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[CARNAGE THE EXECUTIONER, "BLACK STEAL"] (SINGING) [INAUDIBLE]

SPEAKER 1: On Worth the Wait, Carnage the executioner wastes no time warning about the verbal destruction he's about to unleash.

(SINGING) I'm not the King of Rock

But you argue higher

Prefer that you don't call me Sire

Refer to me as heir to the lake of fire

Destiny is hell

Say it might as well be tire

Hyper--

SPEAKER 1: The new CD is also Carnage's full-length solo debut. It's a chance to share a story of survival. And until now, the veteran rapper hasn't told his own.

Carnage, whose real name is Terrell Woods, is from Chicago. His single mom was an alcoholic and drug addict. One of his first memories is of a domestic skirmish.

SPEAKER 2: Two of my aunts got into a fight, and I was standing in the area, and I got knocked down a whole flight of stairs.

SPEAKER 1: His mom moved the family to Minneapolis, where she had an affair with a married man who beat her.

SPEAKER 2: You want to protect your mom, and you don't know what's going on. We're trying to get in and trying to stop it. And we get thrown like a wet rag across the room. And then my mom got into alcohol and started drinking really heavily, and we got evicted from a couple apartment buildings.

SPEAKER 1: When he was 12, Carnage and his sister were placed in foster care, but not before, he says, he was abused by a male relative. By then, Carnage was a street hustler, stealing food, clothes, and toys when he needed or wanted them. He deliberately stopped short of becoming a burglar or a car thief.

SPEAKER 2: But I'll go and steal a sandwich and some pop and some chips so that I can eat while I'm out today, while my mom's at home shooting up. That's what I did.

I knew what I needed to do to survive, and I learned it early on. But I also knew that there were consequences for my actions. So I would only take it so far.

[CARNAGE THE EXECUTIONER, "I WANT IT ALL"] I came from a broken home

I never really had much

I grew up poor

I wanted things to be different when the hope was gone

I used to ponder what Mama would drink and do drugs for

But I never asked questions

I held them in

Because I knew how we were living just wasn't right

She gave me food stamps, money I'd seldom spend

I was stacked, though my stash was nothing nice

Running away from home was the second choice

I wouldn't do--

SPEAKER 1: Despite all the negativity and abuse he witnessed as a kid, Carnage says he always knew he would escape it. And he promised himself he wouldn't get sucked back in.

SPEAKER 2: There was something that clicked at a very early age for me that said, you have to do better than what the environment you're in is. You have to do better.

There's something there. And I really can't explain it. I'm just glad I had it.

(RAPPING) --don't have nothing

I want it all

Out of control, greed

Life's hard

But it wasn't just a war for me

I traveled bad roads, no good path coming

That's how you think when you don't have nothing

I think my roots are--

SPEAKER 1: In local hip hop circles, Carnage is seen as an immense, yet overlooked talent who tends to steal shows when he takes the stage. He's best known for some rather astonishing skills as a vocal percussionist, a beatboxer. The Superhuman Multitrack on his new CD is made up exclusively of beats and sounds manufactured by Carnage's mouth.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Carnage performs as a human rhythm section with spoken word artist Desdemona in the group Ill Chemistry. To Desdemona, Carnage's made-up beats boggle the mind.

SPEAKER 3: Even though he's not saying words, he still exudes this presence about him. Sometimes I'm just like, what? Where does that come from?

SPEAKER 1: Carnage will tell you he wasn't just born with that talent. It took years of practice,

SPEAKER 2: The things that I can do with my mouth, like the [BEATBOXES] You don't just come out learning how to do that. You have to condition your face to be able to know how to move like that.

SPEAKER 1: Carnage applies his acute sense of rhythm as a beatboxer to his rhymes, his flow. He's been told that, as a rapper, he sounds more like a jazz saxophonist.

SPEAKER 2: When you listen to a saxophone player, they don't [CHANTS] They hit different points, and they come back on the one, and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they'll keep going for 12, 15 measures before they come back on the one.

[CARNAGE THE EXECUTIONER, "DARKEN"] Preface

Audio Anarchy Cookbook

Turn the page

Note, a suddenly gradual sunset

An increase in those viewed as deserving hate

Murder rate

Herds to make career switches

Tragedy could occur today

Tomorrow might be too late to reverse your fate

Now let's get it on

The executioner comes back to thrust that rough rap

To undiscovered echelon

No longer flexing about impressing a crowd

If establishments knew my potential,

They would pull signs stating "No Weapons Allowed"

You know now you're near doom when you first meet me

I sweat, have bad breath, and appear human

On platforms with a mic on, quite exhilarating

But actually, disguised

A killer waiting for an appropriate strike time

I thought of clobbering--

SPEAKER 2: Some of the rhymes that I write-- like Darken, for example, when I was writing it, I was like, I want this to be more of a conversation. I want it to be all over the place. But I want it to come back at a point where people can follow it because people resonate with the downbeat.

SPEAKER 1: Given his mic skills, some wonder why the 36-year-old Carnage hasn't made more waves as a rapper.

SPEAKER 4: I think people think of him in relation with other people more than on his own, necessarily.

SPEAKER 1: City Pages's music critic Jeff Gage says after functioning for years as a sidekick or guest emcee for other artists, Carnage is coming into his own and becoming more of a storyteller in his rapping.

SPEAKER 4: And he's been delving a lot into his own personal narrative to do some of that. And I think that he's growing a lot in that sense. And considering his natural skills as a rapper, I think there's a lot of potential there for what he could do with it.

[CARNAGE THE EXECUTIONER, "HUNGER"] Epicenter, what a gift that attracts

Big sack, in fat

Get up in you, then I kick raps with knack

Dome wrecker, tomb hecker, representer, and the founder

I found the ominous hurl

Rip beat

Respond to your girl

Prick meat, sick speak to conquer the world

Man of the house plans

SPEAKER 2: You can listen to me and tell that I'm dope. When you listen to me, you can be like, yeah, Carnage is dope. Now I don't have to say it anymore. Now I've told people that I was dope. Now I want to be dope while I tell a story about where I came from.

SPEAKER 1: And after listening to Worth The Wait, if you're still undecided on Carnage's dopeness, you can see him live at his release party at the Cabooze on February 17, where he'll convince you in person. Chris Roberts, Minnesota Public Radio News, Minneapolis.

(RAPPING) I excelled academically, sending me away from peril to homework

Metatarsus of extended fam is bound to planet ground

Few high school graduates

Only three wore college campus crown

Desired knowledge

Conquered acceptance with whim effort

Had friends with mad ends from 'caine slanging gang banging, and grim records

Called sell-out square

Proper English talker,

But fire burning for higher learning made me a distinguished walker

I overcame dunce critique, and I'll prevail again

Because music won't be the one area that I see failure in

Hunger

The difference between me and you

One foot in the door, the other's peeking through

Hunger

Represents these leading views

I'm surely taking more than critique for me to lose

Hunger

Shouldn't with greed be confused

If I ever soar, you'll be seeing crew

Hunger

Characterized by or expressing the discomfort caused by lack of sustenance or craving, English

I almost found truth in the lame excuse

That the fame came from the spooks and the crackers

Give me one juice in the game

Until told by a wise man,

"If you fail, that's nobody's fault but yours"

Just forge and devise plans

Now I'm inside vans

Mini-tour therapies, 14-hour rides,

And sleeping on couches and floors

for hundred-dollar guarantees

Thinking soon thousands?

Nope!

It'll pay off

Until then, coon howling at moon loud, and gut continues growling

I do it for so little cash

I still go get the tracks, then approach with the task of

Composing raps that are all just as quotable as

My previous notable brass, making sure it'll last

No laziness thoughts like, yo, this will pass

Strive to provide stried to my all-encompassing drive to be greeted by type

"Carnage has arrived!"

Trumpeting with the force of a freight train the great came

Ate frames before eighth grade

That explains the excessive weight gain

Mostly water in Minnesota

Fat floats, already leading,

Leaving the field clear after each and every feeding

Show memory of elephant proof, never be suped

Zygote, musically, but cruising the constant development route

Share wealth with champions, no liquor

Suck seeds if attempting to impede

I will succeed, plus bleed

Nothing but raw essence from jaw section

Draw weapons if need be

See me touch not, but soar above y'all peasants

Hunger

The difference between me and you

One foot in the door, the other's peeking through

Hunger

Represents these leading views

I'm surely taking more than critique for me to lose

Hunger

Shouldn't with greed be confused

If I ever soar, you'll be seeing crew

Hunger

Characterized by or expressing discomfort caused by a lack of sustenance or craving, drive