God Games [Cut Version] Lyrics – EPIC: Cut Songs

Song Overview

Personal Review

Back in 2019, the track we now call **“God Games”** was almost unrecognizable. That sketch-demo—file-named, somewhat unimaginatively, “God Games 2019”—kicked off as a swaggering rap battle riffing on the Judgment of Paris from *The Iliad*. The whole Odysseus-finally-leaves-Ogygia storyline? Nowhere in sight. And then there’s Hades. Studio lore says the lord of the underworld barged in with his own verse during one of those rough passes, though no one can swear which take actually featured him. To keep the paper trail from unraveling, the archivists spliced his lines into the 2019 demo anyway—chronology be damned. It’s a slightly ragged fix, sure, but mythological bookkeeping was never meant to be tidy. The first time I heard God Games [Cut Ver.] the Lyrics felt like sparks off flint—quick, bright, a little dangerous. Jorge Rivera-Herrans spits Athena’s bars with such relish you can smell Olympus thunder in the room. Key takeaways: a rap battle among immortals, Apollo’s wounded pride, Athena’s tactical smack-talk, and the moral knot around Odysseus. One-liner? Gods gossip like teens at a bus stop, but the stakes are empires and eternity.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Drafted in 2019, this God Games [Cut Ver.] predates the polished Wisdom-Saga show-stopper. Early on it was a full-court rap trial about the Judgement of Paris, later trimmed to focus on Odysseus’ release. The Fandom archive confirms that broader mythic scope and even hints at a cameo by Hades.

The opening ensemble simply shouts “Apollo,” setting the board like a chess timer. Apollo’s complaint—that Odysseus raided the Cicones of Ismarus—echoes a detail Rivera-Herrans revealed in a TikTok explainer, the same clip where fans first heard the isolated verse.

Athena leaps in: “He did it to survive … no Cicones died!”—a direct callback to Odysseus’ own command in EPIC lore, “no lethal force in this fight.” Her rebuttal uses the same 7/8 rhythmic snap that drives “Warrior of the Mind,” tying heroic intellect to battlefield mercy.

The line “Yo! It’s the tactical immaculate master of raw strategy” feels half battle-rap, half recruitment ad. That cheeky swagger depicts Athena as hip-hop general, wacking the “aphro off Dite” (Aphrodite) for trash talk. The missing studio audio surfaced online as a Discord screenshot from Jorge, giving fans lyric sheets without the beat.

Musically the draft barrels forward on staccato strings and 808 kicks, a fusion—a baroque trap beat where harpsichord trills meet hi-hat rolls. Tonally it oscillates: Apollo’s pain, Athena’s flex, ensemble jeers. By the final cut of God Games these extremes were tempered, but here they’re raw, almost improvisational.

The song’s dramatic context matters. By 2022 Rivera-Herrans had released the first concept album of EPIC on Christmas Day, launching a TikTok-powered fandom that dissected every motif. Yet God Games [Cut Ver.] stayed in the vault until May 9, 2025, when a SoundCloud leak let listeners hear Apollo’s complete rap for the first time. That release re-ignited chatter: Was Athena right? Are gods bound by mortal ethics? Fans sparred in comment threads like modern bards.

[APOLLO] Back in the city of Ismarus … I can still hear their cries

Apollo’s verse frames the raid as sacrilege—Odysseus the marauder, not the wise king. The Lyrics force us to weigh heroism against collateral damage. Athena counters with “I was there for the whole discourse,” though Homer never places her on that battlefield—classic unreliable witness, or divine GPS glitch.

Verse Highlights

Apollo’s Complaint

Pent-up grief cracks through each internal rhyme—Ismarus / Odysseus. His beat lands heavy, underscoring the god’s wounded ego.

Athena’s Riff

The goddess fires back in compound rhythms, sylla-by-sylla-ble, weaponizing wit. It’s brag-rap pitting intellect against beauty-magic.

Song Credits

• Artist: Jorge Rivera-Herrans
• Composer & Lyricist: Jorge Rivera-Herrans
• Original Draft: 2019
• First Public Clip: December 2022 (TikTok tease)
• Full Verse Leak: May 9, 2025 (SoundCloud)
• Genre: Baroque-trap musical theatre
• Language: English
• Album: EPIC: The Musical Cut Songs
• Instruments: rap vocal, strings, brass stabs, 808 kit
• Mood: confrontational, witty
• Label: Independent / Winion Entertainment LLC
• Poetic Meter: mixed trochaic with syncopated rap subdivisions
• Copyright: © 2019–2025 Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Songs Exploring Themes of Divine Debate

First up, “The Trial” from Dave Malloy’s Hadestown. While Persephone stages a courtroom in Hades, the choir’s bluesy shuffle echoes the same quarrel between power and mercy driving God Games [Cut Ver.]. Malloy’s minor-third slides mirror the tension Athena and Apollo spark with every bar.

Meanwhile, Disney’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” flips the script: Ursula manipulates like a crooked attorney, cataloguing human flaws. Both songs revel in rhetorical flex, yet Ursula’s swing-cabaret groove contrasts Rivera-Herrans’ trap-infused thunder, illustrating how musical texture colors persuasion.

Finally, “The Gods Love Nubia” from Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida shows divine politics rendered in gospel. Where God Games [Cut Ver.] stages a rap duel, “Nubia” raises a lament, pleading with silent heavens. Together they highlight the dramatic spectrum—taunt, bargain, lament—of mortals talking back to immortals.

Questions and Answers

Why was Apollo’s verse removed from the final “God Games”?

Rivera-Herrans trimmed it to keep Athena central and avoid narrative whiplash once the scene shifted to Calypso’s island.

Is the 2019 draft officially canon?

No; Jorge labels it “alternate universe”—useful for lore but outside the staged chronology.

Where can I hear the complete cut?

A short clip is on YouTube; the full audio leaked to SoundCloud on May 9, 2025, but availability fluctuates.

Did any charts feature God Games [Cut Ver.]?

Because it’s an unreleased demo, it never entered commercial charts.

Will the verse return in future EPIC media?

Jorge teased the idea of a “Cut Saga” EP; fans speculate Apollo’s rap could resurface there.

How to Sing?

The vocal sits in a tenor-baritone pocket: B?2 up to G4, with rapid diction bursts. Practice subdivision—sixteenths over 128 BPM—to keep consonants crisp. Use diaphragmatic bursts for those machine-gun triplets, then flip to head voice on tongue-twister slams (“tactical immaculate master”). Anchor the breath low; let shoulders stay loose. For goddess sections, sopranos should float around E4–C5, mixing chest and mix registers to keep bite without strain.