Idols on the Timeline (Remix)

Lyrics

[Title Announcement]

[subway platform ambience, camera shutters, notification pings, vinyl crackle, chopped soul choir buried under a dusty piano loop]

[Street Announcer — Deep Male Voice]
Ten Commandments: Brooklyn Boom-Bap Trap Edition.

Commandment number two:

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.”

Track two—

“Idols on the Timeline.”

[DJ Scratch]
Idols—idols—idols on the timeline!

[Beat Drop]
[grimy Brooklyn boom-bap drums, cracked snare, chopped gospel-soul sample, heavy bass guitar layered with restrained 808, camera-click percussion, sharp turntable cuts]

[Intro — Crew Chant]

[Announcer]
Who made the image?

[Crew]
People did!

[Announcer]
Who made the people?

[Crew]
The Most High!

[Announcer]
So who gets worship?

[Crew]
The Most High!

[Verse 1 — Female Rap]
Timeline shining, everybody look divine,
Filters on the hurt, designer on the lie.
They selling you perfection from a rented little room,
Now you hate the life you have from watching what they zoom.

Celebrity said wear it, now the whole block dressed,
Influencer said buy it, now your rent money stressed.
Their face on your wallpaper, their words above the law,
You defend them like you know them, never met them once at all.

You say, “I never bowed before a statue made of stone,”
But you copy every move and cannot think on your own.
If their opinion rules you and their image shapes your worth,
You made a digital idol out of somebody on earth.

[Hook — Crew and Chopped Choir]
Idols on the timeline!
Everybody posing like they made the sun shine!

Idols on the timeline!
Do not trade the Maker for a manufactured sign!

Idols on the timeline!
Logos cannot save you when you running out of time!

No bowing to the image—
The Most High stays divine!

[DJ Scratch]
Don’t bow—bow—bow to what they made!

[Verse 2 — Male Rap]
Logo on the belt got you walking like a king,
But take the label off—what does your character bring?
Chain around your neck, brand name on your feet,
Still jealous, still anxious, still scared to face the week.

They put rappers on murals, put athletes on a throne,
Treat entertainers’ words like commandments carved in stone.
If the famous do it wrong, you excuse it as a phase,
But condemn your own neighbor for the very same ways.

An idol is whatever gets the honor God deserves,
Whatever makes you bend truth and abandon what you learned.
A product can be useful, but it cannot be your lord,
And a person can inspire without replacing the Word.

[Hook — Crew and Choir]
Idols on the timeline!
Everybody posing like they made the sun shine!

Idols on the timeline!
Do not trade the Maker for a manufactured sign!

Idols on the timeline!
Logos cannot save you when you running out of time!

No bowing to the image—
The Most High stays divine!

[Breakdown — Street Sermon]
[drums cut, low upright bass hum, subway train passes, choir sample stretched and reversed]

[Announcer]
Exodus chapter twenty, verses four and five:

[Spoken Choir]
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”

[Announcer]
A picture is not your god.

A logo is not your god.

An entertainer is not your god.

Your own reflection is not your god.

Admire the gift.
Do not worship the vessel.

[Verse 3 — Male and Female Trade-Off]

[Female]
I watched people lose themselves trying to look expensive.

[Male]
I watched brands sell insecurity, then call the price exclusive.

[Female]
I watched fans fight strangers over stars who never knew them.

[Male]
I watched people quote celebrities before the One who made them.

[Female]
Break the spell.

[Male]
Clear the throne.

[Female]
You were born to think.

[Male]
Not become another clone.

[Both]
No image gets the worship,
No creation gets His place.
The Most High made the people—
People did not make His face!

[Final Hook — Full Crew]
Idols on the timeline!
Do not let a filtered world redesign your mind!

Idols on the timeline!
What they manufacture cannot be divine!

Idols on the timeline!
Every trend will fade and every logo lose its shine!

No bowing to the image—
The Most High every time!

[Commandment Chant]

[Announcer]
No graven images!

[Crew]
Do not bow!

[Announcer]
No worshipping the brand!

[Crew]
Shut it down!

[Announcer]
Who made heaven and earth?

[Crew]
The Most High!

[All]
No idols on the timeline!

[Outro — DJ Transition]
[boom-bap drums filter low, camera clicks slow down, bass fades, subway brakes cut through the chopped choir sample]

[DJ Scratch]
Idols—idols—tear the idols down!

[Announcer]
Commandment number two:

Do not bow to what was created.

Track two complete.

Coming next—

Commandment number three:

“Don’t Put His Name on That.”