Before Emoji's by The Silken Serpent

Verse 1]
I'm so old, I remember pain
Before emojis, before the dopamine chain.
When phones had cords and moms yelled, “Get off!
If you were lucky, you had one that popped.
Rewinding tapes with a pencil twist,
Mixtape heartbreaks you couldn't resist.
No cloud, no likes, no cancel threats,
Just middle fingers and cigarettes.

We played tic-tac-toe on that shit,
Before hashtags were internet hits.
We scratched Xs and Os in ink-stained rage—
Raised on chaos, not a homepage.

Yeah, we took our hits, we made our mess,
Grew up broke and underdressed.
So don’t sell me filters and fake-ass fame—
I had real friends and real damn pain.

Our selfies were Polaroids, grainy and raw,
We broke rules, broke hearts, and broke the law.
Payphones lit up with punk rock plans,
And AIM away messages ruined our friends.

We made art from boredom, kissed in cars,
Prayed to MTV and dying stars.
We passed notes, not screenshots, babe—
And every scar came pre-MP3.

We played tic-tac-toe on that shit,
Called it the pound sign and threw a fit.
We carved our names in bathroom stalls,
Had secrets that didn’t live in your camera roll.

Yeah, we raised hell, then clocked in late,
Fell in love on cassette tape fate.
So don’t tell me now how to behave—
I came from the edge, not your curated page.

You had your Ring light.
I had a Zippo.
You had Wi-Fi.
I had to go.

You text.
We talked.
You scroll.
We rocked.

We played tic-tac-toe on that shit,
With ashtray breath and rebel grit.
Before your cloud, before your thread,
We had chaos spinning in our heads.

Yeah, we’re still here, loud and wild,
Every Gen X angry child.
So hashtag this, and don’t forget—
We made it out without regret.


[Outro ]
It’s not nostalgia.
It’s survival.

• Gen X
• Life
• Rock
• dopamine
• dopamine chain
• emojis
• outside growing up
• tic-tac-toe
• time before Wi-Fi
• Seattle