(Sendin' this one out...)
All right, yo, yo yo...
My wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon to die
Who am I? A student, I study to survive
Wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon to die
Who am I? A student.
I'm listening to the music of the countryside circling
the city for the victory
Liquor shop philosophy: scary, but necessary
Pops was a military man, and seein' what it did to him
and fam, it was never in my plans
My method is one hand open and one fisted, skin burnt
like the sun kissed it
Consistently committed to community-building, they
could never put the theory into practice
Who are they to be illin'? I made a killing, not for
profit but respect
And unless it's for a benefit you better cut the check
Dude, compensations for the blood and the sweat, see I
do for my people cause I love 'em to death.
In my geography, you gotta be smart, boss, it's crucial
Paranoid, don't smoke as much as I used to
Even more broke than before we made music, but maybe
one day we'll get through it.
Now, my wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon
to die
Who am I? A student, I study to survive
Wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon to die
Who am I? A student, I study to survive.
Wounded eyes seen through the lies, many brutalized
So we rise and fight for the future we strive
Wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon to die
Who am I? A student.
Observing my environment to see contradictions in
concrete conditions
Evidence we're living in an obsolete system, poverty-
stricken, folks constantly livin' hope
American dreams danglin' from a rope, I got folks
working in the public school sector
Who lose one youth to death per semester, I guess the
cost of living is going up
While the chance of living is going down, what the fuck
is the basis?
I'm saying never no more, the solution for the poor,
recruit 'em for the war
They kicked in the door, waving the .45 cal, one
million died, I survived, now alive
I reside where the struggle and the hustle coincide,
and this moment in time, a shift in the tide
Get the blindfold lifted from your eyes, and see what
we see, and stop pretending it's all right man
My wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon to die
Who am I? A student, I study to survive
Wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon to die
Who am I? A student, I study to survive.
Wounded eyes seen through the lies, many brutalized
So we rise and we fight for the future we strive
Wounded eyes seen through the lies, many soon to die
Yo, you ever go outside at night, look up into the sky,
into the big, immense sky…and think to yourself that’s
a big sky!
Like an inkwell…
In a city that’s been waiting to blow since big butts
and teen spirit
Many make music you can hear it, secluded in the upper
left dominantly grey-shaded sky
Every other day, sorta like today
Just a little bit wetter And cold in the winter
Proximity to water make the soul a little gentler
Out of towners don’t be knowin about the best-kepts
Ain’t nothing better than the summer in the northwest
Microphone check 1-206
Through the smoke, who da smoke, can I get a quick fix
To lift this eye to the level of needle in the sky
Lookin over the sound against the shores of the suicide
capital
Bust the magical dust, grammatically just (?) the
satellite
What makes seattle tight?
The fruits of this ripe in spite of all the bull,
And last second changes of plans __________
And prodigal sons, whose motto is run whenever possible
Watch Mr officer shoot before he aims
And claims self-defense in the name of the citizenry
Spd’s spread the city like an STD
I’m rollin’ rainier bumpin bets carefree
While the people sleep, I must speak till they wake
Let me push my pen to create
Beat, seat rhymes and life
Each time I write the fire ignites
I light the sky
There’s an infinite inkwell high above the city
Dip the pen steadily, sing the melody
They paved rock candy and put up a parking lot
It was a spot for them and it was hot
And then the cops lit it up when the thugs fisticuffs
Then the mayor was quick to up and pin it on hip hop
Shows got dropped for us in the block crush
What’s left of the scene, rose up from the dust
It must have been many times overfrustrated
To watch the downfall of those who could’ve made it
live
Some waited for the next mixalot to blow
Others made moves said ‘shit we got to grow’ but
Time moves slow when the clock’s overweight
Meaning those who wait as opposed to create
But those who make bread and not break the mold
I was only 19 but my rhymes were bold
When the things got for real I got up in the fold
And put up into practice all that I was told
Wickedia came up and showed love
We called ourselves ‘Phase’ and ironically it was
Became the last kid still writing at 9-5
B-town ciphers with tale and justify
Moved to the city started posing as a journalist
To get press passes and prove instead
Put down the pen, picked up the mic
Came in for competitor’s heads
And when I got down severin several losin
Started getting down with hella producers
They welcomed me into the big house
But they didn’t feel the city so they moved back south
And other dudes weren’t even worth it to work with
And if I see wonders about to believe a word of it
You get two double zero one
The trouble just begun to bear fruit
At the end of a troubling youth, Sabzi got me to speak
over beats
Like the key to unlock me, and I’ll be damned
Ten years the summer I began I’m still up in the lab
Other people sleep I must speak til they wake
Now let me push this pen to create
While the people sleep I must speak til they wake
Now let me push this pen to create
A Beat’s, rhymes and life
Each time I write the fire ignites
I light the sky
There’s an infinite inkwell high above the city
If you’ve never seen the distance in an immigrant’s
eyes,
Then you’ve never seen resistance in the form of a cry,
He decided it was time to bring the drought to an end,
A sojourner, soul searchin’, from whom I descend,
Put his life inside his pockets,
Leavin on a plane,
Living long lonely nights,
Children, wife left in labor pains
Tirelessly trying to provide,
He applies dialectics to fight for the slice of a pie
But this life was premised on a lie,
Instead of being promised by society,
The nature of economy is sodomy,
Ten generations of poverty turn to poverty later,
And a third world diploma,
Not even worth the paper it’s written on
With no elevators going up to the top, y’all
Instead it’s long days slavin’ over hourly wages
And when the clock strikes labor,
He savors the pages of letters
Sent by his kinfolk
Who invoke the image of what it’s like to have been
broke
Through cigarette smoke he tries to spin hope to dreams
In close to proximity to family in his memory
And it’s faded in between
The night shifts and sleep,
A moment of clarity,
He may never come home,
Despite the familiarity of faces from his homeland,
Who speak the same dialect,
Fellow countrywomen and men
Standin’ in line to get green cards, visas, and
passports,
Barely making enough,
Over half a paycheck remitted with love,
Strangers keep staring,
With disgust and mistrust,
Talking ‘bout “This country’s just us”
No justice
His hope snuffed to one day return to his town,
To join his ancestors in their burial ground,
Almost forgot how the countryside sounds,
But this time around, the lost are never found
In the distance between home and where we live,
It’s the distance between a mother and her kids
It’s the distance that keeps us apart,
I be a patient man waiting for the rain to come down
My feet touch the ground but my head's in the clouds
I be Prometheus Brown stealing the fire out of heaven
The setting is several city blocks off the 71 stop
I walk about the district, distracted by
The decadent madness of all the undergraduate addicts
Club rats, heads, space cadets and pragmatics
One of the few places that they coexist on the planet
Whatever happened to the avenue before the summer of 2002
Lounging with crew on 42nd
My how time flies when we're waiting for the chariot
Eating vegan sandwiches with cannabis subtracting our sobriety
Pondering society itself
He's eyeing me like I ain't going to bring it to his health
He don't want it, 'cause certainly he knows he's just another
Sucker without his fraternity brothers to back him up
[Chorus: x2]
Campus Parkway up to 41st 42nd 43rd 45th and up to 47th
To the edge of the bubble, all delinquents they laugh, saying
Fuck class, get your education on The Ave
I be a patient man, waiting and checking for the sound
Of potential break records up at Second Time Around
In fact, we made this track from a sample we jacked,
From some vinyl we dug up out of the crates on The Ave
Rats escape the lab infestations in all
There be cracks on the sidewalk made from the fall
A natty dreadlock strumming on his broken guitar
Singing Babylon Fall outside of the bookstore
I purchased a journal in which the verses I recite, reside
I write vividly to capture the vibe
I'm like "Hey kid, walk straight, master your high
If you listen you can hear the eye of the city cry"
The sound is often drowned by hollering scholars
Intoxicated so save it for the coffee shop philosophers
The so-called artists, the poets and the prophets
Scenery is changing, and nobody can stop it
[Sampled Recording:]
Is it love, that I feel?
What I'm feeling inside
[Intro: Geologic]
Uh, Yea
It's a love song, for everybody
Everybody man, everybody
Me, Sabzi, your mom, your mom's mom
Everybody
Nobody in particular, everybody in general
If we need to be specific, you can get at me
I'll get at you, whatever's good, ya know
[Verse 1:]
Yo, I don't really got no rhymes y'all I got a couple of problems
And the reason that I'm telling y'all is that I'm looking to solve them
And furthermore, you heard it before, you probably got them
So now it's time for us to settle the score and air the laundry
But not before I preface this song
And say I still got love for you
It's been a minute since we talked
And I heard it through the bamboo
Telegraph the half-truths of cash rules
Then please consider the payment past due
In fact you smear appearance to your mutual friends
Will make you wonder why some daps and hugs would start to turn limp
Did you volunteer your secrets?
Did you snitch out your people
To get cool with some fools that we used to have some beef with?
And he said that she said that they went and did somebody dirty
And you heard it and now you're no longer friends
I don't operate on that sort of level
I'm face to face
No fake Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal types of handshakes
Got a problem with me? Try diplomacy
Instead of side talk on sidewalks
And pretending that you don't notice me
Or telling people that you're worried about me
And saying nothing when you see a brother walkin' around
To nobody in particular and everybody in general
Don't take this either personal, emotional or literal
'Cause if we both about similar sets of principals
Then check me and I'll check you, like we're supposed to do
[Chorus:]
Everybody get hurt, everybody cries
Everybody falls down, not everybody rise
Not everybody talks, but everybody lies
Not everybody lives, but everybody dies
You might have owed me cash
Or put my shit on blast
And talk behind my back
But I still got love
You never held me close
When I needed it most
How can I call you my folks
When you ain't got no love?
You might have owed me cash
Or put my shit on blast
Or talk behind my back
And I still got love
You never held me close
When I needed it most
How can I call you my folks
When you ain't got no love?
[Verse 2:]
And I still got no rhymes y'all, got a couple of problems
And the reason that I'm telling y'all, is that I'm looking to solve them
And furthermore, you heard it before, you probably got them
And now it's time for us to settle the score and air the laundry
But not before I finish this song
And say I still got love for the Barkada
Y'all the reason that I still rock
We separated through geographic locations
And we steadily walked along
You taught me loyalty and patience
And I never meant to flake
It's just my calendar's stacked now
'93 until infinity, let's take it back now
From car trips around the South of the sound
From B-town to downtown
And back clownin' out loud
Out at 15, keep it in tact and never fractured
Sometimes I wish that I can travel back so I can capture
The laughter, the waterfront, the ball courts, the tracks
Tiltin' Carlo Rossi back in the summer of 2000
Kicked it in the North before I bounced to the South and
Holdin' down the Heist every night was like a Saturday
And now when, I see you in the crowd
I get reminded how we came about the shadows of this military town
And for those still there, I hold your names close
And though I'm never in the church no more, I hold you in my prayers
And I only hope our paths will cross each other more often
Without you first believing in me, I'd still be lost 'cause
[Chorus:]
Everybody get hurt, everybody cries
Everybody falls down, and not everybody rise
Not everybody talks, but everybody lies
Not everybody lives, but everybody dies
You might have owed me cash
Or put my shit on blast
Or talked behind my back
But I still got love
You never held me close
When I needed it most
How can I call you my folks
When you ain't got no love?
You might have owed me cash
Or put my shit on blast
Or talked behind my back
And I still got love
You never held me close
When I needed it most
How can I call you my folks
When you ain't got no love?
[Outro:]
... Nice here for hours
[Someone talking in the background]
Talk all types of shit?
I mean like, let's talk about these nigga's shoes
Niggas be hatin' 'cause I be havin I'll tight shoes
And they buy the exact same pair of Nikes
Like, naw, I'm sayin', know what I mean? sayin', I'm sayin'
Fools, say that they still make notes right?
Cats be actin' like they know me better than I know myself
Based off of some Nike too low shit, know what I'm sayin'?
5 or 6 years ago I come back and nigga's was tellin' me
"Oh I know who he is." And ain't tryin' to let me be me
You know, I'm tryin' to branch out and make the music I wanna make
And like niggas wanted me to fuckin'
You know what I'm sayin'?
Like what is this?
I gotta have a Jheri Curl and shit
You know what I'm sayin'?
Talkin' about eatin' babies
They want me to be like the Seattle Brother Ling
I'm tryin' to be Q-Tip
And they're like, "Nah, Nah, Nah"
It's cool, I still got love for you though baby
It's all good [laughter]
It's all good [laughter]
You know that blue shit
[Trumpet Outro]
Hungry is an adjective attached to my philosophy, it's
gotta be, progress revolves around economy
And I can see the consequence of capital first-hand,
monorail construction pushed the tenants off the land
My people, get ready, it's about to get heavy, and when
I'm not humbled then I got fam to check me
Silence won't protect me so I check one-two, and fight
without fighting like the joint by Sun Tzu
On the hill, adjacent to Boeing Field, you can hear the
planes flying over me behind my vocals
We speak in the Beacon Hill slang with a wonderful
blend of black language and immigrant accent
And if the sun's out, half the kids will be absent, I'm
navigating streets, sometimes it's like a labyrinth
I paint my voice while Sabzi builds the canvas to
translate my ancestors anthems
It's a southside revival, put your hands high, let your
arms be the pillars that be holdin' up the sky
I heard a few heads say that hip-hop was dead, no it's
It's just malnourished and underfed (x2)
Now the reason that they killed made the reason that we
came to be
Trying to eat and organize simultaneously, but instead
most will settle for less
I can't front I give a fuck if Ronald Reagan is dead
He turned segments of the population into crack fiends,
eradicated everything we gained in the '60's
Back to square 1, let's revise the strategy to reload
the gun and bring about a radical change son
These tough talking cowards ain't hard, they'll bounce
on the squad when it's time to go to war
Like George Bush did to the National Guard, real world-
like swordplay, vernacular shark
Veterns of American wars, they get home maladjusted
with post-traumatic stress syndrome
Peace to my big brother, leavin' in a week, stay safe
in the Middle East, brah, get home safe
It's a southside revival, put your hands high, let your
arms be the pillars that be holdin' up the sky
I heard a few heads say that hip-hop was dead, no it's
It's just malnourished and underfed (x2)
I'm convinced that a return to the basics is needed, I
like blizzes that burn long like DVS pieces
My speech releases fire from the beast within. I
acknowledge its a game, I justify my need to win
Now, some get hip and some choose to stay ignorant,
friction leads to fire now the cauldron is simmering
World champion B-Boys up in Jefferson, brothers gotta
document for those not remembering
Both Props and Flavor magazines, rest in peace, I
breath deep, proceed to clutch a mic and bless her
dream
You say there's no time to study, people look, you got
time to take a shit then you got time to read a book
I proceed to leave my footprints embedded on the block
my first-born is learning to walk upon
Cops pour salt over the market, the south end is
marching, we dedicate this song to the dearly departed
It's a southside revival, put your hands high, let your
arms be the pillars that be holdin' up the sky
I heard a few heads say that hip-hop was dead, no it's
No matter where you are a struggles near by
And there ain’t enough time for loves to say hi
Some nights require the spark
A fire to remind us what we really look like in the
dark
So let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, and let
it go, let it go, just let it go, let it go, let it go,
let it go, and let it go, and let it go, let it go, let
it go, just let it go, just let it go
Ms. Mahogany, I hear you calling me
You had a dream last night that you were rockin’ me
And now you talkin’ of fulfilling the prophecy
I got you open like a true democracy
My policy has always been ladies first
It begins where the skin starts and ends when it hurts
You the first one to find me in the cold like that
No disguise when the prize make your eyes roll back
I suppose, makes us want to fight that harder
I know, sometimes the fire need water
So, call up your partners and tell ‘em not to bother
‘Cause tonight we getting far from the cops and the
robbers
Doin’ like, moms and pops when they made us
Simulating scenes by adult entertainers
Burnin’ two meals worth of calories, later
We just laid there and laughed
It pays to relax
No matter where you are a struggles near by
And there ain’t enough time for loves to say hi
Some nights require the spark
A fire to remind us what we really look like in the
dark
So let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, and let
it go, let it go, just let it go, let it go, let it go,
let it go, and let it go, and let it go, let it go, let
it go, just let it go, just let it go
I see how you work
Lately you’ve been grim and determined to win
That’s how they want us to get
Now we come to expect, nothing less than the best
Just pause and reflect, nothing honest as sweat
Now we linger in the heat, simmer in the sheets
Put the tinkle in your feet, voodoo on repeat
How does it feel to make your cipher complete
Daily you professional, at night she’s a freak
Now she’s just chillin’, I’m just chillin’
Let’s inspire the neighbors to make children
But all the travel is making the love limited
Feeling like a prisoner with conjugal visitin’
Every time I break you off feelin’ religious
Saying “Oh my God, oh my God”
Conversations ‘til one, have relations ‘til four in the
morn
You’ve been warned I’m a warrior y’all
No matter where you are a struggles near by
And there ain’t enough time for loves to say hi
Some nights require the spark
A fire to remind us what we really look like in the
dark
So let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go, and let
it go, let it go, just let it go, let it go, let it go,
let it go, and let it go, and let it go, let it go, let
[Talking:]
I was reading "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" last night
what is his critique of agnostics, I'm not really understanding it
[Verse 1: Geologic]
We labored and debated while you waited for sabbatical
Down to rock your body as we turn the party radical
I can see the game like the blind feel the pain
Both sides colliding with the concrete in vain
The pacific northwest take the spotlight now
My people pump your fist like your Manny Pacquiao
Man-child with wild style right to be hostile
Folks feeling like a rottweiler in a dog pound
Forward in this generation triumphantly
Even wack sound-boy's speakers couldn't muffle me
Its up to me and Sabzi to bring back the quality beats
To rock the audience
I seek the knowledge that your colleges lack
While we always used to come late and sit at the back
And crack jokes instead of taking notes
I wrote this line after line
After school hit play, press rewind
[Hook:]
The Blue Scholars in the place to be
We got one DJ and one MC, and that's it (that's it)
That's it (that's it)
Come on put your hands up if you're feeling that shit
The Blue Scholars in the place to be
We got one DJ and one MC, and that's it (that's it)
That's it (that's it) that's it (keep them up yall)
[Verse 2: Geologic]
On the eve of the solstice I wrote this
Focused on a singular purpose
To get rid of the curses, that afflict us
We live what you only see in pictures
The biggest hypocrites usually quote the most scriptures
But my approach is a diligent task
And rocking shows pro-bono is a thing of the past
Dr. King said "Freedom at last"
And some have interpreted that
To mean that we have come to the end of the path
But instead the long march hasn't even begun y'all
Political power manifest once our guns drawn
I write like shit will pop off with one song
Watch what I'm feeding my seed
And keep my son strong
And on and on the anonymous work
And an honest compensation is all they ask in return
It's the passion that burns within, let's begin
My philosophy to win is calling me to spit this shit
[Hook:]
Blue Scholars in the place to be
We got one DJ and one MC, and that's it (that's it)
That's it (that's it)
Come on and put your hands up if you're feeling that shit
Blue Scholars in the place to be
We got one DJ and one MC, and that's it (that's it)
That's it (come on yall)
(Always writing... always revising)
Shorty feels the pressure on his shoulders as he's liftin it
Wonders why the elders always tell him not to question it
Options at the bottom of the ladder got him desperate
But all he ever wanted was a weapon to protect him with
Riding a 36 through the veins of the beacon
The water is the heart, its rainin when its beatin
In the city that I sleep in I'm dreamin while I'm awake
The miserable escape but theyre too high to ponder faith
But who am I, to use their plight to illustrate a rhyme
With everything around me that I've never had to live
But I observe the inner qualities to serve the people properly
Tell them that their freedom isn't found in private property
Prostitutes are more than just the folks who sell their bodies
See this shit applies to those whos souls are a commodity
I can hear the colony callin me back to be
The bullet in the belly while they lock, load, and squeeze
Rebel with a pen lettin off buckshots in threes
Rewriting what it is into what it ought to be
They made a mockery out of the possibility
But under constant revision is the poem that I be
Rebel with a pen lettin off buckshots in threes
Rewriting what it is into what it ought to be
I be the emcee in the place not to be
But under constant revision is the poem that I be
Shorty feels oppression on his shoulders as he's liftin it
Wonders why the elders always tell him not to question it
Conjuring the courage just to conquer whats been killin him
He says its fucked up cause he knows no other synonym
Hidden from the truth, seen youths turned to troops
Whos goal at 21 is to turn 22, true tuition's too high
and those with the privelage to pay don't listen, it's a shame, go figurin
The name of the father, the son and holy lyrics
I suppose those who know what I'm sayin when they hear it
Might rage against the system, or hate me for dissin
The house in which they live in as a slave to the rhythm
But I walk the broken sidewalk paved with the magic
Of those who walk past it, just to survive traffic
If paybacks a bitch, then gravity's a bastard
Avenues I used to call familiar turned backward
Rebel with a pen lettin off buckshots in threes
Rewriting what it is into what it ought to be
They made a mockery out of the possibility
But under constant revision is the poem that I be
Rebel with a pen lettin off buckshots in threes
Rewriting what it is into what it ought to be
I be the emcee in the place not to be
But under constant revision is the poem that I be
Yo.. shorty's getting grown old enough to read the messages
Understands the elders as he then begins to question them
One generation handed down what they've inherited
Another generation rewriting the master narrative
Older folks overdose on broken hopes often
Children then begin to grow comatose and lost up
In the clutches of the wickedest fingers
Indicative of the systems inhibited
Ability to listen to the voice of the dyin who've been tired of cryin
Nightsticks fall where projectiles are flyin
Through a straight path narrow like the gap between heaven and hell
They skip class cause they goin to jail, true
Students prevail when the knowledge is passed
But others seem to fail sittin flat on their ass
And now I be the emcee in the place not be
Under constant revision in the poem that I be
Rebel with a pen lettin off buckshots in threes
Rewriting what it is into what it ought to be
I be the emcee in the place not to be
Now from the longest to the shortest, twenty-four in a year
From the verses to the chorus you've been longing to hear
The talk story transmitted through verses we persevere
We the presently lasting future first
From the spear to the sling shot
We rock upon a solid block of granite
We stand over the plan to hold the weapon with the fist
And heal it with an open hand
Feeling focused on the promise of a liberated land
And I'm just a simple man
Getting caught crossing the fire more often than not
The fire crosses us and the cross is on fire
Reminders it's not enough
It's been time to dig and find the diamonds in the rough
And then refine 'em in to weapons
To cut up the belly open til we all fall out
Cause the end of what it was is what it is right now
It's a great leap forward kind of different from now
Still drop it on the one like elevators to the ground
Now it's the turning of the page
To the second chapter
A tragedy and comedy so cue the blood and the laughter
To survivors of economic and natural disasters
Living for the right here and not the hereafter
A handful of tracks
Each a snapshot to capture the trials and tribulations
And smiles since you've been waiting awhile
We graduated in style
Congratulations
People of the word gather
(the wind... the wind...)
Sister sits on the steps
Cigarette rests on fingertips
Takes a sip of slow death deathly through her lips,
She blows a kiss
Which I can only resist in vain
She got the gift of gravity pulling to ask her name
She says Sagaba
What's it mean - she says in Ilocano
it translates into suffering
I'm pondering the irony to conjure up the fearlessness to find a conversation
She offers me a square, I decline the invitation
It reminds me of the days when I would chain smoke
Broken with no hope
Like broken like the manner she spoke
We both
Two people seeking
Solace and remembrance
And wondering if miracles were meant for us
But intent was just an innocent thought between a sister and a brother
Who been building in the guidance of a mother
And the storyteller stops
Waiting for the beat to drop
Gathering his thoughts in the wind, breathing in like...
I couldn't stand to see the queen breathe her dreams away
And tell me her tomorrow will never become today
I say I used to know a woman just like you,
Beautiful but jaded by the multitude of men who'd often try to
Justify their lies with twisted notions of survival
And hide behind their armor when karma completes a cycle
She replied
That just because I knew a woman well it doesn't mean I know them all
She begins to bade farewell
Eyes up to the sky, she sighs, I need nobody
True indeed, sister, but you still need everybody because
We hardly know ourselves if we know nobody else
And only in our loneliness can home become a hell
Exhale
The cloud in the loudest form of silence
Watches as it rises like suns over horizons
The storyteller stops
Waiting for the beat to drop
Gathering his thoughts in the cloud, breathing out like...
Dreams be the ashes
Burns and thrashing in the wind
Flying out the burning bush attached to sister's hand
Who whispers “word”
Smiling and giving thanks, living in doubt no longer
As she figures out the riddle to the song
Saying why must we suffer now and not suffer later if later
Never comes soon enough to soothe the hatred
And hatred
Is the cancer born _ of love's absence
And the absence is the void left from missing every chance to
Challenge our fates and perhaps our very names
Sister says peace and prayers for rain and change
Tosses out her lighter
Walks out of the cipher
For shizzle it starts to drizzle and then I begin to write this
Inhale the imagery – a queen walking steadily
Effortlessly
Ready to be
Every woman and now the
Story teller ends
Waiting for the beat to fade
[Intro:]
I'm just an ordinary guy, extraordinary time spent
Ordering my life working over-time nights
Holdin wires and mics under these lights, but besides that
Always find time to get love and give it right back
[Verse 1:]
I'm just an ordinary guy, a baby from the eighties
Got a little bit of A.D.D, perhaps maybe
We've been made to be sedated and such
Then we work while they break then they say that we play too much
I ain't known to make it out to every single event
Sometimes I live in my bed, with just a pad and a pen
And a broken ipod I bought stolen from the block
Got holes in the soles of a third of my socks
Neck deep in contradiction in the gut of the beast
If you in debt, then everything you own is on lease
Cause, money don't translate to talent
Money, and talent don't mean you're guarenteed anything, honey
It's funny, when conditions cause anything to happen
Finally got a comma in my check account balance
The 27 year challenge of the curse
Made me even outlive Janice, Janet, Jimmy and Curt
[Hook:]
I'm just an ordinary guy, ignoring all the hype
I let it all pass me by
I got one life, one mic
But I'll try, to always stay humble
With the fist in the sky and a bowl of brown rice
Just an ordinary guy, extraordinary time spent
Ordering my life working over-time nights
Holdin wires and mics under these lights, but besides that
Always find time to get love and give it right back
[Verse 2:]
I'm just an ordinary guy, with music as a job
If I could do it, the least you could do is give it a try
There's no use, just sitting asking why these ballers rock
Chains like a fallen chain just to stay fly
Man I'm cool, with just a pair of reeboks and vans
Some artists think they too hard to talk to their fans
I might, battle just to keep this art sharp
And maybe take a ride through the jewish part of Seward Park
Where the view of Lake Washington is not too far
But far enough, it might be a minute till the comeup
And people keep asking how I lost this weight
More work and less food on the plate, Man
Just a simple plan with a little bit of self discipline
To, keep writing, keep spitting, keep em listening
To keep on doing what I do to get a salary
My number one mission is to make my son proud of me
[Hook]
[Verse 3:]
I'm just an ordinary guy
Sometimes I ponder if the consequence of all of this trying to be an artist is
Harder then it needs to be, wipe the sleep in my
Eye and sip the "? " cause the grind never sleeps
I know time moves slow, we on the road again
I hate leaving but I love coming home again
It's like we only see the citys at night but
Now, it's the opening salvo
Where poet's scope the people like Mohammad and Malvo
A sample of the battle we wagered against an animal
Made to snuff us out like the wick of a candle
And all the youth dressed in camo, we're ready to handle
And no this war was not scripted, can't change the channel
We canceling all subscriptions, this is the last issue
When the casket closed can't take the cash with you
No most-mortem residuals
We individuals who
Indivisible become the most invincible
But that is not the issue at hand
We demand the simple right to question y'all people
Where the fuck is freedom at?
It's all we ask but instead we get our asses
Assassinated fast
If they catch you talking trash
Then the first shall be last
It's time to prepare
Black clouds, sky falling, put a hand in the air
And my people building monuments to weather the flood
I'm a leave how I came screaming covered in blood
Died once born twice both times we knuckled up
Along side our people we gon struggle with love
[Repeat]
So struggle with love, struggle with love, struggle with love
Now this here's for those who choose fights whose fruits might
Never not ripen until after they life
It's not right how they martyr our leaders and target our children
Disrespect the sisters and wonder why we militant
Peace to my third world equivalent
Even if I can't fight beside you
I write what I can
To get our fam in other lands to understand your pain
Cause your beef is mine and we one and the same
And I know about this privilege
But if you're from where I'm from
Then you know a bigger burden comes with it
And that's what I carry when you see me on a hustle
I talking as a walking document of our struggle
Kasambas? hold me down and remember that I love you
And Johnny hold your head up if they ever take me from you
And please tell him that I tried, don't cry
Cause no matter where you are, a struggle's near by
And my people building monuments to weather the flood
I'm a leave how I came screaming covered in blood
Died once born twice both times we knuckled up
Along side our people we gon struggle with love
[Repeat]
So struggle with love, struggle with love, struggle with love
Right now I want to thank God for being me
My soul won't rest until the colony is free
1896 revolution incomplete
Silence is defeat my solution is to speak
Resurrect a legacy of martyrs I beseech
Time to choose a side it's the might vs. the meek
My big brother Free brought the word from the East
Where the bullet in the middle of the belly of the beast
(verse)
Live from occupied Duwamish territory
Where Carlos Bulosan once lived to tell the story
Of the brain, sweat, and glory of mic checks and men
Who fight the destination we were destined to end
Left the writing on the walls in the halls of the Nipo-
Cong
Others transform, majority Decepticons
But my conception of the Walkman's rotation,
Is you live in the upper left you've got to have
patience
Cause ain't no urban radio stations about to play us
Unless you sign the dotted and make your songs
brainless
While you waitin' for the mention in the pages of "The
Stranger"
You can find me in the basement makin' heaters for
later
And yes, we all need a little paper to strive
But the monsters in your town will put a limp in your
stride
I exhibit all the time like I'm pimpin' your ride
And we've been living in conditions we're tired of
Come on and rise up
(chorus)
Two Scholars rock fresh, North by Northwest
And it's still no rest 'cause we're not finished yet
We're broke, but not broken
Cold, but not frozen
Lost but not forgotten, we're kickin' the doors open
Two Scholars rock fresh, North by Northwest
And it's still no rest 'cause we're not finished yet
We're broke, but not broken
Cold, but not frozen
Movin' in slow motion, it's that Northwest classic
(verse)
Nine eight double-one eight, the alphabetically 2nd to
last state [changed in live version to 4th]
Never finished in last place
Like the Mariners for 3 years straight
From prescriptions we administer the medicine
For people still afflicted with acute two-oh-sickness
We exist between the gold and the green
I paint the soul of the scene
Under towers of power, dodging the over Over-fiend
daily
Causing bones to decay, they say is so far away
Couldn't possibly make it, I seen modesty fade
And awful lot of hate, but none of which was said to my
face
I confide inside, my son, but with a fire made of
purple
I'm a writer for the art, I keep it sharpened with
rehearsal
The worst is when they mark us to target a market that
we're not even a part of
If your CD's in Target it means you got distribution,
but we still pushin' units
With our own two homegrown since youth
Thought you knew
(chorus)
(verse)
And they say desegregation was a big step forward
But integration only covered up a rotten core
The surface might've changed but the cauldron is still
Now we more politically correct with less real talk
They say we liberal but literally not
When the cops bend us over while upholding the law
Despite the sight of coffee shops on every single block
Nearby its supply and demand for the rock
It's two types of crack, one legal, one felonious
The lumpenpro push keys like Thelonious
The corporation pushing blood with the beans
I heard people moving up here for the love of the green
New homes, new stores, still a hood underneath
No good how we chilling in the gut of the beast
A national question, with no answer in the least
It's no resting ‘til the cancer meets defeat
[Verse 1:]
There's no rest for the weary just another day grinding up stones
Till they turn into dust, it's tough, dimes in the rough
Diamonds ain't enough to cover up a corrupted and fucked up legacy of strange fruit
Bloody whips and small pox, trigger-happy cocks
Barbed wire and fire water, y'all it don't stop
Whether colonizing game with the cross and the sword
I threw the first spear and said "I declare war!"
I'm a battle-scar wearing heir apparent
Descendants of a long lineage of proletariat and peasant
[Hook:]
So check the work ethic and the name
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
I ride the rhythm and vibe a little whine talk
Head get the concrete to line wit' your spine
[Verse 2:]
I speak to find peace but its war all the time
It's deep like the drive from Renton to Shoreline
I'm a more mindful guy ever since finding out that
I'm about to be a father and doubt is not an option
And now I can't be getting crunk and faded as often
So get your hands dirty 'cause a prayer ain't enough
Boss, what cross?
We got crucified by buckshots
One million Jesuses and Judas got his nuts off
Pages torn out the memory of those who remain shackled
in the chains of international capital gain
They claim civilize with they animal ways
Peace to Oakland, I've never been a fan of the A's
But some days you can find me inscribed in my soul on the page every crime has an alibi
Disciplined and organized is how I handle my
New jacks are spending mad time on their battle rhymes
I can't knock it if you find it entertaining
I rep those whose labor ain't compensated
[Hook:]
So check the work ethic and the name
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
Forty to a class, no wonder we delinquent
Half the school district never make it to commencement
[Verse 3:]
I've been the spine of the track until it snaps
Pops working overtime and he got a broken back
Got three little sisters, one brother in Iraq
And mom prays novenas to keep the fam intake
But the song ain't a song waiting for God to answer
Brothers call me "Dog", they got the letters backwards
I'm back with a plan of attack to reposes my
Main face in history y'all who wanna test
My capacity to spit caliber shit into a rhythmic lesson
And entertainment's a legitimate weapon
Igniting the cipher sessions I'm deciphering life
And blended both theory into practice I write
Vernacular and actual fact
Got no posturing
A thousand points and fingers I defied every one of them
I ride for my brethren who carry the burden
of a future uncertain 'til the fall of the curtain
You better move
Hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
That's why we call it a struggle
You're supposed to sweat
[Hook:]
Check the work ethic and the name
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
Crazy landlady tried to switch up on the lease
If she raises up the rent again it's time to say "peace"
Peace, peace and that's my piece
It's still all about the bullet in the belly of the beast
From the East my brother we came
The lessons might change but the essence of the message is the same
So when they say anything
Say "why is it?"
Class is in session 'til the teacher gets a pink slip
So keep marching 'til your feet split open
It's been long years gone since we rocked the linoleum
Blasting the broken boom box open closing and
The most awkward b-boy stance you can imagine
Grab the mic trading my backspin for rapping
Back when the sinners dance, dancers were listeners
Answers to caller response chance ridiculous
Pants demanded sagging, never bigger than our britches
But the britches burned, britches were scratched
Our sins were repented for much later
Hey yo DJ blessed the crowd with the sign of the cross fader
In time we find things to refine the mind at the same time, the heart articulating mine
I think it's amazing kids are waiting outside
Habitual leaders at the solidarity of this ritual see
Each individual reach out, speak to teach the invisible how to be invincible
[Chorus: x2]
Motion, movement
Architects, blueprints
Showing, grooving
Teachers, students
Reaching for truth in a self-revolution
The roof is on fire, what's your solution?
This be the sum, of love plus one
Mold breaking, soul searching
My carriage is my feet on point and hella deep like sea urchins
Indeed be certain
Proceed to test your reflex knee jerk
And hid it behind a curtain on the stage
Burning inside with rage
Rewrote the script, with my voice inside of the page
I've decided the ways
Previously paved for me to walk
Will never see, me, nor my footprints
I stalk in the nighttime
Avaying(?) our hands to the sky
Like the clock at midnight
Convinced of my demise
Concluded that the crowd throws their hands in the air
Because the sky is falling no one else seems to care
Or want a piece of the pie, not a generous share
Can I possibly prove, my intentions are there
I'm just a word in a rhyme, and a kick in the snare
Swimming in inkwells to find if my spirit is there
But you can find me inside of a pen waiting to burst
Drowning in the reservoir quenching my thirst
My first love's second home was my headphones
First time I wrote what I felt because I said so
So, unless there's any protest allow me to begin
The weather's never deep enough to wash away the sins
So I drop it on the one, my tongue be the drum
Beating meaning to the beat to defeat what we've become
Do you ever go outside at night
Look up into the sky, into the big, immense sky
And think to yourself, "Thats a big sky, like an inkwell."
In a city that's been waiting the blow
Since big butts and teen spirit
Many make music, you hear it
Secluded in the upper left, dominantly gray
Shaded skies any other day
Sorta like the bay
Just a little bit wetter and cold in the winter
Proximity to water make the soul a little gentler
Out of town they don't be knowing about the best kept
Aint nothing better than the summer in the Northwest
Microphone check: 1-206
Who just spoke through the smoke can I get a quick fix to lift
This eye to the level of the needle in the sky
Looking over the sound against the shores of the Suicide Capital
Bust a magical dust, grammatically adjust the satellite
What makes Seattle tight
The fruit's a bit ripe in spite of all the mold
And last second changes of plans like on hold
And prodigal sons whose model is run whenever possible
Watch Mr. Officer shoot before he aims and claims self defense
In the name of the citizen free
SPD's spread the city like an STD
I'm rolling Rainier bugging "Let's get free"
While the people sleep, I'ma speak 'till they wake
Now let me push my pen to create
The beats, rhymes in life
Each time I write
The fire ignites, I light the sky
There's an infinite Inkwell
High above the city
Dip the pen steadily, sing the melody
Your beats, rhymes in life
Each time I write
The fire ignites, I light the sky
There's an infinite Inkwell
High above the city
Dip the pen steadily, sing the melody
They paved rock candy and put up a parking lot
It was a spot for a minute was hotter
Then the cops lit it up when the thugs fist the cuffs
And the mayor was quick to up and pin it on hip-hop
Shows got dropped when the cinder block crushed
What's left of the scene grows up from the dust
There must have been many times over-frustrated to watch the downfall of those who could have made it
While some waited for the next Mix-a-lot to flow
Others made moves, said "Shit, we ought to grow"
But time moves slow when the clock's overweight
Eating those who wait, as opposed to create
But those who make bread do not break the mold
I was only nineteen, but my rhymes were bold
And when things got for real I got up in the bowl
And put them in to practice all that I was told
Wicked's eye that came up and showed up
We call ourselves fate and ironically, it was
Became the last kid still writing at 9 to 5
In B-town Syphus we can't even justify
Moved to the city, started posing as a journalist
To get press passes and ask kids for murder so we prove instead
Put down the pen, picked up the mic
Taken from competitors heads
And when I got done severing severable losers
Started getting down with hella producers
Main group welcomed me into the big house, but they didn't feel the city so they moved back south
And other dudes weren't even worth it to work with
And if I see wonders about to be word a worth I'll jot
Begin 2 double zero 1, the struggle just begun to bear fruit
At the end of a troubling youth
Sobs have got me
To speak over beats like the key to unlock me
And I'll be damned
10 years to the summer I began I'm still up in the lab
And while the people sleep I'ma speak 'till they wake
Now let me push this pen to create
While the people sleep I'ma speak 'till they wake
Now let me push this pen to create
The beats, rhymes in life
Each time I write
The fire ignites, I light the sky
There's an infinite Inkwell
High above the city
Dip the pen steadily, sing the melody
Your beats, rhymes in life
Each time I write
The fire ignites, I light the sky
There's an infinite Inkwell
High above the city
Dip the pen steadily, sing the melody
The beats rhymes in life
Each time I write
The fire ignites, I light the sky
There's an infinite Inkwell
High above the city
Dip the pen steadily, sing the melody
Your beats, rhymes in life
Each time I write
The fire ignites, I light the sky
There's an infinite Inkwell
High above the city
Dip the pen steadily, sing the melody
Your beats..rhymes..in life...each..time I write
The fire ignites
The fire ignites
On and on like the song goes
I wonder if we've took the wrong road
And it seems like so long ago
But you know where to go if you ever come home
[Repeat]
I was born in the morning of America
Torn between mourning the lost and celebrating the dawn
Majored in Reganomics, hip hop and comics
Fist locked around dollars, fuck a stock market
Prince was chart hopping, purple rain falling
Writers getting up and down the Berlin Wall
Before the iron curtain call
And people powered one
Chilling up in military housing having fun
With the little we got, got Optimus for Christmas
Over time it paid principal and interest
Moms and Pops still I'll equipped as new immigrants
Navigating 1986 with three kids plus expecting one more
Far from the Huxtables
That's why I'm still comfortable while sleeping on the floor
Twenty three years gone, still 1984
Still fighting more undeclared wars
Caught 'em shipping arms to Iran for Nicaraguan contras
A cold war getting hotter
Now what's going on?
It's no more Marvin to sing us the song
I think something's gone wrong
On and on like the song goes
I wonder if we've took the wrong road
And it seems like so long ago
But you know where to go if you ever come home
[Repeat]
Now nothing beats the sound of a Posmix cassette
Bumping in the system of your hooptie stock deck
Eight-bit systems and kung fu flicks
I rock like Herbie Hanckock with prosthetic limbs
Who killed Vincent Chin was it them was it us
Not giving enough of a fuck to stand up?
Not more than twelve months after Lenon got shot
Bob died same year Mumia got locked
The School of the Americas put heads to sleep
Like Ted DiBiase the million dollar dream
Jesus freaks all believe, believe on these streets
Will they please just leave us be?
Mix tapes with Fat Boys and Run DMC, Too Short, BDP and EMPD
Watched more Nickelodeon than MTV
Eventually every week it was Fab Five Freddy
Now everyone born 'bout '87 up got a VH1 version of the years we came up
But VH1 never played hip hop at all
How the fuck they be the ones giving hip hop awards y'all?
On and on like the song goes
I wonder if we've took the wrong road
And it seems like so long ago
But you know where to go if you ever come home
[Repeat]
Reflections and questions and not enough answers
The rise of gang banging was the death of the Panthers
Short shorts, tube socks, city a boondocks
Everywhere somebody trying to moon walk
Rocksteady Crew, jams with Steve Pool
Sight beyond sigh
Yo I pulled roots like Super Mario 2
A bowl full of Cheerios
Looking back just say no was not enough
To sweep dust under carpet when the visitors came
Cities became, and temporary wealth manifested in chains
MJ became chosen, free Mandela was the slogan of the moment
To the mobile DJs with the pompador fades
Rocking Debbie Deb and Stevie P all day
When I hear music I can't wait to rock
New shoes nothing less than some fresh high tops and
Things happen for a reason they say
But I say there's a reason things happen
And it wasn't all good way back in the day
Struggled then struggled now still standing
Things happen for a reason they say
But I say there's a reason things happen
And it wasn't all good way back in the day
Struggled then struggled now still standing
Come on
On and on like the song goes
I wonder if we've took the wrong road
And it seems like so long ago
But you know where to go if you ever come home
Now on and on like the song goes
And I wonder if we've took the wrong road
And it seems like so long ago
But you know where to go if you ever come home
Come on
On and on like the song goes
And I wonder if we've took the wrong road
And it seems like so long ago
But you know where to go if you ever come home
On and on like the song goes
I wonder if we've took the wrong road
And it seems like so long ago
But you know where to go if you ever come home
(patience, understanding, loyalty...got to have...)
It's more than just a hobby or pastime
Cause 24/7 I'm representin' the Massline
Daily grind, 85, wonder why, maybe I'm
Way behind lately been occupyin' my mind
With the possibility this means we'll all end
With two albums and a handful of people I call friends
And friends I call my comrades, and comrades who stand
Together write a book till it ends
Indeed as we be headed in directions getting whole
towns polarized
Either love it or leave it, indeed I'm giving credit to
the fam who believed it
Preceding the hype of the hyperbole of the media
Even though some people abandon ship on the other hand
Some were skeptical quick, but now they quick to
bandwagon up
Saggin' my pants at the cocktail party with the mayor
And later rockin' a party with a thousand in the air
That’s a beautiful thing, and if you're new to this
thing
Don’t front, ask a question, stay humble, do your thing
But just remember you ain't gotta prove a thing
Stand up or fall down thanks for listenin' y'all
Because I, got your back even if you don’t got mine
Grind in the dark when the clock strikes hard times
We ain't nothing if this bond ain't solidified
Give thanks in war time that people still alive
Dignified soldiers who walk with the spirit of 12
million plus lost and found in this lyric
Sound man turn it till the whole town hear it
Either stand up or fall down now if you feel it
Stand up or fall down
Stand up or fall down
While the record goes round stand up or fall down
Stand up or fall down
Stand up or fall down
While the record goes round let the whole town know
that it's us
Somebody tell me where the riders and the soldiers are
Before they close the door and go and start a colder
I see 'em posted up in corner stores holdin' fort
Hopin' for a life from the crack of an open door
And so the storm comes to cleanse without warn
While the youth play with fire just to keep themselves
warm
In a cold world, cold people, playin' cold songs
Sold for spare change while the broke hold on
Why they call themselves right, but then act so wrong
Dollar sign challenge why the unemployment line long
No call for the blue collar gettin' low ball
It’s a long climb just to get to petty bourgeois
While we, gettin' lifted but forgettin' that we fall
Hit and shake cause your movin' but without the roll
call
This is protracted struggle revolutionized patience
Bump this on your right wing radio station
And maybe crack a top 10 daily rotation but until then
You can keep ignorin' what I'm sayin'
But just remember you ain't gotta prove a thing
Stand up or fall down thanks for listenin' y'all
Because I, got your back even if you don’t got mine
Grind in the dark when the clock strikes hard times
We ain't nothing if this bond ain't solidified
Give thanks in war time that people still alive
Dignified soldiers who walk with the spirit of 12
million plus lost and found in this lyric
Sound man turn it till the whole town hear it
Either stand up or fall down now if you feel it
Stand up or fall down
Stand up or fall down
While the record goes round stand up or fall down
Stand up or fall down
Stand up or fall down
While the record goes round let the whole town know
I like… making you so happy!
Yo, life and debt, light a cigarette smoke the stress,
take a deep breath baby, let’s rearrange the mess we’ve
inherited
Alienated from what is rightfully yours in my land
is life, money is time paid for labor
Working eight to five, sometimes six seven eight
we come home and barely know the neighbors
Bills are usually late
Interest accumulates at a usury rate
Collection agency waits from
Pay check to next one, budget like a noose
Working while we sing the proletariat blues
On 501-C3 community plantations,
non profit sector propped up to kill the movement for
the changes in production relations
But woman you’re my comrade, ride and die, revolution-
making mother earth
standing with me in the grocery line
While I’m paying with a jar of pennies, nickels and
dimes
And I love how you don’t like art without a message
I love how you call some fellas …femme-ish (?)
Third world sister, never sacrificing substance for
style
But stylish with a golden type smile
I love how you organize with other strong sisters
Love how you talk about tearing down the system
Like a soldier, my dialectical reflection, yes is the
answer to your question
Life and debt, write another check to the landlord,
no time to dwell on all the things we can’t afford
gotta baby in the womb, a soldier for the future that
we’re fighting for
concrete conditions that are fighting for (?)
the payback, it’s way past due
and they say that the masses ain’t ready but
We know that ain’t true, you and I both children of
Filipino immigrants from the same island, our ancestors
smiling,
Cuz we found one another in a strange land struggling
Moms tryin’ to tell us not to protest instead pray for
peace,
But that ain’t the nature of the beast
So lady grab a bullhorn and take it to the streets
Yellin power to the people, el pueblo unido, hamas and
abansito
Til the wealth is spread equal
You 21st century Gabriela Salaw
Pierced like Lorena with a rifle in the arm
And I love how you love the people as much as self
I love that how you want redistribution of the wealth
Third world sister, never sacrificing substance for
style
But stylish with a golden type smile
I love that how you organize with other strong sisters
Love that how you talk about tearing down the system
Like a soldier, my dialectical reflection, yes is the
answer to your question
Life and debt
I like…making you so happy! I like…making you so happy!
I like…making you so happy!
I reach beneath the skin of the street with each step
Walkin' closer to my final destination of death
When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath
The Northwest fills the lungs, heals the pain in my chest
Take six quarters out of the pocket
Drop it in the box
Hop the 48, off to pay homage
It stops often, I jot my observations, watchin'
Citizens walkin' off of the Joe Metropolitan
Proletariats and wayward sons
With old Filipino men speakin' in they native tongue
And the day is just begun
Greeted by the scent of a bum
Smelling something like beer, barf, and dung
A brother in repose in the back all alone
Marinatin' in a pair of half-broken headphones
Muddled in rhymes
Same time begin to pen mine
Appreciating God's design
Rewind sister
Reminds me of a smile in the back of my memory
Wonder if I'll see her again
Will she remember me?
"I'm not tryin' to holler, I swear. I'm just weary of the way we hop a ride
And just sit there and stare."
Prepare for my nine o' clock work meeting
A couple pale folks slide right by with no greeting
But the people with my phenotype follow with a head-nod up
Because we acknowledge that the shit's fucked up
North of Martin Luther King: a straight warzone
Detours through the concrete, cranes, and bulldozers
No, the Hill is not over still
Every block got a coffee shop; it's overkill
Focus, know the deal
Dope to see Kalil back, the medicine is good again
The feeling: illegal, and coming back to your hood again
It's priceless, I write this, our lives are in crisis
Most talk, but don't walk, the path of the righteous
Despite this...
I measure each step, walkin' closer to my final destination of death
When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath
The Northwest fills my lungs, heals the pain in my chest
Clutch the moment, a transfer in my hand
Still listening
Lookin' out the window to the gold and the gray
And the sun might be shinin' but it's colder than it seems
'Cause the weather's dialectical: there's no in-between
In walks an old soul
A First Nation native, cat's chiseled like a totem pole
No words, as he stands and looks over us
He gets off and says, "Have a good day, you foreigners."
I, crack a smile one time for the acknowledgement
Northbound, now we start to pick up more college kids
They try to study on the ride
To make up for the fact that they probably kicked it hard last night
And I ponder if it's time to save up and get a car
And pay for the gas that we're takin' from the war
I'd miss all the colorful faces, the places, and spaces I've embraced with
The faith that I can rest and raise kids here even with these cats set
Trippin'
Bringin' '95 back again, same old conditions
From Reagan, to Bush, to Clinton, to the Bush the 2nd
No matter the neighborhood in the city you're reppin'
It's gettin' serious y'all
You can even hear the rebel call
Gettin' off, leavin' hella pieces on the walls
Seen it all, sittin' sideways with my townmates
Only place left where majority is brown-faced
Now we headed downtown to trade our labor for cash
I thank the navigator once and walk fast
I walk past the next round of cats to jump on it
Locked in deep thought, we ride around in silence
And cross Resolve Bridge
I watch each step, walkin' closer to my final destination of death
When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath
The Northwest fills the lungs, heals the pain in my chest
I remain blessed, steppin' on rain with each step
Eyes heavy from the lack of the cousin of death
When I'm layin' to rest, I'm only savin' my breath
I draw words out of pens like swords out of sheaves
Humidity intervene, now I’m high on God’s speed
Upon the mic, immobilizing globe trotting colonizing
Stomping on the rights of the poor,
The destitute I testify will rise in a matter of
lifetimes
So climb into the mind through the scale or a spine
When hips start slitherin to bass lines it'll
Make the wallflower blossom
Make me feel anonymous and conscious at the same time
I can’t remain calm waiting for repeats or a nuclear
bomb to drop
Find us in a record shop with or without distribution
independent from the bullshit of a major
Remember Monday evening in the record stores at 12?
Midnight to cop the new album off the shelf
Either savin up allowance or your minimum wage
For eight dollars, one tape man, you'll listen for days
I’m missin the days, freewheelin mean-muggin rivals,
For no good reason
Just bein adolescent to breathin, believed in
So far from bleedin that this paradise is hard to
believe in
I’m leaving
To a place dominated by spray-painted dreams that ain’t
what they seem
I’m leaving
To find myself clinging to the edge of a notebook page,
writin for days
I’m leaving
YO I’m going home to atone for abandonin my native
tongue grown
From the soil of my soul that I’ll toil till I’m old
Passin the torch like the mic that I hold
Plowin in the field allowin little time to rest
Fly by night daytime I’m chillin in my nest
Where memory is sending me
An astral projection to way back then
I’m chasin Rakim through the speakers
Reachin for the makeshift microphone
Mark’ll make your mom bark “Turn down the radio,”
complainin about the curse words
Times absurd, the lines got blurred, another kid got
served
And the whole house party bore witness to the occasion
Thus started growing my early reputation
Early 90 second generation fat laces
Used to get hip bruises breakin in the basement
Mixed tape makin was an art that we’d forsaken
And the hardest thing to do was cue the tape
I’m waiting on a Sunday night listening to nastiness,
payin the dues
When KEXP was KCMU, true, I’m missin the days
freewheelin mean-muggin rivals,
For no good reason
Just bein adolescent to breathin, but we've been so far
from bleedin that this paradise is hard to believe in
I’m leaving
To a place dominated by spray-painted dreams that ain’t
what they seem
I’m leaving
To find myself clinging to the edge of a notebook page,
writin for days
I’m leaving
YO I’m going home to atone for abandonin my native
tongue grown
From the soil of my soul that I’ll toil till I’m old
Passin the torch like the mic that I hold
The horticulture’s in the pipe
So torch it with the light unfortunately
it’ll be gone, but not tonight (2x)
I’m leaving
To a place dominated by spray-painted dreams that ain’t
what they seem
I’m leaving
To find myself clinging to the edge of a notebook page,
writin for days
I’m leaving
YO I’m going home to atone for abandonin my native
tongue grown
From the soil of my soul that I’ll toil till I’m old
now what I spit, it's medicine for the sick
an attempt to get a grip before it all starts to slip
and be the call and response from the bottomless pit
I remain nonchalant when the drama get thick
the last call, ballin' up my palm in a fist
the most common misperception is this
drop and say why the show sign a line
hit the road hit some hoes videos
next you know, you'll be bawlin and shit
but you'll be calling it quits
when all the cards start to fall in the ditch
cause temptation is so hard to resist
no there's no such thing as an unjustified existence
except perhaps a few thousand rappers in this business
finish what I start scientifically, strategically
specifically addressin' the oblivion we livin' in
my brother and my sister and I'm speaking are you
listening
freedom being imprisoned by the television image
if you let it instead get affected by your habitat
ask a few questions, quit a few bad habits and after
that
handle this similar to how Xavier McDaniel did in '86
we're talking just a little less shit
and lately being mindful of the babies I admit
but at nighttime I sit serenaded by the blues of a
skyline hue
reminding me of a time when the old was new
and I spark a fire for the cold and the dark
peace and war both pumpin' soul in my heart
and though they can't keep what they stole from the art
and they love to see beef 'cause it throws us apart
more fire for the people
say more jobs for the people
and more books for the people
and more music for the people
as the world hurls towards seven billion more listeners
seven hundred plus see the killed and held prisoners
seven thousand one hundred islands I been missing
cause I grind seven to five, at night I'm writing
scriptures
as hot as the block as cold contradictions
pen drips with honesty I don't offer fiction
go to competition the bone that they try to pick with
and learn the moral lesson and marching forward to
victory
no flag waving celebrating your (?)
you call it thanksgiving, we call it thankstaking
everybody looking for the ladder not the answer to the
question
waiting till the cancer's in regression
fresh from the northwest the hottest thing lately
like white celebrities buying black and brown babies
got the town crazy over beats rhymes and life
peace with adobo grease, eggs and brown rice
and I spark a fire for the cold in the dark
peace and war both pumpin' soul in my heart
and though they can't keep what they stole from the art
they love to see beef 'cause it throws us apart
more fire for the people
more food for the people
more homes for the people
more clothes for the people
more schools for the people
more land for the people
more life for the people
yo, I've seen souls get sold so coldly
see what a dollar can do to the tiger that true
I speak boldly, composed of a melody told
whenever we hold the memory close
no telling when the reaper fed a post and snatch a fan
something that you can't capture with the camera lense
a relation of the boulder and a hammerin' pen
the truth hurts, no wonder people rather pretend
I annihilate a fake persona for spare change
everybody, self included, is fair game
inherited the trait to make both ends meet
often make a brother feel like he gotta compete
but with each release I reach for peace
others quit to reach for the pigs from here to beacon
to bridge
'cause see, freedom of speech don't apply if you're
silent
I shout like I'm trying to get heard on the island
and I spark the fire for the cold in the dark
peace and war both pumpin' soul in my heart
and though they can't keep what they stole from the art
and they love to see beef 'cause it throws us apart
more fire for the people
more peace for the people
more life for the people
more love for the people
more love for the people
more love for the people
I taste the evening and breath in the crisp pacific
northwest air
As it’s leavin my lips crack the bits
This visual kiss, the Puget Sound
And the bluest of skies
Two sides of the abyss
This city was built on the backs of the brave who gave
up their home for a dollar a day
The same folks who rose up to ban the minimum wage
Unofficial slaves not given a page, a photograph or a
paragraph written to claim them
Some got the nerve to say go back to where you came
from
Same ones who Stole the land from chief sealth and then
named the city after him
as if to say we honor you
Right after we conquered you and pillaged your home
Soil fertilized with indigenous bones
Jimi Hendrix, ray charles and quincy jones
Japanese jazz now hip hop in home
That’s seventh and Jackson the microphone’s open
Subvert a culture genocide seven years goin’ in the
moment and the music
Time to show improvement
Never will you see me be a Judas to the movement
Used to be a student of the beat until I mastered it
And then I set it free to let it be the energy
That I command when I spit, in this shit heard out of
mangled tight lipss
I like sister with hips, I like sisters with hope even
better than those who blow spirit through the smoke out
my mouth and my nose
I pose questions like ‘at night’
Or the moon is too bright
These dudes with tight shirts and spiked hair
Hit up the late night Chinese joint with bad fare
Fresh off the club, One stumblin drunk
Ain’t worth my time just to mumble ‘punk’
He be acting like a chump but he still my brown brother
Sister by your side dyed hair with fake eyes
Probably wonders why she attracts the fake guys
I sigh under south side night skies
My people, young brown and gifted conversely,
The people I belong to
believe me it hurts me to use the same fist that I
raise against the system
to cock back and hit em
Getting all caught up in the movement and the music
Time to sure improve it
Never will you see me be a Judas to the movement
Used to be a student of the beat until I mastered it
And then I set it free to let it be the energy
That I command when I spit, in this sh-- heard out of
mangled tight lips
I like sisters with hips, I like sisters with hopes
even better than those who blow spirit through the
smoke out my mouth and my nose
And then I breath out my mouth and my nose
And then I breath out my mouth and my nose
Yo...
Got a
Drink in my cup
Select it with my tunes, I'm
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Oh, you say you got a friend?
Well you can bring her too
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Come inside my house
Bro, you gotta lose the shoes
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Rhymes on my mind
Hungry as a fool
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Yeah, uh...
Now you can hear it in the breeze
When I'm leaving overseas, and
It's 93 degrees, speaking brown-people-eese
But I gotta ease up out of Honolulu for a few
To keep it popping like Honozulu shooting the scene
But never greasy with the people
On the island I see
I see the stars falling into the sea
Pull her closer to you, Bro,
She told me never let her go
Until the moment
Reach the ceiling
That's the feeling I need
Yo, breathing in...
And they came to get away
But we came to get it in
When they calling this a day
That's when the day for us begins
The people turning up they stereo
Then playing me again
Once again, breathing in...
And they came to get away
But we came to get it in
When they calling this a day
That's when the day for us begins
The people turning up they stereo
Then playing me again
Once again
Drink in my cup
Select it with my tunes, I'm
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Oh, you say you got a friend?
Well you can bring her too
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Got my Food Land card
Man I'm buying me some food
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Fuckin' with the kind
That's what I'm a do
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Yeah, uh...
And when I'm cruising with my crew
I'm trying to get to meets
We riding on the two
I'm bumping Saba beats
Born in killer California bro
Son of a beach, and arm's reach
From the motherland over the sea
I'm calling Aaron and Jake
What's up to Carol and Kate
Some people call it the eight
But it's a sovereign state
I heard that Ward is the place
They try to cancel our performance
But the Scholars keep it pouring
Believe
Whoa, I'm breathing in...
And they came to get away
But we came to get it in
When they calling this a day
That's when the day for us begins
The people turning up they stereo
Then playing me again
Once again, breathing in...
And they came to get away
But we came to get it in
When they calling this a day
That's when the day for us begins
The people turning up they stereo
Then playing me again
Once again
Drink in my cup
Select it with my tunes, I'm
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Oh, you say you got a friend?
Well you can bring her too
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Come inside my house
Bro, you gotta lose the shoes
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my crew
Driving with my feet
"Yabba dabba doo"
Cruisin' with my
Cruisin' with my
Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah
1, 2 ya'll, Ah-1,2 ya'll, ah-check it, ah-check it, 1,
2 ya'll
It goes microphone check 1, 2 ya'll, it's the
cornerstone, ya'll
It's the cornerstone.
From the gutter to the throne, corner to the stone
Comaradary is earned, cultivated and homegrown
Don't really own a damn thing except for my labor, and
maybe a couple of thousand pages of my rhymes
And your brain's just a cage with a mind locked inside
it unless knowledge itself gives proper perspective
To see how the politicians keep the dollars protected,
my namesake is not confined to scholarly methods
To reach the mass, never preached the way they teach in
class, sleep-walkin' half-dead spirits leaving fast
If you never had your ass beat, brah, you can't speak
about non-violent protests and other such mythology
Watch how the quantity leads into quality deep beyond
the reaches of your Babylon economy
I speak solemnly; I seek equality, my people celebrate
life despite poverty
Fuck the false prophecy, promising we'll all be free,
as long as we fall in line with the flawed philosophy
And mystery, God's eternal afterlife in Heaven, while
living in Hell, where the militant dwell
Now the ranks start to swell in the hoods and jail
cells, lock down the campus cause it's right to rebel
No uprising fails, each one's a step forward toward the
victory up at the end of the trail
We crack jokes while singing the blues, and rock like
the stone that the builder refused
To all area crew, who carry the world on their
shoulders, on some atlas shit, this one's for you
206, rock rock on, The proletariat, rock rock on,
Beacon Hill, rock rock on
Now the hustle on the corner set the struggle in stone
My compatriots and comrades engaging in combat, trying
to stay sane up in this land gone mad
Give me two bucks and take a puff and pass my bong
back, nearly 3 years and they're still up in Baghdad?
Battle-raps, 85% talkin' this-and-that, quit that,
insecure petty little man
Get a manicure and tan, B, amateurish candy raps, it's
hilarious, I'm laughing till I can't breath
Can it be that it was never simpler than now, consumers
waitin' for a magazine to set the style
The critical instead begin to organize quietly,
underneath the sugarcoated surface of society
My purpose as of now is serve the people to the
fullest, knowing that my name is somewhere written on a
bullet
The beats that I inherited, and rhymes in my
chromosomes, passed to my seed, I call him my
cornerstone
We crack jokes while singing the blues, and rock like
the stone that the builder refused
To all area crew, who carry the world on their
shoulders, on some atlas shit, this one's for you
New people ya'll, rock rock on, real changed men, rock
rock on, the next generation, rock rock on
Now the hustle on the corner set the struggle in stone
We crack jokes while singing the blues, and rock like
the stone that the builder refused
To all area crew, who carry the world on their
shoulders, on some atlas shit, this one's for you
Central District, rock rock on, Hue District, rock rock
on, International District, rock rock on
(I don't know what to write… Oh well - Yo)
I offer nothing but the uncertain promise
That I'll honestly pursue the crooked path of the conscious
Not just another body in the battle for the soul
Never sold self for its weight in platinum and gold but
Man we're getting grown
Wisdom got us thinking in the interest of our children even if they ain't been given their flesh
Their bones
Their homes or their names yet
I'm aiming for the change in my pocket for the payback
The change augmented by the government to nothing
The change of a whirlwind unraveling the coming of that next shit
I can't wait for when it comes, shit
It better be worth the shit that I paid most my life with
It's nice when it rains sometime
Cleansing minds in my habitat
Imagine that I'm digging to find
What was hidden by the myth of a god up in the sky
Knowing that She meant for me to rhyme
So I
Give thanks to the most, the least that I can do
I wear this skin to find the me inside of you
When I dream that I'm dreaming I feel most alive
Sacrifice nights
Write to survive
Proper hand gestures conjure ancestors
Drinking from the bottle that was meant
For the message that was sent from the tired and the true
I give thanks to the most, the least that I can do
Way back I used to call upon the Father often
I fought the devil last night and almost lost –
Now I'm drinking bottled water
Flushing out the toxins
Vomiting and coughing feeling closer to the coffin
Than I ever had
Every morning that I arrive
Is a night that I survive
Just to be alive – sipping chai
Listening to my favorite DJ
Communicate the music, what my rhymes would say
If they were written
With a needle
To the groove
Of a paper
Stylus to papyrus, record to the player
It's more than just therapy or excessive energy
I undo the mechanism meant to imprison me
Spiritually
The view from up is not enough
I dwell below to find the god that I rebuff
Redesigned, redefineed what it meant to be divine
Knowing that She meant for me to rhyme
So I Give thanks to the most, the least that I can do
I wear this skin to find the me inside of you
When I dream that I'm dreaming I feel most alive
Sacrifice nights, Write to survive
Proper hand gestures conjure ancestors
Drinking from the bottle that was meant
For the message that was sent from the tired and the true
I give thanks to the most, the least that I can do
Our Father
my art is Heaven, hallowed be
The drums beating me and my tongue into submission
I can hardly speak breathing this indelible high
From an endless supply of Godspeed, and I need
A brand new prayer to read
Seems the old ones grew tons of mold cuz they're narrow as hell
Sometimes they be thinking that this heavens for sale
Worse than that, they still think God is a male
Moms used to hang up pictures of white Jesus
Fist clutching rosary beads, over the years
I began to question this Father Almighty
Made in His image but don't look nothing like me
But we be the children of the most high
Ghosts of the colonized lost in the time
Redesign, redefine what it meant to be divine
The Blue Is For The Color Of The Collar Of My Mother
And My Father Plus The Scholars That We Be,
The Blue Is For The Nighttime Moon, Swingin Tune
Of Every Bluesman Singin What Its Like To Not Be Free
I Want To Be The Come-To With Movin The Music Among The Masses
Hit The Spot Rock Upon Sight Like Medusa As The True Surpass The Wicked
Used To Sneak In Shows Without A Ticket
Till I Slowly Got Familiar With The Local Promoters
Hopin To Blow, Focused On The Open Mic
Not Claimin To Be The Dopest I Just Want To Be Noticed
To Find Producers In The Circuit To Work With,
For Certain It Was Hurtin At First Fuckin With Studio Virgins
To Purge The Wack, I Download The Upgraded Version
Now Performin Our Percussion
Constructed Up By The Persian Beatmaker Extraordinaire
You Talk About The Journey But Weâre Takin It There
Payin A Fair, Say It Again Said
Blue Is For The Color Of The Collar Of My Mother
And My Father Plus The Scholars That We Be
The Blue Is For The Water And Sky
In The Middle Of The Fire I Burn To Find The Light In The Darkness
The Blue Is For The Color Of The Bruise We Use To Be Reminded
That The Body Isnât Made To Be Timeless
Blue Is For The Ocean We Cross To Foreign Lands
Where We Work With Our Hands, And Home Is Where We Stand
Where The Poetry Swims, In The Lunacy Of Moonshine Light
Reflected Right Upon The Surface Of Skin
Verses Burst Out The Pen, Like It Hurt Not To Be Written
You Immature Amateur Writers Is Copy Kittens
In The Coffeeshop Kids Are Spitting Individualistic
Petty Bourgie Pseudo Revolutionary ??Bullshit??
??Or Miss This?? Resistance Is More Than Just A Fist In A Wristband
And Incense, That Wont Make You Free, Fuck A Bachelors Degree
Iâd Much Rather Defeat The Evil Thieves In My Scenery
Seemingly Detached, Indeed As We Proceed To See The Heathen Meet His Match
And Everything We Not Givin Up, We Take It Back
I Bleed Upon A Track, My Verse Written In Red
The Blue Is For The Balance Yes And Everything I Said, I Said
Blue Is For The Color Of The Collar Of My Mother
And My Father Plus The Scholars That We Be
The Blue Is For The Water And Sky
In The Middle Of The Fire I Burn To Find The Light In The Darkness
The Blue Is For The Color Of The Bruise We Use To Be Reminded
Microphone check, microphone check
I'm a blue scholar worker studying the art of labor to create
Flavor to relate to listeners, alleviate the danger associated with strangers
Isn't it strange how we estrange ourselves from our neighbors?
Enables us through music to connect, releasing fluids in our neck
With the rhythmic forward movement of our heads and back again
Indeed as we succeed the pioneers
Maybe give back all that we've been taking through the years
I bleed, for what I believe to be the truth, nurturing the seed planted in the fertile youth
The poetry, hangin from the branches eat the fruit
Pluck the most succulent, and suck upon the juice
So whats up with you, frequently they ask
Been hibernating writin till the last page cypherin the past days by
Bypassing the lies and the bullshit
Get up off the mic, and save it for the ??bull hit??
It's the blue school, class is in session
Ask us a question, cause class is in session
[x4]
I'm an exile, motherland stepchild, metropolis dwellin middle Americas prisoner of war
Combat the paper till the blankness is gone
Listen now, talk about the beat after the song
Astronomical, cause that is just a modest measurement
Of my ability to represent my family correct because I be about it,
Aint no other way to say it
discovered my potential when I stayed late to tape it in the basement
with an ancient karaoke stereo in lieu of a studio, we made due with everythin
layin around, and if I'm not mistaken isn't that improvisation what hip-hop Is all about
if you poppin at the lip then I will sock you in the mouth
sonically to render you the opposite of loud
apology accepted in advance, I think its kinda cool at one point
that you thought you had a chance
It's the blue school, class is in session
Ask us a question, cause class is in session
[x4]
a veteran's fate written on pages of mixtapes
I'm all about a government that citizens dictate
Sick of fuckin dealin with the presidents mistakes
To sit back and rant is just misplaced anger
So I cradle, pens, from now until the fable ends
Taken friends for granted, but now I've got to make amends
Callin out the big talk small walkin cowards
High above the ground yo we shakin out your tower
And demandin our money back, plus reimbursement
For parkin and shit, I put my heart in this shit
Yo my arteries connect to the amplifier wire,
Music make the flames in my inner fire higher
I reinvent the language in the image of a dancer
Contorting where the floor becomes an answer
Blue school graduate dog, after this last verse
When the revolution comes we're gonna shoot your ass first
It's the blue school, class is in session
Ask us a question, cause class is in session
[x4]
..strapped for protection, whatever you do
whatever you say, step up front. Be good at what you do.
With war rising over the horizon
It’s hard to start writing
Been fightin in the belly of the titan, my tourniquets
tighten around the livin’ but dyin’
My pen floods the pages while the children are crying
I want to put on an iron shirt, chase the devil out of
earth
Spit until my tongue and saliva glands burst
But first I invoke the spirit of the long gone and
coming back through the song
I am one with that all-seein’ being but
It seems as if we’re being tricked into believing that
which we think we believe in
Even if we disagree on who the best mc is,
We bob to the beat as if we’re nodding in agreement
I write to freedom, though freedom hasn’t come
I let it ring to leave a message on my answering
machine
I see a movement has begun
As soon as we become the true truth seekers
Down with this Babylon regime
To think you can die in the blink of an eye
I bid you to try, to test I & I (?)
Been destined to fly But I’m restin tonight
And one bright morning I will take flight
But until then, I’ll be rockin on the m
I see the future drippin out of a pen
If sleep be the cousin of death
Then every time I blink’s one step closer to my last
breath
It’s said talk is cheap, but war is expensive
I speak cuz it’s free and these words are my weapons
Don’t think for a second I will not question US foreign
policy, imperial aggression inventing war for he
quenching of the thirst for the oil
Cuz money don’t trickle down to workers who toil, you
Blood trickle down from the wounds of the soil
And broken antennas with aluminum foil
Standing on televisions, transmitting propaganda of
millionaire senators
And your so-called commander in chief, b, I’m telling
you the man is a thief,
In his head he holds a plan to ban your freedom of
speech,
To build a pipeline, put Afghanistan on a leash
When it bites back blame the Taliban for the breach
Of security in each and every first world country
Where life more dissin’ If you’re thirsty or hungry
To think you can die in the blink of an eye
I bid you to try, to test I & I (?)
Been destined to fly But I’m restin tonight
And one bright morning I will take flight
But until then, I’ll be rockin on the m
I see the future drippin out of a pen
If sleep be the cousin of death
Then every time I blink’s one step closer to my last
breath
America romanticizes the old war story
Heroes, ammos, guns, blood guts and glory
And no wonder the majority wants a war with Iraq
Even if only 15% know where it’s at on a map
With our backs against a stockpile of weaponry
Enough to turn the earth into a memory, ‘cept there’ll
No one to remember this planet
If it happens god damn it, if I get drafted today
I swear to God, Ja, Allah and Yahweh
I’ll toss the letter away and I’ll pull a Cassius Clay,
In the military
Minorities comprise the majority, Surprised? are you
kidding me?
The lies rely on brown bodies to fight for white puppet
masters
I cannot fathom how the caged bird drinks
Until he thinks he is free
A critical mass between the heavenly future, and a hell
of a past, now
To think you can die in the blink of an eye
I bid you to try, to test I & I (?)
Been destined to fly But I’m restin tonight
And one bright morning I will take flight
But until then, I’ll be rockin on the m
I see the future drippin out of a pen
If sleep be the cousin of death
Then every time I blink’s one step closer to my last
Yeah
Now uh
Turn off your radio
Turn up your stereo
Northwest rock rock on whats the scenario
Four years ago two students skipping class went and
crafted an album
Some called it a classic but
We've grown past it was good while it lasted
Now its time to put the education into practice
Beats rhymes rice be the breakfast of champions
We hold the whole town down together with the plan to
Hold the mic with compassion
Like Yuri did Malcolm
Travel down the coast since we dropped the last album
That plus one is how long we've been war torn
It's the return of the hard knock and the hardcore
From hard rock to hip hop the migration of flocks who
Once mocked what we ride for
It's side war, from side walks to billboards and stores
Telling all poor people that the world is yours
But this money is ours you can get a little back you
Start putting in hours you can widen the gap
But you can see it in the towers standing next to the
Squatters who be wandering the city in search of a job
offer
The first generation in the U.S. of A to get paid less
wage than the ones who came
Before the wicked waged war in a desert terrain
24 short bars couldn't measure the pain
So now i, greet the neighbor daily he's on his porch
smoking
Overhead thunderclouds moving slow motion
Came across an ocean in hope of some better days
Expatriated citizens of third world decay
Where children translate for their parents sake
In a landscape where the working class, can't escape
These languages twisted, tongues get unraveled
Can't understand each other in this modern day babel
Now we trying to get a piece of what the city broke
down
Barely claiming families but quick to claim the town
Recognize it's serious but ain't afraid to clown
Trained for confrontation there's no other way around
These sacred ground desecrators
They try to decimate us
They hit the ballot like the mayor's gonna save us
And it pains me to say this but pain is what made this
It's gonna take more than just rain to change this
And It Begins like...
And it begins where we left a brother chased after by
death until he catches his breath
We embarked upon a long march too weary to rest
Now tell me who would ever have guessed that at the top
of the west
A party rocker and a poet might collectively have
written another chapter in this fight against this
self-described Right, but not righteous
Its highly unlikely we'll take it lightly when 1000 of
my compatriots are evacuating nightly,
From one ave to another, University to Beacon,
The body was never meant neither to last to be beaten,
But Buddhas in the streets teachin' a lesson to kids in
the cold,
And if i tell all of mine there’s other stories to be
told, had a lot of good brothas either my age or
younger,
Who copped the 1st album when it dropped now gone
under,
And they say progress but the fact is, Dr. Martin
Luther King's legacy lookin like the street we named
after him Permanently under construction, the people
hustlin'
Despite the pain and sufferin' The energy we've
mustered in
South Side Seattle there's a whole lot happenin',
Where so called soul mates are stabbin' each other's
scapula's,
Melancholy hopeful I capture the present moment we
concimated the marriage of beats, rhymes, and
atonement,
In each mind resides a potential so potent they make us
think that we ain't got it,
If we did then we control shit
Organize and prioritizin whats important
I'm just tryin' to raise the scene while the homies
have abortions
No distortion to the static,
I hold the mic and pass it to the future schools in
session but there won't be any classes,
Happy to see family back, from ten months in Iraq,
For fallen comrades rockin' a black wrist band,
It's just a glimpse of what you missed when you gone,
We held you down and kept chanting now;
Bring 'em back home,
for my brotha's and my sista's who been gone too long
we say;
Bring 'Em Back home, and I don't want to have to keep
singin' this song,
We say; Bring 'em back home, for my brotha's and my
sista's who been gone too long we say;
Bring 'em back home, and I dont want to have to keep
singin' this song.
And somewhere a soldier kissed his family goodbye,
And he was walking like a warrior the water in his
eyes,
He left in late September said he'll be back in july,
Now the child is asking mommy "Why did Daddy have to
die?"
She says He fought for freedom, but she knows it's just
a lie,
Cause her father was a veteran with benefits denied,
Now the fire in her eyes burnt brighter with the
passin' of the minutes into hours and the hours into
days and,
Days turned to Night, Nights turned to facce the other
way, One sister strong holding down the whole family,
It's just one in over three-thousand casualties and
back home we battle with the apathy,
We chantin' now;
Bring 'em back home, for my brotha's and my sista's who
been gone too long we say;
Bring 'em back home, and I don't wanna have to keep on
singin' this song,
We say Bring 'em back home, for my brotha's and my
sista's who been gone too long we say;
Bring 'em back home, and I don't wanna have to keep on
singin' this song,
So next time you see recruiters in your school or your
crib,
Tell them thank you for the offer but you'd rather you
lived,
We got more than just our bodies to offer,
So fuck a coffin wrapped in red white and blue,
withdraw passed due
We disgusted with the fact we pay taxes to build tanks
Still dropping one twomp and a half to fill tanks
Got a china-mans chance to fill banks like Phil Banks
For soldiers in the future givin' thanks in advance
We say; Bring 'em back home, for my brotha's and my
sista's who been gone too long we say;
Bring 'Em Back home, and I don't want to have to keep
singin' this song,
We say; Bring 'em back home, for my brotha's and my
sista's who been gone too long we say;
Bring 'em back home, and I dont want to have to keep
November 30th, 1999
No sunshine
The body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby, somebody got shot
But parties don't stop and the parties don't care
It's a stick-up, it's why we got our hands in the air
Still demanding a share, refrigerators bare
'Cause they wanna see trade get free and not fair
But we are not blind, we are not there
We don't got time left to spare to not care
On the last day of November, swellin' in ranks
Went to chant down the mighty IMF and World Bank
A gathering of people in peaceful assembly
Onward to Westlake to disrupt the entry
Walk along steady, riot squad ready
To protect every last dignitary's ass
But this started when they herded us like cattle in a fence
Protesters gettin' restless without an exit
They threatened to arrest us, we pushed back and then
A hail of rubber bullets hit teens and old men
I admit, had to split when the first gas canisters hit
Felt it burn in my eyes, nose, and lips
They tried to blame it on the anarchists, garbage
I was there, I'll tell you right now the pigs started it
But they distort it in the news
Talkin' bout stompin' down Niketown wearing their shoes
But the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby, somebody got shot
But the parties don't stop and the parties don't care
It's a stick-up, it's why we got our hands in the air
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50, 000 deep, 50, 000 deep
Yeah, now, the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby, somebody got shot
But parties don't stop in the south
So take your shoes off when you come into my house
I had to duck out 'cause I knew I stuck out in the crowd
After many years growin' up brown in this town
Now this is what democracy looks like
Not what you all had in mind for tonight
Mr. Mayor, shell-shocked for 5 days straight
Press conference, lookin' constipated and pale
Tossed a homie in jail, wasn't even protesting
Wrong place, wrong time, learned a quick lesson
But this is not a question what we did to deserve this
Rich kids went and got arrested on purpose
But was it worth it? My first inclination
Globalization is the root of the pain
Made the reason that they left and the reason that we came
Catch my breath, blood pulsates my brain
And they called it a riot?
Huh, I call it an uprising
And they call this a riot?
But nah, I call it a uprising
And they call this a riot? Nah man, fuck that
I'm a call it a uprising
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets, yo
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets, come on y'all
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets, yeah
Yes, and we begin. Where we left off. Leaving off
where, pretty much began... March with me y'all.
On my 27th, round trip around the sun
Counting every blessing, reminiscing on the drum
But not for a second ever forgetting where I’m from
Others grip the gun my weapon is my tongue
In the military slum, maneuvered through the sewer that
the children called the river
We coming home to dinner make the kitchen smell sweet
And shorty felt the pressure on his shoulders but
really-
I jumped out the window whenever pops would hit me
An 8-bit Nintendo got replaced with the indo
Eventually, my pen would be the means to escape
Was 8 in '88 in the 808 state where the 808 kick was my
heartbeat
it got me in Honolulu Hawaii to contemplate a career
With no 'panoys?' kicking raps anywhere near except for
my peers
Fathers all gone the better parts of the year
At the shipyard watching mom wipe away the tears
It was hard but she stayed strong watching four kids
I can see how tradition make us do what we do
Like keeping things in plastic so that shit will stay
Some things we gotta lose some things are worth keeping
It wasn't all that but wasn't all peaches
i'ma teach my son to respect his elders, but not before
they give him respect first
Expect that on my 27th, round trip around the sun
Counting every blessing, reminiscing on the drum
But not for a second ever forgetting where I’m from
Others grip the gun my weapon is my tongue
And I still got cassette tapes with tape on top of 'em
Maybe I should auction 'em lately I’ve been rocking 'em
Some of 'em I copped but all the rest I went and
pocketed
Never was the talkative type.
After the chronic had dropped before the infamous my
sentiments penned
The beginning of the story where the logic begins
Went bargain bin digging the medicine made for
listening
Never afraid to question conditions that we were
leaving in
Even if we decided to live it up a little a bit,
underwear and socks what I mostly got for Christmases
And if you ever played ball with Chanelas on, this
one's for y'all
Cause once and for all, if you ever held a San Miguel
bottle in your palm
Or the blocks that you used to stomp upon are gone
Or the all of the above, then let this be the song
The steps might be short but the march is long, come on
On my 27th, round trip around the sun
Counting every blessing, reminiscing on the drum
But not for a second ever forgetting where I’m from
November 30th, 1999 . . . no sunshine
Yo, the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby somebody got shot
But parties don't stop, and the parties don't care
It's a stick up: that's why we got our hands in the air
Still demanding a share, refrigerators bare
Cause they wanna see trade get free and not fair
But we are not blind, we are not there
We don't got time left to spare to not care
On the last day in November, swellin' in ranks
Went to chant down the mighty IMF and World Bank
A gathering of people in peaceful assembly
Onward to Westlake to disrupt the entry
Walk along steady, riot squad ready
To protect every last dignitary's ass
But this started when they herded us like cattle in a fence
Protesters getting restless without an exit
They threatened to arrest us, we pushed back and then
A hail of rubber bullets hit teens and old men
I admit, had to split when the first gas canisters hit
Felt it burn in my eyes, nose and lips
They try to blame it on the anarchists, garbage
I was there, I'll tell you right now the pig started it
But they distort it in the news, talkin' bout stompin' down Nike town, wearin' their shoes
But the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby somebody got shot
But parties don't stop, and the parties don't care
It's a stick up: that's why we got our hands in the air
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50, 000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50, 000 deep, 50, 000 deep
Yo, the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby somebody got shot
But parties don't stop in the South
So take your shoes off for you come into my house
I had to duck out cause I knew I stuck out in the crowd after many years growing up Brown in this town
Now this is what democracy looks like, not what you all had in mind for tonight
Mr. Mayor, shellshocked for five days straight
Press conference, looking constipated and pale
Tossed a homie in jail, wasn't even protesting
Wrong place, wrong time, learned a quick lesson
But this is not a question what we did to deserve this
Rich kids went and got arrested on purpose
But was it worth it? My first inclination, globalization is the root of the pain
Made the reason that they left and the reason that we came
Catch my breath, blood pulsates my brain
And they call it a riot? Huh... I call it an uprising
And they call this a riot? But nah, I call it an uprising
And they call this a riot? Nah man, fuck that, I'ma call it an uprising
808 808 808 80
808 808 808 80
And I came with an accent, I said, "howzit?"
Surrounded by town folk who clowned it
Why? 'cause I'm fresh off an island
Miles from the 6 with a smile and a childhood
Raised from bowels of military housing
The place that I grew, mo' slippers than shoes
Bunch of fools sitting wishin' in school
With a principal who never saw no talent
Dreamt of a crib like Iolani Palace
Pre-Lili'uokalani legendary status
Every hand grabbin' for the sky like Jimmy
"Superfly" Snuka and in his prime fuck a lime light
Gimme sunshine and mic and I'm fine
Life been defined by nights under skies
Next to the live[?] where the sea meet land
Got both feet planted in the sand
Like damn bra I've been missing all that, so I had to go back to the island like that
And now it's flash forward on a track gotta liberate my people
Like Haunani-Kay Trask
Breathin' a breeze when I ease way back in a jeep
With the top and the seats lay flat
Yeah I got heat 'cause every time I speak
I keep burning like a haole on a beach, why?
It's the 808 love
Like '88 playing tapes, bass in the trunk
It's the 808 kick
That shit's so sick it makes your heartbeat skip
Like this
It's the 808 love
Like '88 playing tapes, bass in the trunk
It's the 808 kick
That shit's so sick it makes your heartbeat skip
Like this
I raise hell when I blaze well
And we made next door feel sorta like Blaisdell
And I came directly from the place
Seen a whole lotta homes erased
Faced with a ice epidemic so large it'll put global warming on pause
Warning all frauds
No its not a walk on the beach so
Don't come thinking shit is sweeter than a sugarcane tree
'cause when a beat drops bra
Don't blame me and now you wanna curse like Interstate-3
News flash jerk! Hawaii ain't free
And I vowed on the day I became an MC
Never not say what I made to speak from
The same rock Barrack walked and breathed
It be the smoke signals from them wowee trees
And more information is what we need
If you ever came up rocking Swap Meet tees
Or you stay havin' red stains under your feet
In a spot this hot everybody stay cool
Peace to the crew while the light sleeper too
Late night wonder under the moon
I got hot sex on a platter for two
And yes I'm talking to you miss 808 love
The best damn place on the world to wake up!
808 love
808 808 808 80
It's the 808 kick
That shit's so sick it makes your heartbeat skip
Like this
It's the 808 love
Like '88 playing tapes, bass in the trunk
It's the 808 kick
That shit's so sick it makes your heartbeat skip
good evening yall
im a tell yall a story
so I was walking around henhay park, right
sun was goin down, we gettin off of work late
and I run into this, this man, this old man, and he tells me
for my seeds well being, I declare war
hacienda louicita, I declare war
for the last five hundred years
been in a war to make sure that we never see five hundred (torn?)
I won't rest till my story been told
I won't rest till my story been told
come on
I won't rest till my story been told
what
I won't rest till my story been told
the wicked try to justify to keep what they stole
it eats at their souls, guess they reap what they sow
competing with your brother for the love of the dough
but we know we own nothing so we claim it for show
who got the guns and the gold, who left us out in the cold
white wilderness I travel while im searching my own
its why I'm flippin a poem like it was written in stone
it's for the children seeking answers to the questions at home
this ain't no neo soul even though its subtle and slow
the political is personal you suckas should know
its why my body wont rest until my story been told
I wont rest until my stories have been told
I wrote the scroll flipped the script broke the mold
but my people ain't free we just sat on parole
my collection of records is for my son when he's grown
he'll appreciate the now when we call it the old
these Americans forgettin' that they live on a globe
the same planet as those left abandoned it droves
kept in bondage by the chain of a creditors loan
their money is like a bboy stance, it stays froze
I prose what the world decomposes to show
the conditions that's depicted up in "Hustle and Flow"
from drafted to casket these soldiers come home
my craft spit the magic off the top of the dome
I'm walkin alone, often get exhausted and blown
only six feet separate the coffin and throne
you cavemen insist on callin' sisters a ho
you aint equipped to paint a picture of the city I roam
around in circles on the back of metropolitan joe
rejectin' all your dogma keeps my karma in tow
provolone chasin pipe dream and people to blow
the created could never pay the creator what they owe
working 'til the bone cracks over timezones
push the pen to the paper nose to the grindstone
I won't rest until my story been told
I won't rest until my stories have been told
I wrote the scroll flipped the script broke the mold
one chapter closed but another unfolds
one chapter closed but another unfolds
said one chapter closed, the other unfolds
I want to say to the fam, friends, supporters worldwide,
if you identify with the hustle in this struggle,
There he is, got me feeling like this, like this, like that
Now listen here, before I disappear
If apocalypse is near, never fear
Lapu-Lapu with the spear
Girl I got you with the beer, so
Cheers to my folks, oh my chariot is here
Gotta go, gotta go
Gotta whole lot of poems and I scrolled them on a bus stop
Turn em into gold like Manny with the gloves, or
Midas with the touch, I told them not to fuss
Got my mind on my money but the money's not enough
What-what-what-what with a piled up debt not arrivin' yet but I bet you'll see that soon
Bullshit we do for the change and a buck or two, it's nothin' new
But a change gon' come and it ain't no fun
No butter, no guns, nobody to run to with a "Check, one, two"
I hope this god damned check come though, come on
New people comin' through, you better move when we come
Watch 'cause here we come
New people
New people comin' through, you better move when we come
Watch 'cause here we come
New people
(Oooh)
We be that new, new people that
(Oooh)
We be that new, new people that (that, that, that)
(Oooh)
We be that new, new people that
(Oooh)
New, new people that, new, new people
Now listen here, before I disappear in the air
It's truly been a pleasure doing music for my peers
Let me make the signal clear
We livin' on a prayer
So take my hand and we'll make it, I swear
I swear that-eh it's getting hotter outside
'Cause it's all about time like Slaughterhouse Five
'Round the globe, Mr. International
Capture souls at his shows
And it shows, they takin' off their clothes (ha ha!)
Everybody sayin' "Yes We Can" in a time that you can't do much
I guess that's just what it is when a bank and a market bite the dust
Plus can't fall back on a man with a suit, with a plan all by himself
Gotta have health, gotta act stealth
And a skill called "learn how to tighten your belt" (ha!)
New people comin' through, you better move when we come
Watch 'cause here we come
New people
New people comin' through, you better move when we come
Watch 'cause here we come
New people
(Oooh)
We be that new, new people that
(Oooh)
We be that new, new people that (that, that, that)
(Oooh)
We be that new, new people that
(Oooh)
New, new people that, new, new people
(Oooh)
Uh, uh, mmm, mmm? mmm? yup, yeah, uh
Those who front an' don't really want trouble
Step to the side like an S1W
The NW north of NWA's place of origin
Originators of the first general strike
Roots of our labor is thick
Still awaiting the fruits of our labor to get higher than a 747 jet
But when we say, "now," they say, "not yet"
They don't feel it, but give it respect
There's no hard feelings more paper to collect
Though I can care less
Family is fed, clothes on they back, shelter over head
When debts climb higher than paychecks can reach
Whoever asks next for a free CD will catch a bad one
Trust this, believe you, me
Probably tens of thousands of people just like me in a town, in a town
In a town not big enough for ego to breath
You plead unity but never build the bridges between
And if you travel to the next town
You might find that shit's surprising
They all act just like us
Carrying the legacy of people divided
Plagued by infighting and tight knit surviving
People on the outside look and write about it
Choose the safe route to fit they own palate
Ignore the rest at the same time the rest get restless
And blame it on the other's success
It gets twisted
Crab in a barrel existence
Where no amount of noise make the powerful listen
Power's within us all, pistols are drawn
We about to shine like Mr. Sinister's arm
And the songs that they sold to the devils are gone
We all vagabonds, home is whatever we stand upon
Take a picture, they'll last longer
I think they forgot that songs last forever
It's a whole lot of cheddar at the top now
Fuck tryna climb up, let's bring the top down
Uh, uh
I got my mind made up (c'mon)
So make yours
'Cause day's up, I'll be back on tour
I wanna go somewhere far
Where nobody knows who the fuck I are (nope)
Halfway there from a rock to a star
Where you can go places without no car (vroom)
And everybody get free drinks at the bar (hey)
And if you don't drink, then it's all G bra
'Cause that means more for me and my lady (ooh)
Mr. DJ, can you play dakine, man
And we gon' keep dancing 'til the MC say "last call for alcohol"
I don't fuck with Patrón, that shit is expensive
Bottem shelf Cuervo, they can't tell the difference
But you don't gotta impress me lady, just walk my way when you hear me say
"Hello"
"What's good?"
"What up?"
"Hello"
I wanna take you to a place I know
"Hello"
"Hey"
"Sige"
"Ano"[?]
We'll get there fast then we'll do things slow
"Hello"
"Hello"
"Sup"
"Yo"
I come from nowhere with nowhere to go
"Hello"
"Yo"
"Hello"
"Hey"
"Hey"
"Really though"
"Mmm, oooh, ha ha ha"
Yo, I say hello when I walk
Say hello when I fly
Say hello when I talk
Say hello when I drive
Say hello to all my people who've been workin' all week
Say hello because I carry no contempt in my speech
Say hello to the yellow
And hello to the brown
Hello to all my people who've been holdin' it down
I say hello to all my ridas inside
See you up in the ride, it's all good
Say hello to your mom
I say hello to your girl, and she told me the same
Say hello to the players, hell no to the game
Only takes a moment to acknowledge the rain
Say peace to the cloud, say hello to the flame
Y'all hopin' for change, while the slogan remains
Say hello to my little friend, don't be afraid
Hello to all the babies we'll be makin' in time
I say hello, 'cause lately all I'm sayin is goodbye
"Hello"
"What's up?"
"Hey"
"Hello"
I wanna take you to a place I know
"Hello"
"What up"
"Whassup"
"Yo"
We'll get there fast then we'll do things slow
"Hello"
"What up"
"Hey"
"Ooh"
I come from nowhere with nowhere to go
"Hello"
"Hello"
Start calling it fuh (pho)
Back in the days when I was a teenager
Minimum wage earning, rocking an apron
I was pushing hella carts asking plastic or paper
To bastard ass customers plus most of us had,
Relatives working in the same supermarket
When boss wasn't looking rolled the dice on the carpet
In the lunch room, listening to Biggie and Nas
But not as much as Snoop, Forty Water, and Pac
Me, I rocked the Walkman instead writing rhymes
In my head often bored, I'd recite them outloud
And memorize a song long before I'd write it down
In lunch room freestyles is where I learned to clown
Plantation style (?), yellow, brown, black majority
Half the young cats either enlisted in the Army
Or the Navy or Marines, but I was having dreams
And I ain't even halfway there yet
It seems that we never get paid what our labor is worth
That's why we often in a daze on the way to our work
And when we get there, we can't wait to be out
So let me tell you what it's about
And now we never get paid what our labor is worth
That's why we often in a daze on the way to our work
And when we get there, we can't wait to be out
So let me tell you what it's about
The next place of employment's no better than this
My first day thinking this some fuckin' "Office Space" shit
But not me boss(?), these conditions ain't suitable
Hide the pen and pad, writting rhymes in a cubicle
Automated phone click, dial tone, phone(?) calling
Hoping for some gullible folks to take the offer
A mission for commision, tuition for college
"Please put our number on your do not call list"
Half the whole staff graduated with honors
And you're trying to tell me telemarketing's your best job option?
This shit is not poppin'
Working to the bone
Livin' at home
Facing up debt and student loans
Now the manager's a tool and a clown
But productivity increases anytime he's nowhere to be found
And this tight ass environment makes me want to hurl
Like watchin Flava Flav tongue kissin' old girl
Now we never get paid what our labor is worth
That's why we often in a daze on the way to our work
And when we get there, we can't wait to be out
So let me tell you what it's about
And now we never get paid what our labor is worth
That's why we often in a daze on the way to our work
And when we get there, we can't wait to be out
So let me tell you what it's about
The dotcom phenomenon, fuck the city boss
Stock Market falls down, hundred thousand's layed off
Got with Amazon.com, it had a lot of cross-dressers, goth cats, ex-cons, and single moms
On the elevator up, my Walkman on, flash a badge for security, the mark of the beast
But with skills to persuade through speech, you'd be amazed to see how many customer service reps are MCs
At each instance, different job descriptions
What kept a brother going was the music that I listened to
Initiate the day with an anthem to work through
Then the supervisor started blastin' Dave Matthews
Shit is bad news
Working for some assholes in suits, straight singing middle management blues
And so I quit on the last day of training
And when I got home my notebook was waiting
I said we never get paid what our labor is worth
That's why we often in a daze on the way to our work
And when we get there, we can't wait to be out
So let me tell you what it's about
And now we never get paid what our labor is worth
That's why we often in a daze on the way to our work
And when we get there, we can't wait to be out
Left, right left, check it out
It goes left, right, left and we're marchin' on
Ya'll can pop your collars, Blue Scholars poppin' collarbones
Molotov cocktail party at the White House
Fire in the home of the Oval Office, it's lights out
Alpha to Omega, Genesis to Revelation
The meek shall inherit but they're still miseducated
By the colonized mind idolized in America
New people's era once again break the barriers
To crush, kill, destroy
Stressin' over trying to find a job or just keepin' the one you got
Now war? Huh? What the fuck's it good for?
Absolutely everything that America has stood for
Some read a book but can't overstand one love
Like Radio Rahim's right hand
Two mics, two turns, two caps and no others
My hypeman's the spirit of my still-born brother
Goin' left right, left and we're marchin' on
Left, right, left, keep it up ya'll
Left, right, left, keep marchin' on
Left, right, left (check it out)
It goes left, right, left like a pendulum
Swingin' the momentum in the people's direction
I learn lessons never taught in textbooks or chalkboards
Sitting in the back of the class, the teacher talked more
Cock back the sound of the sickle-cell of you amateurs (?)
Skills below average, you will always be a challenger
I walk like a champion, talk like a champion
Wanna be somebody? Better get yourself some discipline
I spit good medicine, listen to the antidote
Clean the Clear Channel out your eardrums and throat
I wrote this manifesto for folks who can't afford most luxuries
And not those who boast that they're broke when they're not
Walk now, proud and tall, the occasional fall
It keeps me humble through it all
Now Geo's chillin', Sabzi's chillin', what more can I say?
We keep marchin' to the rythm
Goin' left, right, left and we're marchin' on
Left, right, left, Blue Scholars ya'll
“Hey Pete, why do we even write songs like this man? People ain't gonna change.”
“I don't know Bill, you know, uh, there might be somebody out there listening, you never can tell, you know?”
To the graduating class of 2000-whatever,
Congratulations past due, you deserve better,
Looking dapper in that cap and that gown,
You got fam snappin' flicks, clappin' loud in the back of the crowd.
Now the band playin' Pomp & Circumstance got you amped feelin' like a champ,
Class is out of session at last.
You've been patiently waiting,
12 years in the making,
Anybody who has doubted you is sadly mistaken,
With the paper with your name in Olde English for the taking,
So moms can bring it home to frame it and display it,
With the grade point average hanging over your head,
Brother sister please don't believe the bullshit they said.
Fuck the pledge of allegiance and arrogant teachers
But peace to the people who don't ever preach up in the front of a classroom
All day long, plantin' seeds of revolution,
We dedicate this song.
It goes one for the student who refuses to submit
And two for the teachers who are underpaid as shit
It's the next generation of miseducated youth
Who demonstrate the truth and manage to make it through
It goes three for the strikes givin' young bloods life
And four for the years you spent stifled inside
It's the next generation of miseducated youth- next time ask 'em for proof.
Now to the knuckleheads clowin' in the back of the class
To the teacher's pet monkey in the front kissin' ass
But most of all everyone else who sat between 'em
And questioned all the falsehoods your teachers believe in.
Up in hallways herded and locker territorialiasm up in assemblies
Nobody would listen, instead, rocked the mixed tape
And walkman to street with the headphones threaded from the pocket through the sleeve.
You received education through the music you heard,
Cafeteria tables enabled beats to occur,
Where students separated in cliques
The State of the Nation manifested up in high school politics.
History repeated, you read it to regurgitate.
Slave ownin', dead white men,
Folks you know they made curriculums designed to make obedient drones.
Bring your paper, but please leave your lyrics at home.
It goes one for the student who refuses to submit
And two for the teachers who are underpaid as shit
It's the next generation of miseducated youth
Who demonstrate the truth and manage to make it through
It goes three for the strikes givin' young bloods life
And four for the years you spent stifled inside
It's the next generation of miseducated youth- next time ask 'em for proof.
Hey yo we made it,
45 caliber proof,
And your teachers don't believe that you can handle the truth
But the truth is these suits can't stand it when youth
Begin to question the conditions and backwards traditions
As you recognize the threshold of negative stress
The crossroad between complete failure and success,
It's so necessary you pay attention in class
Never tell you the conditions in which to apply the math
Only 65% of your peers freshman year are still here
And half that total will move on
But three out of four will drop out in two years
Add it up and it equals some shit has gone wrong
Now the snakes gave the education budget roll back
"No child left behind" is just a backdoor draft
As you stand at the summit future facin' the wind
Now it's time to let your true education begin
It goes one for the student who refuses to submit
And two for the teachers who are underpaid as shit
It's the next generation of miseducated youth
Who demonstrate the truth and manage to make it through
It goes three for the strikes givin' young bloods life
And four for the years you spent stifled inside
I taste the evening and breath in the crisp pacific northwest air
As it's leavin' my lips crack the bits
This visual kiss, the Puget Sound
And the bluest of skies
Two sides of the abyss
This city was built on the backs of the brave
who gave up their home for a dollar a day
The same folks who rose up, demanded minimum wage
Unofficial slaves not given a page
a photograph or a paragraph written to claim them
Some got the nerve to say go back to where you came from
Same ones who stole the land from chief sealth
and then named the city after him
as if to say we honor you
Right after we conquered you and pillaged your home
Soil fertilized with indigenous bones
Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles and Quincy Jones
Japanese jazz now hip hop in home
At seventh and Jackson the microphone's open
Subvert a culture genocide seven years goin'
In the moment and the music
Time to show and prove it
Never will you see me be a Judas to the movement
Used to be a student of the beat until I mastered it
And then I set it free to let it be the energy
That I command when I spit,
illest shit heard out of mangled tight lips
I like sisters with hips,
I like sisters with hope even better than those
blow spirit through the smoke out my mouth and my nose
I pose questions like ‘why folks wear locs at night'
Either to look swass or the moon is too bright
These dudes with tight shirts and spiked hair
Hit up the late night Chinese joint with fanfare
Fresh off the club, one stumblin' drunk
Ain't worth my time, he's just a mumblin' punk
He be acting like a chump but he still my brown brother
Sister by your side dyed hair with fake eyes
Probably wonders why she attracts the fake guys
I sigh under south side night skies
My people, young brown and gifted conversely,
The people I belong to believe me it hurts me
to use the same fist that I raise against the system
to cock back and hit em
Getting all caught up in the movement and the music
Time to show and prove it
Never will you see me be a Judas to the movement
Used to be a student of the beat until I mastered it
And then I set it free to let it be the energy
That I command when I spit,
illest shit heard out of mangled tight lips
I like sisters with hips, I like sisters with hopes
even better than those
who blow spirit through the smoke out my mouth and my nose
And then I breath out my mouth and my nose
And then I breath out my mouth and my nose
I break bread over break beats
We make ends meet, with paychecks that only seem to last the week
I'll take half the blame for not saving enough
Instead of investing, digesting escape inside of a cup
My brother with the Asian flush painted on his grills
See another (?) sucker punch him over old girl(?)
Somebody's in the comfort room, eating with old Earl
Hurling chunks of dinner in the middle of the swirl
That's the price you pay to kick it with the liquor
To act a fool, talk shit, and blame it on our lack of inhibition
I'm drinking my last glass of spirits for a minute
The battle with the bottle and the bottle is winning
So liquor please, strategically abuses the weapon
And used by the natives making way for the settlement
Arrested the development of working class citizens
Capacity to fight back is limited
And frustrated men take it out upon their wife and little children
Seen it first hand in the building that we lived in
And chances is the kids will grow up to drink the pain away
Some will walk away from it all and be ok
But some will fall hard in a mad different way
In a future on the block in the middle of the day
With a tall can wrapped in a brown paper bag
It's a tragic ass story ya'll
It's the bottle
The bottle...
(Cut and scratched sample from Mobb Deep - Survival of the Fittest)
Lord forgive me, the Hennessy got me not knowing how to act
We grown folks, some of us graduated from college
Still unemployed and still ballin' on a budget
Pitching in a couple dollars for a gallon of some Rossi
Fuck a bartender, that shit is going to cost, g
And that's the routine almost every other day
Ain't trying to see my comrades, buried in a grave
So why it got to be so hard to take your car keys away?
And why my man wake up in his car the next day?
I kill a pack of Newports in one night
Intoxicated gun fight outside of the club
Delayed reaction might lead to your accidental assassination
No time for hesitation or waiting
I'm making an amendment to my rules and regulations
To suckle on the hard a., the boones, the booze, inebriation
It's the same way the rapists made them drink so they can take it
It's how the colonizer fucked the natives for their paper
And made the free slaves wear invisible shackles
You ain't invincible, You're just belligerent, asshole
Calm the fuck down before you catch a beat down
The next round is on me, I'll put some rocks in you're Crown
Get aquainted with the street
Taste the asphault and see this
Shit it ain't sweet, got laced with the beat
That remind me of the solitary trip to the bar
Hear we are, it's just me and the bottle y'all
The bottle...
(Cut and scratched sample from Mobb Deep - Survival of the Fittest)
Lord forgive me, the Hennessy got me not knowing how to act
Im fallin' and i cant turn back
Alcohol is all the lot of us had
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