ithaka "Muerto Escondido"

"Muerto Escondido" is a 2004 bilingual, travel-oriented hip hop story-song by Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas).

Lyrically the song was inspired by and written during a voyage to Mexico and is a dark portrayal of a seaside surfing village that is overrun with narcotics, ghosts and monsters, "where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets". 

Ithaka later pre-produced the instrumental base in Los Angeles. Final recordings were completed at Estúdio Monoaural in Rio de Janeiro including Ithaka's English language verses, the Spanish choruses hauntingly vocalized by Latin Grammy-nominated Brazilian singer and actress Thalma de Freitas and the tribalesque percussion, Pepe Cisneros.

Lyrics: Ithaka Darin Pappas ©2004

I know a place that's hot most the time, a spliff cost a quarter, a beer cost a dime. I've roamed the globe, Nairobi to Kyoto But my favorite ghetto is in the depths of Mexico. Paradise is where you make it, but this ain't for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets The water's blue, sand black, skin brown, near a little ghost town that never shuts down. Beauty all around for miles, but there's darkness in their smiles....there's darkness in their smiles. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en muerto escondido. Muerto's got swells that'll kick yo' ass, sprain yo' ankles or leave 'em casts. There's tropical rain to wash away the pain, but ain't nothing to keep you from going insane. Jacking straight up with a chip on her shoulder one-woman army, million-gallon liquid soldier. Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Ants the size of roaches and roaches the size of mice. Scorpions in your shoes and beds full of lice. Inside, frogs and 'squitos in the shower. Outside, guns, knives and murder. When a house gets robbed, I mean the house itself. They kick your sorry butt out and move it someplace else. It's no man's land, It's no thugs land It's no one's land, e' loco-land. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido. Suicide and homicide with dead dogs by the roadside .The river runs with blood the sixth of the month, coinciding with the local eclipse of the sun. Took 'shrooms at dawn and thought I saw god, (he) told me to drink more tequila, stop drinking so much rum. Went to a party at that house up on the hill, with lizards on the walls and ghosts in the halls. Sat down to a plate of fish head stew, sucking on an eyeball, I'd been trying to chew. Saw ants moving bread across the floor, through the dining room, the kitchen and out the door They didn't even wait 'til we got to desert, but neither did the skeezer with me trying to flirt. She said, "I'm from Italy, but I've lived here ten years. Now I have two husbands and I have six kids." Her mouth was melting as she tried to speak. Said, "Caro Ithaka, let me give you a treat." She started unzipping, but I was not with it, had a chancre the size of a quarter on the outside of her lippage. Left the room, left the house. But that ghost in the hall followed me out. He said, "You can run, but you cannot hide from that little dark lie you call your life. Won't you come back in and stay awhile, drink some blood with Tequila, Escondido style." Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido. Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido.