NO TARGET ACQUIRED Jack Empire [Intro — filtered radio voice, dry sarcasm] Scan complete. No target acquired. [Normal voice] Good. [Radio] Good? There’s nobody out there. Exactly. Turn the beat on. [Beat snaps in — rubbery 808 bounce] [Verse 1 — confident midtempo, tight internal rhymes] Green sweep, clean screen, not a dot in the distance, Used to wait for a name like a cue for permission. Had a comeback preloaded, then the whole room went quiet, Put a blank page on the desk, said, “Alright then. Try it.” Can’t build a career in replies, that’s a lease, not a home, If the comments close tomorrow, can your records stand alone? I could turn a stray remark to a headline by eight, But a cheap shot gets expensive when it’s all that you make. Quick wit, slick switch, got a thought in rotation, Took a blank line, turned the vacancy into occupation. No opposition? Cool, that’s a different complication, Gotta write without a villain carrying half the conversation. Put the names in a drawer, let the hinges relax, Now the pressure’s on the pen, not the person getting tagged. No face in the frame, no coordinates to chase, Just an idea running wild and a drum keeping pace. [Hook — bouncy call-and-response, rhythmic not shouted] NO TARGET ACQUIRED! (CLEAR!) STILL GOT RANGE! (YEAH!) Nothing on the radar, put the pressure on the page! NO TARGET ACQUIRED! (GOOD!) WHO’S IT FOR? (ME!) Don’t need a face in the frame to make the whole room lean! No tags, no teams, no names on a screen, Just a kick and a thought and a snare in between. If the map stays blank, don’t call it defeat, I can make a room go quiet with a pause on the beat. [Verse 2 — technical flow, internal chains, playful precision] Split decision, quick revision, shift the rhythm, slip the snare, Fit a second little pocket where you thought there wasn’t air. Clip the diction, switch positions, stitch a phrase into a phrase, Make the middle of the sentence work a double shift for pay. Pocket change, change pockets, let the quarters rearrange, Put a coin on the downbeat, now the rhythm’s making change. Charged up by the battery, got the rhythm doing time, Every bar holds a sentence, every sentence hides a rhyme. [Brief drum dropout] Wait— That’s a charge without a warrant, that’s a cell without a cage, That’s a musical arrangement with a criminally good page. One line got two meanings, third one’s waiting at the door, Didn’t catch it on the first spin? That’s what replay’s for. I don’t need a hundred syllables to make a short punch sting, Give the setup half a second, let the silence do its thing. You can pack a dozen rhymes inside a paragraph of air, But if the point ain’t in the pocket, what the fuck you putting there? [Break — dry spoken voice] Hold on. There’s still nobody on the radar? [Radio] Negative. Damn. …Keep recording. [Verse 3 — relaxed cocky bounce, quick bursts] Give me a grocery cart with one wheel fighting for its freedom, Three wheels headed for the checkout, fourth one says, “I don’t need ‘em!” Now it’s drifting past the produce like it’s dodging an arrest, Turn a Tuesday shopping trip into a high-speed grocery mess. That’s a plot without a rival, that’s a scene without a feud, And the beat still got momentum when the whole damn story’s new. Give me a typo in a message, I can build a situation, Turn an accidental period into five misinterpretations. One night serious, next night satire, different kind of pressure, I don’t need a permanent opponent for a temporary record. If a rival wants a round, I can meet ‘em in the mix, But I ain’t naming strangers just to demonstrate I spit. I was looking for a target, now I’m looking for a sound, Used to need a confrontation just to get the words around. Now the radar’s sitting empty and the needle’s hitting red, Turns out there’s more to write when you get the names out of your head. [Final hook — full drums, elastic 808 slides] NO TARGET ACQUIRED! (CLEAR!) STILL GOT RANGE! (YEAH!) Nothing on the radar, put the pressure on the page! NO TARGET ACQUIRED! (GOOD!) WHO’S IT FOR? (ME!) Don’t need a face in the frame to make the whole room lean! No tags, no teams, no names on a screen, Just a kick and a thought and a snare in between. If the map stays blank, don’t call it defeat, I can make a room go quiet with a pause on the beat. [Outro — instrumental cuts] [Radio] Final report: no target acquired. [Dry, amused] Then why’s the whole room ducking? [Silence]
