Talib Kweli [Rap]

Oh American citizen, come collect your freedom
no matter what your living in
no more giving in
Oh American citizen, come collect your freedom
no matter what you're living in
it's time to win
keep us in the four walls of our childrens will be quiet
most of us aint even democratic or Republic
can, and by coincidence we love the elected until the detected of being human
American falls, minorities lose war
but if we unite we would have won the war
on poverty
on drugs
on medicated
on love
Freedom isn't given it is taken
freedom isn't free it's earned
not, no, it's learned
been hung and burned,
yet rest in peace, resurrected plea
this aint black or white, it's grey
this is not about my face
most of us don't know what to say
right from wrong, I'm free from slaves
Let freedom reign
do you wanna be free or do you wanna be
I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be
free,
let freedom Reign
(repeated)
[Talib Kweli]
America the beautiful
suspect as usual
liberty and death give me freedom on my funeral
I walk across the planet with the steps of a giant
my rhymes bridge the gap between religion and science
cause my evidence is spiritual
I know my sheer presence is a miracle
I wasn't supposed to be here to share with you
but here I am, standing with my chest out
I take my place in history I never get left out
You stressed out and scared so it's causing you to act hard
freedom aint free, gotta put it on my black card
my passport claim I'm an American citizen
the constitution said I'm three fifths
I'm not a semi and gorrilla
make my songs stronger than the horn of Gideon
truth is the ? gave the native people syphillis
Consider this: Christopher Columbus ain't know where he was goin'
So lets stop calling our Native brothers Indians
[Chorus]
[Black Thought]
We were carried here in shackles from the homelands
? chop, chain locked, brain washed, programmed
time's change, freedom reigns, I'm a grown man
holding the future in the palms of my own hands
in this World, the coonery and tomfoolery
all I'm trying to do is stay true to my community
the daily news aint the only thing that's schooling me
watching these haters operating with impunity
tis journey dollar signs, black and white collar crimes
running out of time, out of sight, out of mind
it gets realer and it's real in Palestine
troubles of the World start to seem intertwined
war criminals, conflict minerals, pillagers are coming home
and five star generals telling lies in press conferences and interviews
I'm trying to take back the power cause it's been abused
[Chorus]
[Chrisette Michele]
I'm just black in America
I'm not afro american
just a passive american
making belief I'm better than
what we've been, what we've been
I said
I'm just black in America
I'm not afro american
just a passive american
making belief I'm better than
what we've been, what we've been

Life, what is it for real, I don't know
It's like hate taking over the whole world, what is it over?
Suicide, man, that's the devil trying to control us, they told us
,but we didnt notice the pain was sitting on they shoulders
The world was just a polar, the rather live in the solar,
System got us hopeless, and focused on forclosures
Wake up and smell the folgers... oh momma and bring home the soldiers
Osama, you owe us, the 9 11 was bogus, now we right back at him
Say the war is our motive

Wake up early in the streets of the block, streets of the block
He posted up on the corner like a soldier in the drill but he wouldn't stop
Living life in the battlefield, battlefield, trying to survive every day and every night
It's the same deal
Lifes strange lifes strange ,times change times change, but karma always finds the way
Stay strong, stay strong, hold on, hold on
Don't let all your dreams fade away

Yeah life can beat you down, what goes it comes around
It's not how you hit the ground, it's how fast you get back up
And go, keep going,till it feels like I'm giving my life away
Gets hard,and harder, happiness is worth the wait
Cause on my own is a better way
Cause on my own is a better way

A lot of mothers they just don't understand, they just don't understand
They think we're hard on our sons but we gotta teach our boys how to be a man
They only know when they walk out the door, when they walk out the door
See we can show em how to fire but they gotta teach themselves how to reload
Cause unenployment is harder than its ever been, sometimes it feels like i cant win

And even through all the rules keep changing, I'm stronger now than I was when I came in

Yeah life can beat you down, what goes it comes around
It's not how you hit the ground, it's how fast you get back up
And go, keep going, to feel like I'm giving my life away
Gets hard, and harder, happiness is worth the wait
Cause on my own is a better way
Cause on my own is a better way

Hey, hey, going through the back streets like i got beef
Carnival for carnivores with the sharp teeth
Animalistic it's why we call the cops beast
We're on the hunt, cause they're hungry for the dark meat
I'm rapping through my heart beat, brain is the base, my heart is the drum
Give the drum some, promis of a better life is all I got to give
I ain't just trying to survive, I'm trying to live

Cause all I want is a better way,
Hey, if you're not prepared the world can be so cold
All that you can do is your best and just hope
In time the truth will show, just stick to what you know
Get a grip on something real and never let it go

And go, keep going, to feel like I'm giving my life away
Gets harder, and harder, happiness is worth the wait
Cause on my own is a better way
Cause on my own is a better way

[Mos Def]
Kweli say, "Everybody act according to the season that they born in"
Some are the night, some are the morning, some at noon
Some in winter, some in June
It's all cool, it's the natural
The science is a jewel
For me and mines, yours and you
Let's move, tell you a little about mine, yo

I was born in a season where the world was quiet and cold
Celebrations were going on
Some were happy, some were sad
Some felt bad from being good
Some felt good from being bad, feelings pass and change
but they never leave, they here to stay
Holiday, holiday, happy birthday
Teenage love, the first cut run deep
Soul on flesh, this is the Brooklyn streets
Year of the Ox, seven and three
M.D., the history (come on)
Every soul got one indeed (yes)
It's where you been and where you be
And without understanding you cannot proceed
Complete, the start then an end
Then it just go round again... again

[Talib Kweli and Mos Def]
Again and again, brand new
Again and again, so fresh
Again and again, newness

[Talib Kweli]
I was born in the decade of decadence where they worship what they have
Ford was president, do the math
The war was ended when the North Vietnamese stormed the city of Saigon
We was like "Bye", we was gone, let bygones be bygones
I'm goin' spread love, it's the Brooklyn way
Where the hug you with the firearm side arm
Like new school clothes, Black Star official
Smash when we do a show, it's facts, no mystery
I'm down with the crew like Mussolini in Italy
I rock with The Roots like the Given Tree
Powerful, bigotry I work, me and my people got history
These rappers dumb it down considerably
We "Get it Poppin'" like a hit chorus
The flow is historic, they can't get rid of us
Ubiquitous and we lay the law like Leviticus
Ten years ago we made history so they missing us

[Mos Def]
And don't call it come back in particular
Even if it blend into ephemeral I fade into peripheral,
Transition of the minister's original we're broadcast clear
Without diminishing, Black Star, so tight
Burning soul temperatures and ministers
Alkalines aminos and minerals, essentials
Served over Dilla time signatures
It's miracle material, remember it's right now foreverness

[Talib Kweli]
Yeah, this is a ghetto prayer
Prayin for all of those who ain't got it
We gotta get it there, we gotta get it yeah
Yeah the people starvin for somethin new, we starvin for it
(My tummy hurts, I couldn't eat)
Mmmm, mmm, mmm
(Did you have fun at school today Trey?)

My little man go to bed so hungry
Get up, go to school with his nose runny, come home with his nose bloody
His sister laughin, he like "What's so funny~?"
'Til she drowned out by the sounds of hunger pains in his tummy
Nuttin in the freezer, nuttin in the fridge
Couple of 40 ounces but nuttin for the kids
Little man know to eat to live but he don't wanna leave the crib
The kid who punched him in his face house right down the street from his
He went anyway, more scared to face his moms
She'll beat him soon as she flip out, seein his face scarred
Walkin past the dopefiends with they smoke to the place of God
Hopes and dreams pourin out the holes in they face and arms
Little man in the face of harm if he don't eat
He need energy so when he go to school he can compete
And keep up, all he got is bodegas
But hey he only got enough a for quarter water and a Now or Later
Anyway, grandma say Jesus'll be here any day
Good - cause with nuttin to eat it's gettin hard to pray... pray...



[Chorus: repeat 4X]
In order to receive, then we need to give
We gotta feed the kids, they gotta eat to live

[Talib Kweli]
Listen...

My rhymes got nutritional value
I get it how I live, it's critical when the conditions allow you
Do you don't trust the critics who doubt you
Try to write shit about you, but they can't make a living without you
Go hungry, you gotta watch what the media feed ya
And don't be a poisoned animal eater either
It's harder than it sound, cause nowadays, put that swine in everything
The white sugar so addictive it's pure 'caine
They got, pork in the toothpaste, soda in the Sunny D
Jello brand gelatin is laced with the lecatin
In Africa they starvin, over here the food hurt you
Cows goin mad and the chickens crunk with bird flu
It's too ill how the food kill it's like blue steel
Lies never set you free, but the truth will
The truth still matter the proof is in the batter or the pudding
You can tell we eatin good, we gettin fatter

[Chorus]

Listen...

I don't, remember the first time I heard Kwe-li
I don't remember what I was doing
There were no remembered witnesses to my doings
But it seems like I've known him, forever
He who has, moved through mornings and midnights
Through, deaths and dawns
To document our bones our blood our lives
Listen, listen to his exact wings
Strumming mists from clouds
Listen, listen a man always punctual with his, mouth
Listen to his, revolution of syllables
Scoping lightning from his pores
Keeping time, with his hurricane beat
Asking us to pick ourselves up and become, THUNDER

Yeah, they say you can't please everybody...
Let's go! Yeah, ay, they ain't know what that sound like

Feel the heartbeat, feel the heartbeat
On your eardrum, we got a new heartbeat
Feel the heartbeat, feel the heartbeat
On your eardrum, we got a new heartbeat

Yo, what becomes of a dream deferred
that never makes it to the world to be seen or heard
Do it breathe? Do it got a heartbeat? Is it alive?
Do it leave, only to become a star in the sky?
I believe, no scratch that I know, this ain't my full potential
Only usin 10 percent of my mental on instrumentals
But incidentally my, energy heavenly
Can he be so ill there ain't no, pill or no remedy
The, maker of memories posess the recipe to your fate
Make no mistake there ain't no escapin your destiny
Especially when, 'til death do us part, like wedding rings
I'll be here forever, put that on e'rything

You're everything maaaaaaaaan!
You're everything maaaaaaaaan!


Your Alpha and your Omega, your beginning and your end
Your father, your brother, your lover your friend
The blood in your vein that gets spilled and, runs in the drain
That's right my flow one and the same, the joy and the pain
My name, the burner that destroy the toy and the train
All city all night I'm enjoyin the fame
I'm a hustler, I'm a gangster and a rebel with the rank of a general
In the battle between God or the Devil
I lay claim to your spirit, your religion, your belief system
I'll do your hit in your kitchen and you're relief pitchin
This kid proficient in, every position
The man of your dreams and your nightmares commandin your vision
'Til it's quite clear like light beer, yeah I'm standin right here
I get you hot but stay cooler than the night air
I try to fit it in the same rhyme
But realize, I can't be everything to everyone at the same time

You're everything maaaaaaaaan!
You're everything maaaaaaaaan!

First time I heard him, I was in Japan
Seems like the first time I heard him was like, the Reflection, Reflection Eternal
Like when Kanye came out I guess was when I started to listen, I hate to say that but
New York native, and serious Talib fan
I came all the way from Puerto Rico just to see Talib Kweli
Him, Mos Def all of them man, I need them out here in my life
It's a rainy morning in New York City

As a kid growing up in brooklyn, my pops was a DJ
he had a bunch of records: Funk, jazz, rhythm & blues, soul
know what I'm sayin
there was this one gospel record i liked, like, like
like Holy Molly, I might get some religion and leave ya holy holy, ya this rhyme so fat its rolly polly
ill give intimate details so you can get to know me,
these corporate rapers like why this dude pickin on me
you rap your way to the top but now its gettin lonely,
kids is hungry and you lookin like steak from nick and tony's
but don't nobody want your jewels cause ya shit is phony
say word yo shit is real, yo shit is corny,
rhymes turn a new page like mark foley
and touch kids like when larry clark gave the part to chloe,
rest in peace to Harold Hunter, the greatest from New York
who started out skating for Zoo York, word
hangin out at the gavin, i was very lucky
the talk to rash once i got past Darren Dudley,
got him on respiration that's pre-Badu
bet you Garnett Reid got a Matt Doo tattoo,
some times it feels like im drowning i gotta tread water
head above the water i always remember headquarters
heads up eyes open i got my mind focused
i find hope inside a line, my rhymes defines opus


sometimes hopeless people fill my soul with evil
my record so hard it broke the needle,
at the mixtape awards niggas act like they don't give a f**k though
disrespect the legacy of Justo
what the blood clot? no, let the blood flow
you aint come to pay your respect then what you come fo,
too many good niggas die, it's like a stop loss
good niggas ghetto like fried wings and hot sauce,
how you hard the cops lettin 50 shots off
baby jay-z's with the knock off Scott Storch
beat you are not Short you are not Katt
you not a playa or a pimp money stop that,
learn to masta your speech and be eloquent
rappers keep peddlin sweets the beats weaker than gelatin,
we used to kick em dust and now we settling
rest to peace to Dilla, Weldon we can't forget you
professor x and proof we miss you word,
rest in peace to Shakka, 21 gun salute in the air like
Bloc! Bloc! Bloc!
Still here cause your livin through me
your like a gift god give it to me.
uh uh uh what!

(Talib Kweli talking) (Sample Voice)

This the year of the BlackSmith...
Talib Kweli...
Kwame...

Lets Go! (Listen!!!)
Yea niggas dont- (Listen!!!)
Back in the days we all used to- (Listen!!!)
Now shit is so wack, nobody- (Listen!!!)to that real hip hop (Listen!!!)
Yo (Listen!!!)

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready, here come (Listen!!!)
Talib Kweli and im BANGING on ya Eardrum (I think i wanna hear you!!!)
Wha? now lemme get up in it
Wait-(wait just) Wait-(wait just) Wait-(wait just a minute!!!)
Wait!

(Verse 1)
Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me ya ears
Start repentin' cause the ending is near
But don't (Listen!!!) panic, you can't function if you livin' in fear
Pay attention you gotta listen to hear
(Wait just a minute!!!) Who the fuck you talkin' to?
Put you on hold, get a specialist to walk you through
Kweli, the flow captain of fast and slow rappin'
I'm so crackin', you ain't heard? ya shit appear like "Closed Captions"
King of the bars and I'm goin' hard cause-
All my confidence comes from knowin' God's Laws (Listen!!!)
Bangin' on the system, fightin' my kinda war:
Loud as a whisper, quiet as a lion's roar
(Wait just a minute!!!)

(Hook)
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready, here come (Listen!!!)
Talib Kweli and I'm BANGING on ya eardrum (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Now lemme get up in it (Listen!!!)
Its for ya spirit so (Listen!!!)
But y'all don't hear me though (Listen!!!)
Get up, get into it and get involved (Listen!!!)
There's a little something that I wanna spit for y'all (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Now lemme get up in it (Wait just- Wait just- Wait just a minute!!!)

(Verse 2)
Get it now, get it fast, get it right
Get it big, get it loud, get it done, get it tight (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
But you don't really hear me though
I (Listen!!!) spit clearly so (Listen!!!) it's live outcha stereo
(Listen!!!)To your heart while its beatin' in ya chest
(Listen!!!)When you speakin' to Execs
And they see behind the desk
(Listen!!!) To ya spirit, nothing weaker than the flesh
So while you try to keep it fresh, you gettin' deeper into debt
(Wait just a minute!!!) Real Hip-Hop is missin' from the shelf
Yup, it's what you felt when you listen to yaself
(Listen!!!) Only a few is makin' cuts that's spinnin'
So before you spend ya hard earned spinach
(Wait just a minute!!!)

(Hook)

(Verse 3)
You love the sounds comin' out your speaka
I spit rounds like a Nine Millimeta (Listen!!!)
The youth today they frown at the teachers
They ain't down with no leaders they don't wanna- (Wait just a minute!!!)
They like, "What?! Nigga wait right there.
I got 'Reservoir Dogs', you'll be missin' a 'Right Ear'"
(Listen!!!) Get it clear, i figure its my year
I'm everywhere makin' appearances in nigga's nightmares (Wait just a minute!!!)
Hear the word, peep the flow, check the cadence (Listen!!!)
What you heard as a Pro, I'm so amazing (Listen!!!)
Don't front girl, you know its ya favorite
New Kweli, yo, they runnin' out of patience (Wait just a minute!!!)

(Hook)

Yo, don't it sound so good to you? (Listen!!!)
Unh!, it's the return of the greatest y'all (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Talib Kweli, BKMC (Listen!!!)
BlackSmith is the movement (Listen!!!)
BlackSmith is the music (Listen!!!)
Whatchu ridin' for?
Whatchu livin' for? (Listen!!!)
Whatchu dyin' for?
(I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Bangin' on ya Eardrum, Yea!
(Wait just- Wait just- Wait just a minute!!!)

(Listen!!!)

(Wait just- wait just- wait just a minute!!!)

C'mon, Yeah
I like to take this opportunity, to thank everybody who been riding with me so far
It's a been a long journey
But they say your life's path is not about the destination
It's all about the journey
I appreciate y'all

[Chorus:]
It's my blood, sweat, tears, years
Struggle, love, hate, fear
New york city!
You could make it here, you could make it anywhere
I came to prepare
For the rain, hail, sleet, snow
Whatever the weather, we ride
Let my people go!
To a place where knowledge is born
We welcome you to the 3rd eye of the storm
Check it out!

[Verse:]
Futuristic lyricist, straight from the renaissance
Top of the suffer chain, raps up a edge a lot
My people suffering, slave to another chain
This voyage is maiden, like my mother of the name
Is this your first trip to hell?
Avenge a capitalist, if it's a product then we got it for sell
When I first started to spell, my words fell into rhymes
Turned into songs, everything else fell into line
I paint the pictures, you could see the people bleeding my bars
When I was a teen, I was mean, about to reach for the stars
So if I fail or fell, write in the clouds, tighten the vowel
Niggaz word, there use to be no bitin allowed
Now the gangsters no grindin' allowed
Probably see a fight in the stage, fore you see a fight in the crowd
I send this out to my people facing the storm
Homie we riding it out
You inspire what I'm writing about

[Chorus:]
It's the 3rd eye of the storm [x4]
Check it out! [x3]
Been fucking around!

[Verse:]
I'm not a judge, but I'm handing out sentences
To political prisoners, regular inmates with no visitors
Niggaz in the streets outside to reach up for ministers
Not those that say they spiritual, but actual parishoners
Rap listeners, we open the black businesses
This underground shit, with samples to lack clearances
Once you get a past appearances
You could tell who shit is fake and who's shit is based upon the past experiences
We really been to war, hand to hand like crack sales
Bill the man, the man they try to kill off the blackmail
Female left to raise up a son
From the day he was one
Til' he twenty, and he raise up a gun
Get the blazin, fore the blaze of the sun
Smoke bracin' his lung
Young in his years and he's facing a ton
None of his peers wanna share the road
Love the child, care to provider
But they hand a blunt and share saliva
You ain't a rider
And you hustlin' backwards
To many excess, with imitating these crackers
So our kids looking up to drug dealers and rappers
Taking away all the work away from our black actors
Revelation is first and armageddon is after
Tsunami's, hurricanes and natural disasters
Fast food culture be this, is always a factor
It's the gratification
They want the cash faster!

[Chorus:]
It's the 3rd eye of the storm [x4]
It's the place where knowledge is born!
Check it out! check it out!
Talib Kweli!
That's what it is...
Break it down

Ladies and gentlemen
Kweli!

[Hook:]
Won't you stay around with me?...
And please say the rhyme
Cause these rappers think that I'm
In love with your state of mind
Cause you a favourite of mine
And I know you on your grind
I don't want to waste your time
But baby won't you stay around with me?...
And let my love (and let my love)
And let my love

[Verse 1:]
Kweli you should rap about this, you should rap about that
Any more suggestions? You in the back, yeah you
You should rap more on beat, you should rap more street
And never ever get your mack on please, how bout you?
I like the way you're melodic, it's cause you capture hypnotic
Portraits and seem to make the average exotic
Probably unite, I know you getting some love, but you can't spit like a thug
And you a blow, you make a hit for the club, word
I don't like your voice, I don't like your choice of beats
It sounds like it's forced, and what was up with "Back Up Offa Me"?
I ain't like that, man you should get with Hi-Tek
Now he got nice tracks, them other dudes is type wack
Yeah, people keeping it coming, I keep it bubbling
Like the heat from oven boiling the water and the hate
So they light my fire...
I got a mic empire, my own label
I had to emancipate me-me like Mariah...
At some point I might retire, on some bullshit
My legacy, horseshit like Mariah's...
Illest flow found in the game, soothing like the sound of the rain
It's the dude profound with the fame, I refusing to be sounding the same
Keeping the verses, deleting the curses, defeating the purpose
When the people go on strike, I'm in the street with the workers
Speaking the words from a pulpit like the preachers at churches
Raise my hand, all the teachers get nervous
Cause they know I air them out
And they ain't even really gotta hear me out
Keep it dirty like pigpen, voice in the warrior's head like Lynne Thigpen
Clocking like Big Ben, old school slang still find a way to innovate
Pete Rock got em feeling great, the ladies say

[Hook:]
Won't you stay around with me?...
And please say the rhyme
Cause these rappers think that I'm
In love with your state of mind
Cause you a favorite of mine
And I know you on your grind
I don't want to waste your time
But baby won't you stay around with me?...
And let my love (and let my love)
And let my love

[Verse 2:]
Light the tip of the L, this heavyweight rap tipping the scale
And we never let the system prevail, real picturesque, missing the sale
Never that, it's forbidden like the candy sisters lifting the veil
I'm still leading the pack, these cats lacking
Just because you be having a dragon don't mean you got the fire...
It ain't nothing to play with, it's sacred
My pen is the paintbrush, and dipping in paint plus
Truth, love, joy, anger, hatred and anguish
That's the spectrum of colours I paint with
I don't feast at the banquet, cause freedom is the set that I bang with
Listen the conditions in my slum village is tainted
I grew through the pavement, like the flower the girl drew in the paper
The sky bluer and the? eye's? save you
The rules of engagement that they use, attitudes of a slave
Man got me stressed out losing my patience
The moves that I'm making across waters
Through contraband that I'm taking across borders
Information never lost in translation
Too many new words to be learned, I'm spitting fire giving third degree burns
Giving them heat stroke, hotter than rocking a P cote
At [? ], all these rappers super like me so, we go
Back in the days like reminiscing with Pete yo
Ladies welcome to the Kweli show
She goes...

[Hook:]
Won't you stay around with me?...
And please say the rhyme
Cause these rappers think that I'm
In love with your state of mind
Cause you a favorite of mine
And I know you on your grind
I don't want to waste your time
But baby won't you stay around with me?...
And let my love (and let my love)
And let my love

[Outro:]
Ladies and Gentleman, it's Talib Kweli
Yeah, this Ear Drum y'all
B-B-B-B-Banging on your ear drum
We got the incredible Pete Rock on the track like...
I like that, I like that
I want to give an extra big shout to my man Dave Dart
Holding me down as always and as usual
And his new born son, Cannon, brand new to the world
He's now down with Blacksmith, Blacksmith is the movement
Jean Grae, Strong Arm Steady gang, Talib Kweli
It's what it is, yeah

(Talib Kweli talking) (Sample Voice)

This the year of the BlackSmith...
Talib Kweli...
Kwame...

Lets Go! (Listen!!!)
Yea niggas dont- (Listen!!!)
Back in the days we all used to- (Listen!!!)
Now shit is so wack, nobody- (Listen!!!)to that real hip hop (Listen!!!)
Yo (Listen!!!)

Ladies and gentlemen, get ready, here come (Listen!!!)
Talib Kweli and im BANGING on ya Eardrum (I think i wanna hear you!!!)
Wha? now lemme get up in it
Wait-(wait just) Wait-(wait just) Wait-(wait just a minute!!!)
Wait!

(Verse 1)
Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me ya ears
Start repentin' cause the ending is near
But don't (Listen!!!) panic, you can't function if you livin' in fear
Pay attention you gotta listen to hear
(Wait just a minute!!!) Who the fuck you talkin' to?
Put you on hold, get a specialist to walk you through
Kweli, the flow captain of fast and slow rappin'
I'm so crackin', you ain't heard? ya shit appear like "Closed Captions"
King of the bars and I'm goin' hard cause-
All my confidence comes from knowin' God's Laws (Listen!!!)
Bangin' on the system, fightin' my kinda war:
Loud as a whisper, quiet as a lion's roar
(Wait just a minute!!!)

(Hook)
Ladies and gentlemen, get ready, here come (Listen!!!)
Talib Kweli and I'm BANGING on ya eardrum (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Now lemme get up in it (Listen!!!)
Its for ya spirit so (Listen!!!)
But y'all don't hear me though (Listen!!!)
Get up, get into it and get involved (Listen!!!)
There's a little something that I wanna spit for y'all (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Now lemme get up in it (Wait just- Wait just- Wait just a minute!!!)

(Verse 2)
Get it now, get it fast, get it right
Get it big, get it loud, get it done, get it tight (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
But you don't really hear me though
I (Listen!!!) spit clearly so (Listen!!!) it's live outcha stereo
(Listen!!!)To your heart while its beatin' in ya chest
(Listen!!!)When you speakin' to Execs
And they see behind the desk
(Listen!!!) To ya spirit, nothing weaker than the flesh
So while you try to keep it fresh, you gettin' deeper into debt
(Wait just a minute!!!) Real Hip-Hop is missin' from the shelf
Yup, it's what you felt when you listen to yaself
(Listen!!!) Only a few is makin' cuts that's spinnin'
So before you spend ya hard earned spinach
(Wait just a minute!!!)

(Hook)

(Verse 3)
You love the sounds comin' out your speaka
I spit rounds like a Nine Millimeta (Listen!!!)
The youth today they frown at the teachers
They ain't down with no leaders they don't wanna- (Wait just a minute!!!)
They like, "What?! Nigga wait right there.
I got 'Reservoir Dogs', you'll be missin' a 'Right Ear'"
(Listen!!!) Get it clear, i figure its my year
I'm everywhere makin' appearances in nigga's nightmares (Wait just a minute!!!)
Hear the word, peep the flow, check the cadence (Listen!!!)
What you heard as a Pro, I'm so amazing (Listen!!!)
Don't front girl, you know its ya favorite
New Kweli, yo, they runnin' out of patience (Wait just a minute!!!)

(Hook)

Yo, don't it sound so good to you? (Listen!!!)
Unh!, it's the return of the greatest y'all (I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Talib Kweli, BKMC (Listen!!!)
BlackSmith is the movement (Listen!!!)
BlackSmith is the music (Listen!!!)
Whatchu ridin' for?
Whatchu livin' for? (Listen!!!)
Whatchu dyin' for?
(I think I wanna hear you!!!)
Bangin' on ya Eardrum, Yea!
(Wait just- Wait just- Wait just a minute!!!)

(Listen!!!)

(Wait just- wait just- wait just a minute!!!)

[Mos Def]
Lawd, lawd have mercy
All nice and peace and true, follow me now, we say
Say Hi-Tek yes you're ruling hip-hop
Say J. Rawls yes you're ruling hip-hop
Redefinition say you're ruling hip-hop
Say Black Star come to rock it non...

Yo, from the first to the last of it, delivery is passionate
The whole and not the half of it, vocab and not the math of it
Projectile that them blasted with, accurate assassin shit
Me and Kweli close like, Bethlehem and Nazareth
After this you be pressing rewind on top your master disk
Shining like an asterisk for all those that be gatherin
Connectin like a roundhouse from the townhouse to the tenements
Cause all my Brooklyn residents, heavy regiments
Don't believe, here the evidence, where Brooklyn WHOA
See that? Bound to take it all kid, believe that
From where they sellin tree at, to where the police be at
Talib Kweli e-Kweli-ty yo tell them where we be at

[Talib Kweli]
Brooklyn New York City where they paint murals of Biggie
In cash we trust cause it's ghetto fabulous, life look pretty
What a pity - blunts is still fifty cents, it's intense
Tree scents is dominant can't be covered with incense
My presence felt my name is Kweli from the Eternal Reflection
People thinkin MC is short hand for Mis Conception
Let me meditate, set it straight, came to the conclusion
That most of these cats is featherweight, let me demonstrate
Walkin the streets is like battlin, be careful with your body
You must know karate or think your soul is bulletproof like Sade
Stop actin like a bitch already, be a visionary
And maybe you can see your name in the column of obituary
Third rate teacher readin and talkin about,
"I knew he'd amount to nothin"
Neighbors like, "He was the quiet type,
Who'd have thought they was frontin?"
Talkin Loud like you in RCA, get carted away
with body parts and treys, what a way to start your day
Yo it's like

[Chorus: Mos Def and Talib Kweli]
One two three
Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, yeah
I said one two three
It's kind of dangerous to be a emcee
They shot Tupac and Biggie
Too much violence in hip-hop, yeah

[Mos Def]
I said Manhattan keep on makin it (Bo!), Brooklyn keep on takin it (Bo!)
So relax we're takin it back, Redhook where we're livin at
Plenty cats be strugglin not hustlin and bubblin
It ain't about production and - what else we discussin?
When the cock crows, my crop grows, enable me to rock flows
Strivin for perfection ever since I was a snot-nosed
COLOSSAL, true original B-boy apostle
Standin on the rooftop with the, Zulu gestapo

[Talib Kweli]
You think you the shit
Somebody in the wings'll force you to quit
It could be your crew or click
Or some random kid you smoked Buddha with
Consider me the entity within the industry without a history
Of spittin the epitome, of stupidity - livin my life
Expressin my liberty, it gotta be done properly
My name is in the middle of e-Kweli-ty
People follow me and other cats they hear him flow
And assume I'm the real one with lyrics like I'm Cyrano

[Mos Def]
Still sippin wishin well water, imported, from Pluto
Three hundred and sixty millilitres for all our believers
In miles or kilometers, most cats, cannot proceed us
In the jungle with the leaders we the lions you the cheaters
A cypher, will complete us if we come through your receivers
You can play us and repeat us and then take us home and read us
(Line for line) Good Jesus, Mos Def and Kweli just
Make a pussy freeze up, thinkin we will ease up

[Chorus]

-------------
Lyrics Powered by LyricFind
Written By TONY COTTRELL, TALIB KWELI GREENE, DANTE SMITH
Lyrics © WINDSWEPT HOLDINGS LLC

[Chorus: Kweli & Dice Raw]
Downtown everybody move to the beat
Uptown everybody moving the heat
Cross-town the party where both sides meet
Eastside, westside, there's always beef X2

[Kweli]
I tattoo the page with the permanent ink
Mr. Rourke on your Fantasy Island
The umbrella in your tropical drinks
Still run it up it, liquor in your cup
Fucking you up
Hang over the banister
You feel the rush of the blood going straight to your brain
Ain't no love, you only love bringing hate to the game
Taking my name in vain, mistaking license for freedom
He make music for the people, people dying to meet him
People!
We still abuse it, while the rich is made of music
He probably driving a Buick and be rocking van ?
G-you-E relevant, see how his man do it
Fucking with niggas from illa fifth, see how we ran through it
The river in the valley
The nigga in the alley
Rolling with the heat from BK to killer Cali
The hands will fake the clapping
You'll be collasping
You softer than the land on legs
Transforming the landscape
Like a sandstorm in the Sahara
I am the truest nigga
I do more shows than The Roots to Carol Lewis
Creative artist, never play the targets of game hunters
You may want to test this product like cane smugglers
Dis disco shit
Popping like Crisco
Hitting your face
Spit in your face like pistol shit
My style, wild like wipple whip
I go back like a pistol grip
It's pro-black, Kweli!

[Chorus] w/o Kweli

[Black Thought]
I'm a FED like Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Willy gank, spit the killer dank dialogue
Pyro-maniac like Dr. Molotov
I knock the bottle off
And knock the model off
Gots some non-believers here
Some how I'll save y'all
Or stop y'all worries, you makin me vexed
Hit up gekko, this ain't got gold correct
I'll fucking bounty hunt your body like I'm Boba Fett
Cause you a toy not a soldier yet
You better hold your neck
You dick smokers get no respect
With the blood, ice your watch, rock your rocks
Better rock it on the screen and not the blocks
'cause them crews don't stop them shots
It's so many that fly, they chase down, I just stop and watch
I'm from the south side of philly, it's known to get gruesome
Heavy hitter villians these alleyways produce them
Heavy hitter on a pocket we find a way to juice them
They may as well pay, schmuck
Introducing the be

That's what I'm talkin' about
S A S, size ain't shit, never dat
Strong arm steady, Talib Kweli

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Woah, I'm dealin' wit nuttin' but facts when I spit it though
You niggas superstitious, don't step on the cracks
Or split the poem, candle light, flickers so bright, I feel the wick
Can kick a sicka flow and spill it like a liquor store

I spit the shit to make a cripple get up and dance
I spit the shit to make the average MC piss in his pants
I spit the shit to make a mothafucka call it a night
I spit the shit to see fuck wit C Delores Tucker sex like

I take a sip from my creative well, in this game for a minute
I play this well to win it, ya go to Africa like Cave Chappelle, you finished
'Cause ya prehistoric raps is borin' the number of whack rappers
Soarin' like the percentages of teenagers who have abortions

These niggas meak, they lyrics weak and they beats is corporate
They try snitchin' on records their mouths is leakin' forces
Drippin' 'em over system than Chinese water torture
Rippin' a series of events more unfortunate than lemony snicket

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Yea, med alliance mind bless the mic for the gods
Teach the blind plus get a piece of mine
Release ya minds for each design
Baby food for thought, rappas not [Incomprehensible] for sport
Due to this pork eatin' niggas of sort

Yo, you's a fuck face, burnt out loser that's always up late
Planet Ais the revolutionary slash nut case
A witchcraft black magic, data load up computers
A spread the message wrote to you where, when I show illusions

If all y'all niggas is killas then how ya write ya records?
How'd you find the time? Stop lyin', ya minds infected
There's only a few and I ain't sayin' niggas
Don't put it down from you town, I'm talkin' 'bout you

Yea, the fake dude promotin' propaganda
And open on some fanna and out right snitchin' on them cameras
Planet Ais, gold chain black bandannas low
Steady gain click clack, rang, rang, there they go

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Yea, just a high skip and a jump away from gettin' everything
That I could possibly want and prostitutes front, get a 4 bar on the roster
Scratch that, I'm talkin' about a full roster of raps, monstas that rap
Buzzed out later check the cadence of the frequency

Uniquely, we strong arms strategically
Easily I twist the [Incomprehensible]
Killa Cali [Incomprehensible] back alleys burnin' backwoods in Danelis
Or he probably wit Kweli, out in BK, we make it easy for the Djs
Like instant replays, conversation by the buttons
I talk and touch sumpin'

Straight shots of the luey, he flew me out to London
Crunchin' numbas, flippin' more dough like Siccisero
Next thing you know, we kissin' ya hoe, wit out the mistletoe
Strong arm steady, agony can sickly, Phil da rigglies
The big league niggas is droppin' indies let's go

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Niggaz gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We the shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know you best to fall back, woah

Talib Kweli, right about now
This what I'm feelin' right about now
And I invite you all to check it out wit me
Let's go, it's like

Niggas gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We da shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know, you best to fall back, woah

Niggas gettin' caught in the trap
For the cash it's the drugs basketball or the rap
There's more to us than that
We da shit consider the facts, after you analyze that
You know, you best to fall back, woah

ntro (Talib speaking):
Yeah
Kweli in the house
Dave West is what I'm talkin' about, you know?
Yea yea yea yo yea yo yea yea yea yo yea yo Yea yea yea yooohh yooohh

[Verse]
Make a joy for noise until the lord people are floored
Cause the pen is mightier than the sword
Leavin' the floor
Cause my words cut deeper than a tissue massage
I got hooks and lines that sink y'all like a fisherman's rod
I'm on mission for God he blessed me to spit it this hard
A lot of niggas start shit but they don't finish the job
I'm like Minister Farrakhan or Africans who finished a marathon
The pain in my voice is like Sarah Vaughn
No matter what playin' 'em on I carry on
Even if the dawn lit overhead I carry on
Like Flash Gordon the Scar on my Face is Brad Jordan
Passports splash with blood from the battle I last fought in
I want to cash all in
Or I start breakin' like glass jaw I put The Blast on 'em like my last tourin'
Or fast forward just to catch what I said
Yo I say some shit like that just to mess with your head, come on

[Chorus]
Grabbin' the black steel, bowh
In the hour of chaos
We ain't rappin' till they pay us, is that real?
We got babies
We got bills
Put your hands up in the air if you know how I feel
And let it out (let it out)
Get it out (get it out)
Work it up (work it up)
Sweat it out
I don't know
If you know
My history I do it big

Like Notorious did
Get on and play like this according to kid
Gangster like knock out Ned like Little Zane slayed all on his wiz
Crazy like the little hand on the seven, the big hand on the six
J-Lo, yo
Whether you all in the mix or if you stay low
Everybody say hoooo hoooo hoooo hoooo

[Hook]
I don't know
If you know
My history you don't know me

Choke the game till it's blue like a varicose vein
And I can't remember the last time I felt this terrible pain
And the whole shit blew up
Was it in vain?
They'll be lookin' through the rubble like they searchin' for Hussein
I'm lookin through the club I'm really searchin for who's sane
The music got everyone crazy and who to blame
Be prepared think there'll be some ugliness up in here
End up in intensive care with the vegetables there, you know?

[Chorus]

It's the black hand bustin' the tech
Gettin' it wet without bustin' a sweat
Swingin' for the upper deck
It's the black man cuttin' a check
The nigger's the boss
The niggers want to test if they addicted to laws
I spit on the floor
The right hook will get at your jaw
Make the track my baby mama when I'm hittin' it raw
I rap through:
Wars and tours and whores on the floors I did it for force
So I spit at all the shit that I saw
I party with supermodels who wanna take of they clothes
The ones who smokin' cocaine so they don't fuck up they nose
I walked the slums of Soweto and the streets of Havana
Takin' pictures with kids who never seen a camera
From the land of the Alabama since the night in the Cali
Bumpin' gangster music like a freedoms song in the rally
Out the back of yo' Dinnali give you the skinny like Ally McBeal
It's the black steel, Brooklyn know the deal, what?!

[Chorus]

(feat. MF Doom)

[Intro: Talib Kweli]
Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout
Yeah, we on fire
We gotta call the fire department
Let's go
Yo, yo, yo

[Hook]
I don't know why people try to be live when they not
I gotta blow up they spot so I fly that knot

[Talib Kweli]
Yo, I know you like that
You like that!
Yeah, yeah

[Verse 1: Talib Kweli]
There's an E! True Hollywood Story for the pluckin' it's ripe
How cats is stuck in purgatory for life
Tryin' to fight the enemy without sight
They in the dark swingin' right to left
Clingin' to the little bit of light that's left
And can't escape the room, you can't escape the tomb
You all wear a mask sometimes, I can relate to Doom
That make the whole world earthquake, shake, and move
The beat create a mood or eat your whole plate of food
You can't come close like an order of protection
That this is myself in the pack was sort of my intention
Slaughter anybody testin' my callin', my profession
Anymore questions will born 'em a lesson
A demonstration of takin' it all the way home
While you stuck at first base and
It's like havin' relations without the penetration
Basically doin' nathin'
You a waste of space and time
Always chasin' mine is how you lost your place in line

[Hook]
I don't know why people try to be live when they not
I gotta blow up they spot so I fly that knot

[Talib Kweli]
We got that uncut flow that bring the cops out
Pay and groan like young Mike and get knocked out

[Hook]
I don't know why people try to be live when they not
I gotta blow up they spot so I fly that knot

[Talib Kweli]
Yeah, free the radio population
Kweli and Doom the 1-2, the combination
Let's go

[Verse 2: MF Doom]
About time you heard a rhyme flow with Doom and Kweli
To catch you with the combo, boom boom, Muhammad Ali
Versus Potsy cursin' Yahtzee at the crap table
Burstin' caps at a Nazi rap label
Oops, a pot of hot tea spilt on the cable
Evaporate an ice grill, read the seeds of Aesop fable
Children, come sit, gather
Face the rapid fire of the super slap shit outta liar
The end
Villain, the champ tramp
Flowin' since they had him holdin' ???
He cleaned his mask with a shoe mitt
And a little bit of her blue spit
She told him you so stupid
Wiped it off, got dressed and left
Everybody instigatin', not just the ref
We can shoot the fire on the dirt ground
Rocks out live with the worst sound
First round knock out

[Hook]
I don't know why people try to be live when they not
I gotta blow up they spot so I fly that knot

[Talib Kweli]
We got that uncut flow that bring the cops out
Pay and groan like young Mike and get knocked out

[Hook]
I don't know why people try to be live when they not
I gotta blow up they spot so I fly that knot

[Talib Kweli]
Yeah, free the radio population
Kweli and Doom the 1-2, the combination
Let's go

{*DJ cuts Talib Kweli samples*}

Every night, slips away (phone ringing)
in other words, (yo, who's this?) I should say
there are no words, (y'all heard it) you should say
there are no words, (I mean it's life)
every night, slips away (I mean, what can I say? it's best)
in other words, I should say
there are no words, you should say
there are no words

Ms. Hill, you got skills, that's a gift, it's real
get ill, what you spit got the power to uplift the heel
I wish I could talk to Lauryn
I mean excuse me, Ms. Hill
and let her know how much we love her is real
the industry was beating her up
then those demons started eating her up
she need a savior that'll bleed in a cup, yup
we used to kick it in the salad days
when she look at me like she ain't know me when she see me nowadays
I nod, she nod back, that's how it stay
her songs still better than anything out there
hotter power play
remember how they accused her of saying
she did her album without help
then she went to Rome to sing
and tell the Pope about herself
just after she left the Fugees
started rolling with the Marleys
got back with her crew at Dave Chapelle's Block Party
she made songs about Zion
and trying to be faithful
took the Blackstar on tour in Europe
I was so grateful
speaking for myself but I'm sure I could speak for Dante
I got to watch a show with Nina Simone and Harry Belafonte
we used to chill at Nkiru, her moms was a customer
she used to love to buy the books by Octavia Butler
Parable of the Sower, the main character's name was Lauren
what the album did for black girls' souls was so important
I got concerned when she got sick on the road
she ain't heavy, I'm a brother
and I wish that I could pick up the load, but no

every night, slips away
in other words, I should say
there are no words, you should say
there are no words
another night slips away
in other words, I should say
there are no words, you should say
there are no words
Ms. Hill, you got skills, that's a gift, it's real
get ill, what you spit got the power to uplift the heel

got your assitant on the the phone
"I need to talk to Lauryn"
and I wanna walk through the storm, and I could be the umbrella
when the rain is pouring
please, this no disrespect to whoever your man is though
this relationship is strictly music like D'angelo
I know you hate Babylon, and wanna see it fall
but they won't let you read your poem at the BET awards
you give us hope, you give us faith, you the one
they don't like what you got to say
but still they beg you to come, whoa
now that's powerful sis, it's black power
we get money, keep our eyes on the final hour
and no I ain't saying you Christ, that would be sacriligous right?
but you can blow up the night, sisters the rats is vicious
the raps the sisters recite with their black fist up
the devil's last wish is a queen that rise past bitches
we used to read Francis Crest or anything
by Third World Press will press
but what the power of the word suggest
hatched ideas in our heads like birds in the nest
you gave birth to a new sound like Don did West, yes
should I be saying all of this while the mic is on?
I might as well let it out because one day I might be gone
I write this song and hope you feel how much we love you
and you play it, cause I really ain't got the words to say it
but yo

every night, slips away
in other words, I should say
there are no words, you should say
there are no words
another night slips away
in other words, I should say
there are no words, you should say
there are no words
Ms. Hill, you got skills, that's a gift, it's real
get ill, what you spit got the power to uplift the heel

[Intro]
Yeah, this that new Kweli
I'ma give it to you before the bootleggers get hold of
it
You know what I'm sayin'?
I figure I put it out first, make some money wit' it
Why not, right?
Okay, 1-2

[Verse]
Yo I'm Brooklyn like the '90s
Brownsville and Bushel keep it grimey
When I'm from flatbush that's where you'll find me
In Brooklyn, Tek wit' Justin and Sadat
And Free and Sid from ???
Always catch me wit' Juju and Rubiks, we was truant kids
Dollar band nooseses
Jump bell, run, and never look back
Mr. Man kept the hammer in his bookbag
Rubiks introduced me to Black and Forte
DJ Enuff on Avenue K I go back a long way
Wit' Super Nat in Washington Square freestylin' everyday
Peformin' at Lyricists' Lounge who ate off Jean Grae
Fuckin' wit' Mood is how I met Hi-Tek
Black Star came in effect when Elijah gave my tape to Mos Def
Reflection Eternal was next on deck
My crew the best and we proved it
We knew our music was the Vanguard of a movement
Every Rawkus release was bangin', they on the come up
They was like fuck the radio 'til Pharoahe said "Get the fuck up"
Flex listened, jabbin' at Bryant
The next position was right about now we need the
radio hit written
While I hit the road
On tour to support the records since the day it was sold
Corey had me followin' the example of De La Soul
Common and The Roots to me these the sickest niggaz
Get my figures wit' the Okayplayers and the Spitkickers
Rawkus got a deal with MCA, this the gray area
But let it stir for Music Cemetery of America
They tried to fool you by switchin' the name to Geffen
Now they Interscope's bitch and every artist who had a chance left 'em
Ain't no big surprise, wasn't no love there
Jimmy Iovine never signed me, I just kinda ended up there
But fuck that, literally it was my way or the highway
Hit the road with the Beastie Boys and toured Europe with Kanye
Gotta thank 'em for the love on the album
I knew out on "Electric Circus"
He'd get it by any means necessary like Malcolm
I dropped a single, shot a video, took control of my situation
Got a label poppin', it's a celebration (bitches)
Yo boy Free I had to get out
I put you on, that's where I'm at right about now

[Hook]
And if you're sayin' it's my time, you right about now
This what's goin' through my mind right about now
Hey yo, hey yo, it's time to write about now
And if you lookin' you can find it right about now
I put you on, that's where I'm at right about now
This what's goin' through my mind right about now
Yo, hey yo, it's time to write about now
And if you lookin' you can find it right about now

[Outro: Dave Chappelle {*DJ cutting*}]
That's right bitches, Talib Kweli
One of the baddest motherfuckers you've ever seen
That's right bitches, Talib Kweli
You're now rockin' with the best! I said it
The best! The best!
That's right bitches
You're now rockin' with the best! The best!
Talib Kweli
Where's-Where's my snares? Talib Kweli
Where's-Where's my snares?

(feat. Mos Def)
[Intro] {Talib Kweli}
Whoo
We on fire tonight
Whoo
Yeah, we on fire tonight
Whoo
Black Star in the house fo' sho' (Yeah)
Yo, now everybody go... (C'mon)
[Intro Chorus] {Talib Kweli + Mos Def}
Ghet-to p-pole it's time to ride (Supreme, Supreme)
Bay-b get involved go side to side (Supreme, Supreme, Yeah, Yeah)
Side to side...
[Verse 1] {Talib Kweli}
'Bout to slap box with the beat
The shit I spit is a snapshot of the street
You can see the crack spot in the backdrop
The heat in the stash box of the black drop
You wonder why there's more crime
Free food, or a check the only time niggaz on line
Getting information from the nigga-net
The trickle-down theory guess it ain't reached niggaz yet
I make a bigger bet
Kweli 'bout to be a bigger threat
'Cuz there's hardly any real niggaz left
What the fuck these niggaz talking 'bout
Living a movie but the audience is walking out
I fight the temptation to rip the heart from your chest
'Til there's only five hard beats left
It's like a dead man walking
I turn on the radio and I hear dead men talking
[Chorus]
Ghet-to p-pole it's time to ride (Supreme, Supreme)
Bay-b get involved go side to side (Supreme, Supreme)
[Verse 2] {Mos Def}
Yo'
I got my headphones up like I'm listening close
Face blank with expression it isn't a joke
Start fire, sit back and spit its smoke
To get it provoked, blow it back to get in your throat
Mad problems...Take all the niggaz you know
Add that number up with every nigga you don't
Final number, some total of the niggaz that won't
Break me down, shake me of my fame, my style
What time it is, crew you can hate me now
And ten minutes from then you gon' love me again
Buck town republic again
Writing on the wall trouble again
Intensify struggle and such
Killers, Sadč lovers deluxe
Sound garnered, for the wild hearted
Downtrodden, up-starters
Young violent, uprising
Cocaine, and gunpowder
Up north, or bus crowded
Daily vibes to thug mountain
Cold caves or peaks of high
Think you present but unclear, and know how to hide
If you wonder why you got so much on your mind
'Cuz your living in a troubling time, this is a puzzling time
Fall back without recovering time, and time's up
Brooklyn, put your dimes up
[Chorus 2X]
[Verse 3] {Mos Def + Talib Kweli}
{Mos Def}
I put feeling inside of my rap
Hold it down for my side of the map
No matter what north, south east or west side of the mat
Bend a needle on the mind and it's back
{Talib Kweli}
Got a problem with that?
The holler back and the stars is black
We the New Era you just a Starter cap
Find out what happens when the artist in tact
Be sharp as a tack, fall back you smarter than that
{Mos Def}
Or perhaps you just ain't as smart as you think
Figure 8'n on the thin ice part of the rink
You a vessel that's promised to sink
Terra Firma ain't as hard as you think
Stare down, and you starting to blink
{Talib Kweli}
Like 182 this for fellas and the ladies who
Don't need to be spoon fed like baby food
I take a bite out the track like a Sabre-tooth
And spit out the truth
'Til the cops come and spray the booth
[Chorus 2X]
[Outro] {Talib Kweli + Mos Def}
Its all right with you its all right with me
Do the damn thing what you wanna be (Supreme, Supreme)
That's right, that's right that's right that's right
That's right, that's right that's right that's right (Supreme, Supreme)
[Repeated 3X More]
[Talking]

[Intro-Talib Kweli]
Dave, this a monster

[Chorus-Talib Kweli]
When them boys wit the Tec's throwin' up they set
And the spot so hot the ceilin' start to sweat
Yeah, that's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The...
When you just a little tipsy, you lookin' at them lips
And you lockin' up them hips, get the drillin' wit the tips, and
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The...

[Verse 1-Papoose]
Knowledge is the founder of everything in existence
If you not droppin' knowledge about us it's 'cause you ig'nant
A top-notch scholar wit honors, I'm so gifted
Live is the most vicious, honest and prolific
I drop diabolical brollic wit no gimmick
Astonish the flow critics, rhyme wit the most lyrics
I paint pictures, jot it and dot it but won't print it
My ? is photogenic, I am the most vivid
Man, I got a brain the size of the most biggest
Wide as them cold rivers, wise as them old niggaz
Tired of this, though, half of you rhyme it but don't live it
Watch it and go spit it, stop it, I know Physics
Breakin' yo physical, demolishin' yo spirit
The struggle got me thinkin' demonic and so wicked
Man, I'm so deep I'm bottomless, yo, kill it
Wise wit the flow, rhyme about Hymen, it's so senseless

[Chorus-Talib Kweli]
When them boys wit the Tec's throwin' up they set
And the spot so hot the ceilin' start to sweat
Yeah, that's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The...
When you just a little tipsy, you lookin' at them lips
And you lockin' up them hips, get the drillin' wit the tips, and
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The...

[Verse 2-Talib Kweli]
Live New York rap, stay away from the pork crap
Actin' like you all that, get smacked if you talk back
Spiritual like Rakim on ice, like Kane with the females
Slick Rick and Biggie Smalls attention to detail
Political like PE, I'm spittin' fire like Ice Cube
Kweli and Ice do 'til you start fuckin' wit my fool
Rap 'll set the right mood, fin' to blow like a light fuse
You might lose, ya chance of winnin' slimmer than a size two
Plus, the shit you kick so wack niggaz ready to fight you
Fuck rap, you better off wit spoken word kickin' Haiku
Or rhymes got teeth that'll bite you, make it clearer than white booze
You ain't special, there's a million rappers like you
Far from clumsy, but I drop lines and spill bars
Smoke more trees and be around more Black chicks than Bill Maher
Peel a card off the deck, this that real hard Hip-Hop shit
Niggaz feel y'all, it's real, y'all

[Chorus-Talib Kweli]
When them boys wit the Tec's throwin' up they set
And the spot so hot the ceilin' start to sweat
Yeah, that's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The...
When you just a little tipsy, you lookin' at them lips
And you lockin' up them hips, get the drillin' wit the tips, and
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The...

[Verse 3-Talib Kweli]
The Beast is out when the police is out
They be pullin' out and really showin' you what peace/piece about
Upholdin' the law that's designed to keep my people down
Bourgeois niggaz walkin' around like everything is equal now
I'm peepin' how from the beat cop to the Interstate trooper
To the Feds who put a price on the side of head of Cuba, B
Protectin' the property value over the people life
To take action against a foul government is the people right
But not too many ready to fight
It's like you'd rather be at home watchin' a flick or a fight
Or maybe Nick-At-Nite
It's sick how I'm addicted to mics, become a flickerin' light
After I spark I'm always ready to write
Where I'm from, they be watchin' us, but we be watchin' them
And bust shots 'til the coppers bring the choppers in
The squad cars try to box me in
But I got knowledge of self and it's stronger than any cage you can lock me in

[Chorus-Talib Kweli]
When them boys wit the Tec's throwin' up they set
And the spot so hot the ceilin' start to sweat
Yeah, that's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The...
When you just a little tipsy, you lookin' at them lips
And you lockin' up them hips, get the drillin' wit the tips, and
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out
That's when The Beast come out

[Outro-Talib Kweli]
A lot of different Beasts or demons roamin' the planet
And they surface at any given time
You never know when they can surface and come right up out of you
No matter how righteous you think you are
Situation could go down when you forced
To let The Beast out

(feat. Jean Grae)

[Jean:] he's back again for the first day
We gonna do this one a little different. tryna test the waters
(where you gonna run)
[Jean:] not far
(where you gonna run)
[Jean:] where you gonna go

[Verse 1: Jean Grae]
I write underground climb up, this a new line up
Niggaz fight your way through
If you're not ready to lose may I suggest that you let us the fuck through
Everybody clap your hands now, tear the walls down
Dance like Rudy Huxtable scoring a touchdown, you know
Hands in the air, knees in, knees out
Drop a little symbol on them this time, no doubt, let's go
I write ten years deep and tenure's still deep
My bad I'm sorry I don't like when phrases repeat
I meant for the decades almost passed and spaceball was the least
And I'm struggling still hustle to eat
I must be built with Adam and Eve skin
While y'all motherfuckers where you flushed in
With your heart poking through on your arm stupid
Drop more bombs than on Saddam's house unarmed
My mouth's a weapon I shout like Armguard steppin'
Didn't need to get loud, no disrepect
But you know the Jean is threat to your checks
Niggas heart burning no prowl though sec to stop the attack
Ya neck back's gettin hot on every drop on the track
And now I finally got some heat is good, let it be known
I'll still be here after all this shit is done said and gone
Can't keep running the same formula, I'm imploring ya
To quit fucking the game up, before it fucks all of ya up

[Chorus:]
Where you gonna run
Where you gonna run
Where you gonna ruuuuuun
Where you gonna ruuuuuun
Where you gonna hide
Where you gonna ruuuuuun
Where you gonna ruuuuuun
(Kweli)
Yeah come on, yeah come on

[Verse 2: Talib Kweli]
Watch these niggas start to run soon as I hit the track
What get the sack, eyes low like Friskin' cat
My flow get cap throw they gun like official Nas
I'm draftin you niggas hard quick fast like tiptonat
Diamond cut lyrics so sharp the spit split the glass
Your mouth writing a check that you ask and quick to cash
Screaming how you quick to shoot don't even know the screenplay
Niggas rappin black and white and rappers shakin' Jean Grae
Sick of niggas licking boots I pick and choose my battles when I spit the truth it's hot
Let the pride and move the cattle
Y'all don't really want no beef, that's too real you want veal
You baby sheep hanging in the air and tend to raffle me
Me? I don't like the taste this shit's gamey
Like magazines telling lies and Star Wars like Dick Chaney
It sucks though they losing they flavor like Now and Laters
When I bust them niggas run for the hills like Al Queda

[Chorus]

[Verse 3: Jean Grae]
She lacks delivery, really, nigga I pack rap symmetry and send it to ya dorm
Why y'all iggin' me for sure
Jean is synonymous to chivalry
Open doors but I step through first
Test the waters and I pee in them got no network
But now everyone's a rapper and everyone'll shoot you dead
Only led I strapped with a razor sharp pencil that could write but it could stab you rapid
It's all ass backwards, you're all mall performers, actors
What tho?, come on let's race to where the cash is
Get mauled like Roy the alter boy
I'll jet through you like a Jet through flight, I'm unemployed
You still cared to touch me, I gotta keeps the rap level
You face screwed ugly
I'm chasing all you club bunnies
And racing you tackle you down
Take your money with your chest on the ground
I know it's foul, what you gonna do now

[Chorus]

(I think it's time you gave it up!)

Artist: Talib Kweli, Dead Prez and David Banner
Album: Beautiful Mix
Song: Ridin'


David Banner:

I'm from a place
Where You gotta let yo' nutz hang

Where them crakas used to cut your stomach open
Just to let your f**kin' guts hang

Right there in front of the kids

I might as well split your Whig
'Cause that's just what the master did

But now I'm the new Nat Turner
Spreadin' something to the kids
Like Sojourner, Man, the truth

F**k a 'Creek
? I care but you in doubts ?
And go "Woof"

He ain't dead
What pledge

There's a stank up in the Busch
Or a stank up in the White House

Shootin' board bullshit
Man, it's dead props
Here in Chicago
But hit this hi-lo

Warriors come play
Click the bottles

Cock them AK's (YEAH!)
Bust on KK's (YEAH!)

With the Knuckle boy
Or the Other Two
And the Stic-Man

Given Dead on your shirt
Like a Wristband
You a Grown Man
Nigga, Stand tall

Don't it hurt
'Cause you really
Ain't a Nigga, dog?

Don't it hurt
'Cause you really
Ain't a Nigga, dog?

(YEAH!)

Don't it hurt
'Cause you really
Ain't a Nigga, dog?

(Chorus)

Country boys, city boys
Cadalacs, Rolly Royce
Whatever...long as we Ridin'

Pretty girls, ghetto boos
On the boulevard, in the avenue
It's a long a walk
Now that we Ridin'

Dead Prez:

Yo'

Niggas is not orginal
Niggas follow the radio
Niggas think if You Blow
Then You gotta be on the TV Show

Crackas is hypocritical
Crackas will rob and shit on You
'Cause see You do what they do
They know freedom is powerful

Niggas is very visual
If we see it, we think it's true
Very few niggas make a move
And even less'll see it through

Crackas make up the chemicals
Then they call us the criminals
Crackas make all the loot
And we just get the residuals

Niggas will rob and shot on You
Crackas will drop a bomb on You
Niggas is having funerals
Crackas is having barbeques

Niggas sing the blues
That's reminicin' the spritual
But when You say GAWD is You
Niggas ain't really hearing You

Crackas like to capitalize
Them crackas a lie
They say if You don't ?unionnize?
Then You'll probably die

I hate callin' niggas niggas
So I'ma take it backwards
I ain't got now love for whithey
I love callin'em crackas (CRACKAS!)

(Chorus)

Country boys, city boys
Cadalacs, Rolly Royce
Whatever...long as we Ridin'

Pretty girls, ghetto boos
On the boulevard, in the avenue
It's a long a walk
Now that we Ridin'

Talib Kweli:

Yeah!

I call myself real
N-I-G-G-A
'Cause Kweli be
Showin' on the floor
And they policies
My philosophies
Show you that the block
Is a part of me
Freedom Fighter
Like Richard Carter be
It's deep how the street knowledge beef
'Cause it ran like a code inside of me
It's practical, not scholarly

Now why do I call myself
A nigga
You ask me
Who's got my back
When the cops harass me
Ya'll can label
Cinncinatti
Can ride the train
Or with the Caddie

When they call you
Nigga they scared of You
They fearin' You
So actually
If CRACK is gone
Be fearing Niggas
Then that's what the
F**k I have to be

Now

It's a badge of honor
And some say that
Shit's upsurd
It's more than
just a word
We flip the shit
Like it's a 'bird

Pass it down through
Generations, then
Cuss you out and say it loud
The first generation
Of Muthaf**kas
To grab Our Nuts and
Say it proud
Country Niggas or City Niggas
Tupac Niggas or Biggie Niggas
In the coridor, floor or door,
And all my Mississippi Niggas
We connected
All throughout
The North, the East, the West, the South
And if a Wyte boy say the shit
He'll still get punched
Right in the mouth

(Chorus)

Country boys, city boys
Cadalacs, Rolly Royce
Whatever...long as we Ridin'

Pretty girls, ghetto boos
On the boulevard, in the avenue
It's a long a walk
Now that we Ridin'

(Ending 2x)

All they got for You
Is a Cell my Nigga
They want You
Dead or in jail
Without Rebel my Nigga

In the streets
It's similar to Hell
My Nigga
But we gonna Boss up
And live well
My Nigga

(feat. Jean Grae , Talib Kweli)

[Chorus: x2]
Power, money and influence
I had a taste of it, now I'm all into it
The game ain't over 'till I get my share
'till I have my run, this here is my year

[Jean Grae]
Man, I'm a tycon, whether in person or slick right on
Crisp Nikes on, six niggaz with sick pythons
Right around your area, face close like a scared
Straight playin your host, you get bitched out
This ain't fluffin a rang, this clip ain't bang
You sittin lame duck, shittin on the names stuck
I vow this year, power's mine
If I gotta sketch up my name, empowering rhymes
If I gotta attend jail just to boost up the sales
I know a laber owner that I'd love to bruise up for bail
I know my family got it, they pull together but it's amniotic
I mean baby like askin for a name spot it
The talent, the influental and erotic
Put on the back burner but potential as a parent
Every track is a murder but could treat it like lobonic
The play that graze here, now MC's in a daze mind

[Chorus]

[Guru]
In one second flat I tear your whole frame
Plus we pack like a stadium does, at a pro game
Got so many ways to end yo glory
Rub you out, shut you down, then it's end of story
I'm like Robert Horry with a clutch three
You can't touch me, the black double oh-seven, nigga trust me
Modern day Ali when it comes to the rhyme
Know how to hold the fort down when they comin for mine
I'm crafty, I move swift and changeable
Plus I'm aware, of what jealousy and anger do
You can't help yourself then you can't help me
Can't smell what the truth is then you can't smell me
You can tell a million stories about how gully you are
Then as soon as you finish, I'm be pullin your card
I step so courageously, I rap so amazingly
I guess you could say, that niggaz slept on me basically

[Chorus x2]

[Talib Kweli]
Jean Grae, Kweli, Guru, for the first time
Let the games begin like Jaceson Taylor wrote his first rhyme
Technology make niggaz lazy, with the pro tools
Even you could write your verse in the booth like you were Jay-Z
A Hollywood between reality tv and rap
Is there ain't no more use for the classically trained actor
First light bulb ever made is still burnin
They sell the ones that burn out to take the money you earnin
Word that marijuana grow too natural to be a cash crop
We have cops at bars, smokin squares, throwin back shots
They walk the street and bring the heat to the apshalts
Servin, protectin the half, beatin on the half not
Niggaz talk greasy in the magazines
'Till they track down and you hear the sounds of loaded magazines
Havin dreams 'till they ribs got a gat in between
Passion for cream, make a nigga wanna splatter your spleen
That shit is mean

[Chorus x2]

(Intro - Talib Kweli)
7-18 stand up (c'mon) Talib Kweli, BK MC
Turn it up (yeah)
We 'bout to drop it low
Baby I got the flow (yeah) to work your abdominal (I'm goin in)
It's the lava flow (yeah) strictly A game
Rock it fast, rock it slow (whoa)
You got to rock it fast, rock it slow (whoa, whoa)
Rock it fast, rock it slow (c'mon, yeah)
You gon' rock it fast, rock it slow (whoa, whoa, yeah, yeah!)

(Talib Kweli)
Black rock and roll, black hotter flow
At the end of the black brick road, lets get it goin yo
Geffen don't fuck the shit up, ship it gold
So I could sell like the whole Jigga back catalo'
Matta fact I'm tryin to sell out, concerts and merch' fam
Always get the story straight accounts first hand (yeah)
That nigga, the crack spitter, the black fitted low
Give you that bit of information so
You could know what you see when it's your time to go
The diamond flow cut glass, crack binary code
You're kinda slow, you need a new career (yeah)
You're kinda old, you need to hang the mic up on the wall like a souvenir
Don't blame the mangers, "Be All You Can Be"
Join the Army like Canibus, niggaz avoidin me
like the draft and run to Canada, flash like a camera
That's when his girl asked me to dance with her - so we gon'

(Chorus)
(Hop to the beat and then stop) Yeah, drop it low
Baby I got the flow to work your abdominal
(Ladies I know I get hot) Like lava flow
Strictly the A game, rock it fast, rock it slow
(Hop to the beat and then stop) Yeah, drop it low
Baby I got the flow to work your abdominal
(Ladies I know I get hot) Like lava flow
Strictly the A game, drop it fast

(Talib Kweli)
That's how we do it all the way live..
I put it down so hard that I developed a rep (c'mon)
From the punchlines to cave in your delicate chest
The fella can test, let's see how jealousy get
I smell the fear in the air and I could tell he was pet'
Kweli - look in my eyes and you could tell I'm a threat
I wet my throat and get bent like a pelican's neck
I make a gentleman's bet with my ghetto connect
And got a .9 in my mind you can't metal detect
I pull it out, put it to your head and shoot from the hip
I fired 13 shots and left 2 in the clip (yeah)
I spit the truth, that's it, I'm not confused one bit (c'mon)
I'm so New York City streets that I'm abusin your whip
Cruisin the strip, sunny day sky blue like a Crip (c'mon)
For the rush hour Enuff threw this in the mix
Quarter to six, Amadeus is producin the hits (oh, oh, oh)
To get a screw loose in your chick, son she losin her shit (whoa)

(Chorus)

(Interlude - 4x)
Check me out, yeah, yeah, yeah
Get your ass up on the dance floor
No we don't stop, when we in the dance off
Baby girl whatchu wanna get into?
I wanna get in too, bring your friends too

(Chorus)

(Chorus)
Around my way...
Around my way...
All the corners filled with sorrow
All the streets are filled with pain
Around my way...

Around my way...
Around my way...
All the corners filled with sorrow
All the streets are filled with pain
Around my way...

(1st Verse)
People let me paint a picture
You know I ain't a christian
I ain't a muslim, ain't a jew
I'm losing my religion
I speak to god directly
I know my god respect me
Cause he let me breathe his air and he really blessed me
I ain't knocking you, but I don't fuck with hospitals
Spit the gospel, truly knowing jesus like apostles do
Return like the prodigal son to honor Mohammed too
Stay away from ham like Abraham, Lord'll follow you
Even when you took my man Chaka God and what I'm a do
You gave the hood a modern day martyr in Brother Amadou
I'm on the block, I'm tracing your footsteps, I keep the faith in you
Your love, plus hard work and ambition
We gonna make it through, my songs is psalms I'm spiritual when I'm lyrical
This is for my soldier niggaz looking in the mirror who
Sitting home scratching off serials eating cereal
The way we find a way to survive, shit is a miracle
We got mice in the crib and roaches in the toasters, rice in the fridge
Bread in the oven by the roaster
We be takin' gypsy cabs and chasin' 50 bags
They be laced with shitty swag and it really get me mad
The way we saluting flags, wrapping them around our heads
when niggaz ain't become American till 9/11
Feeling like you gotta sneak into heaven
When the reverend looking like a pimp and the pimp look like the reverend

(Chorus)
Around my way...
Around my way...
All the corners filled with sorrow
All the streets are filled with pain
Around my way...

These conditions make us strong
And we create our own businesses so later on
Our children have things in their name that they can say they own
A mix tape freestyle become your favorite song
No place like home when the cops ask you about your neighbors
Beat on you, threaten to incarcerate you
Till you spill your guys like you a Garcia Vega
We roll blunts not the papers
Cop the greatest take it coast to coast
L.A. to Chicago like Smooth Operators
Cop the Dro and cop the blacks
Cop the four, cock it back
Drop the flow, rock a hat on top a stocking cap
Be a doctor or a lawyer or make your momma a promise that
You'll finish school, but when you got a dream you gotta follow that
And make sure when you make it out the hood, you always holler back
Think about what you got from that
And always put your dollars back
On top of that, this is a legacy and we a part of that
The hood is where my heart is at
Catch me around my way

(Chorus)
Around my way...
Around my way...
All the corners filled with sorrow
All the streets are filled with hate
Around my way...

Around my way...
Around my way...
All the corners filled with sorrow
All the streets are filled with pain
Around my way...

(Talk)
Woe, yeah, yeah, when you doing you and you real fly wit it
It's like niggas always wanna check you, no what I'm sayin?
Always wanna make sure you keepin'it real, keepin'it real nigga
Nigga, do you

(Chorus)
Back up offa me(Hi-Tek)
Back up offa me
Won't you, get out my face? Better stay in ya place
Fed up, how much can I take? Yo, you need to just
Back up offa me(Here we go yaw)Back up offa me
I got money to make and not a minute to waste
I need space when I'm trying to create, you need to just
Back up offa me (See me in the cut)
Back up offa me (Tryin' to roll up)
Back up offa me (We can roll up)
Back up offa me (Hey yo, muhfuckah hold up)

(Verse)
Tone, what is this? I know he ain't talkin
This is grown man business, be your own man
Stand up on ya feet, I thought we was homies
But ya coming at me like you don't know me
You think you do,well you're probably wrong
I'm surrounded my babies than Ashanti songs
Oh baby,I know ya don't get it
Ya trying to walk in my shoes, I know you won't fit it
Just cause I know you and ya flow too
Theres more to it, you won't get it
I don't owe you, you want Hi Tek to do a record for you
So niggas is checking for you
Comfortable, cause niggas get respected for you
Get your own repect Duke,that aint mean or evil (nope)
Ain't no crutches in the crew, my crew a crew of equals (yup)
Shit was cool when we was teen-agers, we grown men
You my people, but I don't need you moanin'and groanin'
I can't feed you, I already gotta kid
How a nigga try to regulate that's not his?
I ain't trying to sign I'm just the artist nigga
I'm just trying to rhyme and go the hardest, nigga


(Chorus)
Back up offa me(Hi-Tek)
Back up offa me
Won't you, get out my face? Better stay in ya place
Fed up, how much can I take? Yo, you need to just
Back up offa me(Yeah)Back up offa me
I got money to make and not a minute to waste
I need space when I'm trying to create you need to just
Back up offa me (See me in the cut)
Back up offa me (Tryin' to roll up)
Back up offa me (We can roll up)
Back up offa me (Hey yo, muhfuckah hold up)

(Verse)
Radio suckers never play me cause I don't let them
They're like a pimp only hoes sweat them
When I do a show I like to catch the ladies eyes
Dodge the paparazzi, I don't want to see no lady die
Sports, entertainment, academics, business or politics
Ya find hoes that swallow dick for dollars quick
Young broads, roll up in gangs, like the Young Lords
Jump off, satutory rape, now you done for
What, you thought that your shorty was going to act her age?
No, right now, somebody's daughter is backstage (yup)
It's a master-slave relationship, but guess who's Toby?
It's the white girl in Colorado, but guess who's Kobe?
Tried to tell you not to fuck with these debutants
That's more Kobe beef than Japanese restaurants
Don't need diseases or cases, ain't trying to catch nothing
And when they're throwing pussy best believe you catching something(hey)

(Chorus)
Back up offa me(How hot is that?)
Back up offa me (Hey)
Won't you, get out my face? Better stay in ya place
I'm fed up, how much can I take? Yo, you need to just
Back up offa me(Yeah, hey)Back up offa me
I got money to make and not a minute to waste
I need space when I'm trying to create you need to just

(Talk)
Yeah man, this nigga,(shh)Back up off you
Nigga, you talkin' bout me, know what I'm sayin'?
I know that nigga talkin' bout me, know what I'm sayin' man?
Who you think put him on? Okay, I put him on
(Back up offa me)Talib Kweli
That's supposed to be his rap name or somethin' like that?
Nigga's name is Henry Abernathy, that's his real name
Henry Abernathy, from 51st Street
He just gonna go out there and get money with out me, (Ya know)
But I gotta book of rhymes, I gotta book of rhymes
Ya know what I'm sayin? (Back up offa me)
Back up off you, you need to back up off me
But I'm serious, if he come back around the block
If he come back around the block
If he comes in my line at the grocery store
I tell ya right now, as soon as I bag his groceries
Ya know what I'm sayin? I'm a take lika-lika little snapple bottle
And just crack him across his forehead
And I'll be like, Yeah Talib

(Sample)
This is a tear jerker

(Intro) {*echoes*}
The revolution is here, the revolution is here people
I said it once, I'll say it twice
You gots to be ready
The revolution is inside of you
People, the revolution is here, yeah

(Hook)
The revolution's here
No one can lead you off your path
You'll try to change the world
So please excuse me while I laugh (yeah)
No one can change your ways (rock with me for a second)
No one can lead you off your path (come on)
You'll try to change the world
So please excuse me while I laugh

(Verse 1: Talib Kweli)
Yo, I heard it's said the revolution won't be televised
But in the land of milk and honey there's a date you gotta sell it by
Otherwise it just expires and spoils
And these folks jump out the pot when the water too hot
Cuz the fire boils inside
You go to church to find you some religion
And all you hear is connivin' and gossip and contradiction and
You try to vote and participate in the government
And the muh'fuckin' Democrats is actin' like Republicans
You join an organization that know black history
But ask them how they plan to make money and it's a mystery
Lookin' for the remedy but you can't see what's hurtin' you
The revolution's here, the revolution is personal
They call me the political rapper
Even after I tell 'em I don't fuck with politics
I don't even follow it
I'm on some KRS, Ice Cube, Chris Wallace shit
Main Source, De La Soul, bumpin' "2Pacalypse Now"

(Hook)
The revolution's here (yeah)
No one can lead you off your path (uh uh)
You'll try to change the world
So please excuse me while I laugh (ha ha, ha ha)
No one can change your ways
No one can lead you off your path (uh uh)
You'll try to change the world ('scuse me)
So please excuse me while I laugh

(Verse 2)
Yo, I speak at schools a lot cause they say I'm intelligent
No it's cause I'm dope, if I was wack I'd be irrelevant
I'm like the dope in your tracks until your high is settled in
You leanin' to the left, the laughter's the best medicine
But the troubles you have today you just can't laugh away
Stay optimistic, they can change, it's gon' come like Donny Hathaway
You have to pray, on top of that, act today
Cuz opportunity shrivel away like Tom Hanks in "Cast Away"
Everybody pass away, the past will pay, the family mournin'
Everybody act accordin' to the season that they born in
You fight in the streets, start bleedin' 'til the blood is pourin'
In the gutter, mothers cry 'til the Lord be livin' by the sword and
All that folks want is safety, they goin' gun crazy
The same reason Reagan was playin' war games in the '80s
The same reason I've always rocked dog chains on my babies
The struggle is beautiful, I'm too strong for your slavery

(Hook)
The revolution's here (yeah)
No one can lead you off your path (uh uh)
You'll try to change the world
So please excuse me while I laugh (ha ha, ha ha)
No one can change your ways (yeah)
No one can lead you off your path (uh uh)
You'll try to change the world ('scuse me)
So please excuse me while I laugh (yeah)
The revolution's here
No one can lead you off your path
You'll try to change the world
So please excuse me while I laugh
No one can change your ways
No one can lead you off your path
You'll try to change the world
So please excuse me while I laugh

(Outro: Talib Kweli)
It's a beautiful thing that's happenin' right now
Right now G
Yo, I'm rockin' with my man Hi-Tek on the track right now
We fightin' the good fight
The Beautiful Struggle
Yeah, let's go

(So please excuse me while I laugh)

(Talib Kweli)
I do it for the people, I do it for the love
I do it for the poet, I do it for the thug
This is for victory, and this is for the slaughter
I do it for my mother, I do it for my daughter
Promise I'll always love ya, I love to kiss and hug ya
You and your brother should be lookin out for one another
I'm so blessed, man, y'all the reason I got up
Somebody put his hands on you I'm gettin locked up
I'm not playin, that's the prayer I'm sayin for Diani
And if I die then she'll be protected by Amani
That's her bigger brother and I love the way he love her
She a girly-girl, she love to imitate her mother
But she a Gemini, so stay on her friendly side
She'll put that look on you, it's like somebody' friend just died
My pretty black princess smell sweet like that incense
That you buy at the bookstore supporting black business
Teach her what black is; the fact is her parents are thorough
She four reading Cornrows by Camille Yarborough
I keep her hair braided, bought her a black Barbie
I keep her mind free; she ain't no black zombie
This is for Aisha, this is for Kashera
This is for Khadijah scared to look up in the mirror
I see the picture clearer thru the stain on the frame
She got a black girl name, she livin black girl pain
This is for Makeba, and for my mamacita
What's really good, ma? I'll be your promise-keeper
I see the picture clearer thru the stain on the frame
She got a black girl name, she livin black girl pain

(Hook)
My mama said life would be so hard
Growin up days as a black girl scarred
In so many ways though we've come so far
They just know the name they don't know the pain
So please hold your heads up high
Don't be ashamed of yourself know I
Will carry it forth til the day I die
They just know the name they don't know the pain black girl

(Jean Grae)
This is for Beatrice Bertha Benjamin who gave birth to
Tsidi Azeeda for Lavender Hill for Kyalisha
ALTHLONE, Mitchells Plain, Swazi girls I'm reppin for thee
Mannesburg, Guguletu where you'd just be blessed to get thru
For beauty shinin thru like the sun at the highest noon
From the top of the cable car at Table Mountain; I am you
Girls with the skyest blue of eyes and the darkest skin
For Cape Colored allied for realizing we're African
For all my cousins back home, the strength of mommy's backbone
The length of which she went for raising, sacrificing her own
The pain of not reflecting the range of our complexions
For rubber pellet scars on Auntie Elna's back I march
Fist raised caramel shinin in all our glory
For Mauritius, St, Helena; my blood is a million stories
Winnie for Joan and for Edie, for Norma, Leslie, Ndidi
For Auntie Betty, for Melanie; all the same family
Fiona, Jo Burg, complex of mixed girls
For surviving thru every lie they put into us now
The world is yours and I swear I will stand focused
Black girls, raise up your hands; the world should clap for us

(Hook)
My mama said life would be so hard
Growin up days as a black girl scarred
In so many ways though we've come so far
They just know the name they don't know the pain
So please hold your heads up high
Don't be ashamed of yourself know I
Will carry it forth til the day I die
They just know the name they don't know the pain black girl

(Pharrell) Kweli!!!
(T. Kweli) Yeah! They wasn't expecting this! that's why ya
(Pharrell) Hahaha
(T. Kweli) Gotta hope for the best and play 'em for the worst, c'mon!
(Pharrell) Muhfuckers is history!
(T. Kweli) C'mon!!

(Verse - Talib Kweli)
This the story of - Lucy In The Sky Wit Diamonds
Ask her why she crying, she wanna live, she got no time for dying
Was a science, dreams too big for a small town
She gotta get to New York and watch a door fall down
Hopped off the Greyhound, gotta make her way now
She sleeping on the park benches in the playground
But cash burn quick, don't wanna have to turn trick
Ready to quit 'til she met the super pimp
Flashing his toothy smile that drove little Lucy wild
She quick to hop up on his dick straight Hoopie style
She let the fella hit but she sang she sell-a-bit (celebate)
He ain't buying that, she ain't selling it
She looking for love in all of the above
Believing videos, trying to back up all on a thug
Who wanna - put it in her, withdraw like a Citi card
But now she shake that ass for tips at the titty bar

(Chorus - Talib Kweli) (Pharrell)
Broken glass - everywhere! (IT'S LOUDER!!)
Louder - than a bomb shattered in in the air (IT'S LOUDER!!)
Try to hold back your tears baby! (IT'S LOUDER!!)
Wait a second, what happens here baby? (IT'S LOUDER!!)
Broken glass - everywhere! (IT'S LOUDER!!)
Louder - than a bomb shattered in in the air, yeah
(How many of y'all think you can do what we do?!)
Yeah! Wait a second (One! Two! Three! C'mon!)

(Verse - Talib Kweli)
Dreams shattered like broken glass
Press ignore it and your hopes get broken fast
You complain for the life you supposed to have
But when you try to make plans God is known to laugh
Throw a song on the phonograph, and Lucy start wilin
The trick start smiling, watch the loot start flying
The Gucci start pilling up, she live designer plush
Start lining up the coke so she could find a rush
Time's up, she's about to turn 33
Her shit started to sag, she got surgery
Now cats are used to drive past her like a Church van
Acting on thirst, 'She Wants To Move' like a N.E.R.D. fan
Bigger house, 10,000 dollar purse fam
She let you in, she wanted rent by the 1st man
She the ring leader in a clique of birds
And they shadowy, like the silhouette behind the curtain

(Chorus)

(Verse - Talib Kweli)
She was a small city girl with big city dreams
Niggaz try to figure how to get up in them jeans
Put her in them scenes, get her on the team
Hit her wit the cream 'til they figured out the schemes
Now she all up in the club looking for a new love
Really like Huey Lewis looking for a new drug
Cause coke's getting old, started free basing
Graduated to crack, smack on occasion
Not catching the bus, but back at the station
Back and forth pacing, acting all impatient
Last hundred dollars, she got to 'Get By'
Now gotta make a choice, go home or get high
Mommy and daddy miss her, she left for the fame
Now what's left is the dirt that's thrown on her name
She need a ticket home if it's the right course
Instead she bought a ticket to ride the white horse

(Chorus)

(Intro: Talib Kweli)
Ghetto to ghetto, backyard to yard
We tear it up y'all, bless the mic with the gods (come on)
Precious metals round our necks and arms (yea)
We tear it up y'all, bless the mic with the gods
Ghetto to ghetto, backyard to yard
We tear it up y'all, bless the mic with the gods (come on)
Precious metals round our necks and arms (yea)
We tear it up y'all, bless the mic with the gods

(Hook: Anthony Hamilton)
Whatever in your heart is where you want to be
My hood is the ghetto
Even when you look
Its never what you see
My hood is the ghetto
I've been down before up is just a reach
Cause my hood is the ghetto
Catch a second wind
Then begin again
My hood is the ghetto

(Verse 1: Common)
Black magic in the hood, its tragic but understood
Crack addicts, crack windows, crack wood
Even whats bad becomes good, status becomes stood
Upon the pedestal welcome to the ghetto show
Federal buildings, pissy hallways filled with children pushing children
Fiends lips peeling, shit seems real and
What's real is the estate of mind that we're in
The situation feels great
My man peels weight, so he can fill plates
You might get love but you still feel hate
Through and chain plates, we communicate
Chicago to brooklyn nigga real ones do relate

(Verse 2: Talib Kweli)
If lyrics sold then truth be told
I'll probably be just as rich and famous as jay-z
Truthfully I wanna rhyme like common sense
Next best thing I do a record with common sense
Cause its the music, its blues, its jazz, its acoustics
Soul, rock and roll the hip hop we be producing yea
It's the gear, it's the flare, it's the stare
Nowadays they'll shot you where they used to shoot the fair
Remember the lost soldiers, pour a beer, shoot the air
We got our own elected officials, no matter who the mayor
I know you know what I'm talking about
From New York to the South, take off your shoes when you walk in the house

(Hook)

(Verse 3: Talib Kweli)
Yo
I grew up where they're playing skele in the parking lot
And sell paintings of Aaliyah, BIG and Pac up in the barbershop
Buildings too big so you don't really see the stars a lot
But rapping, drinking, and going to prison you see them bars a lot
I feel the spirit in the dark and hear it in my heart
And always keep my ears to the block till I dearly depart
Hip hop is really the art
We have to express the part of ourselves that make us want to martyr ourselves
It ain't harder to tell when somebody stick you up and put the hammer to you
They want them dead presidents like Stickman and Mutulu
With a gun to your jaw, these kids don't run anymore
Kicks is a hundred or more

(Verse 4: Common)
A man in front of the store, begging for money and mercy
I told him say a prayer under his breath, he cursed me
Niggaz is thirsty, I heard it's a drought
Up early, serving from their grandmother's house
Sometime the ghetto feels desolate, yo the eyes of the hood yo is desperate
Effected by the deficit, times and lessons get hard
Either get by or get god, but but you try to get by
It's like the block keep blocking
You try to make moves, its like the car just keep stopping
We shorties in the court, need cochran yea
I tell them why the weed seeds popping, in the game you need options
No time for feet watching, me and kwe keep rocking for the ghetto

Hook times 2

(Hook)
I got a part to play, we going hard these days
Fuck the harder way, we doing it the smarter way
To my god I pray, that's how I start my day
The bullets start to spray the revolution starts today
I say the shit these people ain't got the heart to say
Fuck the harder way, we doing it the smarter way
To my god I pray, that's how I start my day
The bullets start to spray the revolution starts today

(1st Verse)
You say you never scared there's kids in other countries
Making jerseys, jeans, and sneakers they could never wear
Parents never there, they're busy building homes they can't afford to buy
Cars they can't afford to drive
Working jobs that don't support their life
You busy screaming gangsta, gangsta all that talk is trife
You already lost the fight if you don't know the cost of life
These kids is forced to fight a war they can't outrun
Ain't got no shoes but got a gun
Now where the fuck he pulled that out from?
People ask me how we wearing diamonds
When there's little kids in Sierra Leone
Losing arms for crying while they mining
Probably an orphan who's momma died of AIDS
He built a coffin working often but he never paid
Forever slaving in the world that's forever cold
Becoming the man of the house at 11 years old
This reality rap, I get inside the mentality that...
Terrorize you like a cowardly act (c'mon)

(Hook)
I got a part to play, we going hard these days
Fuck the harder way, we doing it the smarter way
To my god I pray, that's how I start my day
The bullets start to spray the revolution starts today
I say the shit these people ain't got the heart to say
Fuck the harder way, we doing it the smarter way
To my god I pray, that's how I start my day
The bullets start to spray the revolution starts today

(2nd Verse)
I was sold to a sick European by a rich African battlin'
Middle Passages, I can't go back again
Battlin' years of denied history, lies and mysteries
Wives with misty eyes watchin' their husbands be beaten viciously
Battle in the wilderness of North America
Run by the river, only stoppin' to pray chased by predators
Terrorists with etiquette who vote and kill their president
Their capacity for evil so evident and prevalent
Ain't no hesitation involved, a nation dissolved
While we sit back waitin' to evolve
Those who would trade in their freedom
For their protection deserve neither
Not a name, not tradition
Religion, you learn Jesus
Turn the other cheek
Inherit the Earth, just stay meek
Fuck the way you speak
Try to run, we chop off your feet
Fast forward to 2004 we selling
Yo this ain't what I'm settling for
I want more, yo

(Hook)
I got a part to play, we going hard these days
Fuck the harder way, we doing it the smarter way
To my god I pray, that's how I start my day
The bullets starts to spray the revolution starts today
I say the shit these people ain't got the heart to say
Fuck the harder way, we doing it the smarter way
To my god I pray, that's how I start my day
The bullets start to spray the revolution starts today

(Talib Kweli)
Yeah, yeah
New Talib Kweli
Yeah, you know what it is
Come on, come on, yeah
Hey yo *repeats*

(Hook: Mary J. Blige)
I try, I try (that's all we can do)
I try, you know I try
I try, I try (yeah)
I try, you know I try

(Verse 1: Talib Kweli)
K. West! Kweli!
Got searched on the plane, Arabic first name
Disturbed by the fame just like Kurt Cobain
Breath of life, kiss of death, my lips pursed the same
You flirt 'til she came
Nothin' hurt like the pain and torture
Daughters of the dust lookin' for a vein
Something to take in vain like the Lord's name
Put your hands together, got 'em all sayin'

(Hook: Mary J. Blige)
I try, I try
I try, you know I try
I try, I try
I try, you know I try

(Verse 2: Talib Kweli)
Yo, it's all ghetto in gear higher, the floor settle
More metal for beef that we don't let the law settle
I try to navigate the treacherous waters of
America's ghettos that set up the slaughteres
But there's more of us
Although we speak in different languages
We all pretty familiar with what anger is
Young and dangerous, ???
Get up on some gangsta shit
Guns to bang ya wit'
And we put it on records to entertain ya wit'
I'm grown with pains way deeper than my receivers
Our uniforms is white sneakers and white T-shirts
On top of wife beaters
We like to light reefers
The 'hood need us for rappers, just ain't the right leaders
I put a lot into it
This is my product and I gotta move it
Stop the industry but you can't stop the music

(Interlude: Mary J. Blige)
An upside down kingdom where life is just not fair (upside down kingdom)
Some many sufferin' cuz deep inside they're scared (so scared)
Fear pumped into their veins to keep them from their destiny
Where would they be if you and I don't care?

(Hook: Mary J. Blige)
I try, I try, you know I try
I try, I try, I try, you know I try

(Verse 3: Talib Kweli)
Yo, the things I'm seein' on the news is insane
A stock broker shoot his kid and throw himself in front of a train
A mother leave her baby home for two weeks all by himself
Three years old, eatin' ketchup and mustard, cryin for help
Tryin' to bring your struggle to life
The label want a song about a bubbly life
I have trouble tryin' to write some shit
To BANG in the club through the night
When people suffer tonight
Lord knows I try

(Hook: Mary J. Blige)
I try, I try, I try, you know I try
I try, I try, I try, you know I try

(Interlude: Talib Kweli)
Life is a beautiful struggle
People search through the rubble for a suitable hustle
Some people usin' the noodle, some people usin' the muscle
Some people put it all together, make it fit like a puzzle
Come on, say it now
Life is a beautiful struggle
People search through the rubble for a suitable hustle
Some people usin' the noodle, some people usin' the muscle
Some people put it all together, yeah

(Outro: Mary J. Blige)
I try, I try, you know I try
I try, oh Lord I try
Everyday I

{*Mary J. Bliges harmonizes with the beat*}

Upside down kingdom
Oh, they're so scared
Everyday on the news we can't look around with
something somewhere
I try, I try, you know I try
I try, I try, I try, you know I try
Lord knows, Lord knows we try
Yeah

(Verse One)
I know there's a first time for everything
First time I let her in my bed she got wetter then the perfect storm
That we weathering together and
This the first time that I've ever considered wedding rings
But first things first yo
I met her at the bar rolling with three wise men like I followed the star
There she is shorty bi coastal
Thick like bifocals, stacked like 2Pac vocals her body so loco
Jewel of the Nile so I'm romancing the stone
The rhythm is to the words and I watched her dance to my poems
The way she move them hips let me know in advance that she grown
I pictured it like Paris Hilton when she answered the phone, yo
Dancing alone because she extra fly
But I got good look so I catch her eye
Gave the rest a try now give the best a try
Leave your nest and I'll fly make you testify
Damn baby I know we got some haters and.

(Hook)
I don't care what people say
As long as you and me okay
Because I never been in love before
See I use to be a player and
All of this is new to me
And this ain't what I'm used to see
Because I never been in love before

(Verse 2)
You running back to the kid like this was home base
Or a marathon I let you set your own pace
Your own space and the beautiful struggle
Now baby tell what's it gonna take to prove that I love you
When I'm gone you be missing me too
It let me know that my prayers is the music God be listening to
Don't get it confused I'm trying to get religious with you
I never thought I feel like this its like a miracle you
You You stole my heart like a crook in love
Crossing the bridge to the Brooklyn love
When I took above it's clear skies that's surrounding my earth
Your love is drugs and I'm down to serve let's deal with it yo
We go to the spot and you still get it low
I get excited fast and still love to hit it slow
till the walls come tumbling down like Jericho
And you hear the sound is stereo
Hear we go

(Hook)
I don't care what people say
As long as you and me okay
Because I never been in love before
See I use to be a player and
All of this is new to me
And this ain't what I'm used to see
Because I never been in love before

(Verse Three)
You looked good when I tried you on
So I had to write a song
Use to be the guy that always made her cry when I'm gone
Always kept a stable and I never spent a night alone
no cable or no hard line phone why
I'm never home scared of commitment
Ready to forever roam
We at war like sister souljah and she welcome to my terror dome
Head strong our connection proved them haters dead wrong
From now to R.I.P. Proceeds my name up on the headstone
Leave her be for five minutes
Dudes try to dive in it first
They want to spit on my name and tarnish my image
I tell them do you I don't care who she speaking with
Because I already know she made it clear who she leaving with
And it feels so beautiful
Put it in a rhyme because it feel so musical
Plus you ain't no groupie hoe
Sitting in the studio
Before we do this though there something that you should know

(Hook)
I don't care what people say
As long as you and me okay
Because I never been in love before
See I use to be a player and
All of this is new to me
And this ain't what I'm used to see
Because I never been in love before

(Talib Kweli)
Yeah! Come on! What it is
It's the P-l-a-n-e-t R-o-c-k
Kweli, BK, se-la-vis
You could tell I be hell-a-free like college radio
WQHT gonna play me though
this hot shit is to fly like the cockpit
got spit like a french kiss chicks lock lips
coming from the deep black like the Loch Ness
now bring apocalypse like the heart of darkness
it's like the heart of the artist become a target
pop music is the black market
recently we witness bizarre shit
the war hit the same time as SARS hit
terrorists send bombs at the concert
the show must go on yo regardless
I'm just some hip-hop kid to pop shit
and get on some rock shit and start a mosh pit

(Hook)
Yeah
We got the beat to make the planet roooccccckkk
(Come on, Come on)
Yeah, Come on
We got the beat to make the planet rooocccckkkk
(Come on, Come on)

(Talib KWeli)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
We got the planet to rock, Kweli's standing on top
I'm like a panther when I answer to cops
and bust back before the man get a shot
and the blood on their veins run cold like the cannibal lox
and bring heat like the blood of the mammal that's hot
and keep fighting like the boy with the mechanical heart
and watch time count down on the hands of the clock
till the hour when the pinnacle start
wow, and go fast like the bullet that ran through the dark
the hollow tip ripped a man apart, blaow
yo these soldiers die in petroleum wars
think they fighting for the holiest cause
it don't matter if you muslim, hebrew, or you a christian
information is the newest religion, is a true way of living
ain't no rule to a superstition stop me with going through with my mission
come on man

(Hook with minor variations x2)

(Talib Kweli)
Come on get down, get down, get down, get down
go ladies, go, go, go ladies, go, go
Come on all my ghetto people stand strong
we rocking on and on
one for me, now rocking with the best and is Kweli
you ain't no MC like me, you just a clone like KFC
Come on, B-Boys, B-Girls, we rocking the world

(Hook)

(Talib rhyming over hook)
Can't believe niggaz running the place
man everything is dangerous nothing is safe, nigga
think you a man with a gun in your waist
let the cops disrespect you right in front of your face
take it out on your girl, punch her in the face
you ain't a thug you a waste of space
nigga get out the way, B-boys gonna rock till the break!
how much can the planet take

(Repeat until end)
We got the beat...

(Intro) (Talib Kweli)
Hey Y'all
I feel good right? (mmm...hmmm...)
Yeah, ok, uhh..
Now what that make me talk about?
Love, love, love, love...(echoes)
Yeah, that's what the world need, ha
Yo, that's what your girl need
All right, we gon' put it down like this
I'll tell you about myself

(1st Verse) (Talib Kweli)
My name is Kweli and I love to spit it homie
I rap about love and life, ladies get to know me
If you feelin' lonely, I can be your one and only
I put it out in the world, so people show me... love (echoes)
Yeah, I always get it back
This ain't no pimp game here, that's a different track
We talkin' this and that, we need to get with this
I keep it realer than most, this is our business

(Chorus) (Faith Evans)
What we gotta do to make them see
We got a good thing going on
Wanna tell the world if they don't know
That what we have is real
Wanna shout it from the mountains baby
That I love you, but if they don't hear me
I know, you know, we know

(2nd Verse) (Talib Kweli)
Heheh, yeah..
Yo, hey baby look like you need a break tonight
Let me make it right, baby won't you stay the night
I got a lot of love as you know you're my favorite right?
Hey my lady, what we gon' make tonight (our love...)
That's the dream, but I never sleep
Across the crowded room, our eyes forever meet
But without doubt and gloom, cuz we can never be
That's why I got to go, cuz you're my impossible love
Your the horizon I can see but never ride off into

I sound better than the cat who rappin' to you now
That's between me and you, what happened to us now?
Got you hopin' for the glorious
Waitin' for that victorious feelin' wanted by all of us
Kneelin' and praying that the lord in us will help us love ourselves
So much that the confidence attract to someone else

(Chorus) (Faith Evans)
What we gotta do to make them see
We got a good thing going on
Wanna tell the world if they don't know
That what we have is real
Wanna shout it from the mountains baby
That I love you, but if they don't hear me
I know, you know, we know

(3rd Verse) (Talib Kweli)
Yo, Rockin' Los Angeles, House of Blues in Sunset
Performin' like an orgasm, my girl ain't even cum yet
Seen her by the side of the stage givin' me energy
Potentially, wife material connectin' mentally
I felt like heaven sent for me, you're meant for me
The doubters and the haters had to acknowledge eventually
You was a non-believer too if memory serves
And a heart that gives shit, tryin' to play your boy for the her
The harder that I run to you, the farther you become
It's like my heart was part of some movie that hadn't yet begun
This woman moves me and I'm a mountain of a man
You pull me in like the waves do the grain of sand (love, love, love...)
Yeah, I love the way you bring it to me
I wrote a song for you, I love to hear you to sing it for me
And let the melody carry me through the jealousy
And we can cruise like Tom and Phenelope

(Chorus) (Faith Evans)
What we gotta do to make them see
We got a good thing going on
Wanna tell the world if they don't know
That what we have is real
Wanna shout it from the mountains baby
That I love you, but if they don't hear me
I know, you know, we know
(Repeat 2x)

[1st Verse]
The temperature got tempers flaring people sweat when the weather hot
They argue and they fret a lot then set up the plot
To whet up the block
Wheter or not the blood is red up in the gutter
Music is my bread and butter
I got a show in Brooklyn cause the ghetto love us
Pulled up in Mtulu's truck I'm suited up I'm cool as fuck
security tripping on my baseball hat promoter knew what's up
Plus Chaps had on some denim shorts and white tee shirt and
I told the bouncer they being disrespectful cuz like you we working
I ain't a custy or a patron and trust me no one would be paying
To come in this crusty ass club if I wasn't playing
He's like "I'll put you the fuck out"
And when you put your word like that its like third strike black you struck out
His man tried to rush me from behind Chaps stuck out a size nine
Seen him trip face first into the line
Cats is cowards with no spine and they power tripping too
The next level is the violence so what y'all niggaz wanna

[Hook]
Work it out
We should try to work it out
People lie, people cry, people die to work it out
Read the book, pray to god
Look inside to work it out
We should try to work it out
Yo what y'all ladies wanna do
Work it out
To get fly she work it out
People lie, people cry, people die to work it out
Read the book, pray to god
Look inside to work it out
Show the love
Lose the hate
Work it out
Work it out

[2nd Verse]
Peolpe placed in situations they cant take and what they facing
Is the trials and tribulations to make them say the lords forsaken them
Their loved ones intervening but they always blaming them
For problems they don't realize what they part is in creating them
Like men who so insecure think they women cheating on them
And women who think the proof that they man love them is they beating on them
Keep sleeping on them soon they partner creeping on them
Committing crimes of passion they in caskets mother weeping on them
With her head in her hands
There's only one thing that the dead understand that it's better to be alive
Now what you gonna do stick your head in the sand
You probably the type to fall for anything and take that instead of a stand
Now that's a mouse instead of a man
I cherish my role as the head of my fam
And on the road I meet incredible fans
I rock with singers an a DJ instead of a band we at a theatre near you
So what y'all niggaz wanna do

[Hook]

[3rd Verse]
Stay civilized when they try to kill my high I try to think through problems
Bring honesty to rap like Cam'ron brought the pink to Harlem
You could be on the brink to stardom and suddenly you sink to bottom
Tell the truth about the war and suddenly you linked Saddam
Hate the topic but the closet people get to patriotic
Is red bull white vodka mixed with the straight hypnotic
Paper prophets sell the revolution so they make a profit
Trust they got it fucked up with your taxes started making rockets
Take it off the top like politicians speaking proper diction
Stuffing dollars in they britches like they do a lotta stripping
Got the top position bitching about the quality of life
All that bullshit get exposed as soon as Kweli sees the mic
They cutting down the tree of life the sun rays is running out
The babies ain't eating right so the guns keep coming out
See how they play the streets an night slap the taste out your mouth
To show you what they work about
So what y'all niggaz want to do

[Hook]

(feat. Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli))

[Mos Def talking]
See, now y'all cats think I'm playing haha
(???) can't see yo, see yo, see you too
It's not easy, it's not easy to see all you haha
See good, you know?
If you can shop, you know

[Mos Def]
(???)
Hotter than the summer at Kajasa
Where Francis Coppola and Dennis Hopper burned down the Don Store Opera
Hijack ya sponsor
Some surrender greens, yet we remain unconquered
The Black Star galactical, contemporary, classical, magical
Mr. Tim's other hand slappin you
Tread the narrow passage through the regulator habitats
Place where ain't no crackers at
Place where all the crackas at, outer city limits
Hotter than the Red Light District
Dealin rap flows, strictly cash flow business
Stakes is high like astrophysics
Play with mine, you'll have no winnings
Let these mother scratchers know from go ginnin
They better move slow like old women
We want the whole cake, whole milk and no skimmin
Hand crafted flows wove in silk or linen
Word is war/wore like denim, we textile blendin
Topper say top spinnin
Transcribe the document, prominent on all continents
Black Star congregates and dominates
Burn through your armor plates
Pipin hot and we not from concentrate
Make the mass mob the market place
Cuz we rock the black market tapes
Hard margin (hard margin)

[Mos Def talking]
Haha haha, these cats is funny man
Think it a big joke?
They make a lotta presumptions based on some nonsense
Yeah mon, ya don't know me
Ya don't know me, think you know me, ya don't know me
Ya vision not sharp
Ya vision can't see the light proper, ya see?

[Talib Kweli]
Movin the crowd like cattle from here to Picadilly Circus
Try to battle us, it's clearly silly and worthless
You really can't hurt us and it's ridiculous to try
So stick us with us unless you wanna die and not know why
Yo we spray you with ambition like an inner drive by
Feel the pain of my rain when I snatch the sun out your sky
Thinkin you fly, signin contracts with the devil, bust guys iller
We flatten your town like Godzilla
Whether guilt is a skrilla, Franks or banks, five pence or ten cents
Whatever the currency we currently intense like great sex
You make bets before you gamble your life away
On mics I break up vets like fights
Crumble up rookies like cookies
Lest y'all can deal with them bookies
Aww sooky sooky, now looky looky here
Yo you softer than pink cashmere
Just catchin up with rhymes that I fuckin dropped last year
I flow clear like Evian, tap on that ass like Savion
My style's way beyond the average rhyme savage
The shit that they be on, it ain't doin no damage
If lyrical skills is food then them niggaz is famished
They can't manage so their shit is poorly represented
Necessity's the mother of everything that's embedded
I came up with the style to see right through your smile
My rhyme is true and leave you kinda blue like Miles
Pick my gun up and run up on you just like the river Nile
Bringin life to the mic like midwives deliver child
Now the stakes is high so I'ma take you there
That beef will get you all bloody cuz your steaks is rare
The hard margin
Why you startin? Your life get finished
Corny cats, no experience, green like spinach
Lookin diminished and malnourished
Me and Mos flourish
The illest shit ever dropped by American tourists
Hard margin

[Mos Def]
What if I drop the hard bargain?
We the reason why Cipher start sparkin
Curse on your whole dance squadron
Black Star shine and never darken
(???) enlarging, hard margin, hard margin
So what if I rise and start sparkin?
From never foolin lofty ass gardens
Rock your whole head, code red like margarine
Black Star shine, we never darken *echo*
Hard margin

[Mos Def says more ad libs]

There's no emotions that make me feel this way
There's no emotions so bright to soothe a pain
How could it be so strong ?
Coz' when the time has come to escape from the storm
Just a little bit of this makes you feel so excited
You'd better pass it on
Before you're too stoned.

Natural Nubian Vibes
Feelin' so high
Temperature rising
Makes me feel so Irie
Temperature rising

Feel so free and special
When the smoky notes fall down on my head and heart
It is so real
Wishing it'll last forever
Coz' I just can't stop this rythm enchantment

Feelin' high
So high
Temperature rising
Makes me feel so Irie
Temperature rising

Ain't no way to stop this voodoo charm
From your left to your, right just pass it on

RAP
Feelin' so high
Temperature rising
Makes me feel so Irie
Temperature rising

Hey, Hey
Feel high
Throw your hands up in the sky
Move on side to side
De gauche A droite
Rising.

(Talib)
Yeah.. my Lord.. yeah

(Verse 1: Talib)
We sell crack to our own out the back of our homes
We smell the musk at the dusk in the crack of the dawn
We go through episodes too, like "Attack of the Clones"
Work 'til we break our back and you hear the crack of the bone
To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by
We commute to computers, spirits stay mute while you eagles spread rumors
We survivalists, turned to consumers
Just to get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by
Ask Him why some people got to live in a trailer, cuss like a sailor
I paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer
Mi abuela raised three daughters all by herself, with no help
I think about a struggle and I find the strength in myself
These words, melt in my mouth
They hot, like the jail cell in the South
Before my nigga Core bailed me out
To get by.. just to get by, just to get by, just to get by
We do or die like Bed-Stuy through the red sky with the window of the red eye
Let the lead fly, some G. Rap shit, "Livin' to Let Die"

(Chorus: Background singers)
This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my highs, and my lows
In my soul, and my goal's
Just to stop smokin', and stop drinkin'
And I've been thinkin, I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by), just to get (by)

(Talib and background singers)
(ba ba ba, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da badahh
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by by by by by by)
(ba ba ba, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da bada, ba da badahh
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by by by by by by)

(Verse 2: Talib)
We keep it gangster say "fo shizzle", "fo sheezy" and "stayin crunk"
Its easy to pull a breezy, smoke trees, and we stay drunk
Yo, I activism - attackin' the system, the blacks and latins in prison
Numbers have risen, they victim black in the vision
Shit and all they got is rappin to listen to
I let them know we missin you, the love is unconditional
Even when the condition is critical, when the livin is miserable
Your position is pivotal, I ain't bullshittin you
Now, why would I lie? Just to get by?
Just to get by, we get fly
The TV got us reachin for stars
Not the ones between Venus and Mars, the ones that be readin' for parts
Some people get breast enhancements and penis enlargers
Saturday sinners Sunday morning at the feet of the Father
They need somethin' to rely on, we get high on all types of drug
When, all you really need is love
To get by.. just to get by, just to get by, just to get by
Our parents sing like John Lennon, "Imagine all the people watch"
We rock like Paul McCartney from now until the last Beatle drop, what

(Chorus: Background singers)
This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my highs, and my lows
In my soul, and my goal's
Just to stop smoking, and stop drinking
But I've been thinking - I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by), just to get (by)

(Talib: repeat 2X - with background singers)
Yoyoyo, yo
Some people cry, and some people try
Just to get by, for a piece of the pie
You love to eat and get high
We decieve when we lie, and we keepin it fly

Yoyoyo, yo
When, the people decide, to keep a disguise
Can't see they eyes, see the evil inside
But there's people you find
Strong or feeble in mind, I stay readin the signs

(Kweli) + (woman's Voice)
Yea (yeaaah)
Come on
Uhh
Yeah
Kweli

(Bridge)
Yo Yo
Ayo my silent moments, loud as the crack of thunder
My hunger is like the crocodile that attacks the hunter
It ain't commercial or underground, its true cause I
(wanna be good to you)

(Chorus)
Call it skill, call it game, call it glow, call my name
Like the lord, all in vein, screaming like you all in pain
Treat it like a drug, all up in ya vain cause (wanna be good to you)

(Verse 1)
We make the squares dance, and get the do like dotsey
Y'all niggaz roll with pussy-cats like Josey
All spoiled rotten like ghetto groceries yo
I clutch the mic like ya grandma clutch her rosary yo
Swooping the industry, like a bird to prey
My stance has got stamina, ya verses lack vertebrae
I heard them say I was a conscious rapper
But I'm a monster when I hafta smack the shit out of a nonsense actor
Using my 'hands solo' and I don't need chewy
Over your head like Yamakas and Koofies yo
Fuck the screen gems y'all niggaz act in B movies
Type of niggaz proud to be groupies
Followers in the herd running over the cliff
I'm the +Buffalo Soldier+, smoke ya like a dread like rasta
blowing the spliff, loading a clip to spit high
Like you holding blow in a stolen whip, rolling the strip
Looking to hit cops, now that's a 4 alarm
Black queen falling on my arms, you could call it charm
Mater fact call it what you want, its up to you bro
(wanna be good to you)
Yea
Yea
Yea

Chorus (1x)

(Verse 2)
How many niggaz ever been in love'
How many niggaz really think they thugs
And can't think without the drink and drugs
How many niggaz can't get in with hats and sneakers on
Say 'fuck security' and get inside and keep them on
How many niggaz think that gats make the weaker strong
Can't do for self and wanna snatch the plate you eating on
That don't take heart, slave, nigga play ya part
I'd rather jump over board nigga, face the sharks
We stay doing it, later for the conversation
Hammers is cocked and waiting, niggaz is not debating
We ain't got the patience You found popping shit
Come in to town just to run you down like poppa ditch
And dig a proper ditch, you lying like a politician
Your proposition meets opposition like contradictions
Get out my house, you ain't no real representative
I make it happen, you ain't official, you tentative
Niggaz is sensitive, see how they catching feelings
It's so hot, the sweat rise and it wet the ceiling
Barracuda, Spitkicker nigga that's the crew (wanna be good to you)

(Breakdown)
Whoo! (yeaahh)
Come on
Yeah
Low ride
Yo
Yo
Yo

(Verse 3)
Niggaz be claiming shit, find a gangsta movie, put
they name in it, biting like there ain't no shame in it
You the hardest on the beat, I'm the fire that you playing with
You a artist from the street, I'll give you the blood to paint it with
So yeah I'm positive, I'm positive I'm the best
Spit bullets to split ya vest and deposit them in ya chest
Dark is the flesh on my bones, calling Brooklyn home
Hang up on niggaz like 'I want you to meet my nigga tone, word
Leave me alone like Michael Jackson
Or there will be more than butterflies in your stomach
waiting to see what happens
You see me out, know that my crew is flawless
So called gangstas need more security than the Rawkus office
Yo, I thought you bust ya gun
You just a big joke, thinking you a Big Pun
Yo, Kayne this is the big one (wanna be good to you)
me and my niggaz having big fun

Bridge (1x)

Chorus (1x)

Come on,
BK and
BX and
Q boro and
Manhattan and
Harlem niggaz and
Long Island
Wanna be good to you you you come on! (wanna be good to you)
The whole world rocking
Yo the whole world rocking
Ayo uhh

(Kweli talking)
Yeah...
Yeah! That's what I'm talkin about!
Let's do it... Kanye West, c'mon turn me up and
Black Thought, c'mon turn me up and
Pharoahe Monch, c'mon turn me up and
Talib Kweli in the house with

(Hook: Kanye West)
Guerrilla monsoon rap - all the shorties like "who dat?"
Got the whole crowd like "how ya do dat?"
Nigga you, get smacked 'til ya blue black
And ya crew, give me dap like true dat
We come through and all the shorties like "who dat?"
Got the whole crowd like "how ya do dat?"
Nigga you, get smacked 'til ya blue black
And ya crew, give me dap like true dat

(Black Thought)
Yo, I hit these emcees with the grip of death like I was a Vulcan
Ain't a lot of "ifs" an "ands", it's just straight talkin
It's hard to swallow at times, so take portions
Bitin off more than you can chew, create offense
Emcee species endangered like dolphins
Rappers is spittin nails into they own coffins (c'mon)
Hear come the Dundee moves rocket-launchin (yeah)
Black Thought, quit playin him close and back up off him

(Talib Kweli)
Kweli -- spruce to the tree, Bruce to the Lee
The real emcee, that your favorite rapper used to be
One by one I knock 'em out like Schoolly D - my rhymes is eulogy
A flea could move a tree, before ya think ya movin me
I black and blue emcees - actin new to me, get smacked stupidly
That lack skills, like the black community lack unity (uh)
Still my rhymes heard like Ali DePhrase
Step off the stage to shouts of "Kweli boomayyay!!"

(Pharoahe Monch)
See these four emcees came to get down
Rearrange the rap game, change ya whole sound
Nigga YOU, got ta, understand the plot ta
Movin and groovin and always improvin alot-ta
I'll outfox the, average Porsche Boxster talk
Break the bank on some old Frank Sinatra (New York...)
Slash Chi-Town, slash Philly
Check the blast from Geneva, you can get slapped silly

(Hook)

(Black Thought)
Okay... my sound drenches, each of the five senses
And hold the shock value of electrified fences
It's truth or consequences, ride wit us or against us
Is you a dedicated soldier, or you a princess, dog?
I'm in it to win it and not for the wealth
Got a crib with a Grammy and a gat on the shelf
Nan nigga competition, gotta battle myself
And me and Kweli on a mission, hittin' Pharoahe for help

(Talib Kweli)
From natives walkin in trail of tears to players sippin Belvedere
We always comin well prepared, and all my dogs' smellin fear
PLUS, even my niggaz from the Bay they say you hella-scared
Truth or consequences, and all senses be well-aware
Your style - under-developed there, hell if I care
What hardship you claim to see, but I can tell by your stare
Nigga you fool gazin, sayin ya crew blazin
like sayin Miss Cleo is a true Jamaican, we makin...

(Pharoahe Monch)
Guerrilla monsoon rap, smell the fumes, get in tune wit it
When I attack your city, y'all gon' think Dr. Doom did it
Spit it like white trash in seed-spittin contests
With a vendetta that sent a betta letter bomb to Congress
I'm pissed - cumulus clouds of ominous
Words of the Thor, the rawness that'll restore ya calmness
Unless, you wanna be leg and armless
That's parapaleg' for those who believe in bomb threats

(Hook)

(various ad-libs til fade)

(Talib Kweli)
Now, If I'm out of town my crew take of your bodies the more the merrier
Point and spray the area
Niggas is quick to bury you
Punk niggas feel inferior
Guns make us superior
Cats start acting scarier
Situations get hairier, yo
You know who killing it, niggas saying they militant
The only blood in the street is when the government spilling it
You could have a hand gun or a cannon
And you still (?)
without the knowledge and wisdom and understanding of
a 22 derringer
a 38 long
a 44 desert eagle
a Glock Nine
time to protect the fam I'm a cock mine
I make the streets run red like a stop sign stop lieing

(Hook)
Co Coi Coi Clak Clak Clak Clak Clak
Gun man music never take shot back (oh!)
Co Coi Coi Clak Clak Clak Clak Clak (Come On)
Ghetto Red Hot 'round the world you hear that (oh oh oh come on)
Co Coi Coi Clack Clak Clak Clak Clak
Gun man youth never take shot back (Yes!)(Brooklyn)
Co Coi Coi Clak Clak Clak Clak Clak
Ghetto red hot 'round the world you hear that
In Jamaica (Kingston), In Brooklyn (Flatbush), In Ethiopia (Yep)
We Go There and Back (Come On)
To all my real live soldier cats where you at
Dogs don't hold them back
those the cats that go to strapped to blow a back

(Talib Kweli)
You could be whoever, a black panther or lap dancer
when respect is the question folks coming with the gat answer
Shoot at your feet like spider, you a tap dancer
What am I amusing to you?
You better have that answer
Toys for guns, I got guns for toys
Silencers bring the heat without bringing the noise
Bringing the funk of dead bodies, go ahead bring in your boys
You'll see the soul of black folk like W.E.B DuBois
Israelies got tanks and Palestinians got rocks
Inmates got shanks and dirty cops they got glocks
We got tribes in Africa that listen to Pac
fighting with brothers who pump Biggie like they live on the block

(Hook)

(Cocoa Brovaz)
These are the tools of the trade
that we use to get paid
When we cruise on escapades
and escalades with guns to blaze
we been this ways since the younger days
Safe from the hunger pains
Pop Bang when the trouble came
Pioneers of gun slang
Supply you with them things
a little something, something
set fire to the game
my system be thumping
Co Coi Coi! the sounds of guns busting
Co Coi Coi! your heart just start pumping

(Talib Kweli)
From a 22 derringer
a 38 long
a 44 desert eagle
Time to protect the fam I 'ma cock mine
I make the streets run red like a stop sign stop lying

Gun Music y'all

(Talib Kweli)
Wooaahh! yeah
On top of the world
Yeah, that's how my seeds got me feeling' right now
On top of the world
Yeah, you ever felt like you could do anything (Yeah)
On top of the world
Amani Fela, Diane Ashe, I'ma hold y'all down for real (Gotcha!)

(Talib Kweli)
It was 1996, 4th of July, looking off in the sky
dealing with thoughts inside, when something caught my eye
It was a silhoutte of a beautiful woman, bright with life
carrying my first seed, looking like she gone bear fruit tonight
We at the African street festival, and she walking around
talking about the midwife said, that bring the baby down
I'm about to be a father, the sights and sounds, seem brighter around me
and for starters, I know I'ma work harder, word
We got home at three in the morning, I was beat
them contractions started coming as soon as I fell asleep
3:05, like every five minutes, then the water broke
we on the go, yelling at the cabbie, cause he's sort of slow
You know them hospitals all trying to get paid, no questions
hear come the doctor's with they drugs, trying to do c-sections
But my baby stay's strong, in labor for yay long
eight-pound baby boy, to carry my name on, joy!

(Chorus: Mos Def) + (Talib Kweli)
Huh, yeah
I know how you feel, Kweli I know how you feel
(That's the sound of joy)
See my brother, I know how you feel, Kweli, I know how you feel
(That's the sound of joy)
So when you, have a seed, come in the world, say dog that shit's real
(That's the sound of joy, y'all)
Huh, Kweli, yo I know how you feel, Kweli, yo I know how you feel

My baby girl

(Talib Kweli)
June 10th, 1999, I been on the grind
since the birth of my son, it's been about, way more then rhymes
Baby on the way, my lady glowing today, at least
that's what the midwife said, on the phone
Anyway, the music got me going away
Like everyday, but it's a blessing, so I gotta have patience
and she got pregnant on a Jamaican vacation
So it's all good, this time well have the baby in a house
I went the hospital route, I know what they all about (Never again)
So I'm out on tour, in Baltimore
get the call around four, when the water hit the floor (Damn!)
I gotta rock my show, but I gotta go
got second thoughts about her not going, to the hospital
I left the show early, Mos held me down, good looking (No doubt)
call the car service, like, take me straight to Brooklyn (Uh huh)
Got the news in the car, stayed sorta calm
but I cried tears of joy, when they put my daughter in my arms, how precious!

(Chorus: Mos Def) + (Talib Kweli)
Huh, huh
Said I know how you feel, uh, said I know how you feel when you
(My precious joy)
Said I know how you feel, uh, Kwe I know how you feel
(I know you do, huh, my precious joy y'all)
Huh, uh, said I know how you feel (yeah), said I know how you feel
(My precious joy)
Huh, man I know how you feel (yeah), said I know how you feel

(Talib Kweli)
I do it for the seeds y'all, in they formative years when they need y'all
we gotta believe, in what we conceive y'all, it's deep y'all
I give them the truth, so they approach the situation, with ammunition
I keep nothing away, they hear everything, cause they know how to listen
Teach them the game, so they know they position, so they can grow
and make decisions, that change the world, and break old tradition
They put kids in jail, for a life they ain't even get to start
that's murder too, and it's breaking my heart, it's breaking our nation apart
We gave the youth all the anger, it's just
we ain't taught them, how to express it, and so it's dangerous
You can't talk to them
Unless your language is relating to what they going through
so busy ignoring them, you can't see what they showing you
And you wonder, why we called baby-daddy's and baby-momma's
when we grow up, we can't act like adult mothers and fathers, yo
I'm so blessed to have a boy and a girl, everyday they bring joy to my world

(Chorus: Mos Def) + (Talib Kweli)
Huh, yeah
I know how you feel, Kweli I know how you feel
(That's the sound of joy)
Brother Kwe', I know how you feel, Brother Kwe', I know how you feel
(Baby girl, my precious joy)
Kweli, I know how you feel, say bro' I know how you feel
(Fela, be my joy, yo)
Huh, if you know how the people feel, let me really know how you... yo

I do it for the seeds y'all (Repeat 5x)

A keynote speaker's about to come on now
I just wanted to say a few words about him,
and you all know who he is
Talib Kweli
Please, hold your applause 'til the end
We are glad
to come
and hear you speak
We love it!
Kweli doesn't like me to talk about this but
one time we were drivin'
through the Mississippi Delta
And there was a brotha runnin' up the side of the road
And he didn't have any, shoes on
He didn't have a, shirt on
And I started to drive right by this man
but Kweli said, "Stop the car, beause that brotha, might be in trouble"
And I stopped the car
Kweli said to the man, he said,
"Brotha, are you OK? Do you need a ride somewhere?"
And the man looked at Kweli and said,
"Shhhh . . . I'm escapin'"
And kweli took him by the hand and said,
"My brotha, you didn't get the memo. We have been FREE,
for some time now"
Well, I'm windin' it up
Please welcome,
a good friend, scholar, ghetto philosopher,
three time Nobel Peace Prize winner,
first black man to pilot an air craft,
the nigga that made up the Nike Swoosh,
the man that made Kool Aid say, "Ohh Yea"
Brooklyn's own,
Talib Kweli

(Kweli)
We be blazin' (uh)
So amazin' (yeh)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down (uh, yeh)
We be blazin' (uh)
So amazin' (c'mon, uh)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down
Yeh

(Talib Kweli)
New year, new record, time to do bigger shit
Caught a plane to Cali linked with my nigga Quik
I figure with the combination we bomb the nation but stay calm and patient
As the world get hyped from hearin our musical conversation
This a beautiful situation right here
Given birth on the track cuz the cypher stay pregnant with ideas
And we rockin it - rock, rock, rockin it
Tell the hater players put a sock in it!
Proper shit, that you got to get, cause we properly document
How cats look more like dicks than the Washington monument
Validly try to challenge me, but who you racin wit'
It's amazing the lyrical lyngerie I be lacin shit, we be blazin it
Put it in the air with the chronic
My lyrics like drugs got you hooked on my phonics
From Brooklyn to Compton the lounge of Soundbombing
Still rockin' over "Balance and Options," now

(Chorus)
If you got a spliff then put it in the air
If you want a rift then put it in the air
If you shakin yo' ass, put it in the air
If you makin it last, put it in the air
If you leave the crib strapped then put it in the air
Take ya hand of your gat and put it in the air
Snuck your bud in the club, put it in the air
Got nuttin but love, put it in the air

(Talib Kweli
They say my rhymes is too heavy, I come thicker than the fog
You get it when I retire and battle my catalogue
Writin rhymes in my captain's log, BlackStar date
MC's fake like Egyptian Gods in +Stargate+
Lovin the hate, bubble all types of weight in they rap
I draw blood like mosquitos y'all annoy like gnats
Pop that around the wrong cat get laid flat
Concrete adjust to the contours in your back
Quik where you at?

(Quik)
Yo i'm in the back room makin a run
Ain't even touched her n makin her cum
N you can catch me out in Portland we startin mine
Everybody doin shows but i'm the hottest flyin'
Bitches say honest, I swear to God
So how come then believin them is so damn hard
Could you really blame a nigga if you fucked a skate
You ain't even pay that's why you flunked today
All you heard was he sellin talk shit about niggas and drink wine
And your answer kept changin cos bitch you keep lyin'
Talkin bout 'he make me sick
All he do is disrespect me keep callin me bitch
And he only wanna fuck me when he all for that dough'
What the fuck you think i'm here for not to love you I hope
All i'm bout to do is listen for a minute
While I get my drink in n' introduce you to my dog Kweli n go up in it

(Chorus)

(Kweli)
C'mon
We be blazin' (c'mon)
So amazin' (yeh)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down (yeh, c'mon, yeh)
We be blazin' (uh)
So amazin' (c'mon, yeh, c'mon, c'mon)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down
Now let me tell you how I am

(Talib Kweli)
I'm mild-mannered at day but superhero at night
I got the special invite to make your spot look right
No ice, no rain, not bottles of champagne n'
HALF these motherfuckers can't pronounce my name
I'm so cool while you hyper in the coffee shop
Hype niggas make girls be like 'get off me stop'
Real niggas like thirst so of course we rock
Cos the game unauthordox, off top
You got cold feet like I pulled off your socks
Always goin down town pullin all the stops
Your breath smellin like fish from right off the docks
Dats how you lost your spot
You too hype

(Chorus)

Yeh
We be blazin' (c'mon, uh)
So amazin' (yeh, everybody c'mon)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down (yo, all the people in the house)
We be blazin' (c'mon yeh)
So amazin' (yeah, c'mon)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down
Yo, 1, 2, (c'mon) 1, 2
We be blazin' (c'mon, yo)
So amazin' (c'mon get dowwwn)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down (yeh, everybody yo)
We be blazin' (light it up, light it up)
So amazin' (yeah, i'm feelin that, c'mon)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down (yeh)
Yo do that shit
We be blazin' (yeah)
So amazin' (c'mon get dowwwn, uh)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down (yo, yo do that shit)
We be blazin' (c'mon, yo)
So amazin' (yeh)
Everybody get down
Everybody get down

(Talib Kweli: repeat 16X)
Feel the rush

(Talib over the repeated line)
Yeah, I do this shit for real (you get Chuck D'd, "Shut the Fuck down")
Ain't no games being played (remember that, remember that)
It might be the career (yo)
It might be on the stage (yo)
It might be in the street (yo)
But the people come to me (why?)

(Talib Kweli)
They come to me for the lyrical, spiritual, raw shit I spit at you
Original, and I see collective, not individual
Visual, in the mic I'm un-fuck-wit-able
Invincible, offical nigga who they come to
For the hardcore, art of war, rhymes that I got in store
Triple W in curo son or die or
For education and culture, heads is waitin' for Mos to
Do the album with Kweli, we do it like we suppose to
Nobody come close to my crew, we wild nice
You ain't tight, your rhymes is like what a child writes
When he can't spell, you chase crumbs and get ate like Han-sel
Can't hold your mic, like your liquor, your style like an Amstel
Smack a nigga til my motherfuckin hands swell
You ain't fly and you prolly got can-cell
Y'all niggas shaky like handheld, amuteur camera work
In walking this planet of earth
I'm the illest emcee and a man of my word
When I came out, niggaz didn't understand it at first
I'm known to roll up my sleeves and put my hands in the dirt
We at war and I got a battle plan that can work
With the proper execution so I'm killin' 'em right
You get hit like a deer standin' still in the light
I'm spillin' it like, I ain't never had a meal in my life
Feed my family with my pen, it's so real what I write

(Bridge)
We fight, fuck, get buckwild
Kill, chill, make love, have child
Freestyle, b-boy, hit the block
Build, destroy, get it hot

Yo, I make the place go apeshit (c'mon)
Ain't no other way to say it, ain't nuttin to play with
I'm Langston Hughes, "Dreams Deferred" seen and heard in the flesh
Cause so many people believe the word even when it seems absurd
With keen observation I peep the game
And got blood on his hands, I can see the stains
My street slang spray like shots when heat bang out
Niggas keep my name in they mouth, I put they flame out
Where I'm from, action is first and talk is second
I'm sharp like the blade in the logo of Rawkus Records
New York's infected, niggaz beefin' on the mix-tape
Got Nickelback niggaz thinkin' they can fuck with big weight
Hell no, give it up, it's enough
We about to live it up, with ten of us
We ride and you live with us
Pick it up, party people, you about to get in touch
Give it up, everybody, you about to get a rush
You can find Kweli in the cut, wth a Cohiba lit up bout to split a Dutch
Get it up, everybody, you about to get in touch
Give it up, everybody, you about to get a rush (whooo!)

(Xzibit)
Yeah, yeah
Quality material
Yo, check this out
Yeah, you heard it
Kweli
You don't know how to say it by now, fuck you
Broadcastin' live, from Brooklyn, New York City
Yeah, turn this shit up
It's Quality music
You know how we use it
Feel the rush

(Talib Kweli: repeat to end)
Feel the rush

(Kweli)
Yeah, yeah
(Girl)
La, la, la (continuous)
(Kweli)
It's like what you gonna do when we come through when you
Yeah, shock body like
What you gonna do when we come through, Kweli
Uh, yeah, BK MC, like what you gonna do when we come through when you
Woo, yeah, come on

(Verse 1)
Watch how Talib Kweli Greene do it
What I bring to it
You hear the theme music
My rhymes' life support, dog breathe to it
Rhymes are bright, the sunshine beams through it
Stop haters in their tracks like high beams
Like the moment you was at the crime scene screaming "I ain't do it"
But, I seen through it, it's obscene how I spew it
Martin Luther King had a dream to it, people cling to it
I seen your momma lean to it in a green Buick
Wack niggas get passed over so much they seem Jewish
Better leave and do it now or seem foolish
This music I bleed to it, I raise my seeds to it
I MC with the truest in the game
I stay hungry like I'm the newest in the game
And stay hot like I'm bluish with the flame
You heard the truth when it came
And you knew it was the name that you couldn't pronounce
Now I'm all up in your mouth
My people all up in the house and we calling you out
Y'all niggas crying, what you bawling about
This shit is down like we chalking you out
Hey yo, that's what I'm talking about

(Chorus)
(Girl)
Look up in the sky recongnize it's sunshine (la, la's cont'd)
(Kweli)
Yeah, what you gonna do when we come through when you
(Girl)
How can you deny when it's right in your eyes
(Kweli)
Shock body, ro-ro-ro-ro-rock body
Like what you gonna do when we come through when you
(Girl)
Look up in the sky recognize it's sunshine
(Kweli)
Come on and, come on and
Kweli like what you gonna do when we come through when you
(Girl)
How can you deny when it's right in your eyes
(Kweli)
Yeah, come on

(Verse 2)
Check the writing skills forever coming tight with the quill
You sound like you liking the thrill
Or filling the pipe with the the krill
You must be smoking like the spliff we like to light when we build
Out of respect for the dead we let our Heinekens spill
Cats taking Vicodin pills to numb the pain that they feeling
Pertaining to stealing my rhymes finding their brains on the ceiling
I'm blowing their minds wide open when I'm flowing I'm fine
Hey yo my whole style banging like I'm throwing up signs
Niggas get cut like I saw someone I know in the line
I live life to the fullest cause I know I could die
Right now, I don't believe I know when to sto'
My face soldier's going to lie, when I'm going to buy
You gonna see a rainbow in the sky
And my momma's face glowing with pride
My first born held it down and through my baby's soul I survive
Put your hands in the air and let me know you're alive
I love this game y'all, I ain't even going to lie
I can see you all rocking cause you know when it's live, word

(Chorus)
(girl)
repeat chorus
(kweli)
repeat chorus
**Continue

(Outro)
BK, BX, Q-borough, like what you gonna do when we come through
ATL, Chi-Town, Los Angeles, Bay Area
Everybody like what you gonna do when we come through yeah
My whole world rocking
Yo BK like what you gonna do when we come through, Kweli

(Kweli)
Go right to left, left to right
Middle passage connection
Yeah, about to build
Tell you which way to go

(Both)
We go right to left, left to right
If you fight to the death, what's left to fight
X4
Yo, here we go

(Kweli)
I wanna write away
I wanna write here
I wanna write brave words to fight fear
Write dreams and nightmares
Might scare the folks stuck in the day
But nothing to say,
Well I'm way ahead by light years
So beware we keep the lights on
I wanna write the songs from right to wrong
Right on
Riding the light so you see in the dark
So deep you gotta be still like your beating heart
My words apply the pressure to make the bleeding stop
See the art, living right, eating smart
I wanna right to life, a right to death
Police read your rights from right to left
But I never write to remain silent
I fight through police line
Cops walk the beat that I write to
I teach minds, write rhymes with the right sound
Right now, journalists write up
I write down

(Both) :Chorus
Party people put a hand in the sky
Grab a cloud and squeeze til no man is dry
We wet it up, go ask the people if they plannin to die
Can't stay to live, consumers is plannin to buy
Smoke death operators is standing by
They take you order for the slaughter of the family why
Do they make it so hard for a man to provide
You better get wit it, or {stand to the side X7}

(Vinia Mojica)
And the story line goes on
Right to left, who's right who's wrong
Fuck the politics and pride
I just to try to stay alive
To witness where the battle lines are drawn
Speak my mind and sing my song
I'm passin on the moral y'all
This is ain't play
True, you got to know the way
It's hard now
Open eyes
See hopeful lives
Sing it now

(Kweli)
Making my way through life
Talking to elders and taking advice
Ignoring their words and paying the price
Living in the world where false preachers got us praying to christ
Get with the young girls in the choir and laying the pipe
No control of our soul we all wait at the light
So comfortable they we hating to fight to make it right
Late at night I'm controlled by the DJ on the mic
I love hip-hop and every joint he playing is tight
A day in the life is a brick in the foundation of like
A maze in Egypt amazing when I'm creating a sight
For the world to behold and the story to last
So one day ghetto children can visit their glorious past
After Pac and Notorious past what do we have
Niggas worth more when they dead, it's so sad
Started with the slavery we finish the plan
But I broke the cycle, and became a man

(Both) : Chorus

(Kweli)
Come on,
I got my man Savion in the house
We about to put it down
Here we go

(Savion Glover tap dances)

Let me holler at you
Can I talk to you?(x5)
I want you, cuz you make my heart skip the beat that I drum to
I want to be the one you run to, when pain confronts you
You're everything, sometimes I get nervous when I'm in front you
You can hear it in my voice when I ask you if you comfortable
Look how love do, I'd practice the Art of War for you like Sun Tzu
Come through and arouse you every morning like the sun do
If you blackout and collapse I want to help you to come to
Notice I haven't yet gotten to what I want from you
I want you to come to when I come through and make you shine like the sun do
I want you to be the valley for my river to run through
You're everything, send your soul through your lips to my heart
Sweet music will start I want you to be the music of my art
When people try to rip us apart we got to work to stay together
Go through the seasons of love and never change with the weather
This is my wish list, what I want not what I need there's a difference
These days I'm learning that words got power so I'ma be specific
Can I have a talk with you?
Can I make a dream come true?
Can I be in love with you?
Cuz I would if I could
Yeah sunflower
You must live in the infinite blackness that exists when I close my eyes
I see you when I fall asleep, I see you when I dream
Lil' darlin'
Set your soul on fire (lil' darlin')
Be your one desire (lil' darlin')
Lil' darlin'
Can I talk to you? (lil' darlin')
Lil' darlin', lil' darlin'
Can I talk? (lil' darlin')
Can I talk, can I talk, can I?
Lil' darlin' (lil' darlinc1

(Talib Kweli)
The proud
Stand tall or don't stand at all, c'mon
Uhh, yeah
Break it down
What we do?

(Chorus)
We survive, it's more than pride
We stay alive, ready to ride

(Chorus) - repeat through intro

(Intro: Talib Kweli)
One two, one two yo
Aight.. put it down yo
June 11, 2001
Timothy McVeigh is executed
And the country breathe a sigh of relief
Goodness prevails over evil, it seems
Somehow when he's gone, we feel safer
Little do we know

(Verse One)
Today the paper say Timothy McVeigh's in hell
So everything's okay and all must be well
I remember in Oklahoma when they put out the blaze
And put Islamic terrorist bombing, on the front page
It's like saying only gays get AIDS, propaganda
Like saying the problem's over when they locked that man up
Wrong! It's just the beginning, the first inning
Battle for America's soul, the devil's winning
The President is Bush, the Vice President's a Dick
So a whole lot of fuckin is what we gon' get
They don't wanna raise the babies so the election is fixed
That's why we don't be fuckin with politics
They bet on that, parents fought and got wet for that
Hosed down, bit by dogs, and got blacks into house arrest for that
It's all good except for that - we still poor
Money, power and respect is what we kill for, for real

(Chorus) - repeat through interlude

(Interlude)
August 4, 2001
A drunken police officer mows down an entire family in Brooklyn
The judge lets him go with no bail
It reminds us, of just how worthless our lives are to the justice system
I struggle, to explain the situation to my son, it's hard

(Verse Two)
Niggaz with knowledge is more dangerous than than niggaz with guns
They make the guns easy to get and try to keep niggaz dumb
Target the gangs and graffiti with the Prop 21
I already know the deal but what the fuck do I tell my son?
I want him livin right, livin good, respect the rules
He's five years old and he still thinkin cops is cool
How do I break the news that when he gets some size
He'll be percieved as a threat or see the fear in they eyes
It's in they job description to terminate the threat
So 41 shots to the body is what he can expect
The precedent is set, don't matter if he follow the law
How do I give my son pride and make him swallow it all (damn!)
Fuck the pigs! I think the pigs killed Big and 'Pac too
If they didn't they know who did, they got to!
Who they serve and protect, nigga not you
Cops shot off of ten G's but they got glocks too
Let you protect yourself, or better yet respect yourself
Straight into the hospital is where you gotta check yourself
They be gettin tips from snitches and rival crews
Doin them favors so they workin for the drug dealers too
Just business enforcers with hate in they holsters
Shoot you in the back, won't face you like a soldier
Kurt Loder asked me what I say to a dead cop's wife
Cops kill my people everyday, that's life

(Chorus) - repeat through final interlude

(Final Interlude)
September 11, 2001
Terrorists attack the Pentagon and the World Trade Center
Kills thousand and permanently scars America's false sense of security
We see the best examples of humanity in the face of the worst
As fire fighters, police officers, rescue workers
and volunteers of all sorts, fight to save lives
The world will never be the same again

(Verse Three)
My heart go out to everybody at Ground Zero
Red, black, yellow, white and brown heroes
It's more complicated than black and white
To give your own life is the greatest sacrifice
But it's hard for me to walk down the block
Seeing rats and roaches, crack viles and 40 ounce posters
People broken down from years of oppression
Become patriots when they way of life is threatened
It's a hard conversation to have
We lost kids, moms and dads, people ready to fight for the flag
Damn, when did shit get this bad?
America kill the innocent too, the cycle of violence is sad
Damn! Welcome to the world, we here
We've been at, war for years but it's much more clear (yeah)
We got to face what lies ahead
Fight for our truth and freedom and, ride for the dead

(Chorus) - repeat to end

(Bilal)
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock (It's your boy Kweli, BK MC)
So I can show you just what I got (Memph Blow in the house)
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got

(Talib)
Music is the air I breathe
The prayer I leave
Rippin' in the atmosphere
Up there in the breeze
Stronger then the revolution
That you wear on your sleeve
Its all I know
Not an idea you believe
I spit bars you can't touch
Like tits in strip bars
Get charged, man I drop hits that hit hard
Hit bars with my brown sugar sistah
the night just start, I'm waitin' ....

(Bilal)
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock

(Talib)
We all hop in the car deep
We bring Brooklyn to the city
My fellas lookin' sharp my ladies lookin' pretty
When the DJ let the needle drop
The beat'll rock, the beat'll start
Boppin' and my people got it poppin' like needle marks
3 o'clock and it's mass hysteria
I'm about to hit the cafeteria
I'm Waitin' ...

(Bilal)
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock (Put it down for y'all)
So I can show you just what I got
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock (Put it down for y'all)
So I can show you just what I got

(Talib)
I read the lines and all the between
In my mind I'm rewindin' the scene
The club ain't the place to be findin' a queen
You all in my dream girl
Though I can't sleep on you no
You was a star tonight
It like shown through
Vampires takin' a bite
I'm in the zone too
I always end up takin' the flight
Makin' a right for the fam
So tight in the jam
A fight began
Always heard bad niggas tryin' to act like a man
The DJ had the mic in his hand
Like calm down (Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock)

(Talib)
Yeah, it was like I was the audience at the concert
You had on Converse
With the Luis Vuitton purse
Tiger's eye around the wrist
With the fly and the prints
Lookin' up your arm and blendin' where the tattoo begins
I had to catch a plane but you make me wanna stay
I had to catch your name and I'm waitin' ...

(Bilal)
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock (Put it down for y'all)
So I can show you just what I got

(Bilal)
Cuz they let me chasing (?) through the same old song
So just clap your hands together 'til they make that sound

(Talib)
Yeah, hot fun in the summertime, Sly said it
Guys see the flesh catch a thigh fetish
Honeys smellin' too sweet its like I'm diabetic
More stars in the sky than a seminar on Dianetics
Drop the top beat up the block
On Flatbush Ave. where they smoke a tree up
As shots reach the new tunes
Dogs who lose hollerin' at the new moon
Ours, I'm like the sun, the flower in full bloom
When I come out the house we complete like the number 9
You're gon' gimme some of yours, I'm a give you some of mine
Your off the sucka rhyme
A song will sound like one of mine
I know you love it when I shine, I'm waitin' ...

(Bilal)
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got
Waitin' for the DJ to, let your body rock
So I can show you just what I got

(Chorus: Res - repeat 2X)
Where do we go? What do we say? What do we do?
Nowhere to turn, nowhere to run and there's nothin new
Where do we go for inspiration?
It's like pain is our only inspiration

(Talib Kweli)
Yea, I see a place where little boys and girls
Are shells in the oceans not knowin they a pearl
No one to hold 'em while they growin
They livin' moment to moment without a care in the whole world
Now, if I could help it I tell it just like it is
And I may say some things that you don't like to hear
I know this: that people lie, people kneel
People die, people heal, people steal, and people shed tears
What's real, blood spills, gun kill, the sun still - rise
Above me, trust me, it must be, morning - time
Wake up, the stakes up
Everybody want the cake up, to break up with the crew
But when the karma come back for what you do
It's too late to make up - some excuse

(Chorus)

(Talib Kweli)
I come from people who stronger than time and space
Wherever there's competition you gonna find the race
I find a place in my heart for this hip-hop
And pump blood through my vein my skin get hot
I take you very serious and make you write more
If I don't celebrate I got nothing to fight for
I'm tight raw, excite y'all like nightfall
I'm tight y'all, I walk the street like y'all
About action, talk is cheap, right y'all?
You start yappin' think about the beef you might cause
The trouble you could get into
You don't study, you not prepared and cats is testin you
What you gonna do when you gotta face
The manifestation of the words that you put in space
They already there you cant take 'em out
The studio gangsta inside you tryin' to break out

(Chorus)

(Talib Kweli)
Yea, I see a place where little boys and girls
Are shells in the oceans not knowin they a pearl
No one to hold 'em while they growin
They livin' moment to moment without a care in the whole world
Now, if I could help it I tell it just like it is
And I may say some things that you don't like to hear
I know this: that people lie, people kneel
People die, people heal, people steal, and people shed tears
What's real, blood spills, gun kill, the sun still - rise
Above me, trust me, it must be, morning - time
Wake up, the stakes up
Everybody want the cake up, to break up with the crew
But when the karma come back for what you do
It's too late to make up - some excuse

(Talib Kweli)
Yeah ... this is the best part of the trip
Hold on to something, hold on to someone
We about to take the road less travelled
You ain't gotta go home, but you can't stay here
Let's go

(Kendra Ross)
I get lonelier each time
You go away I lose my mind
I lay awake til you come and make things right (yeah yeah)
I get lonelier each time you go away (cmon)
So baby won't you stay with me tonight? (yeah)

(Talib Kweli)
Check it out
There's this lady I'm in love with (yes there is)
Living inside this woman unknown
But she's scared to let it show
I know it sound like some bug shit (yeah it do)
It's just she come with
Hang-ups and
Insecurities they gotta go
She always nervous around me
But see this lady inside
She's ready to be my baby tonight
And ever since this lady found me
This woman think I'm dangerous
And ain't ready to put her safety aside
I try to tell her that I got her back
And no matter where we at
In our lives
I'll treat her like she my girl
I asked her "What's wrong with dat?" (What's wrong with dat?)
She like "It just ain't right
There's so many more women and men in the world"
I have to admit the girl got a point (true)
Maybe my ambition's made to make me want something I just can't have
So now it's time for me to blow this joint
I still know I'm in love
I just stay focused
And true to my path
Word

(Kendra Ross)
I get lonelier each time
You go away I lose my mind
I lay awake til you come and make things right (yeah yeah)
I get lonelier each time you go away (uhh)
So baby won't you stay with me tonight? (yeah yeah)

(Talib Kweli)
I got to get away
Ladies you ever felt growing away
By your man
Asking "Baby, won't you stay?"
He chilling with his crew
He should be building with you
He got you feeling the blues
Cause the children to glue
He willing to do
Whatever it takes
To save 'em
From a fate he can't see when he misbehaving
Brave men don't let they ladies
Raise they children theyself
You're so busy trying to save 'em
That you you're killing yourself
With the
Stress and strife
And the fights and the advice
From the ladies of the night
Who can't run they own life
Up in your air
Nothing is fair
Why do you care?
Why do you always take it there?
The crying, the tears
You ain't prepared for the jewels
That I'm trying to share
Flying there
Dying inside
Hot in the fear
The writing is clear
On the wall
For you to read the sign
Ayo the fine is the way we design
To be fine
But still ...

(Kendra Ross)
I get lonelier each time (I get so lonely)
You go away I lose my mind
I lay awake til you come and make things right
(mmmmmmm .. make it right, make it right, make it right)
I get lonelier each time you go away (la la la la la la la laaaa)
So baby won't you stay with me tonight?

(Talib Kweli)
Gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go
Gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go
Gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go
Gotta, Gotta
Gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go
Gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go
Gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta go
Gotta, Gotta

Yo
You can tell when people wanna spend they life together
Despite the weather
They treat each other like a treasure
Can't fight forever
You got to give it up
I ain't got a lot of time
We got to live it up
I make my music like I make my love
People use it like they take they drugs
In the morning
When they waking up
This music got me out late but
I holla at you when I'm done
Don't stay up
Will love play with us?
It sting like paper cuts
Doused in alcohol
But if it's real
They ain't no greater rush
I got faith in us
It's only you who really know me
I be surrounded by people
And still feel lonely

(Kendra Ross)
So baby won't you stay (why won't you stay?)
Baby won't you stay? (why won't you stay?)
Baby won't you stay with me tonight? (ohhhhh)
Stay with me tonight
Stay with me tonight
Ohhhhh
Cmon