1. I'm On Top



Title: I'm On Top
Written by: E. Fox
Genre: Rap/underground
Vocals: Foxxxy
Synth/Decks: eXo.sEtt

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I'm on Top is the opening track from the debut eponymous album from rap/grime sensation Foxxxy. The track, serving as an intro to the album as a whole, features some fierce rhymes, fired at breakneck speed from the 18-year-old London native, who is looking to follow up on three number one singles from her first four releases with success in her first full length CD. The track documents the contrasting fortunes that Foxxxy faced in her early life, held up for comparison against the career and way of life that the young rapper has carved out with her innovation, hard work, and no nonsense approach to a male-dominated genre that takes no prisoners, ploughing her own furrow and strutting her way to the head of the game with her raps, holding nothing back and capturing the imagination of audiences around the globe with her unique raps and her one of a kind attitude and character.

The very first track written for the album, Foxxxy herself said that the song was originally designed to be a bragging track about where she had got with her own skills before it morphed into something completely different. "This was supposed to be like a celebration ov my skills, innit? I sat down to write a rap and it was gonna be all, 'Yo, dis is me, you feel me, I got mad skills and spit dem flow like you ain't never see.' The more I wrote though, it was like, I realised how much I overcame, you get me? I thought back to all dem bitches in school who was like 'Yo Lizzie, you'll never make it,' and it made me fink about what I've done, and how I'm worth so much more dan dem and all dat shit they threw at me for years, know what I mean? I want them girls to buy my album down at their local supermarket and see just how well I done, innit? I want them to think, 'fuck. We bullied dis chick, fam and look at her now. She's made it.' Because I have. I made it, and I feel like I'm ready to push on to the next level. This album will show the hard work and endeavour that I put into learning my trade, my skills and everything else. You don't get nowhere in this world without hard work. I want people to know dat."

While earlier Foxxxy tracks featured positive messages, calling for the youth of today to stand up who for they are and be themselves without letting anyone push them around, seeping political overtones, I'm on Top features a much more cynical and mature theme, centred around bitterness and hatred. The track's theme centres around showing the people who tried to hold Foxxxy back how far she has come. The song features sexual imagery, violently explicit language and threats, showing that Foxxxy is holding nothing back on the debut full length release, and is taking her flow to the next level. "I in't saying that my old songs were like not me. They were radio friendly innit? I know dis industry, and I know dat if you say the words cunt and rape in a song, dem radio show in't gonna be playin' dat shit, you get me? There will be more radio songs from me, but in the rest of my tracks I won't hold back. Too many people don't put their full emotion into a song. Especially when it's anger. They'll hold back when they just need to shout and ting, know? Sometimes it's good to just shout "FUCK YOU" and get it out the way though, fam."

In terms of the sound of the song, Foxxxy has retained a certain element of the big bassy noises, the dubstep wubs, heavy dubs and searing synths on the first song from the album. However, for the first time, the song also has the introduction of electric guitar. Music is provided with a new partner of the rapper in the shape of eXo.sEtt, an old school friend from East London. Famed for his wearing of a large red or orange mouses head over his own during DJ sets, Exo.Sett has teamed up with Foxxxy to provide the music behind each and every track on the album, leaving the grimy underground clubs in London is his past. For I'm on Top, eXo.sEtt provides Foxxxy with a fast paced beat over the sound of a crunching guitar and a catchy synth heavy dubstep beat. Each verse is delivered at a terrifying pace, as Foxxxy spits her rhymes with venom and style, her vocals sounding polished and slick, while somehow maintaining the raw emotion that won her so many fans over a year ago.

In the choruses of the song, eXo.sEtt has provided a dubstep breakdown that allows Foxxxy to slow her rhyming momentarily as she venomously slays those who had previously done her wrong and told her she would never get to where she is today. This allows her voice to stand out more than ever before, and the slight delay provided by the production work of Fader lets her voice reverberate and sound massive against the heavy and dark bassy sounding music. Towards the end of the track, the final verse is followed by a bridge section, throughout which the guitar and drums play alone over the sound of Foxxxy's flow, allowing her to sound calmer, and in control, as if to show that she has risen above the hate, and is now worth so much more than all of those who had put her down in the past.

"Man, I tell ya, fam, eX come into that studio for a like trial and ting, and I was all, yeah, I'm doin' an old friend a favour. Then he's all, 'yo listen to dis.' Man, dem sounds blew me da fuck away, innit? The guy got skills behind the decks like I in't NEVER seen in my life, bruv. I was like mesmerised and ting, and we signed that guy up right away. The fact he does instrumental on every song speaks for itself yeah? For dis song, he captured my feelings just right man. Like the guitar is like a fuckin' punch in the ear and a big 'yeah? Fuck you!' to everyone I hate innit? And then the dubstep man, it was like, 'fuck, fam this shit is heeeeaveeee! I love eX. I love his music. And I love dis song, innit?"

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You remember how we dreamed at 12 years old,
Talked of goin' to the top wiv each other, so bold,
I was like a boomerang, you'd toss me away, I'd come back,
But I graduated to rhymes while you sold your V for crack,
One day I just stopped being your toy, flew away like a frisbee,
You still look like some teen who's been raped and dumped by Disney

You're walkin' right on by, I'll never tire of seein' you cry,
When people see Fox they cheer, but they spit on you and sigh,
You fink that after all these years, of lying, cheats and pity,
That I wouldn't see you for what you are, just washed up in the city?
But look, I'm still risin' from the bottom to the cream of the crop,
So cup your ear and listen, cunt,
I'm on top! I'm on top! I'm on top!

Yeah, like I said bitch, I'm on top
Y'all like Palin, I'm the Obama of hip hop
I'll spit so hard you gonna feel just like a bomb drop
My flows so hot, I'm 'bout to see ya blow ya load, pop!
Is that a time bomb of your life I hear as you suck 'nother cock?
Nah it's just my diamond watch, put your ear close tick tick tock!

Just look at you now, you leave your card in a phone box,
My beat's so infectious they gonna rename me smallpox,
You told me I'd never be more than just MC Lizzie,
But I got so many headline tours I'm too busy,
To hear you bullshit, I just know you are by proxy,
Get on the floor, beg, say my name, 6 letters, this is Foxxxy

You're walkin' right on by, I'll never tire of seein' you cry,
When people see Fox they cheer but they spit on you and sigh,
You fink that after all these years, of lying, cheats and pity,
That I wouldn't see you for what you are, just washed up in the city?
But look, I'm still risin' from the bottom to the cream of the crop,
So cup your ear and listen, cunt,
I'm on top! I'm on top! I'm on top!

Only 17, all you lives have been fucked up by Es,
I was standing at the top of the charts, rubbin' shoulders with Gs
Yes I'm braggin' but this ain't no gangster rap, got no gun,
We just be rollin like Limp Bizkit, hands up, hands down we have fun
My names up in lights now, but you, your yesterday's headlines,
Wind up the dealers any more and you're nothin' more than chalk lines.

I took a vow I said I'll never let life pass me by,
It's not about the buzz from pills or weeks of drunken high,
I'll never live my life just workin' from bag to bag of whizz,
I'm makin' more than I'll ever spend just racing through my biz,
My name's Foxxxy, not Jack, I ain't ever gonna sit in a corner,
More hits are coming from my flow don't say I never warned ya.

You're walkin' right on by, I'll never tire of seein' you cry,
When people see Fox they cheer but they spit on you and sigh,
You fink that after all these years, of lying, cheats and pity,
That I wouldn't see you for what you are, just washed up in the city?
But look, I'm still risin' from the bottom to the cream of the crop,
So cup your ear and listen, cunt,
I'm on top! I'm on top! I'm on top!

Just let me fill you in just one more time,
I'm on top of the game with my flows and the grime,
I've hypnotised you with my furious rhyme not silence,
And hey fuck you if you think I'd advocate violence,
This ain't call to arms it's just a shout for action,
So open up your ears, let me right inside your faction
This is Foxxxy, remember that name cos I'm on top,
Yeah yeah I'm Foxxxy, put your headphones on we not about to stop.

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