How It Started is the song we owed Skrilla. None of this happens without him. Doot Doot (67) is where every single thread in this story leads back to. He shouted out his block on a drill record and accidentally handed the world a brand new word. Anything we make about 67 has to start with that.
What we kept thinking about while writing this is the flip. That's the heart of the whole story. Drill is heavy music. The block it came from is heavy. The word "67" in its original context wasn't a giggle, it was a shoutout to a place that has carried real grief. And then the world picked it up and made it joyful. Schools started chanting it. Kids started laughing about it. Grandmas learned to do the hand sign. That's a remarkable thing. Music has done a lot of strange things in its life. That one's near the top.
We wanted to honor that without flattening it. The chorus says it directly. "How it started: pain on the block, six-seven. How it's going: whole world screaming six-seven." Both things are true at the same time. The original meaning is still there. The new meaning is also there. The song doesn't try to pretend the first meaning didn't happen. It says both can exist.
The pre-chorus matters most to us. "They said it was violent, now the kids all smiling. Turned the darkest corner into something exciting." That's not a sanitization of the source. It's a description of what actually happened. A sound that meant "be careful" became a sound that means "we're all in here together." That's a public health miracle disguised as a meme.
The verse two pivot, "Now every teacher scared when they turn to page sixty-seven", is the bridge between the origin and where 67 lives now. Schools trying to ban it, kids screaming it, the whole top-of-the-mountain energy. From the curb to the classroom. Two completely different worlds, same word, same vibe.
If anybody from the Philly block is reading this: we see you. This is yours. We just wrote a song about it. Respect always.
Perfect State