Talib Kweli [Rap]

[Mos Def]
Hey, hey, heyyy man
I Strike the Empire Back..
I Strike the Empire Back..
Fuck the Empire!!
High flyin like the Millenium Falcon, piloted by Han Solo
I never roll for dolo, frontin on me's a no-no
Understand? Doin this for my family
Ha ha, check it out y'all

Yo I'm tryin to make a dollar out of what makes sense
Add it up, told my daddy I'd be a rich man
You never know when your fate gon' switch hand
Get today's solid ground out of yesterday's quicksand
I was a young boy -- who dreamt about being a big man
on small looseleaf sheets I sketched a big plan
Gotta handle business properly, boost up my economy
Store it up and get my mom some waterfront property
Yesterday was not for me but nowaday it's time for me
The streets is watchin me, I watch back, that's the policy
Movin along my oddesey like blood through the artery
Navigate the treacherous and make it seem effortless
Let those who make the exodus seekin the North beacon
from beatin and hog-eatin, from punishment all season
from hands cracked and bleedin -- cotton thorns in your palms
It's for y'all that I sketch these songs, and it goes..
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow
I fear no man, because faith is the aarow
My vocal chord travel worldwide to block narrow
We can blow with the ammo or go mano-a-mano
Kweli is you wit me? (Whattup whattup?) Let's make it happen
I *BURN* through your argument with action
My eyes stay fastened to tomorrow lookin for a brighter day
When y'all wanna leave y'all? Right away

Shout it out from East-West (from South to Northern)
From Cakalak' (to California)
From the coldest (to the warmest)
To the borders ('cross the waters) understand..
".. and know that I love you.."
We got love in the place
Shout out to all the Queens (all the Seeds)
To all the teams (that's gettin cream)
From outlaw (to emcee's)
Make it happen (do your thing) understand..
".. and know that I love you.."
Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and
gentlemen

[Talib Kweli]
Guess who? The illest MC in the atmosphere, yeah the Soul
Controller
who roam the frontier like a Buffalo Soldier
I follow the code of honor like a real man gonna
Never disrespect no women cause I love my momma
These cats be givin us praise but it ain't that accurate
I give it up to God, all that, love and attachment, get
scary well-prepared with the shears when it get hairy
like how these niggaz is lookin like some fairies
and singin like canaries to the beast
and anybody who will listen to em clearly
Y'all don't hear me though, even when I'm comin through in
stereo
You make a mockery of what I represent properly
Yo why you startin me? I take that shit straight to the artery
Intellectual property I got the title and the deed
I pay for rent, with the tears and sweat, and what I bleed
MC's imitate the way we walk, the way we talk
You cats spit lyrical pork with no spiritual thought
Plus your flow a little bit off, you come across soft
Back in the days, niggaz like that on stage got tossed off
Need to get crossed off the guestlist
It's like you gotta be disrespected and thrown out the exit
to get the message
Sometimes your sunshine get snatched like a necklace
when you get too drunk on power and your drive get reckless
Check it, MC's in my face after I slug you then I hug you
If I gotta dead you know it's only cause I love you

[Mos Def]
Shout it out from East-West (from South to Northern)
From the richest (to the poorest)
To the elders (in the coffins)
Livin native (dyin for it) understand..
".. and know that I love you.."
Yea, yea, we got love in the place
Shout out from up top (to the middle)
To black bottom (SKY HIGH)
Whether you colder than December
or hotter, than July
It don't stop 'til we complete this
(".. and know that I love you..") keep this fly
It's so much to life when you just
stay black (10X)
My people, my people, my people people p-people (8X)
My PE-ople, oh-oh-OH-oh-OHH, oh-OHH...

(feat. Apani B-Fly Emcee, Talib Kweli)

[Apani]
Time zone travellin, unravelin
The secrets of mysteries that follow humans for centuries
Theories appear crisp and clear to me as air
Magically through meditative focus, mechanically I'm there
The dreams stay in connection, then awake
To the main theme in a carefully constructed scene
Which began with a bright beam of light
Become a satellite seen as a flash in the sky
Through the eyes of a writer, who shall remain anonymous
Lust for higher learnin, surgin, burnin, yearnin
Inspired by spirits of great grand descendants
Get rich off the dark skin signin over freedom on documents
Marked with X's, illiterate, stiffed up languages
Slave masters metaphorically ripped out they larynxes
Yet they beat drums and sang songs
Now I keep it movin along in the same form and context
Since the torch has been cast to the next generation
My main motivation is to be a cipher nation
360 degrees all around, above, and below
Is the planet where I hold jurisdiction, yo
Kweli I know you fed with this whole situation
I know you reflect on revolution
Can only be one conclusion, one action conduces
Changes - some civilizations have been in war for scores
Blood shed on history pages and in the end
What side wins? Old has been replaced by the new
When all is said and done, stand out amongst the few
As examples of what one can do
It's a true story, cried at the end when Denzel died in Glory
Knock on wood when I'm gon' be, launch me into the galaxy
I'll be a solitary star in the constellation
Transferrin information into the minds of young prodigies lookin up
Wishin all my energy until the day they become
Entities parallel to me, the universe's Cycle of Destiny
What exists is more than we see, more than we see...

Forget the years you been alive, we livin in the same age
Tell me where your mind is at, we livin in the same age

Tell me what's on your mind, we livin in the same age [x3]

[Kweli, vaguely] yo, yo, outrageous, courageous, advantageous..
[Kweli]
Once again on mission, driven by ill thoughts that we envision
Got a lotta ambition, now we got a pot to piss in
Cats seem to be quick to whip they shit out, and they missin
While I aim straight, it's a new era, you feel the transition?
Man listen, you know the libras, how they just balance it out
Through the ages, droppin wisdom like sages
While the whole world go through phases
Peep how the rhyme is vintage like a wine
Gets better with age and time
Niggas think they free - who need to change
When you can enslave the mind? like true conquerors
They call the explorers brave
Say they collectin when I say they rob graves
It's complex, you know what, I be ? Apani
Do this ego trippin, like De La, on Nikki Giovanni
So I try to put that behind me but it got me
In an ill position like the Kama Sutra
The past kicks my ass back to the future, it reminds me
Not the losers, but the winners tell the story
Ignore the truth, take out the gory details and get the glory
My grandfather died when I was a shorty
He fought for our country
It couldn't be his 'cause to this day, they still don't want me
My great grandmother put arsenic in the master's tea
After she came from hearin a speech by Marcus Garvey
Not separate or equal, so fuck Ferguson and Plessy
Folks of slaves, bringin it like Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey
The Age of the Industry, the plantation system was dead
Let em work, they can make enough to eat
And keep a roof over they head
You still a mothafuckin slave !
Doesn't matter if you near-white or little light
Or blacker than a thousand midnights
We right in the new age with new slaves, we need to bless the stage
'Cause the audience' brains affected by devils like cage
Call us brave, but the system got our peoples actin depraved
Forget the years you been alive, we livin in the same age
Yo tell me where ya mind is at, we livin in the same age
Take that wit'chu to your grave, grow up before you show up [x3]

[Apani]
Time is relative, we livin in the same age

[Mos Def]
Against the canvas of the night
Appears a curious celestial phenomena
called Black Star, but what is it?

[Talib Kweli]
Black people unite and let's all get down
We got to have what? We got to have that love

[Mos Def]
What is the Black Star?
Is it the cat with the black shades, the black car?
Is it shinin from very far, to where you are?
It is commonplace and different
Intimate and distant
Fresher than an infant

[Talib Kweli]
Black, my family thick, like they're striped molasses
Star, on the rise, in the eyes of the masses
Black is the color of my true love's hair
Star's are bright, shining, hot balls of air

[Mos Def]
Black like my baby girl's stare
Black like the veil that the muslimina wear
Black like the planet that they fear, why they scared?
Black like the slave ship that later brought us here
Black like the cheeks that are roadways for tears
that leave black faces well traveled with years
Black like assassin crosshairs
Blacker than my granddaddy armchair
He never really got no time to chill there
Cause this life is warfare, warfare

[Talib Kweli]
Deep on the front lines, and blacks is all there
Black like the perception of who, on welfare
Black like faces at the bottom of the well
I've been there before
To bring the light and heat it up like "la cocina"
Make without imagine happen but maybe I'm just a dreamer
I love rockin tracks like John Coltrane love Naema

[M] Like the student love the teacher
[T] Like the prophet love Khadeja
[M] Like I love my baby features
[A] Like the creator love all creatures

[Talib Kweli]
Who acknowledge truth and peace seekers
We on point like heat seekers
Targettin the black marketing strategists
Run up on em with the heaters
Everybody followin with no leaders
Feelin like we killin ourselves
because I know they can't defeat us
It don't stop til we complete this, keep this fly
There's so much to life when you just stay Black and God

[Mos Def]
Blacker than the nighttime sky of Bed-Stuy in July
Blacker than the seed in the blackberry pie
Blacker than the middle of my eye
Black like feh-lah man cry
Some man wan ask "Who am I?"
I simply reply, "The U.N.I., V.E.R.S.A.L. Magnetic"
Work to respect the angelic, climb the mountaintop
and tell it til the valley's enveloped
You're full of big chat but you nah know me
I'm dark like the side of the moon you don't see
when the moon shine newly

[M] You know who else is a Black Star? (Who?) Me
[T] You know who else is a Black Star? (Who?) Me
[A] You know who else is a Black Star, who we? (And we)
[A] be shinin and shinin, when we rhymin and rhymin
We be shinin and shinin, when we rhymin and rhymin

[Mos Def]
Now everybody hop on the one, the sounds of the two
It's the third eye vision, five side dimension
The 8th Light, is gonna shine bright tonight
It's the third eye vision, five side dimension

[T] You know the light
[M] Go from the dark
[T] The other way is ass-backwards
[M] It's absurd
[T] Make you wanna crow like a blackbird
[M] That's right
[T] You livin from your first day to your last night
[T] Sometimes you show your ass like
[M] Lint on your clothes
[T] When you froze in
[A] THE BLACK LIGHT
[M] Dead that
[T] Before you get your head wrapped
[M] Like Badu
[T] We see through your voodoo
[T] Just like Eve's Bayou, you dealin with that black magic
[M] Try to civilize you
[T] Not walk on by you
[M] Like civil-(lies do get you black listed) it'll
[T] Be unlucky for you like a black cat
[M] A panther
[T] Revolution is the answer
[M] That's what we need
[T] Greed plague my people like the cancer
[M] True indeed

[Mos Def]
Now black people unite, and let's ALL GET DOWN
Now everybody hop on the one, the sounds of the two
It's the third eye vision, five side dimension
The 8th Light, is gonna shine bright tonight
Everybody hop on the one, the sounds of the two
It's the third eye vision, five side dimension
The 8th Light, is gonna shine bright tonight
It's the third eye vision, five side dimension
Equalin up to eight, light shine bright

[Mos Def]
Yo yo, yo, whassup, yo yo
Yo yo, we gonna, we gonna slow it down
so we can speed it up y'all
Right now I want everybody come to the front
That's right, move forward
I want all the poppers and the breakers, to form this circle
I want all the poppers and the breakers
The writers and the exciters, to get in this circle
and make it real live yo
Cause I'm seein too many stars up in here tonight yo
I'm seein the Rock Steady Crew
I'm seein Ken Swift, I'm seein Mr. Wiggles
I'm seein Modesho, I'm seein Crazy Legs
Man I'm seein the Zulu Nation up in here
I'm seein the Rawkus family, Shabaam Shadeeq, Company Flow
Menelik, I'm seein G-ology, Shawn J. Period
Man this the Black Star movement
Mos Def, Talib Kweli we gon' keep it live
for the b boys and b girls universally
Rock Steady Japan, Rock Steady Europe
Rock Steady New York, yo we just gonna keep it live
all over the world -- get live

[Talib Kweli]
Party people, in the place to be
My name is Talib Kweli
Yo, I got my man on the side of me
Mos Def-initely, and we, are

(Fresh) Black Star
(Fresh) G Young
(Fresh) Hi-Tek
(Fresh) Native Tongue
(Fresh) Shawn J.
(Fresh) Eighty-eight
(Fresh) Ninety-eight
we bout to motivate, come on y'all

[M]
[T]
Here's a little story that must be told
About two young brothers who was put on hold
They tried to stop the goal
We on a spiritual plane
Tried to kill the pride
And destroy the name
We just two bad brothers
Who will never quit
I'm Mos Def
Kweli (WE THE ULTIMATE)
Make sure that you tell
Everybody you know
To get on line
Take a ride
To the Black Star show!
Black Star
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house y'all
Black Star
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house y'all
Black Star
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house y'all
Black Star
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house
Shinin
Shinin, we in the house y'all

(Mos Def)
Be like yo, let me ask you somethin
I wanna know, I wanna know who you are

*Mos Def singing*
(Mos) Brown skin lady, hey hey
(Talib) Yes
(Mos) Where you goin
(Talib) This goes to the brown skin ladies
(Mos) Brown skin lady
(Talib) Yo, indigineous women of the planet Earth
(Mos) What you doin?
(Talib) Givin birth to the brown skin ladies first
(Mos) Brown skin lady
(Talib) For what it's worth, from me to you
(Mos) How do you feel?
(Talib) From me to you, watchin you
I like the, I like the, I like the, I like the
way you walk, yes, I live the way you move
(Mos) I like the way you walk, when you walk on by
I like the way you move, I like the WAY you move
(Talib) I like the, I like the, I like the, I like the
way you walk, please, won't you do that dance
(Mos) I like the way you walk, when you walk on by
I like the way you move, I like you baby

(together)
And everybody on the avenue, I know, when they see you sing
Everybody on the avenue, I know, when they see you sing, there she is

(Talib)
Fresher than Tony Rebel's vestibules at African street festivals
My incredible women is, plentiful
Over the years I met a few, none of them compare to you
Preparin you to make food bearable, somethin terrible, let's see:
you fruitful, beautiful, smart, lovable, huggable
Doable like art, suitable to be part
of my life, Coppertone, oh you copyright infringement
Pay you bidness ten cents, way back in the day
It's like I'm standin there you know appreciatin God's design
and then you showed up, it's like you read my mind
DAMN SHE'S FINE, I think I add the R-E, in front of that
and see if she D, to get, with a cat like me

(Talib) I like the, I like the, I like the, I like the
way you walk, yes, I live the way you move
(Mos) I like the way you walk, when you walk on by
I like the way you move, I like the WAY you move
(Talib) I like the, I like the, I like the, I like the
way you walk, please, won't you do that dance
(Mos) I like the way you walk, when you walk on by
I like the way you move, I like you baby

(together)
And everybody on the avenue, I know, when they see you sing
Everybody on the avenue, I know, when they see you sing, there she is

(Mos Def)
Ooooh! Daring me girl, look at you!
Comin on the block lookin fresh and brand new
Ooooh! Headwrap cover your hairdo
Pretty feet peekin through open-toed shoe
Ooooh! No limit to what I would do
Make love to you like long interview
Whooh! Is she for real, me like you
Good look champion, win the title
True, many man try invite you
Shot down lyric each time they cyph you
Jewel, what man you get all insides you
Feet they walk way and just that sheik posture
Ooooh! Can't be a next one like you
Famous like tapes made by DJ Clue
I tighten up my game as I approach you
Yo check her she the nectar the bee get close to

...

(Talib)
I don't get many compliments, but I am confident
Used to have a complex about, gettin too complex
You got me, willin to try, looked me in the eye
My head is still in the sky, since you walked on by
I'm feelin high, got my imagination flickerin like hot flames
it's how it seems, you make me wanna ride the coal train to A Love Supreme
My brown lady, creates environments, for
happy brown babies, I know it sounds crazy
but your skin's the inspiration for cocoa butter
You provoke a brother we should get to know one another
I discover when I bring you through my people say TRUE, all I can say
is all praise due I thank you God for a beauty like you

*Mos Def singing*
(Mos) Brown skin lady
(Talib) Yes
(Mos) Where you goin
(Talib) This goes to the brown skin ladies
(Mos) Brown skin lady
(Talib) On the planet Earth today, yes
(Mos) What you doin?
(Mos) Brown skin lady
(Mos) How do you feel?

(Talib) I like the, I like the, I like the, I like the
way you walk, yes, I live the way you move
(Mos) I like the way you walk, when you walk on by
I like the way you move, I like the WAY you move
(Talib) I like the, I like the, I like the, I like the
way you walk, yes, please do that dance
(Mos) I like the way you walk, when you walk on by
I like the way you move, I like you baby

(together)
And everybody on the avenue, I know, when they see you sing
Everybody on the avenue, I know, when they see you sing, there she is

(Mos) There she is, she's a brown skinned lady
Such a brown skinned lady
She's a brown skinned lady
She's a brown skinned lady
She's a brown skinned lady
She's a brown skinned lady

(Talib)
You know what some people put themselves through
to look just like you?
Dark stocking, high heels, lipstick, alla that
You know what?
Without makeup you're beautiful
Whatcha you need to paint the next face for
We're not dealin with the European standard of beauty tonight
Turn off the TV and put the magazine away
In the mirror tell me what you see
See the evidence of divine presence
Women of the, Carribean, they got the, golden sun
I know women on the continent got it
Nigeria, and Ghana, you know they got it
Tanzania, Namibia and Mozambique
and Bothswana, to let it speak
about latinas, columbianas
...
Tallenas, of course the Brooklyn women walk that walk
And the Bronx women walk that walk
Honies from Queens walk that walk, NYC, ATL, LA
Cincinnati, the Bay Area...

(Child #1) ...and then Jackie Chan just started kickin em
like POW! POW! POW!

(Child #2) Whaaaaa??!

(Mos Def) Alright y'all, alright y'all enough of that
it's time to go to bed y'all
Time to go to bed -- I don't wanna hear that
You know what time it is, you know what time it is

(Children) Uncle Mos?
(Mos Def) Yeeesss?
(Children) Would you read us a bedtime story please?
(Mos Def) Okay, okay. Ya'll tucked in?
(Children) Yeessss...
(Mos Def) Heeeere we go...

Once upon a time not long ago
When people wore Adidas and lived life slow
When laws were stern and justice stood
And people was behavin' like hip-hop was good
There lived a little boy who was misled
By a little Sha-tan and this is what he said
"Me and you kid we gonna make some cash,
Jackin' old beats and makin' the dash..."
They jacked the beats, money came wit' ease
But son, he couldn't stop, it's like he had a disease
He jacked another and another, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder
Set some R & B over the track for 'Deep Cover' (187!)
The kid got wild startin' actin' erratic
He said "Yo, that presidential I got ta have it..."
With liquor in his belly son, he made up the track
But little did he know that his joints was wack
The shiny A & R said "Great new hit G!"
"Whenever you need a loop, yo come get me..."
The kid got amped and he starts to figure
"I'm-a get dough like all-a these otha niggaz!"
So, he's in the studio workin' 'round the clock
For pop radio, jacked the beat to 'Planet Rock'
Was out in the street when he met this sister
Who couldn't sing for shhhh but the mix wit' her sister
Hooked up the track and in excitation
He decided he'd head for the radio station
But (But!) he was runnin' and he made a left
Was skeezin' at top speed and ran into Mos Def
I slowed the young man down and I started: "Yo money,
Yo, why you sellin' lies to our wives and children?"
He ran upstairs up to the top floor
Opened up the door then guess what he saw? (Who?)
JANE the chickenhead radio host
Who be yappin' 'bout beef between east and west coast
He said "This one's a bullet, you got ta give it run!"
The chicken said "Thanks." and spanked it #1
He went outside, was gettin' props all over
Then he dipped into his ride, the 4-point Rover
Raced up the block doin' 83
Some cats with Hennessey saw him at a R-E-D
He winked his eye like his star status mattered
They rat-a-tat-tatted to make his blood splatter
"You rockin' crazy ice and all you do is cling static
And rollin' down to Brooklyn late night is problematic..."
His eyes was bloody red, he hung on every word they said
They told the kid "Back down, that playa shit is dead."
Deep in his heart, he knew he was gone
But he grabbed his 45 and decide to blaze on
Wit' shades on founded had him astounded an'
Before long, the young man got surrounded
Those grabbed the guns, so goes the glory
And that is the way I got ta end this story
He was out chasin' cream and the American dream
Tryin' to pretend the ends justify the means
This ain't funny so don't you dare laugh
It's just what comes to pass when you sell your ass
Life is more than what your hands can grasp
Good Night!

(kids talking)
Knock 'em out the box Mos, knock 'em out Mos
Knock 'em out the box Mos, knock 'em out Mos (3x)

Knock 'em out...

A-nother...Mos Def...Black Star MOVEMENT...
presentation... CRUUUMBS!

[Mos Def]
Lawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwd, 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 tenaments
Cause all my Brooklyn residents, ? heavy regiments
Don't believe, here the evidence, where Brooklyn WHAAAAAAAoohhhh
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, wyahhhhh
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, wyahhhhh

[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 milliliters 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

[Kweli]
People keep askin me, where's the underground? There's mad talented
cats underground with that raw shit. Ya know what'm sayin? Bringin the
raw skills. Ya know what I'm sayin? Really...
To me, It's a Small Wonder, like Vicki, why I'm picky
These niggas suck like kitty,
and still get the shit they slip in like Mickies
I'm sick of the hater-players, bring on the regulators
With the flavors like a farm team fucking with the majors
Like a river how I run through it, I do it so cold
Freezin up your bodily fluids, your style is old
You runnin your mouth, but don't really know what you be talkin about
You should retire, get that complimentary watch, be out!
Yo, with the quickness, so swift you miss this lyrical fitness
Now get this, these emcees wanna test me like litmus, bear witness
I'm like shot clocks, interstate cops, and blood clots
My point is, your flow can stop!
By all means, you need more practice, take that ass home
Everybody lookin at you, fish tanks and drome
In full effect, I stay catchin lyrical rep
And keep it blacker than the back of your neck
What you expect, that shit's hollerin
Cause we developin the followin
gettin played like ?stones? off tapes and ?dollar vans?
I'll reverse you, universal, your demise is first
Before your rise gets worse
You need a night nurse like Gregory, beggin me
Stop it hurts, what you say to me?
Like thats supposed to mean something
You don't wanna scene, frontin in the club
Your actin, I don't buy it, I got the Dub
Come on everybody, come on and show your love
*repeat 4X*
Chorus: *chanted in background*
Wo-oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-uh-oh *repeated 4X*
[Mos]
Visions occupy my semantic's space
Command and shake, to illustrate my mind's landscape
The tall grass, the low plains, the mountanous ridges
Thickets among the forests, rivers beneath the bridges
Presence of hilltops, lit up with tree tops
Eavesdrop; and hear the incline of sunshine, nine
Stones in orbit, refuse to forfeit
They all form a cipher, and they came to observe it
I follow suit, and face it, embrace it
Shinin bright, but still I'm careful not to waste it
Destined to rise, because I'm basement adjacent
Spirit is still so just chill and be patient
Some heads approach like I'm the one to base with
Clowns about, screamin but don't say shit
I ain't your student so I ain't to be tested
I'm majestic, I represent my strength without ?Epitmass?
Method is unorthodox, but of course it rocks
My serious synopsis will drop kick, my topics
Run the gauntlets and galvanize the audience
I must represent, I don't come off with no corniness
I'm all luminary, despite commentary
Some people say, Mos how you get so?
My sign will make you jump around like calypso
And murmur to yourself like a schizo
There ain't no bottom on the ???
Chorus
[Talib Kweli]
Come on, come on, come on, come on. Here we go. Blackstar, hop on the
Blackstar line. We bout to take y'all home. Ya know what I mean? Here
we
go...
We got all markets on lock
From meat to stock
Blackstar, what? throwin like head rock in bars
Men flock to where we are, cause its the place to be
I grab my pay, jump on-stage and deface emcees
We sell our souls like Spawn and come for the drone I sit upon
Freestyle or written songs so we can get it on!
Going back and forth, fallin back, all across the track
Passin the mic's like quarterbacks
of course its phat, get off of that!
Reverse psychology got em scared to say when shit is whack
Got fear of being called a hater, imagine that! We ain't havin that
We just passed the star status that your grabbin at
My battle raps blast your ass back to your natural habitat
So floss, cause what it costs ain't worth it to me
Cause I'm the one these Spice Girl emcees Wanna Be
But they can't, ain't no points forever, so why bother?
Cause your girl calls my name out like Claerance Carter, Claerance
Carter, Claerance Carter!?! (I be strokin, thats what I be doin)
Aiyyo, as we rock harder
And always drop the bonified head nodders
Aiyyo, later for the hater-players
Yo-yo, yo-yo, later for these hater-players
Chorus
Blackstar keeps shining
Chorus
Blackstar keeps shining

[Talib Kweli]
So many emcees focusin on black people extermination
We keep it balanced with that knowledge of self, determination
It's hot, we be blowin the spots, with conversations
C'mon let's smooth it out like Soul Sensation

We in the house like Japanese in Japan, or Koreans in Korea
Head to Philly and free Mumia with the Kujichagulia TRUE
Singin is swingin and writin is fightin, but what
they writin got us clashin like titans it's not excitin
No question, bein a black man is demandin
The fire's in my eyes and the flames need fannin (3X)

With that what? (Knowledge Of Self) Determination
*repeat 4X*

[singer]
Things I say and do, may not come quite through
My words may not convey just what I'm feelin

[Talib Kweli]
Yes yes come on, yes yes
Knowledge Of Self is like life after death
With that you never worry about your last breath
Death comes, that's how I'm livin, it's the next days
The flesh goes underground, the book of life, flip the page
Yo they askin me how old, we livin the same age
I feel the rage of a million niggaz locked inside a cage
At exactly which point do you start to realize
That life without knowledge is, death in disguise?
That's why, Knowledge Of Self is like life after death
Apply it, to your life, let destiny manifest
Different day, same confusion, we're gonna take this
hip-hop shit and keep it movin, shed a little light
Now y'all bloomin like a flower with the power of the evident
Voices and drums original instruments
In the flesh presently presentin my representation

With that what? (Knowledge Of Self) Determination
*repeat 6X*
these two parts overlap
Things I say and do, may not come quite through
My words may not convey just what I'm feelin
*repeat 2X*

[Talib Kweli]
The most important time in history is, NOW, the present
So count your blessings cause time can't define the essence
But you stressin over time and you follow the Roman calendar
These people enter Cona like Gattaca, you can bet
they tryin to lock you down like Attica, the African diaspora
represents strength in numbers, a giant can't slumber forever
I know you gotta get that cheddar whatever
Aiyyo I heard you twice the first time money, get it together
You must be History, you repeatin yourself out of the pages
You keepin yourself depleatin your spiritual wealth
That quick cash'll get your ass quick fast in houses of detention
Inner-city concentration camps where no one pays attention
or mentions the ascension of death, til nothing's left
The young, gifted and Black are sprung addicted to crack
All my people where y'all at cause, y'all ain't here
And your hero's using your mind as a canvas to paint fear
With, broad brush strokes and tales of incarceration
You get out of jail with that Knowledge of Self determination
Stand in ovation, cause you put the Hue in Human
Cause and effect, effect everything you do
and that's why I got love in the face of hate
Hands steady so the lines in the mental illustration is straight
The thought you had don't even contemplate
Infinite like figure eight there's no escape..

From that what? (Knowledge Of Self) Determination
*repeat 4X*

Things I say and do, may not come quite through
My words may not convey just what I'm feelin
*repeat 2X*

..

Things I say and do, may not come quite through
My words may not convey just what I'm feelin
*repeat 2X*

What I'm feelin, what I'm feelin, ooooh, what I'm feelin...

What what what, what what, what what, what what
Woaaaahhhhhhh!
One two three, Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, wayohh
I said, one two tree, Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
And Hi-Tek make the beat drop, wayohh

[Talib Kweli]
RE:DEFinition, turning your play into a tragedy
Exhibit level degree on the mic, passionately
Niggaz is sweet so I bet if I bit I'd get a cavity
Livin to get high, you ain't flyer than gravity
We Die Hard like the battery done in the back of me by the mad MC
who think imitation is the highest form of flattery, actually
Don't be mad at me, I had to be the one to break it to you
You get kicked into obscurity like judo, no Menudo
cause you pseudo, tryin to compete with reality like Xerox
Towards destruction you spiraling like hairlocks, wipe them teardrops
Chasing stars in your eyes, playing games with your lives
Now the wives is widows soakin up pillows, weepin like willows
Still mo' blacks is dyin, kids ain't livin they tryin
_How to Make a Slave_ by Willie Lynch is still applyin
Regardless, the Mos is one of my closest partners
Rockin ever since before Prince was called The Artist
Rocker before Funkmaster Flex was rockin Starter
When 'Pac and Biggie was still cool before they was martyrs
Life or death, if I'm choosin with every breath I'm enhancin
Stop, there comes a time when you can't run

[Mos Def]
What, lyrically handsome, call collect a king's ransom
Jams I write soon become the ghetto anthem
Way out like Bruce Wayne's mansion, move like a phantom
You'll talk about me to your grandsons
Cats who claimin they hard be mad fag
so I run through em like, flood water through sandbags
Competition is mad, what I got, they can't have
Sinkin they ship, like Moby Dick, did Ahab
Son I'm way past the minimum, it's a verb millenium
My rap's the holy gas in your bag, like Palestinians
Ancient now descend the year, try to whole the Gideon
Official b-boy gentlemen won't turn off at the interim
Born inside the winter wind, day after December 10
These simpletons they mentionin the synonym for feminine
Sweeter than some cinnamon the danish brings rotten to men
Rush up on adrenaline, they get they asses sent to them
(Gentlemen) without a tenament more than a ?sibilant?
Leave your unit tremblin like herds of movin elephant
Intelligent embellishment, follow for your element
from Flatbush settlement, kid posseses melanin
Hotter than tales of crack peddlin, makin em WOOP
like blue gelatin, swing like Duke Ellington
Broader than Barrington Levy, believe me
The hot oppresion rent who burn down your chief teepee
You see me?

One two three, Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, wayohh
I said, one two tree, Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Because we rulin hip-hop, yes we is rulin hip-hop
Talib Kweli is rulin hip-hop
Say we Black Star we rule hip-hop-ah-ahh-ah-ahh-ahh
Whoahhhh!

"What'd you do last night?" "We did umm, two whole cars It was me, Dez, and Main Three right? And on the first car in small letters it said 'All you see is..' and then you know big, big, you know some block silver letters that said '..crime in the city' right?" "It just took up the whole car?" "Yeah yeah, it was a whole car and shit..." [spanish speaking woman] Escuchela.. la ciudad respirando (translation of spanish: Listen to it.. the city breathing) * woman repeats 3X * [spanish speaking woman] Escuchela.. [Mos Def] The new moon rode high in the crown of the metropolis Shinin, like who on top of this? People was tusslin, arguin and bustlin Gangstaz of Gotham hardcore hustlin I'm wrestlin with words and ideas My ears is picky, seekin what will transmit the scribes can apply to transcript, yo This ain't no time where the usual is suitable Tonight alive, let's describe the inscrutable The indisputable, we New York the narcotic Strength in metal and fiber optics where mercenaries is paid to trade hot stock tips for profits, thirsty criminals take pockets Hard knuckles on the second hands of workin class watches Skyscrapers is collosus, the cost of living is preposterous, stay alive, you play or die, no options No Batman and Robin, can't tell between the cops and the robbers, they both partners, they all heartless With no conscience, back streets stay darkened Where unbeliever hearts stay hardened My eagle talons STAY sharpened, like city lights stay throbbin You either make a way or stay sobbin, the Shiny Apple is bruised but sweet and if you choose to eat You could lose your teeth, many crews retreat Nightly news repeat, who got shot down and locked down Spotlight to savages, NASDAQ averages My narrative, rose to explain this existance Amidst the harbor lights which remain in the distance So much on my mind that I can't recline Blastin holes in the night til she bled sunshine Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathin Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening Sigh before we die like the last train leaving [Talib Kweli] Breathin in deep city breaths, sittin on shitty steps we stoop to new lows, hell froze the night the city slept The beast crept through concrete jungles communicatin with one another And ghetto birds where waters fall from the hydrants to the gutters The beast walk the beats, but the beats we be makin You on the wrong side of the track, lookin visibly shaken Taken them plungers, plungin to death that's painted by the numbers with Krylon applied pressure, cats is playin God but havin children by a lesser baby mother but fuck it we played against each other like puppets, swearin you got pull when the only pull you got is the wool over your eyes Gettin knowledge in jail like a blessing in disguise Look in the skies for God, what you see besides the smog is broken dreams flying away on the wings of the obscene Thoughts that people put in the air Places where you could get murdered over a glare But everything is fair It's a paradox we call reality So keepin it real will make you casualty of abnormal normality Killers Born Naturally like, Mickey and Mallory Not knowing the ways'll get you capped like an NBA salary Some cats be emceeing to illustrate what we be seeing Hard to be a spiritual being when shit is shakin what you believe in For trees to grow in Brooklyn, seeds need to be planted I'm asking if y'all feel me AND THE CROWD LEFT ME STRANDED My blood pressure boiled and rose, cause New York niggaz actin spoiled at shows, to the winners the spoils go I take the L, transfer to the 2, head to the gates New York life type trife the Roman Empire state [Mos Def and crew] So much on my mind I just can't recline Blastin holes in the night til she bled sunshine Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline Yo don't the bass ride out like an ancient mating call I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathin Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening Sigh before we die like the last train leaving [spanish speaking woman] Escuchela.. respirando ?? [Common] Yo...on The Amen, Corner I stood lookin at my former hood Felt the spirit in the wind, knew my friend was gone for good Threw dirt on the casket, the hurt, I couldn't mask it Mixin down emotions, struggle I hadn't mastered I coreograph seven steps to heaven And hell, waiting to exhale and make the bread leavened Veteran of a cold war It's Chica-I-go for What I know or, what's known So some days I take the bus home, just to touch home From the crib I spend months gone Sat by the window with a clutched dome listenin to shorties cuss long Young girls with weak minds, but they butt strong Tried to call, or at least beep the Lord, but didn't have a touch-tone It's a dog-eat-dog world, you gotta mush on Some of this land I must own Outta the city, they want us gone Tearin down the 'jects creatin plush homes My circumstance is between Cabrini and Love Jones Surrounded by hate, yet I love home Ask my God how he thought travellin the world sound Found it hard to imagine he hadn't been past downtown It's deep, I heard the city breathe in its sleep Of reality I touch, but for me it's hard to keep Deep, I heard my man breathe in his sleep Of reality I touch, but for me it's hard to keep [Mos Def and crew] So much on my mind I just can't recline Blastin holes in the night til she bled sunshine Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline Yo how the bass ride out like an ancient mating call I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathing Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening Kiss the Ide's goodbye, I'm on the last train leaving

[Talib Kweli]
Yo Dee (What?)
Come on (Yeah..)
What? What? Come on
(Yeah)

"Give me the fortune, keep the fame," said my man Louis
I agreed, know what he mean because we live the truest lie
I asked him why we follow the law of the bluest eye
He looked at me, he thought about it
Was like, "I'm clueless, why?"
The question was rhetorical, the answer is horrible
Our morals are out of place and got our lives full of sorrow
And so tomorrow comin' later than usual
Waitin' on someone to pity us
While we findin' beauty in the hideous
They say money's the root of all evil but I can't tell
You know what I mean, pesos, francs, yens, cowrie shells, dollar bills
Or is it the mindstate that's ill?
Creating crime rates to fill the new prisons they build
Over money and religion there's more blood to spill
The wounds of slaves in cotton fields that never heal
What's the deal?
A lot of cats who buy records are straight broke
But my language universal they be recitin' my quotes
While R&B singers hit bad notes, we rock the boat
of thought, that my man Louis' statements just provoked
Caught up, in conversations of our personal worth
Brought up, through endangered species status on the planet Earth
Survival tactics means, bustin' gats to prove you hard
Your firearms are too short to box with God
Without faith, all of that is illusionary
Raise my son, no vindication of manhood necessary

[M.D.] Not strong
[T.K.] Only aggressive
[M.D.] Not free
[T.K.] We only licensed
[M.D.] Not compassionate, only polite
[T.K.] Now who the nicest?
[M.D.] Not good but well behaved
[T.K.] Chasin' after death
so we can call ourselves brave?
[M.D.] Still livin' like mental slaves
[both] Hidin' like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin' you look twice
[both] Hidin' like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin' you look twice

[Mos Def]
Yo, I'm sure that everybody out listenin' agree
That everything you see ain't really how it be
A lot of jokers out runnin' in place, chasin the style
Be a lot goin' on beneath the empty smile
Most cats in my area be lovin' the hysteria
Synthesized surface conceals the interior
America, land of opportunity, mirages and camouflages
More than usually -- speakin' loudly, sayin' nothin'
You confusin' me, you losin' me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted -- in your usary
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin' glass
Walkin' the street, wonderin' who they be lookin' past
Lookin' gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light -- rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht but they won't call it a slave ship
Strangeness, you don't control this, you barely hold this
Screamin' brand new, when they just sanitized the old shit
Suppose it's, just another clever Jedi mind trick
That they been runnin' across stars through all the time with
I find it's distressin', there's never no in-between
We either niggaz or Kings
We either bitches or Queens
The deadly ritual seems immersed, in the perverse
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth
Get yours first, them other niggaz secondary
That type of illin' that be fillin' up the cemetery
This life is temporary but the soul is eternal
Separate the real from the lie, let me learn you
Not strong, only aggressive, cause the power ain't directed
That's why, we are subjected to the will of the oppressive
Not free, we only licensed
Not live, we just excitin'
Cause the captors.. own the masters.. to what we writin'
Not compassionate, only polite, we well trained
Our sincerity's rehearsed in stage, it's just a game
Not good, but well behaved cause the ca-me-ra survey
most of the things that we think, do, or say
We chasin' after death just to call ourselves brave
But everyday, next man meet with the grave
I give a damn if any fan recall my legacy
I'm tryin' to live life in the sight of God's memory
Like that y'all

[Mos Def]
A lot of people don't understand the true criteria of things
Can't just accept the appearance
Have to get the true essence

[Talib Kweli]
They ain't lookin' around

[M.D.] Not strong
[T.K.] Only aggressive
[M.D.] Not free
[T.K.] We only licensed
[M.D.] Not compassionate, only polite
[T.K.] Now who the nicest?
[M.D.] Not good but well behaved
[T.K.] Chasin' after death
so we can call ourselves brave?
[M.D.] Still livin' like mental slaves
[both] Hidin' like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin' you look twice
[both] Hidin' like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin' you look twice
[both] Hidin' like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin' you look twice
[both] Hidin' like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin' you look twice

[Mos Def (singing)]
Stop hidin', stop hidin', stop hidin' yo' face
Stop hidin', stop hidin', 'cause ain't no hidin' place

[Talib Kweli]
Yo, we been through this before right? (Word, word...) So we
figurin', if we gonna do it, we gotta freak it, y'know what I'm sayin?
(True, true, true...) Cuz everything gotta go up from here, right?
So Hi-Tek, turn it up a notch...


[Jane Doe]
Hail Mary, 'matta fact hail Jane
Niggaz take my name in vain/vein like I was cocaine
My affirmations kill emcees like assasination
Bringin' you pain until you wish you had a vaccination
Or vaccine, I shine like Vaseline
Gas plays like petroleum, walk over them like linoleum
My vocab expand like a rubber band
Walkin' nekkid through the motherland, give the finger to my brotherman
Niggaz just don't understand my reasons, I transcend like season
And scar these rappers like legion
It's treason, my suspension attract attention
I'm ventin', givin' these chickenheads detention
Did I mention my name, yo, go by the Jane Doe
Drenched in Polo, chill downtown in Soho
You don't know, this is just half my potential
Check my credentials, come harder than sequential
It's essential, you listen, I drive, you a pedestrian
They bless me on the track cuz I attack wit' the estrogen
Rhyme against the best a men, Jane burn it up
When you hear it in the whip, tell your man to turn it up!

[Wordsworth]
Yo...get it...yo
Yo, we fortified live, supportin' allies
The wack is tryin' to shorten our lives, it sorta waters my eyes
But here is some'n the cryin' talk about
The verse on that cassette you and cousin fought about
That led to God and Satan's fallin' out
Encourage the liquor for those who ain't here that you pourin' out
On 3-way, your parents, preacher and spouse called my house
Revive or ruin, my theories of mics
Sony or Aiwa, black or white, I fit in all stereotypes
Search for a cast to plot, I make you a laughin' stock
So shook, I could walk a half a block and feel the aftershocks
Rain of acid drops, seek some help
Now don't rewind, get it the first time,
Shouldn't have to repeat myself
Eternally verbally, I have numbers, succumb to time outs
In rhyme bouts you'll dial 9, just to get a line out
Known fact or factors and non-rappers fractured
Results in more cast appearances than a hundred actors
Emcees I'm testin' like diseases injected in gerbils
Wordsworth, Kweli, Hi-Tek, Reflection Eternal..what...

[Talib Kweli]
My style high life like Fonz when I burn heads like a conk
Cuz niggaz front, when their chances get slim like Pharoahe Monch
Thinkin' they shits is heavy when they light like ilumination
Intellectual masturbation with premature ejaculation
I'm comin' cleaner than vaccinations
My fascination with character assassination,
Got these niggaz burnin' like sensation
We keep it hot like matches and on lock like latches
Wack emcees get they microphones snatched like Lee patches
So YOU GO! To every wack muthafucka that you know (Scram...)
My lyrics they get up in your genes/jeans like Parasucos
So there's no mystery about the father, niggaz is hot and bothered
Like the bitches that they are, takin' pictures with stars
And got 'em open, but after they little hopes and dreams get broken
Me and Hi-Tek, we live long and prosper like Vulcans
Think I'm jokin'? We both got sons, we make cream and break dreams
See through the fake schemes, wipin' your slate clean
Like a squeegee, we be lightin' shit up like phosphorus
Turnin' flamboyant niggaz anonymous, depressin' to optimus
You stoppin' us is preposterous, like an androgenous masohganist
You pickin' the wrong time, steppin' to me when I'm in my prime like Optimus
Transformin', from rookie of the year to veteran
Hip-hop is big business like Con Edison or medicine
But fuck it, they gonna let us in, or else we rush the door
I got to many reasons, save your 'whys' and 'what fors'

CHORUS:
[Kweli] This is twice inna lifetime so I'm lettin' you know (let 'em know,
yo!)
Blackstar, Wordsorth, Punchline and Jane Doe (yo!)
[Mos] Lyrical com-pete and WE emcee
We got the fortified five, exhibit level degree

[Punchline]
Check it...
I keep dough in my pocket while you follow the false prophet
Get deep like Islamics wrapped in a white garment
I touch topics that try to open up your optics
Vacate in the Tropics, you dodgin' bullets in the projects
Cut the nonsense, I'm hotter than alot a men
Start honorin', got more wifeys than Solomon
Fuck the squad you in, a-yo we be the biddomb
Regardless what I spit on, you worse with the tracks I shit on
Once you get on, it's fair you can't trust (Yes!)
Words & Punch, make rappers march like the third month
I build with friends, lyrically spit gems
Call me diamond, cuz I'm your girl's best friend
Emcees are born losers, alcoholic abusers
I'll go on the radio and start a gay rumor
And then I'll talk about how the crowd tried to boo ya
Label shoot ya, stressed out with brain tumors
My gat claps, 50% of the wack
Take it back to real rap, Krylons wit' the fat cap
Get robbed for your ASCAP, leave you inside
Fortified live, reppin' NY 'til I die!

[Mos Def]
Black body radiation situation that we workin' wit'
My verb exists enlisted by the bogeys campin' services
The purpose is, make you go and purchase this, no nervousness
We are, hot like black tar, Black Star with emergerence
Superlative, you fabricated like the word absurditive
I'm rockin this from here to where the purges live
To Brooklyn where the merchants live
Next door to the murderers
And bourbon is a elder man's medicinal alternative
My memory is furnished with, back streets to back seats to fat Jeeps
Legendary athletes who play by the trash heap
My crew wasn't that deep, but beef we didn't act sweet
Treadin' on these stompin grounds you better catch some black feet
Flashy, it was between DeKalb and Pulasky
Off the meter like an out of borough taxi
They run your pockets fastly, black and nasty, nappy and crafty
And SWAT are either sittin' in Clinton or Kaksaki
Man Rudolph can screw off! You too soft to stop us
You and your coppers should see some foot doctors
Got your burnt chest popped up, but keep your guns cocked up
Cuz all them cats that you knocked up and always gon' be locked up
Hide yaself like Donna Summer, another number one
And comin' from the underground, this is how it's comin' down
Baby let me run it down,
Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Jane Doe, Punch, Wor.. umm..E!
Excuse me! Just ate another emcee!
Sometimes that's just how it be
Partner wash you down with green tea and some lime
We like the five on the fist, fortified organized like DIS!

(talking)
If you can talk you can sing
If you can walk you can dance
That's an old proverb from Zimbabwe
You know what I mean
If you can talk you can sing
If you can walk you can dance
Yeah, and the trumpet is blown
Yeah, alright, C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon
Alright, Wooh!

(talking)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, one more time
Yo, anybody can tell you how it is
What we putting down right here is how it is and how it could be
Reflection Eternal for real
And with that-

These cats is no match
Plus they lack a certain knack for rapping
Chasing but they never catch the wagon
Like rerunning what's hap'ning
Since back when
They had potty issues and snotty tissues, we been rockin'
Think you poppin' next year nobody will miss you
My thoughts is too advanced for the artists on these labels
They come sweeter than sabal and softer than mashed potatoes
I tried to told you the rhymes run over emcees like Land Rovers
Took 'em back in time like Sam Kofa, Sam Kofa

We stand over the Atlantic, looking broad like a man's shoulders
The fire is trapped in a belly, ready to pop like canned soda
We outlasting, from middle passage
Touched down in New York
Cincinnatay! Big Ohio status what you thought
Money it's classic these bastards try to treat us like cattle
So life has been a constant battle, battle
Rising above the crabs in the barrel
Way too used to living in death's shadow
We stay on point like the best arrow, arrow
We hit the target accurate
Star shit, back it up
When we hit town, y'all niggas pack it up
That's how we get down, straight smash it up
Like a whip, hydroplaning
Hydro on the brain and maintaining
Game changing into subtle shit, we remain blatant
Yo, got to tell you to your face
You get replaced in this game, by Kweli
Place the face with the name
These cats drink champagne and toast to death and pain
Like slaves on a ship talking about who got the flyest chain

(talking)
Yo, we the reflection of our ancestors
We'd like to thank you for the building blocks you left us
Cause your spirit possessed us
Yo, you blessed us
Thank you very much (7x)

Yo, we the reflection of our ancestors
We'd like to thank you for the building blocks you left us
Cause your spirit possessed us
Yo, you blessed us
Thank you very much
God bless you (7x)

Talib Kweli]
Yo we're going to have the word love
in many different languages translated all through the track
So whenever you hear the word love
Know that it's going to be in a different language
The language of love cannot be translated yo

Love is blind you just see bright light
You up in the club feelin' the night life lookin' for the right type
Blood rushing to your heart making it beat
When she swept you off your feet and made it complete
You know the plan you had to conquer the world
Thinking you Scarface, looking for that perfect girl
And now you found her
Started with romantic, then got to frantic
Then things thats normally small become gigantic
Now y'all sinkin like the Titanic here come the panic
Bein with you like a habit without you I can't stand it
It's tragic when you wonder when you lost that magic
Without understanding that you never had it try to grab it
In the bed gettin a nut off, communication cut off
Getting mad cause you turned or wondering where she shut off
Constantly comparing you to someone in my past
We don't smile anymore, and we argue over cash
Advance to that physical shit
See what happens if you keep talkin
See what happens if you lay a finger on me motherf...
Yo, see what I'm sayin'
It's like one big mind game that everybody playin and
Niggas say bitches is trife, bitches say niggas is
We just don't understand our fundamental differences
I'm still learning though, actually
I just do what come naturally, naturally, naturally

(Chorus):
L'amour n'a pas de, frontiere (Love has no boundaries)
Restes car je t'aime comme tu es (Stay because I love you as you are)
J'ai traverse l'ocean du verbe (I crossed an ocean of words)
Et je t'ai trouve (And I found you)

[Talib Kweli]
Women thrive on emotions, men refuse to acknowledge
So when we arguin nobody win
Words get in the way time and again
Sticks and stones break your bones words break your heart
Whether you in touch with that part or not say "word"
Words are weapons for the revolutionary
Used for evil make the situation very scary
Word up, but love is brave
It flies in the face of fear
Yo, wherever you want to go love'll take you there
Let's go, you know a flower that grow in the ghetto
Know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows
It got love for the sun, that's where I'm comin from
Spit in this fashion cause I love rockin over drums
Word (te quiero) I put my love into my music
If you with me then you love how I do it
If my heart you're livin' in your ocean I'm swimmin' in
Never drowning got me floatin' watching you in slow motion
Love potion overdosin approachin
The explosion of my senses everyday without your heart
is like a sentence in jail
Trust I'll always be mentally free
You got the key to let it out I'll show you how it could be
Love {*different language*} it ain't nuttin but a word
A chicken ain't nuttin but a bird
Yo, yo, yo

(Chorus):
L'amour n'a pas de, frontiere (Love has no boundaries)
Restes car je t'aime comme tu es (Stay because I love you as you are)
J'ai traverse l'ocean du verbe (I crossed an ocean of words)
Et je t'ai trouve (And I found you)

[Talib Kweli]
Some of y'all in love with that material but
love enter my life like a miracle and
It reciprocal that's why I'm feeling you love
We exibit our natural behavior
Like making love under the moon in Jamaica
Get you so hot you call the name of the creata
The morning we hop back into action again
Up on the wall lovin how the sun blacken your skin
Remember when we explored the beach
Swam in the ocean and saw beneith
How the colors of the coral reef looked like the illest floral peice
That's what your beauty remind me of
It's hard to find a love like ours, taking it high above
Them other duns try to spit game but, I dont sweat it though
Know in my heart that we connected so I let it go
Now if they call you out your name and that's a different thing
Anything but Queen I'll go to war like a King
Your friends sweat you cause you aint got a band
But they dont understand
Some things is meant to stay between a woman and man
And they ain't privy to it so they try to get into it
Both you and me see through it so the way we flow is fluid
We speak the love language, they speak from pain and anguish
Some don't love theyselves so they perception is tainted
Out they joint like "Shit, he payin for your rent" missin the point
When you rub me into your skin just like an ointment
It's more than pillow talk, it can't be translated
Learn how to speak it, and become emancipated
It's a language

Universal love...

(Chorus):
L'amour n'a pas de, frontiere (Love has no boundaries)
Restes car je t'aime comme tu es (Stay because I love you as you are)
J'ai traverse l'ocean du verbe (I crossed an ocean of words)
Et je t'ai trouve (And I found you)

Love love love love, love, love (Repeated

[talking]
Yo, you know what we got to do, man, we need to get a whole CD.
Get a collection of all the music and everything we've ever done.

[woman singing]
Bringing back sweet memories (3x)

Life, living in Flatbush and going to house parties
Red lights, bumping, life is what you make it, then sorry
In my lifetime, ain't done too many things
better than watching your first son put his sentences together
Yo, it kinda make me think of way back when
I was the portrait of the artist as a young man
All them teenage dreams of rapping
Writing rhymes on napkins
Was really visualization
Making this shit actually happen
It's like something come through me
That truly just consume me
Speaking through the voices of the spirits speaking to me
I think back in the day, I absorbed everything like a sponge
Took a plunge into my past to share with my son

Bringing back sweet memories (3x)

Like thoughts out the back of my mind
Going back in some time
Like when you used to cut and had to go to the back of the line
Look back and you find
Tracks that make you relax and recline
Now cats rap about packing a nine
When they lacking divine
Inspiration
Running out of topics of conversation
Well I drop it in the pocket because rocking's my occupation
I do it remarkably, spark up a leaf
And possibly you could follow me
Tap into your chi
Utilize your memory
To help you see clearly, then get back to me
Actually, nothing's new under the sun
So when life be stressing me
My remedy is 'bringing back sweet memories'
Like the faces that are woven in the fabric of my consciousness
)From cities where making 21's a big accomplishment
Like when my people understood their prominence
And my past life visions of the continent
Like the first time I saw KRS live, rockin' it
I heard Resurrection by Common Sense
Dominant in my psyche
I chose my direction like Spike Lee
To speak my life through mics, and I never take it lightly
It might be something you did to bring you down when you were high
But that karma's a bitch, you steady asking God why
Like when my parents first split up
Yo, I was illin'
Seems like some years they was together for the sake of the children
And I love them for that
I don't know if they saw that
So I'ma say it, and convey it when the world play it (3x)

Bringing back sweet memories (3x)

Like black is beautiful, names from the seventies
Let me tap into your energy
Fields of dreams become my property
When I reach my destiny like a prophecy
Especially when I 'm 'bringing back sweet memories'
I got deep into my mind, see I got a treasury
That float through my head like a sweet melody
What you telling me
Reflection is a collection of memories
Definitely this is how hiphop was meant to be
Eventually, I knew I'd run into Hi-Teknology
It was only a matter of time like centuries
Check the recipe or technique to how it sound so sweet
I freak with word power, my man speak with beats
If I could make it in New York, I figured anywhere I'd make it
Came to Cincinnati linked with Mood, and we did Sacred
Hi-Tek beats became my favorite
Hussle on the Side was the cut
We started to put songs together like 'What!'
Travelled the world, came back to the crib
And hit the motherland
Yeah, this year we put in work and got some other plans
In fact, that's where I'll take the fam
when the Reflection joint is done
By the time you hear this, I'll be basking in African sun
Like Wow!
We made it
We here

Yo, we keep it type raw, and know exactly what we fight for
when the nightfall come, we in the right war
Cats who spill blood for a cause, not just because
Defy the authority and follow God's law
Revolutionary entrepeneurs; who make the fans
clap they hands and stompin the floor not start the applause
(Ahhh ssssh! Yeah!) Thank you very much, without further adieu
Let me
duce the rest of my crew, Mos Def!


Yo, I am the world renowned, verb adjective adverb
pronoun preposition suffix prefix
Original or remix, sunburst and eclipse
Me and Kwe' combine like strands on a double-helix
My speech seasoned, with dialect of my region
Booga-nam Brooklyn Bed-Stuy Eastern
Where youth and policemen, they nah reach agreement
Pressure in the mornin, pressure in the evenin





You, need, to, get, up, right, now
and, move, with, this, yes, this, means, you
You, you


Yeahh, alright yeah, alright yeah, alright yeah
Alright yeah, alright yeah, alright yeah, yeah-ehhhh

Uh, uh, uh, uh, yo, yo, yo
Things changed since we came out, been some shit in New York
Niggaz stopped gettin jig in New York, bloods and crips in New York
The Y-2-K celebration wasn't big in New York
Babylon live in New York, should I keep a crib in New York
or just V.I., to handle my B.I.
When with my A-Alikes we see with three eyes


Yo Kweli I agree I, was thinkin the same thing myself
Smog in the city ain't no good for your health
Things changed in New York, type strange in New York
Forty-Deuce don't look the same in New York
Just politics, tricks and big games in New York
Switched trains a writer can't get fame in New York
Internet and Wall Street got paid in New York
Poor folks and workin class got slayed in New York
Even still, everyday they make weight in New York
Flashlights lookin for a brighter day in New York
In New York they say it's - red hot
Will the temperature ease up?Black I guess not
It's multi-lane traffic, no sign for rest stops
No corner breaks, put on your gloves and just box
No dance school to teach you to wop and bus stop
Better get up in the booth, hop up and just rock
If you think it's like that, it's not so just stop
All mankind time runnin down on one watch, just watch



If, you, are, just, coming, in, I, will
say it, once, more, so, you, can, hear, cause
You, need, to, get, up, right, now
and, move, with, this, yes, this, means, you
You, you


Yo, Mos Def and Talib Kweli bring disaster to the industry
We best-sellin authors writin great chapters in history
These cats undercover like gay rappers dealin with mystery
My platinum grey matter spray batter that's specifically
designed to make rappers break faster than eggshells in the mornin
Inhaled the divine in that's laid dormant
Water from the well STAY pourin
I answer back when I hear fate callin
Freedom fighter ready to attack at the crack of a new day dawnin
Way more than necessary skills for the application
My flow is Great like the Lakes and it rocks like Applachains
My facts more than make up for what you lack in imagination
You more confused than Tiger Woods when he made up Cabalaysian
I'm sayin!


Break bounds like the jet Concorde
Win awards before I leave for my (?) world tour
When they scream encore, that's when they want more
Flow steadily, whether I'm on or off shore
High potent, zone coastin, no jokin
Safecracker sniff gon' keep the joint open
Peep the focus, high resolution, high reception
My "Train of Thought" connectin with my bredren from Reflection like



You, need, to, get, up, right, now
and, move, with, this, yes, this, means, you, again!
You, need, to, get, up, right, now
and, move, with, this, yes, this, means, you, we goin
New York Philly
Chicago Detroit
Miami D.C.
L.A. The world
London Amsterdam
Paris Japan
Any place that a human being might stand, we goin..

Yo, when the bass thump, the place jump
Like it's way crunk, yeah,
Fake punks get they face lumped
Sent to the most high, by the most fit
You gotta do, fuck that almost shit
The fam is close knit
You diggin', know the clock don't stop tickin'
Glocks still spittin', the whole block politickin'
Lik epresidents with they minds dead on arrival
Leaving no evidence of a struggle for survival
Songs relevant to the times like the psalms read in the Bible
Stepping to this leaves thoughts in your head 'it's suicidal'
It's the T to the A-L-I-B the deep rooter
Rolling with my Wannabattle cats with Chief Buddha
And see through the overspecialized
Underpressurized
No lie texturized
Emcees who got the masses mesmerized
With empty rhetoric
They better quit
NIggas so hollow that they echo like sentiments

Nowadays rap artists coming halfhearted
Commercial like pop, or underground like black markets
Where were you when hiphop died?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride? (6x)

Kwa is chillin', Tone is chillin'
What more can I say, we stay building
And make killings
Take children through the wilderness, by the hand
It's a great feeling, show 'em how to be a man
Exactly, pack trees in my khakis
My sound fat like a knee
While you thin like a Mackey
C'mon, shine so bright when I walk by
You got ta squint like the motherfucking sun in your eye
What! Say something
You stay fronting
It ain't nothing, let off like I'm big game hunting
Me and Tek stay way blunted
Wave running on beaches with white sand
With a slight tan
Smack the mic stand with my right hand
When I'm excited
Leave you so far in the dust that you forced to bite it
On fire like property lost to riots
Yo, ain't no stopping us when we all united

Chorus

(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

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.

(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]

(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. 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]

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

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