In "Ski Mask," Bugzy Malone traces a brutal rise from street survival to hard-won success, weighed down by grief for a cousin lost to sorrow and the hollow loyalty of family and industry alike. The ski mask becomes a haunting keepsake, still carrying fur and the smell of cognac, proof that escape from hell means crawling down the devil's back. Trauma cuts deep, but he keeps moving, trading old chains for discipline and refusing to let the past bury him.
Ski Mask Lyrics by Bugzy Malone
Look
It’s been a crippling journey, I swear
But a couple bones snapped that I’m still trying to repair
Put my city on the map, but now I’m hardly there
Though I keep my beard raggedy and shave off my hair
Can I my G’s relax?
I don’t need to rap
Let me be clear to all these shitbag rappers that I try to compare
I never had a 9 to 5 with a desk and a chair
This is a gangster’s paradise cuz we’re finally there
I set the pace for 10 15 years
I know they like to say I’m paid cuz of a clash, but I saw pain and this pain isn’t borrowed
My cousin died this year
That’s the one I would follow
I couldn’t keep watching him drown in his sorrows
We would dig it up, keep it in a bag
Then we didn’t chat for years and I still don’t chat to his dad
Or my uncle that took shotgun pellets through the mask
It’s ironic when your cousin’s getting buried, not the strap, but that’s just family
I don’t need an uncle or an auntie
Trauma cuts you deep, but I’m a soldier for a band-aid
They say they hold you down
They can’t even hold a handshake
That’s on my life and all these industry pirates and thieves
No, I came up robbing in the first place
I’m from where the sirens sing something like the mermaids
Labels want you in a contract
That’s like a bird cage
They don’t want to see you fly
But still I’m on a flight
Sitting by the window eating chicken parmigiana on the way to Christ the Redeemer
The real di Janeiro
It’s not legendary if they plateau
They’re cold like a 99 me, I’m a Sicilian gelato
Bad and boujee, can’t rich like I’m Alvarado
Lumping my throat like I swallowed an avocado
Coming up, I had to pattern up
Luckily my cousin taught me how to get them customers just blowing up my Nokia
I hustle day and night like I was Kid Cudi in the trenches
Your trainers get muddy
I see man get
And it’s by association that you’re guilty found a wheely bin to away my North Face hoodie
It’s ironic how the hood’s hot or when it isn’t sunny
It was midwinter when I first sat on box money
You get haters when you make it
They discredit how you’ve done it
Doing interviews, spitting out their dummy when you win, you have to evolve
You can make the snubby revolve
They’ll still talk like it’s capping
You weren’t really involved
Like you wasn’t in the kitchen while this crack on the stove
Like you’ve never seen a body separate from my soul
I had to let them take shots like I’m Kathy Patrone
Some nights paranoia taking its toll
The angel on the shoulder told me I should go with the flow
The demon told me I should fuck off music and go to their home
There’s nobody in my league, my neighborhood, on my street
I’m thinking I should invest in Abbu Dabby or Nice
I thank Yahweh, I’m blessed
I don’t see the police
I wanted GTA 6, they give me PTSD
He said we burst into his studio, my gang in the chrome
I ran up on so many man, I just continue to scroll
Just know I’m on my jack drones if I’m holding a pole
Tears running down my face to my belly and so it threatens to wet me up like I couldn’t get him
I just knocked him out cold and going ask Linden
If you think I’m messing, heard he murdered someone with the gully or the Smith & Wesson
Everyone’s a gangster till they haven’t got their weapon
And everybody’s clever till they have to learn their lesson
Stood my ground, there’s another lesson
I told myself I don’t need in self-defense so when it burst through my fence, I snapped two jaws, 10 seconds, no sheffins
Hey
You complete this game when you’re and you’re dancing in the rain
I’m on new money no more
I don’t need a chain
I just need a gymnasium so I can train
Always knew that I was going to the top
Once you make it, you have to maintain what you’ve got
Couldn’t see my destination
Felt like I was driving in the fog
I’ve been close to giving up, but in my spirit there’s a dog
Tears on the page as I’m writing this down
I relive it in slow motion
It gets dark in the ocean
Learn to swim with the sharks
If you don’t, then you drown
Listen for the voice of God when the enemy’s loud
It was in my habitat
When I look back, I smell cognac through the gaps in my ski mask
Still got fur underneath my nails and it’s jet black
To escape hell, you got to crawl down the devil’s back
It’s been a crippling journey, I swear
But a couple bones snapped that I’m still trying to repair
Put my city on the map, but now I’m hardly there
Though I keep my beard raggedy and shave off my hair
Can I my G’s relax?
I don’t need to rap
Let me be clear to all these shitbag rappers that I try to compare
I never had a 9 to 5 with a desk and a chair
This is a gangster’s paradise cuz we’re finally there
Make it, maintain it
October 30th
Ah
