Mood Red · 2025 · Hip-Hop · 12 tracks
An epic conceived for screen and speaker. Surprise Attack scores the ultimate conflict—a war across generations in the afterlife to determine the destiny of all souls.
The glass opens Fall through Don't look back The other side Is always there Close your eyes To see To see To see...
Come with nothing Left three halves The math don't add up Walking out heavy Full of something That doesn't exist Future tense blessing Past tense threat A half and a half More than the whole Three halves Can't fill your cup Spilling over Spilling out Too much to hold Never in doubt Took a piece Took the whole thing twice Now I'm surplus World of sacrifice Dream gives extra Come up short Living in overflow Having never thought Make sense Doesn't need to Numbers lying Feeling true Three halves A half and a half Three halves A half and a half...
Scene: Sokha sees the gallows in the distance. The Sokh'rai waits. Shadow creatures drag her to be hanged. She dies again.
"Took you long enough, little plow." Scene: Sokha wakes on a table in the Celestial Library. Heth'ani appears. Exposition through Q&A.
Find a story (WHAT) Find a spine (COME ON) Shelves bend outwards Out of time (MOVE) Dust on languages I'll never speak (NAH) Fingers trailing Hide and seek (WHERE) Pull and discard (TRASH) Pull and discard (NEXT) Names dissolving Where I look (NOTHING) All these lives In these books (NOT ME) Pull and discard (TRASH) Pull and discard (NEXT) Pull and discard (TRASH) Pull and discard (NEXT) Cathedral of pages (WHAT) Cathedral of stars (WHERE) What's the sum (WHAT) Some of the whole (HUH) Making up notation Counting souls (COUNT IT) Adding it up Still don't know (NOTHING) Where's the story Where to go (WHERE) Nothing where a title should be (BLANK) Leather that breathes (WAIT) Pull and discard (TRASH) Pull and discard (NEXT) Warm like a wound On a pile of leaves (HOLD UP) Every other spine Has a name to give (NOT THIS) Find one silent It wants to live (THERE) Dark and waiting (YEAH) Patient dust (YEAH) Hands are shaking Pain not trust (COME ON) Sigh as I touch it (NOW) Waiting here (FINALLY) Pages know fingers Smell of fear (OPEN IT) Margins of drawings (WHAT) Crooked hand (WAIT) A million years old Start to understand (OH) Braid a knot Face I forget Every door is closed But still unlocked (THERE IT IS) The thing I was afraid of Just a mirror (DAMN) The further I go The nearer Sum of the parts Some kind of whole Add it up... Just a mirror...
Scene: Young Sokha trains adult Sokha in Ghol'thu (shadow-walking). They merge — light and shadow, innocence and experience. Young Sokha gives her Thu'kael.
Scene: Sokha meets the ancestors at the Gathering Ground. They don't trust her. She must prove herself.
Scene: The Gauntlet. Sokha fights ALL the ancestors, using Thu'kael and Ghol'thu. Defeats Zhol'mara. Victory celebration.
Scene: Zhol'mara warns Sokha: "Victory is just a moment. More is coming. Stay humble."
In the shadows Eyes adjusted Breath steady Body rusted still They walk past Don't see nothing Don't feel us watching Don't hear us coming Patience ain't weakness Silence ain't fear We've been here for hours We'll be here for years Surprise attack You won't see it coming Surprise attack Already running Too late when you notice Too late when you turn Surprise attack Watch it burn Ancestors told us Wait for the moment Victory's borrowed If you don't own it So we crouch lower Sink into black Every muscle ready For the attack They think they won They celebrate loud We smile in the dark Beneath their cloud Not yet Not yet Hold Hold Steady now Steady Feel the moment coming Let it find you Don't chase it Let it arrive Three Two One... This is for the fallen This is for the fight Every battle lost Led to tonight Spring from the shadow Strike like the dawn By the time they see us Already gone Surprise attack You won't see it coming Surprise attack Heart stops pumping Too late when you notice Too late to learn Surprise attack Watch it burn In the shadows Waiting Always waiting...
Scene: Sacred preparation before the desert battle. Each warrior finds their silence.
Scene: The Moth'khael. Sokha faces the Sokh'rai alone in the desert. Gets overwhelmed. Melts into shadow, reappears on a dune, calls out — the Khora'im ERUPT from shadows. The Surprise Attack. Victory.