Calgary with a small dog named Luna. I would walk her around lunchtime on weekdays. She was my first client, and I realized pretty quickly that my rate was way too low, considering the 20-minute drive I had to make to get to her every day.
Anyways, I digress. Rambling again.
Shout-out to Luna. She was with me when I wrote verse one, probably the other verses too in part.
How I Write Without the Beat Playing
Now that I think about the first lyrics being, “Here he come with that 89 Octane,” I must have already had the beat in mind.
Sometimes I’ll listen to the pattern a few times, remember the BPM in my mind, and decide how I’m gonna flow. After that, I leave the beat off and start writing in my head.
I can’t write with the beat playing on a loop like most rappers. We used to do that in the early days over many Devize beats in my parents’ basement. Once it plays five times in a row, this trance state can begin. I find that it doesn’t leave much room for the mental. You get stuck hearing the beat instead of your own thoughts.
So the beat is playing in my mind, Luna is beginning her 40-minute walk around this big park with a large man-made lake in whatever neighbourhood, and I’ve got:
Here he come with that 89 Octane
I remember wanting to simplify my bars on this track and go with whatever came to mind first.
I often hear from friends, especially when we’re talking about my battle rap bars, that they don’t understand all the punchlines, but they like how they sound. Hahah.
I dunno if studying rap for the last 20-plus years and focusing so heavily on lyrics has changed my expectations of what most people will understand. In the end, I don’t really care. I write to impress myself and try to match the quality of bars I enjoy hearing from top-tier lyricists.
On this particular day, though, I thought I would simplify things a bit. I think almost all of verse one was written during that dog walk.
Breaking Down Verse One
Here he come, with that 89 octane Ain’t a gun, but they hearing I pop thangs Hear the sub when the speakers on lock bang He the one that be breaking out, Shawshank Feel the love, in the city I got fame In the club, they be screaming out my name Scene is up, cuz I lead it to the top mane We the plug, so if you needa re-up you can call me...
So yah, nothing too hard to get. If you can’t catch “breaking out, Shawshank,” there’s no hope for you.
Again, I was trying to simplify shit here and go with the flow. Carry on.
Young Cobain, cuz I go bang Make the shit pop, it’s a cold game Bit of old school, like the Soul Train In the new school, you don’t know me I could dead ’em in a minute, with a toe tag I could end ’em with a written, or the flow state I could get up in your head and split it End up living in your mental prison Rent free, that’s a low wage
That Cobain bar was kinda rude. RIP Kurt Cobain. I still think he was likely unalived.
I also wonder if young people even know what Soul Train was.
Those last few bars are still simple, but I start doubling up on the multisyllables and picking up the speed. I liked the “get up in your head, living in your mental prison, rent free” section.
Now we’re getting closer to my typical shit.
I could take you to the top like Lando So high I’m aligned where the clouds go
Lando Calrissian from Star Wars is from a place called Cloud City.
You’re catching these, right?
Roll by, on my UFO pad, hoe Tell they identify Trav O’s rap flow Extra-terrest, till I’m next on your list I done came too far to just stress up and quit They could guillotine me by the neck and the wrist See the blade just bounce while it bends to my whims And it still ain’t Benz on my rims
This is called wordplay. “Bends to my whims” and “Benz on my rims” sound very similar.
I’m just having fun here, guys. Jeeze.
Notice that I could have said a typical rapper line about having a Benz with rims, but I don’t have one. Artists need to stay tru and find a way to make the rhymes work with their actual lives.
But I got a new whip, and the Seltos sick
Haha, see? Shout-out to my Kia. Shit’s still sick and very economical.
Back when I ain’t had no credit, they ain’t sell’d-O-shit
Yah, I know “sell’d” ain’t a word. But Seltos, sell’d-O, and the S from “shit” make for some more dope wordplay.
Sing along, kids.
Now I’m selling out merch from a cellphone, bitch
I had recently finished my Indiegogo campaign for Dreams Come Tru/Nightmares 2, and the merch was really selling!
There really ain’t nothing you can tell O, bitch I’m an ’89 Northside, well-known kid
Facts. Northside Red Deer, by the way. Born and raised.
About to get rocky like Balboa, kid
Another simple punch for the simpletons.
Watch your mouth, lil kid They would tell O, kiiiid
They really would.
Making Sure It Actually Fit the Beat
I dropped Luna off, went home, and probably threw the beat on right away to make sure I was still on beat after writing everything in my head.
I likely made a few adjustments, and voilà.
Verse one!
I dunno if I wrote the hook next, but here’s how it goes.
The “Watch Yah Mouth” Hook
Ever since I was a kid they said Watch your mouth I never listened to ’em, shiiit What you talking about? Hit with a few fists I got off the ground And then I clocked them clowns And they ain’t talking now Like ever since I was a kid they said Watch your mouth You a lippy little shit, you should watch your mouth But ever since I heard Slim I responded, how? “Take my fucking eyeballs out and turn ’em around”
I dunno how the Eminem line came to me or how it fit the rhyme scheme so perfectly.
I remember dropping the original audio into the track, finding the a cappella, and having to adjust the timing. At first, I thought it wasn’t gonna work and that it would ruin the whole hook.
But alas, I made it work.
Shout-out to Slim Shady. If you haven’t heard of him, you should really go support the guy’s music haha.
The rest of the hook is meant to be catchy and repetitive. All the bars are tru. I really was a lippy little kid. I really did get punched a few times because of it. And I really did bite that Eminem bar a couple of times while responding to haters.
You get it, though, right?
“Watch yah mouth.”
“Take my fucking eyeballs out and turn ’em around.”
Verse 2 Bar Breakdown
And now I, get paid for the Sick way that I Spit flames at a Bitch-made hater This game ain’t a Fifth-grade playa Get rings later This ain’t Sega This sonically awesome
This is how a multi-scheme is done properly...I think.
The last few bars reference Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog, one of my favourite games as a little kid. “Get rings,” “Sega,” and “sonically awesome.”
Pretty obvious, I think.
It’s an honour to bring it back to the genre That wasn’t really started in ’89, nah But it probly was hip-hop at its top caliber Gone are the... Days of the Cool J’s and the Rakims Paul’s Boutique, put it in my top 10
My Uncle Phlip, who inspired me a lot to pursue music, bought me Paul’s Boutique on vinyl around this time. I was never much of a fan of the Beastie Boys…until I heard this record. The producing from The Dust Brothers alone is phenomenal, so many cool cuts and beat switches throughout…it really plays like a record that’s all meant to be one thing from front to back (aimed for that on 89 Octane as well). But the Beastie’s rhyming patterns, their flows, punching lines in over each other, it’s incredible. My favorite joint off that album is ‘High Plains Drifter’. Check that one out if you haven’t, their flow and rhyming into each others verses is still unamtched.
Daddy Kane was amazing, he locked in Compound syllables, lyrics so complex
1989 really was a standout year for hip-hop as a whole. I feel like the genre took a huge turn around this time, with artists like the ones I mentioned developing an entirely different style from their predecessors.
The multisyllabic rhyme schemes I’m so fond of really started taking shape here.
For the newbies, that means rhyming more than the last one or two syllables, as was common in earlier rap. A simple example from this section would be:
“Rakims.”
“Top 10.”
“Locked in.”
“Complex.”
Multis also give you a little more leeway to use near-rhymes because the total words sound similar when the syllables are combined.
But this not them This concept ’89’s when I dropped in, God-sent
I was born in 1989, if we haven’t gathered that yet.
Octane’s what I got in the car That has got me this far, but it’s not how the song ends Got a couple jerry cans in the trunk too I’ma show hip-hop how the fuck Tru- ability gets down with a fuck you Burn the whole house down, yah, you should come through
There’s a major Easter egg here.
Once the album drops, it’ll make more sense. I’m specifically referencing the album’s outro, “Enkindle” featuring King Dylan.
It connects to the underlying metaphor behind 89 Octane, but I’ll dive deeper into that when the track drops and gets its own Behind the Mask blog.
But that’s outro This the intro This a throwback to them old tempos This a O track with a flow so crack Swear to God this coulda been a Fat Joe single
Fat Joe, aka Joey Crack, raps about crack a lot.
I’m comparing my flow to that haha.
I been lippy like Ren and Stimpy My childhood was Billy Madison and Miss Lippy It’s getting sticky
I watched Billy Madison all the time back in the day on VHS with my friends. That was basically our go-to sleepover movie.
Miss Lippy was Billy’s kindergarten teacher. During recess, he catches her alone in the classroom smearing glue all over her face.
“It’s getting sticky.”
If you know, you know.
Don’t really spit gun bars, but I can quickly I’m ’bout to lift up that long stock, and it ain’t Pippi
Here’s a good example of writing more technical bars compared to some of the basic ones in verse one.
I’m talking about lifting the long stock of a gun, while also referencing Pippi Longstocking. The way “long stock, and” and “Longstocking” sound when rapped is essentially the same.
Pippi was a G!
Started out in ’89, I’ma get busy The Kid stepped to the plate like Ken Griffey
Ken Griffey Jr.’s nickname was “The Kid.”
I also say “kid” a lot throughout this song. Back in Red Deer, everyone called each other kid.
“Kiiiiid.”
We kept doing it until we were all very clearly becoming adults haha.
Now I’m back with them numbers on my back And them letters on a patch Up to bat for the Red City
These bars spawned an idea for some baseball-themed merch that I wanted to drop alongside a video for the song.
I never got around to making it happen at the time, but now that the album is getting ready to drop, the merch will finally be made. Maybe I’ll shoot some reels with the concept at a baseball field or one of those batting cages. We’ll see what comes of it all in the next few months…