Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television series, The Shield. Whitaker won an Academy Award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland. Whitaker has also won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA.
Whitaker was born in Longview, Texas, and his family moved to South Central Los Angeles when he was four. His father, Forest Whitaker, Jr., was an insurance salesman and the son of novelist Forest Whitaker, Sr. His mother, Laura Francis (née Smith), was a special education teacher who put herself through college and earned two Masters degrees while raising her children. Whitaker has two younger brothers, Kenn and Damon, and an older sister, Deborah.
As a teenager, Whitaker commuted from Carson to wealthy Palisades High School on LA's West Side. There, he was all-league defensive tackle on the football team quarterbacked by Jay Schroeder, a future NFL player. While in high school, he also took voice lessons, performed in musicals, and caught the "acting bug"; his first role as an actor was the lead in Dylan Thomas' play, Under Milk Wood. Whitaker graduated from "Pali High" in 1979.
Bird
A friendly push
Off the cliff - is all I need
A sudden change
Or a smile
Could make me feel alive,
Anything to take the ignorance away
There is a hole in my chest
where my heart used to be
If you're looking for emptiness,
I'm what you need
Colder and darker and worse
Sometimes life's just a curse
My ashen face
My snow-white skin
Perfect Isolation
Time - slips
My asylum years
Will end in silence
Without tears
All illusions lost
All colours faded
A senseless pain
Transparent
Imperfection
Falling
Like a sparrow to the ground
Leave no trace of life
Music as my ship set sails
Through the window
From the street
Divine
Goodbye
Leave no marks
upon my skin
Dreamless sleep
The convent walls on fire
Goodbye
Dreams and betrayal - hand in hand
Falling apart in a drug wonderland
Unable to move and talk
Unable to care at all...
Somebody is knocking at my door
Somebody - I think I have seen before
I'm trembled and shaken and stirred
If I was a bird
I would fly high over the world
Come home at night to your garden
Build a nest among the branches
And I'll comb your hair with my beak
If I was a bird
I would count my time in pearls
Under my wings you'll find shelter
You'll breed bugs and keep me well fed
And I proclaim the reason why I'll have to fly
But you wanted me to be a girl
Without feathers without urge
Then my wings quick disappeared
And left was only fear
And I proclaim the reason why I'll have to fly
Proclaim the reason why I'll have to fly
Hell Rell:
This for all my niggaz buyin' birds man
It's kilo talk for the hustlers
Mexico, Columbia, Peru
Holla at me man
Ruger
Hook:
Nigga come see me if you wanna get a bird
If ya money right nigga you can get a bird
Bird bird bird, muthafucka that's the word
You damn right I'm workin', you hear the birds chirpin'
(Repeat)
Verse 1
Hell Rell:
Yo I met this right Dominican, he put me in power
So now I'm sittin' on it, yeah a shit load of powder
100 thou for me after I pay my connect
So I called these niggaz up, tell 'em pigeons on deck
Tone came through, he be in P-8
Took two of them things off of me and went on his way
I threw him a extra one cuz I know he respect my gun
He'd be stupid not the have my paper
Cuz he gon' floss now and end up dead later
I'm movin' the pies, and my connect is the baker
Check this shit, I took one bird, broke it down for the small hustlers
Most niggaz is buyin' bricks, but not all hustlers
You got your 10 gram niggaz, 20 gram niggaz
Hustlers that's movin' slow and they only want a O
I need all that money, see that cake in my eyes
And I'll bring it right to you nigga and save you the drive
Ruger
Hook
Verse 2
Bucks:
Yo, I'm int he coke spot, gun in my hand
We call papi for four bricks, I got one in my hand
Numb in my hand, my lil' homie run in the van
Ran out the house wit' his Mac out stuffin' the van
I'm muggin' for grams, shit, that ain't new to me money
I got Peruvian cats that wanna shoot me for money
And lose me for money
Hide me in the dirt somewhere
Cuz I snatch wallets like papi got some work somewhere
Snatch his bird for a bird and we can work from there
I know there's birds in his crib, ain't it chirps I hear
And them ain't Nextel chirps I hear, I'm on my movie shit
This hoe callin' from the room I'm on my coochy shit
Duct-tape her, Uzi shit, tyin' 'em up
He move birds to the hood, them niggaz buyin' 'em up
So imagine some rich nigga not givin' me pies
Man my chickens come in a box like Kennedy Fried
Bucks
Sleeping softly like a bird
Doing only what she's heard
Thinking night is not right
She's always been on the lookout for a fight
I dream of you every night
You say nothing happens twice
I've fallen into you
And there ain't nothing I can do
Always hiding your smile,
Even though deep inside we both laugh
Perky smartass remarks
She even know my friends just see sparks
I dream of you every night
You say nothing happens twice
I've fallen into you
There are, there are some scars
That would make you cross eyed
Where we're going, I don’t care
If we'll ever get there.
You are, you are too kind
To be heading this far
Where we're going, I don’t care
If we'll ever get there.
If I can't make things right
I can't make things right
Were we're going, no one cares
If we'll ever get there.
I am, I am dreaming
Of a sudden crashing
When we hit ground, boy I swear
It looks just like back there.
If I can't make things right
I can't make things right
Were we're going, no one cares
If we'll ever get there.
When we hit ground, boy I swear
I am a bird
With pretty peppered wings
And green across my throat
Or maybe it’s more
Like emerald from the sea
Caught in a storm
Wings tired and torn
I sheltered in a tree
And everything did dance
As if the world was mad
Then came a groan
Like tendons and bones
Were torn and cracked and split
The tallest of them all
The river caught its fall
He was a man
With heavy gentle hands
He used to feed me grains
Pecking from his palm
He'd fill my head with praise
Then like a grub
Becomes beautiful
He disappeared and then
Came back as a bear
Oh, I never saw
Magic before
I know I will again
But until then
I'll wait my one
Until the day you come
Now he’s a fish
And I can't be with
Him so I'll wait instead
Where the river ends
I know that we’ll meet there
So now all I do
Is wait here for you
At this great oceans edge
I know that you’ll be
A bird the next time