Dear Dad, the class began, hands were held and arms were open
Moments stolen from the globe and life's blood was always spoken
One was chosen for another. Broke my will against your wisdom
Pushed my face towards the light so I could cultivate the vision
Made decisions for the unit. Hard times, you moved us through it
By each word and every movement, you're the one who showed me what truth is
Thanks for the blueprint passed down. I'll grip it by the cover
Plus you showed me how to love my wife by the way you treat my mother
And Mom, you sacrificed your body, scarred beneath the weight
To usher my soul into the universe, human contact, you were first
Through the worst I had to offer, caught his mercy in your stare
You were there. Patched my wounds an protected me with your prayers
Gave me food when I was hungry. Gave me love when I was empty
Gave me a look of knowing solitude when I said where God would send me
Thanks for the days and the nights, the laughter and the fights
Teaching me wrong from right, Mom, the first woman in my life
To my brother, thanks for the beatdowns and the harassment
In you I learned to express my views with heated passion
Followed your footsteps good or bad, so please get the facts straight
My big brother introduced me to this and gave me my first rap tape
I watched you grow up, thrive, prosper and self destruct
Find the jewel in circumstances that sucked but still you stuck
A husband and a father, a brother and a son
Kevin, I'm so proud of the man that you've become
Pam, Jeff, Billy, Cliff, Paine, David, Terry, Chris, Ricky
The names stick with me, the names stick with me
Jason Lee, Ben Heaton, Josh Cleveland, Eric Sartain
Trent Gibson saw the best and the worst I've ever given
Sintax, I'd bend back the sky and shift the balance
I thank you for your strong mind, your friendship and your talent
Your example to all that witness 'cause there's no "I" in crew
You inspire me brother 'cause I can see Christ in you
Dust, where to start? The art's answer to my question
Blessed from lessons together that's always led to progression
This profession needs your genius to show cats what it's about
You keep making the music and I'll keep running my mouth
Playdough, Harry Krum, enough heart for every alias
Thanks for helping me carry the torch as we take these kids
Listener, Illtripp, Fred B, Recon
Rabbi, Manuel, Sev Statik and Sivion
It's on until we change the face and finish what we started
I'm thankful that you're all a part of this
Yeah it's on until we change expression, finish what we started
Deepspace5, it's never stopping
Mary, I don't have the words to get across my feelings
I breathe a purer form of oxygen when I'm staring at your face
I can rise above my limits and break through this vaulted ceiling
I'm a better man today because you occupy my space
I hit the road, you hold it down and shun the glory
I'll be the mouthpiece for your heart and I'll tell the world our story
Thanks for bearing our children. Thanks for sharing your life
Thanks for saying, "Yes," May. Thanks for being my wife
To my daughters and all unborn and future seeds
I look at the world through your eyes and you always help me see
Inspiration in your innocence and the future in your face
I write these songs so I can make your world a better place
And that's all to say that all that I am is a collection of souls
That God has used to touch me. Changed a reflection
Made a man from a simple stick-figure
And if I've ever met you, then you helped him paint the picture..
[Verse 1:]
Put reverb on my vocals, I don't want to repeat myself
Like no one else before or after on the grill of the mic
Mars ILL, in the still of the night when the feeling is right
Look through the eyes of a planet, grip my pen and I write
For the children I fight, with force of millions I strike
But those willing to bite are winning the spotlight
It's not right. You feed the multitudes with 7 years of famine
Musical mentors span from Hanson to Marilyn Manson
I illuminate the path of the righteous when I'm lampin
Hip-hop's dope from the inside, How's it look from where you're standin?
Need a stand-in? Get your hand in, there's no real need for talent
Today's heads are overentertained and underchallenged
Keep it balanced the words you say behind the doors of where you stay
The sanctuary of your cage to the safety of the stage
Turn the page like Robert Plant and plant my feet on better days
Emcees who slept for days, you know they must be swept away
Far and away, few and far between what's dope and classic song
Where fly and fresh are automatic, that's exactly where I'm from
From beat breaks to the realms of deepspace where stars chill
The new edition, bump John Gill, it's Mars ILL.
[Verse 2:]
Keep your finger on the pulse of ink pumping through my veins
Thumbing through the pain, running in the seventh lane
The bane of my existence derails my train of thought
I bait the hook for the resistance, hope and pray that they'll get caught
Ought not step to my cypher, or get removed like a tumor
Crash in the sea of inexperience like JFK Jr
Sooner than Oklahoma, known to bomb your whole persona
On the works of God I meditate to break the way you wanna
Smoke your marijuana cash crop, move product on the blacktop
A genocidal backdrop, and cats still give you mad props
Track stops, rock on upon the rock beyond
Imagination's strongest station, frequency so you'll respond
I'm there for you to lean on like Morgan Freemon
Cooler than some freon, light up the mic device like neon
My word, it be bond, so Satan can simply be gone
El Shaddai commissioned, attack mission be three pronged
Go back and forth like ping pong with Dust the elusive
And sing songs of hope for the abused plus the abusive
Recruited to martyred on the cross of mass appeal
[Verse 1]
Building in a cell block, shocked at the mystery
Unlocked the misery kept inside his body's chemistry
And when he's by himself, he has to cry to keep on living
Reads letters from his children from far outside the prison
And it isn't enough that he didn't pull that trigger
Just a neighborhood fixture on the corner drinking liquor
A two-time offender who got caught up in the moment
Was close by when a robbery was operated sloppily
And somebody got shot and son was fingered in the line-up
Tossed into a 6x9, stuck because his time's up
Fine luck, had to beat a brother on his first day
To protect his own best interest in like the worst way
Blames the system that built jails instead of schools
Blames religion as a set of useless rules
Blames his father that he never even knew
Looks in the mirror. Yeah, he blames him too...
[Verse 2]
He starts to read books, an empowered resolution
Malcolm, Dr. King, Mumia and Huey Newton
Learns that nothing worth having is ever gon' be easy
He studies philosophy while everyone's watching TV
And after 33 weeks, he starts to do the science
Sees God's handwriting there underneath the fine print
It had been there all along just waiting for him to find it
But he'd been blinded by his time spent trying to fight it
But the spark ignited the fuel inside him
And now he holds the flame that burns the brightest
Because the slightest touch from the heavens can heavily change the tides
Or tip the scales to either side of the problems in our lives
He found faith in a cage and his mind's already free
And he can float through these walls far beyond what he can see
He sees his cell as a cross that he'll carry if need be
But of course his body wants to join his soul and be free...
[Verse 3]
So he's a new man, motivated to slice through the hatred
And radiate to those that play with death and want to take his breath
He'll make each step count for something greater
Understands that he can hate the game and still love the players
He shares his cell with another one-strike-too-many-type of Jon Doe
Who wants his rights back though
The conversation words flow and get kind of thorough
And it just so happens that they're from the same borough
From the same neighborhood, from off the same freeway
From the same ghetto and from the same PJ's
And Jon Doe knows how his situation started
How kids were busting shots at their local supermarket
On that one fateful night that changed our hero's life
And how he got knocked wrongfully and how it isn't right
But strangely, our man is calm and doesn't lose sight
He knows that he was broken so that he could find Christ
And for that he's thankful, no shank pulled got him
He's never felt so high while he was standing at the bottom
And after six months, a judge heard his appeal
Released into a city that becomes his mission field
He pulls a free breath that feels fresh despite all the smog
He used to hit the bottle but now he fights for God
And since he's seen it all, he can say what it's about
[Verse 1: manCHILD]
I push my pen past the breaking point, the point of no return
Past the pointed fingers, past the point at which you learn
Past ideas and perceptions, past lies and deception
Pass my life around the room to try to make the right connections
My obsession is this; past cash, past crime
Past beats, past rhymes, past life and past time
After time, time is money, time out, timing is everything
Your mind's my forty acres, on these fertile plains I'm settling
I'm steadily gold medaling in peddling what's the truth
Point my finger to the heavens and grip the heart to break it loose
I'd bear my soul to save the youth and place myself upon the altar
Make this world a better place both for my wife and for my daughters
And that's a hard lesson to learn, because mankind's so unkind
Like political prisoners who threaten the agenda of One Time
One rhyme can't change the world, so make no mistake
And that's just my point.yeah, that's the point I'm trying to make
[Hook:]
One rhyme can't change the world, but sill I'll never back down
Speak my peace on microphones and fade into the blackground
What's wrong has prospered too long, it's time to take it back now
Write what's right upon walls and fade into the blackground
[Verse 2: Sintaxtheterrific]
Sintax the backlit shadow box backdrop
Silouette of the sunset across the concrete blacktop
Bet He's more brilliant and beautiful than we thought
Burn fame on the fingers of flame from sunspot
Then bask in the black where the spotlight's not
Mic rock late at night so nobody can watch
Some serve in daylight, Christ taught behind the scenes
So I caught his sunstream with the sea of the unseen
Humility sunscreen, I thank God for anonymity
My geneology is a forest of family trees
More branches than a bank, thank you's to pass around
Put gratitude on paper, extend my words like verbal pounds
Remember my past like people in small towns
Regard simple truth and profound, then write 'em down
I've found I like to watch autumn leaves just fade to brown
They turn without a sound, I'd like to fade into the blackground
Then drown the well renowned, pound my pride until it backs down
Clown myself just so that Yahweh can abound
Soul Heir the manCHILD and Sintaxtheterrific
We ripped it for a lifetime, but we'll vanish in an instant
Blink once and you missed it
[Hook:]
What's wrong has prospered too long, it's time to take it back now
Write what's right upon walls and fade into the blackground
One rhyme can't change the world but still I'll never back down
Speak my peace on microphones and fade into the blackground.
[Verse 3: manCHILD]
I build this lifeline in the nighttime, hide my presence in this place
Anonymity's a witch, but I've grown acccustomed to her face
And it's broken, camouflage my emotions, chosen token
Spoken to those cold and frozen and watched new life awoken
Got that close to closing notion, overdosing on the ocean
No one knows this unsung hero, the dirt that makes the tree grow
But it's all right, I'm a peace in the puzzle like Bill Cartwright
Programmed to command the mic with deepspace5 all night
I'm the fly on the wall who's watching each and every bar fight
I'm the brick wall backdrop that's decorated in the starlight
Mars ILL, we do battle deep in the belly of the beast
And as the b-boy backspins, we be the cardboard that's beneath
See this wedding of art and science and let's all live and grow together
I'll choose to keep the memories and you can choose to buy the records
Maybe make that life better, leave that soul no longer vacant
And let the prejudice skeptics keep warm with blanket statements
With patience I set my paces on city streets of Atlanta
While my people being slandered by that false propaganda
Got answers, got questions, gotta teach and learn lessons
ManCHILD spits one rhyme and it tastes like sunshine
Holy, divine design, peace to the nines worldwide
Play my part to perfection and softly fade into the B-side
[Hook:]
One rhyme can't change the world, but still I'll never back down
Speak my peace on microphones and fade into the blackground
What's wrong has prospered too long, it's time to take it back now
Write what's right upon walls and fade into the blackground
Refuse to be pimped into a record label's cash cow
[Verse 1: sintaxtheterrific]
I'm a patriarch b-boy breaking bones in the park
After dark, my blows like body rock the beat within your heart
I've been sent to set apart, make the swift leg lame
Touch my hand to your hip to cripple physical frames
I'm braining body handicapping snapping judgment just the same
Entertain to leave ya'll limping pimping strut with a cane
The pain is incidental pencil spit in sentence fragments
Character gets crushed like catching hands in kitchen cabinets
Be breaking bad habits, turn the table on them
Manufacture compound fractures with the stroke of my pen
Sintax has spoken to men (kid gets me open within)
I leave you broken like Ken Swift doing cranial spins
Soul bend and break men sending bones through the skin
When words are fresh I'm ripping flesh, paper sheets or melanin
I tend to pop limbs out of joint with the points I make
Your soul's without control like overweights on roller skates
Correct mistakes, Sintax deflates fake over-inflated egos
On beaches in Brazil screaming, "Just Say No To Speedos!!"
In suburbs telling white kids they look stupid wearing corn rows
In Hugh Hefner's mansion tape recording over pornos
There's hurt before the healing and wreck before the rescue
Dirt before the cleansing and dark before the view
Wrong before redemption, hip-hop to break your neck
Cuz God gives us life to live once we got no life left
[Hook]
[Verse 2: manCHILD]
Mind, body and soul heir squares off in circles
Tear kicks and snares to pieces and shreds while breaking bread
Bred to break you, no mistake dude, take 2 fake crews
Deepspace you to your face too, like an earthquake when I make moves
Leave you naked like He made you to longer hide things
Masked as bright schemed politics from the left or the right wing
Spiked words do the right thing, lust for chicks in tight jeans
But it's all obviously faker than a Van Damme fight scene
Your mind's a white screen, the underworld's projecting pipe dreams
Wise mic fiends contact you with bone cracking fractures
Sintaxtheterrific spits rage amaze-on
Just to warn you cool cats the thin ice that you skate on
Levels dangerous like radon, laced with syntactical blows
Expose heads like photos to Jehovah, broken at His feet
Rock hard like concrete to glorify the Most High?
Regardless, I rip flawlessly raw like e-coli
I've been told I ran wild, but still my die hard fans smile
For that drop-you-where-you-stand style, soul heir the manCHILD
I AM stands miles above the current lifestyle that you've chosen
(Verse 1)
It's the beginning of the 9th inning and I'm winning, you'll find me mind-
bending inside of each five-minute time limit, and it's documented, we're
breaking bones of contention, fine tuning what's spinning and expanding my
dominion, these upper-handed dimensions all contributed to the folklore, got
rappers raising their standards, fans demanding what they'd hoped for,
cramming letters in a bottle. We'll just call it a test tube, my style is
Aristotle mixed with Krush Groove (So Just Move!) and watch my verses cut
through when you hear the words I Love You, break off a piece of my heard
tucked into every record groove and you'll walk different in these corrective
shoes, but you'll recognize the revolution and act out what most don't get to
do, you'll take what's meant for you, no longer survive on what they pass
down, win or lose, you'll live your life knowing you never backed down,'cause
man shall not live by the bottle alone, I keep a fist raised to the sky so
you can follow me home, it goes?
(Hook)
If you know like we know, BREATHE SLOW, BREATHE SLOW?(repeat)
(Verse 2)
Until my body cracks the pavement and shakes the face of the basement, lacing
the foundation with scars that sacrifice is bound to leave, break inner-city
boundaries so suburbanites are down to see, this cultural way of life and how
music is more than sound to me, but freedom's lungs are heavy from pushing
these smoke signals out, and we've become so disillusioned that we're scared
to notice, the eviction notice speaking its clout with screams and shouts,
but trust me, clarity's waiting there on the other side of your focus, so
snatch the breath from blasphemy emphatically, transform naturally, control
the art before it masters me, Breathe Slow and hold the hand of whoever you
can reach for, touch the ones you've never seen before 'til the common good
is restored, 'til the homeless are all execs and capitalism yields to
ethics, 'til janitors live in mansions and school teachers can push a
Lexus, 'til beef is deaded and debt is erased or collected, 'til the projects
and country clubs are now and forever connected, I'll speak my messages 'til
they get it, until you're touched by something sacred and love is all that
you're left with, blessed is the head that shares the crown that he
possesses, consider yourselves my brethren and this song is my
confession, 'cause man shall not live by the bottle alone, I keep a fist
raised to the sky so you can follow me home, and all your problems can't be
solved by one call on the phone, I keep a fist raised to the sky so you can
follow me home, it goes?
(Hook)
(Verse 3)
Right before you rock a show, BREATHE SLOW, when a promoter owes you dough,
BREATHE SLOW, when your career doesn't blow[up], BREATHE SLOW, you bounced
five checks in a row, BREATHE SLOW, if you're tired of being po, BREATHE
SLOW, you can't see the status quo, BREATHE SLOW, you got more cons than
pros, BREATHE SLOW, you got fisticuffs to throw, BREATHE SLOW, Ayo, your boss
told you no, BREATHE SLOW, say Mars ILL told you so, BREATHE SLOW, you gotta
suffer to grow, BREATHE SLOW, shine your light until you glow, "BREATHE SLOW"
Verse 1
Love. What is it? A solid or a liquid?
The question resonates from inner space to outer limits
Outer space to inner city dwellers timid, not committed
Love just isn't built on child support and weekend visits
You kill it like strychnine when you treat it like a cancer
You don't feel it so you spend time seek pleasure, not the answer
In clubs peeping dancers in a jacked-up type of manner
Stuffing g-strings with dollars that should buy your baby's Pampers
Love's not waking up with different women every morning
Love's not beating her down at nine months, with child forming
Love's not leaving your wife and your seed with no warning
Love's not, and when it's raining its pouring
Scoring no points you smoke joints, and toke your life away
You might have another year or two but you really die today
Display respect for yourself, or you can't love nobody else
The hand you're dealt requires action, not just something you felt
Chorus:
I know what love is and it just don't stop
but I can explain it better when I say what love's not.
Yeah I know what love is, and it just don't stop
But I explain it better when I can say what love's not.
Verse 2
A house divided against itself is prone to utter desolation
So for this generation on the brink of extermination
I pour out a libation, a lyrical libation
In observation of the annihilation of the moral foundation
The desperation of the situation was clearly foretold
That in these last days the love of many would grow stone cold
And if hell is without love
Then all hell has broke loose in this culture
Feel the negativity circling overhead like a vulture?
The inverted priority of the majority, squander the sacred
To give what's profane seniority
And incredibly we fail to see collectively
The reasons why things fall apart like leprosy
Passion is the fashion taboos are taboo
Do you see through this voodoo
Cause it stinks like doodoo
Yo it's sad but too true how many don't have a clue
To the fact we'll be judged for all we think say and do
From east to west coast and all areas in between
Real love is like a ghost -- talked about but rarely seen
Except on TV screens where they flash these caricatures
That on the down low are meant to influence our characters
But love is not love if it's manufactured for the moment
That makes it more than the physical between a man and a woman
Wisdom is justified by her children in the end
And real love is being willing to lay down your life for a friend
Chorus
Verse 3
Love's not caught in mug shots or seen in drug spots
Love's not sex or who you do next Love's not
Road rage, porno pages in the eyes of a racist
Loves not whoring and love's not abortion
Of course then love doesn't bomb clinics to make it finish
Love's not hate and love's not a cynic
Love's not seen on Jerry Springer or expressed by middle finger
And love is rarely captured in the words of any singer
Love's not domestic violence saying shut up or be silent
And love's not represented in the way of the police sirens
Abandoned children in abandon buildings
Random killings, love's not slow to help you, love is ready and willing
Love is patient and kind, love is sight for the blind
Love was borne before the morning, love's transforming your mind
Love is body and blood, bread and wine, remember the time
Love is God divine, crucified for mankind
i live the high life with lowlifes who want life to go
down the middle of the marketplace where souls are bought and sold
in rap olympics, forfeit when the starting pistol sounds
make my words like safety nets so i can catch heads on the way down
found limits the breath that i breathe in this life that i lead
it's where the city's smog infested skyline infects my lifetime
bring sentences to life like, "see spot run across the freeway"
you can catch it on the fox news instant replay
i start the finished product minus the first sign of a blemish
trek towards the infinite if i can break this line of scrimmage
skywalk through clones attacking me, myself and samuel jackson
to live life firsthand 'til the second hand is reversed
blurred words written down, world wishing i'd curse them out
so they can call me a hypocrite and disrespect what i'm about
flirt with disastrous methods, lessons pressed on earthquakes
make soundtracks for your life with every move that i make...
my life moves and it changes and it grows
my life, i fight for life throughout the highs and lows
my life is sacrifice, open wounds and broken habits
my life, come here, take a second look at it
my life moves and it changes and it grows
my life, i fight for life throughout the highs and lows
my life is just a token, a tool for you to see with
it's my life, but here, you can take it if you need it...
i got my mind on my money that i buried inside the backyard
slaves to the industry push the plow, get their backs scarred
i'm thinking how to snatch your shotgun before you shoot it
the mountains are all snowcapped but the beaches are all polluted
i still walk the narrow path tightrope style, eyes open to the trials
while most of ya'll stay in denial
hold on like a child to what's real, the rest falls by the wayside
trace the hands of time to touch the face of el shaddai
but some of ya'll don't play right, you bite backs and attack life
my back to the wall, eyes glued to the eyes of christ
that's right, fan base is where open ears can listen
bump big business, my fast ball shatters the competition
win at least the division for the vision and still insisting
that we can gain the power, run the labels and make the decisions
my life, write songs for you and the people on your block
it'll blast on 88 whether the majors want it or not
just breathe. breathe in the pain that comes with the growing
kiss the ground i walk upon and thank my god for the whole thing
take the bull by the horns because i gotta do something
a nation of manchildren is now under construction...
my life moves and it changes and it grows
my life, i fight for life throughout the highs and lows
my life is sacrifice, open wounds and broken habits
my life, come here, take a second look at it
my life moves and it changes and it grows
my life, i fight for life throughout the highs and lows
my life is just a token, a tool for you to see with
it's my life, but here, you can take it if you need it...
i've slap-boxed with my brother and broken bread with whose buying
crouching tiger to hidden gratitude, impossible for me to see
the divine schematics or divide the triune through mathematics
stand with a mic in my right hand with the left clutching a crucifix
i haven't felt this worn down since i last listened to ludacris
but i'm born new every morning, look in the mirror asking "who is this?"
see the battle scars i've earned, oh yeah, i remember now
i'm the one who builds 'til walls are torn down, so what now?
the crowd disperses, dry wit falls off my person
manifest destiny, show my faith through action in remixed versions
dress the wounded with compassion no matter who's the victor
expose the world to the son's light and i hope they all get blistered
a mystery of life lived and you can't know until you live this
'til you fall on your face everyday and ask him for forgiveness
hide my rage where i can't find it 'cause it always keeps me blinded
i'm still living my life and this here is just a reminder...
my life moves and it changes and it grows
my life, i fight for life throughout the highs and lows
my life is sacrifice, open wounds and broken habits
my life, come here, take a second look at it
my life moves and it changes and it grows
my life, i fight for life throughout the highs and lows
my life is just a token, a tool for you to see with
(Verse 1)
I got seven ways to say something different
If you're allergic to the truth, then I suggest you keep your distance
Plug your ears and listen to the sound of a hard heart
Whose trust was pulled one too many times by these card sharks
I spark a charge that darts across the charts
Set far apart from the garbage they're calling our art
I start a lot of controversy. Afraid that we're dissing you?
From the big willie cats to the underground and miniscule?
Honestly, it's anyone polluting the subliminal
If that's you, retribution is unconditional
I'm willing to commit career suicide
If I know that it could fill all your emptiness inside
But I'm confident that top-billing and ripping the veil
Is my job and heart throbs with all it entails
Can't fail, found success when feet hit the trail
Dues paid? Yes y'all, check's in the mail...
(Hook)
It's all about timing and it's about time
To get inside your spine and change your state of mind
You waiting for the music that you need to remember?
Forget all the rest, 'cause that's when we enter
Right about now, we step into your space
Run up on your intellect and look you in the face
Are you tired of being lied to? That's all we're asking
It's time for a change, Mars ILL, enter the dragon...
(Verse 2)
We did a show but nobody showed up
We did another couple. Ten people came to show love
Not trying to blow up, just need to make this music
Can't explain it. It's just like I'm breathing when I do it
Keeping muted's not an option. It's more like a death wish
Got verses trapped inside and I gotta let them exit
The curse I'm blessed with, I consider very precious
Proceed with caution. This could crack your solar plexus
Next, we did a few hundred shows in a row
Hit the road time and again and watched the revolution grow
Keeping it moving to help you establish what's what
Watch the masses mouth the words to "Sphere" and "Love's Not"
Wait at the bus stop with agenda in hand
Yelling, "Bust shots in the air, not into your fellow man!"
Tell a friend, tell a foe and I'll tell a few of mine
We can change the whole world one soul at time...
(Hook)
(Bridge)
M-A-R-S-I-Double L
Rocking the bells, so go home and tell
Everyone on your block we got records to sell
M-A-R-S-I-Double L
M-A-R-S-I-Double L
Rocking the bells, so go home and tell
Everyone on your block who taught you how to spell
M-A-R-S-I-Double L...
(Verse 3)
Yeah, you talking loud, but you ain't saying no thang
Throw slang across the map and watch both coasts change
Grow fame one step at a time. Start with no name
"Breathe Slow" banging in the front row sang by
Everyone who came to the show, change the old game
See everybody doesn't flow the same
So take your gold fangs and fronts and say what you want
But understand that I've held your number from the jump
It's something sort of resembling your new favorite record and rap group
Grab raw skill and toss it at you
Get under your skin like a tattoo with permanent results
That's provided you have a pulse
Full of useful information on life, love and hatred
Learning from mistakes, the breaks and proper placement
Knowing when to dish it out and knowing when to take it
(Verse 1: Pigeon John)
I live on the road, a modern day hobo
Trained to eat quick and expect the low blow
Get what you can from a dried up hole
In the land of the lost, cowboys in the sand
And my soul is the coal, and my life is the flame
And it's burning to earn all the lights and the fame
And it's turning to ash every step towards cash
And I'm losing it fast so I mash on the gas
But it's too late
My fate is a broken-hearted freshman even before my first date
And I smile at my call, another yes, yes y'all
With every summer, there's fall
So I just rock in my chair while they rock to the beat
A whole trainload of fresh meat
And it's so sweet how they dream, their young hearts beam
But they really don't know what it means, but they will though...
(Hook)
(There by subway train)Another day booked, I'm a fish on a hook now
(There by subway train)It's too late to turn out my ride 'til I die now
(There by subway train)Hitching a ride into town with my hands out
(There by subway train)I gotta go now, gotta go now, gotta go now...
(Verse 2: Manchild)
Took my car to the MARTA station, train to the airport
Feet to the bare floor, fists to declare war
Fame as a flare, tore pain from your stare
Used the game as a springboard, my name's at your in-store
Kick to the snare drum, get here to there, son
They stick to the chair like chicks that get their hair done
Spit this to spare none, rhyme liquid in rare form
Commit to prayer born, brought heat to stay warm
Rap is my two cents, backed by the movement
Sacrificed my words to give you Pigeon John and Blueprint
Pleased just to thank you, hang with a strange few
Five to the Deepspace, stay the same just to change you
Pen to the notepad, mind to the starshine
Knee to the groundwork, 'cause right now is our time
Plane to the down south, MARTA to the train stop
Walked to the car and drove back to the block...
(Hook)
(Verse 3: Blueprint)
Are we there yet? Let me know, I'm feeling restless
From traveling up what feels like stair steps
And I hope it doesn't make me weak when I start to question
How far I'm willing to go to deliver this message
But the point of no return is where we're all at
It's easier to push forward than to go back
And since I can't go back to life before rap
I'ma play this game and boost all my stats
I was born at a time when you earned respect
For the rhyme and the way you made words connect
Not the money that you made or the girls you sexed
A concept you obviously haven't heard of yet
I did more shows in a month than you did in your life
Ate gas station food, stayed up late nights
Met a couple women that I'd like to make my wife
when i heard about the word of mouth
it was all out in the open
silly saps sat back and exchange stories how they've been broken
they holdin' the punchlines, hopin' i won't notice
them blowin' the cover, cuz i'm blowin' their mind to show 'em what dope is
you pull the soul, spit from the stage, my open bull pit
pokin' dagger rappers with this jagged-edge-ed full clip
speech patterns --- past the crime scene to find you (canvas? carries?)
take a platinum album times two
and that's potentially the status
breakin' fake factions on infractions
taught rakim how to rhyme and qbert crab scratchin' (no)
snap fashion conscience trash talk is at the door
interrogate their entourage and ask 'em what they came for
well tonight you got bored with those 200 cable channels
decided to come out here and congregate with all the mammals and geeks
beautiful people, saints, sinners, and creeps
the cover charge ain't cheap, so get yaself outta ya seat (self outta ya seat)
but really, let's get back to the topic again
fellas say "ho!" if you're ready for the show to begin
and ladies say "ow!" if it hurts to smile sometimes
so frown if you need to, everybody knows the time
cuz if it's easy it ain't real
not perfect? it could be right
let's embrace all our flaws here tonight (here tonight)
ya, if it's easy it ain't real
not perfect? it could be right
let's embrace all those flaws here tonight (that's right)
aight, stop! stand at attention!
take a frame from right now and freeze the image
stuff that picture in your pocket before the future commences
when you read the book of life you gotta look at every sentence
stop! this moment is perfect so pay attention
snap the shot and learn from its dimensions
and don't be afraid to mention imperfections ever
freeze the framework and hold the second here for forever
i got a chipped tooth and my lungs are scarred
i never clean my car, i'm not a star
use improper grammar it's "who i are"
barely hear in my right ear (huh?)
talk to a microphone and called it a rap career (that ain't a career)
i can't go left, can't jump enough to dunk, type clumsy
i fall on my face like i was drunk (he ain't drunk)
confront strangers and debate on socio-political issues
set up a roadblock in your driveway, dare you to try to get through
eat too much fast food, own one pair of shoes
if life is a poker game i'm holdin' a pair of 2's
i talk a lot, matter of fact after this you'll find me rappin'
in the back of the parking lot, randomly callin' shots
i watch too much tv
i think the characters on friends are really my friends
and possibly that they can see me
it's a problem, i know, i need to try to take it easy
but then phone rings and wifey tells me it's george and weezy
please, b! i'm watchin' my family viewed in 3-d
it's like they never find richard dawson when no one will believe me
my bones ache when i'm awake, sometimes it's more than i can take
but i say it all on tape if i think that you can relate
i learn from my mistakes and make my people congregate
hold the world on my shoulders until my blessed back breaks
here's the weight that carries words over air waves repeatedly:
god fills all the gaps that you see in me
aight, stop! stand at attention!
take a frame from right now and freeze the image
stuff that picture in your pocket before the future commences
when you read the book of life you gotta look at every sentence
stop! this moment is perfect so pay attention
snap the shot and learn from its dimensions
and don't be afraid to mention imperfections ever
[Verse 1:]
I think, therefore I am fresh, stand next to the next man
And can bless fans, decks and mics
Come correct like I was right, but when I write sometimes I'm wrong
So I confess over beats I rock on
And rock on like gravel even though I've got it locked like lock stock and barrel
God still watches the sparrow from the deep down to the shallow
Blaze mics like I'm John Wayne plain blazing the saddle
Must break straighter than an arrow to uprock on the narrow
Apparel, sack and ashes, but deserve 10,000 lashes from 10,000 fascists for my sins
To burn like 10,000 matches enter into my world
Where I do what I hate and the man I want to be escapes me
And I wonder to myself, was God tripping when He made me?
Am I off or am I crazy? Am I lost or am I lazy?
Days from where I keep him, I'm falling off the deep end
I'm looking for the weekend to slow down and try to keep ends
Meeting but the gap is 10 feet, I want to dine where the richest men eat
I can't stand it, where's my seat?
At least, well, in the least I'm not marked by the beast
I'm waiting for the Son to rise, but I'm not looking to the east
Instead I'm looking to the feast, the last supper, rooms of upper
Upper levels, clear of devils, place where I'll forever settle
Heart is heavier than metal for the lost souls tossed
Hard rocks scared of being soft, they'll burn like molotovs
A Holocaust, they can't see the cost paid, the cascade
They can't see who's the boss, they can't see the last days
On and off the track plays, drowned out by gat sprays
So I look to the sky and wonder, what would Dad say?
I look to the sky and wonder what would Dad say?
I look to the sky and pray, what does Dad say?
[Hook: x2]
From the caverns of the mind, we wander on and stumble blind
Wade through the tangled maze of starless nights and sunless days
Looking for some kind of a clue for what to do
[Verse 1:]
Excuse me, am I unsound because I sound uncomparably creative?
Cause I create and expound astoundingly, is that why you're intimidated?
I make my music for the few who can appreciate the extent of what I do
My opinions on what's dope appropriately differ from you
Like Gentiles differ from Jews, that's true
But I wait my mailbox daily for a new Labkilik tape
More crews should place weight on what you're saying when the mic's on
Yo, if Pete Nice and Serch really do a reunion song
I'm calling all the request shows yelling "3rd Bass is the bomb!!"
I long for the days when being talented meant you were first
The subculture remains the same but it seems the earth is reversed
So I write scripts in pantomine, whip the cat of nine
Spit the battle rhyme that shifts the paradigm
Split space and time open to reveal I'm dope in any period
On point like a pyramid in a myriad of rhyme styles.
(are my methods unsound?)
Cause I climb the Nile and swim the Ozarks
Blend street smarts with prose with God-given skill but still
My genetic strands don't come close to composing who I am
Some will never understand this combination of child and man.
[Verse 2:]
Believe it or not, it's the blue-eyed believer in the Hebrew Messiah
Yeshua, Elohim, intergalctical designer
Divine like the Styler, eye on the prize like a fighter
As I strike with the fist of righteousness to your orofice
To the torturous who who have tortured us with your audible lies
I get you open with the hopes that I can open your eyes
When I rise to the occasion like my name was Walter Payton
Inflection of my tone makes certain points hit home
Roam from here to Italy
Such a deep impact on hip-hop you'd think maybe a comet was hitting me
Spitting ill soliloquies in a symphony of similes
Connected with the Sphere cause I can't stand this industry.
(are my methods unsound?)
I'm tired of floods of words without a single drop of reason
Tired of cats that change styles like the seasons
They're still rhyming montone directly on the metronome now
If I battle you in the forest and you fall is there a sound?
[Verse 3:]
Like a 6 step to a windmill to a headspin combination
We move from notebooks to tapes to the ears of my congregation
Through tears of aggravation, from another generation come my peers
Or maybe from a completely different galaxy
I burn fallacies like calories but still the fattest at mastering musical alchemy
Sniping radio rap stars from the balcony
Funny how crystal clearly I'm thinking
But my ideas are shared by no man
At least none that have spoken up this point
But my broken record of a mind hits the same groove repeatedly
I touch on subjects that need to be addressed but who's feeling me?
I'm stealing the intellect of astrophysicists
A brain surgeon lyricist
As ill as this is who'll hear and understand me?
I wonder will He open the souls and minds eyes of the lost before I exhaust my duration
If it costs my life, my mind, my music, my very reputation
My God will see my oddities as perfectly honed talents
[Chorus:]
that which is done that will be done
and nothing is new thats under the sun
that which is done that will be done
and nothing is new thats under the sun
[Verse 1:]
I buried my possesions in the name of poverty
because its got to be vain so I adopted modesty
honesty the quest for knowledge through the questions I ask
through the concepts I grasp threw wisdom out the window
collecting four by the kilo put in straight into my steelo
said if they knew what we know they would be enlightened people
I've seen the works of master builders that I've wanted to do the same
raise a temple to the clouds and dedicate it to my name
but emceeing is my claim
putting up the heads to shame
I want to be like David Stern and make the people love this game
but its vain plain and simply as my footsteps echo simpty
the rhythm of my inners beating gently left me empty
any endeavor that sever the absolute Christ
the boards of life thrown into the calamity avanty
I stand to be in judgement for every act
even the ? understood that I don't choose to chase cyclones
see I've shown up on the mic and crushed a few emcees to dust
late at night come on reflection in a fit of disgust
but He is Just and Just wants to defend you from sin
you failed to catch the gail forces when you try to chase the wind
[Chorus]
[Verse 2:]
what's the purpose of life anyways
the mile of junk that there is and this is it
get placed here against my will even before I had one
dropped out of nowhere and forced inheirly to survive
and given the name son
me I'm sad about the uselessness this world has for me
programmed to view life in the way
in which I won't be happy unless I have everything for me
but I can't be whole
what do you get if you collect everything the world has to offer but forget
all about your soul
its all the same everyday for years and years
around this one you get made get born grows up then soon you having your son
who's got to go through it all agin
programmed to worship all the trends
trying so hard to be everything to every friend
son seek life seek the truth and pray that God will open your mind
these are all basic instuctions you must look and then you'll find
[Chorus]
[Verse 3:]
how what when where why
sometimes I wonder man run your plan to your brother man I'll try to understand
state your case all the things you face rappers lie two ways
will you take us to new places or are you on a paper chase
it makes my day when original thought blesses the game
but pretty much the cycle turns again and everything is the same
beneath the rays of the sun until the last day is done
its a freeway of replays no matter where its from
some think its new but I can feel the deja vu
if you beleive it or you don't that doesn't really make it true
what was and will be since the Ancient of Days I AM
mics play but we forget to give the praise
you're wicked ways aren't original yo you learned it from the serpent
confirmed it on my knees that you'll come clean then detergent
you can't hide like a hermit and buy your future from a merchant
you reep what you sow and your destiny you earn it
kids still getting murdered seems the trends are everlasting
the rich are getting richer and the times forever passing
shape times I jack your lives and the world is still collasping
[Verse 1: manCHILD]
The black market, where blue blooded emcees split red seas since it started
Where beyond gold and platinum is the target
Rockin it with real skill leaves greenhorns green with envy
And rappin about your cherry red Benz still seems empty
Where blue collar rhyme sayers really mean what they be speakin
And the cat you rhyme behind's not donned by yellow streaks and
Every week at open mics we paint the clouds with silver lining
Perfect rhymes can't be achieved, but every moment is defining
On time to spray your mind with some surrealist imagery
Plus feed 5000 emcees with a single simile
I got a metaphor, like just introduced to quadruplets
Most heads want more, so I expose them like a nudist
Yo, you're Alicia Silverstone type clueless to the fact
That we bring El Shaddai to ciphers at points all across the map
So black, take it to my chest, you know I'll bring it back to you
The black-market, be white hot, or leave here black and blue.
[Hook: x2]
Underground is the sound of rebirth
So my turf keeps me locked down with the Godsound under earth
While I'm destined for the sky, Adonai is the target
Still I can't escape the Black Market
[Verse 2: Playdough]
Deep into the black record crack while I'm incognito
Disguised for surprise dressed down in tuxedo
With the mushpot, Christ and hip-hop I'm steady jugglin
And bargainin the jargon in the Church where I'm smugglin my rhymes
That's the crime so they label me a criminal
Now people in the steeple gotta keep rap subliminal
Or unseen and heard not a word to the pews
They fear the ill tattoos, plus my check one twos
Nevertheless I press, keeping raps righteous
They wanna test my effervesce, cuz it's so effortless
On metronomes, their fleet can't defeat my poem
I circle the globe to make the whole world my home
But cancel that, this is only the place I travel at
So I'm wandering sound for holy ground habitat
Where the rabbits at? Under the earth working my phono
You searching for your crew while I'm flying Han Solo
[Hook]
[Verse 3: ManCHILD]
I call shots like a referee, fighting for your destiny
Sound the reverie, settle the score like a refugee
Selected pedigree when I rock so steadily
And then burn the ideals of the world in effigy
[Playdough]
while me and Freddie B. are more underground than they could ever be
We're reverently riding blue skies we're seeing seldomly
From pushing envelope with cross hairs and scope
Locked onto the bullseye, so watch it as I pull my
[manCHILD]
Hollow tipped scripts come equipped to spit darts
I'll take my shot in the dark, it ain't a walk in the park
Finish to start, these cats are still jacking the art
But me, I dominate the market that's as black as their heart
[Playdough]
Inside the ventricles, I flip it around to make receptacles
And fill with Mars ILL Harmonic is apostolic
And intercede, so you no longer bleed the night
I'm chasing shadows in sound battles, filling markets with light.
[Hook]
It's like Boom-Bap, original rap
We take it back and move you forward just to tear it in half
Boom-Bap, original rap
We take it back and move you forward just to tear it in half...[Repeat]
[Verse 1]
I'm a rebel without a pause
play tape
Claymation action-figure transforming the norm and changing shape
Still face to the face with the grace that it takes
To escape all the hate and calculate each back-break
Communicate the Creator's thoughts with every breath
Control my stride, no man can divide and make me half-step
Pass the solid ground to spaces to the left
If you've got something left to throw, I got something to intercept
This is harder than it looks. This is better than it sounds
This is everything it took to separate me from the ground
This is levitation 101. We tread upon the clouds
And make a name for Mars ILL 'til it fills your mouth
Work it out, make optimists out of the cynical
I like to scramble words around until I make them sensible
One-dimensional voices cry like primadonnas
While we stretch hip-hop from Sugar Hill to Futurama...
[Hook]
[Verse 2]
I got a strong mind. It doesn't have to be spoon-fed
I treat my audience with respect and my dialect is interjected
Into conversations worldwide, a piece of heaven injected
Into the blind, scales fall from their eyes
It's all to my surprise that a sound could move the masses
Take my everyday observations and press them onto plastic
Lessons automatically grabbing your fascination
When delivered into action my masters of rap relations
A revolution in music we loosen the chains that hold you
Don't say you weren't aware because I told you
They sold too many souls on the auction city block
Wrists slit on Wall Street, snake-eyes and risky stocks
My life hits a third shift frame of mind
I understand your struggles because they're mine
I spit a trail for you to follow what you thought you couldn't find
Past and present intersected inside of God Divine...
[Hook]
[Verse 3]
This earth is my place of birth
I want the universe to know God for everything it's worth
Break the cycle 'til it hurts between the lines and in the margins
Killing time and changing life inside a studio apartment
Sacrifice the hardship for those wearing a target
Maximize compassion 'til it smashes through the market
Never call it quits, we've got to finish what we started
Build until you touch the sky or 'til you're in the coffin
It's all in the patterns, stitched and gathered at the seams
We come together to interpret your dreams and what they mean
So thanks for coming out and thank you for listening
Thanks for making it to the end of the track and acting interested
Your time and energy are valuable as well as limited
The fact that you chose Mars ILL is quite considerate
Hope to see you around real soon just for the sentiment
We have to know the past to realize what vision is...
[Verse 1]
Honey, I'm home! Where's my dinner? And this place is a mess
And less than adequate, marked with laziness and soap-opera watching
Clean it top to bottom now or face the consequences
Stop that sentence, I don't really want to hear your feedback
Smack the taste out of your loud mouth now
Sweetheart, the game is on and you just fouled out
How about a little affection thrown in my direction honey?
Yeah, I'm sorry for the way I yelled about the money that I lost
Gambling last night, but you must be on the crack pipe
If you think I'ma let a woman take that tone with me
And I know they cut the phone, see? But I wasn't trying to hear it
I didn't mean to break your face, I just wanted to break your spirit
And your arm the night before, I thought we agreed that was an accident
Now the neighbors called the cops on some old assault and battering
And I'm a man of my word and all my words got 4-Letters
The door is that way, but you'll never do any better than me
This is my house, I'm the man, I rule with the hand of fear
You don't like it? Get out! Now go get me another beer
Did I make myself clear? Don't make me say it twice
I worked a double shift last night and don't got time to play it nice
As for the lipstick on my collar, well that's my business
You're my wife and all that, but let's face it. You got your limits
You're dependent on this bread winner 'cause you're barefoot and pregnant
I'm a part of your life til I decide to make my exit...
[Hook 1]
He's the alpha, the top of the pile, the leader of the pack
You'll listen when he talks because he's got it like that
Matter fact he rules with iron fist, gripping misfortune
He learned to be a man from his father before him
Yeah, he's the alpha, the first person in every universe
Version 5.0 pack animal with blood thirst and stamina
The root of family trees where so many have fallen
He'll provide for your needs, but please proceed with caution
The Alpha...
[Verse 2]
Now I was called long ago to grow to be a man
And show the ones before and after me so maybe they could understand
And know the facts that with power, responsibility's attached
And the appropriate response isn't always to react
And attack the weakness of beautiful creatures 'cause we can't
It's our duty to implant wisdom and patience in our stance
And it's true that woman was made from man's rib, so oddly
When you sin against your wife, you sin against your own body
And an open fisted beatdown is never an option for mine
For she was made in God's image, so I'm inclined to put her desires
And needs before me daily and see my lady as a queen
Her submission is a calling that isn't enforced by me
Cause I'm free from a GQ, Maxim, Playboy establishment
Christ is the man I strive to be like and that's no accident
My dad implanted the fuel and the means that I found vital
If your father was a deadbeat or absent, you can break the cycle
Take the Bible and tradition and follow the map accordingly
Spread the answers I've found around the world
I'll firmly lead my household and display emotions openly
And show my people what a real man's supposed to be...
[Hook 2]
Cause I'm the Alpha, called and destined, the leader of the pack
I'll listen when you talk because I've got it like that
Matter fact, I'll protect you with my life because I love you
And carry you on my back through everything we have to trudge through
The Alpha, first person in every universe
Version 6.0, sacrifice my body to the dirt
I challenge Alpha Males to change so you can see
A man standing there where a boy used to be
[Chorus:]
We fly the pen like a pilot when it's time to begin
Fight to win with the power that makes the sky bend
We got to end to make room for the Christ to begin
If it ain't dope enough then, yo, got to try again.
[Verse:]
I get you up like Vivarin, an unpredictable trend
Many men remain content with where the needle has been
In an elliptical spin of people dying in sin
We realize to reap our talents lies in trying again
So I don't try to pretend that I'm phatter than him
I just make heads come apart like a detachable limb
And carry on like I'm collapsible overhead in your plane
Holding titles for collateral, leaving cats with no name
Line them up like cocaine and light them like propane
While they're profane, we rock from Florida to Spokane
Washington, I've watched them rock to kicks, snares and rim shots
They think their junk is tight when it's loose like slip knots
Yo, but I can't trip, AK, cuz everybody can change
They could flip their whole persona ala Shirley McClain
But we aim for the heavenlies and try to tame the 7 seas
Because when you claim the Trinity, you'd better shoot for the stars
Battle scars and open wounds from open mics that I've closed
Open minds and open doors for all my brothers in prose
I send cerebral celebrations with my mic and my pen
If you don't get it, kid you guessed it, I'ma try it again
[Chorus:]
Heads rush and faces blush when the fader gets touched
There's not much time to rhyme and sometimes it's not enough
Touch mics, touch Christ, when we speak life through songs
It's tough to touch lives and then to have to move on
[Verse:]
I'm breaking the monotony, give heads frontal lobotomies
My melody is harmony, thoughts darker than mahogany
I'm letting the rhythm hit 'em with pendulum swings I'm thinking
Break the maximum down to minimum, these battles, I'll keep winnin 'em
Vocal ships I'm sinking, sendin 'em home with pink slips
Taking their jobs in the interim, sign autographs with ink tips
Delinquent micro-marathon, the dawn of information
Hyperventilating on smoke signals from my nation
Pacing myself like Reggie Miller while I'm taking
Shots at the oppressors, politicians, pimps and pagans
Breaking promises to children only leads to broken dreams
We take it back to the beginning and stay fly by any means
It's like a chemical reaction when we enter your subliminal
In NC-17, Restricted, PG, or General
Collapse your ventricle, you'll live again, begin again
Call your Congressman in Washington, say, "it's not about the Benjamins!"
It's interesting, they start what they don't intend on finishing
They think nobody's listening, they're screaming like Sam Kennison
Remebering my rent, I stretch my pennies to a nickel
My mind drifts to Galgotha to see the man in the middle
See some are fickle, they stick you, shoot you down like a pistol
Grip, grapple mics like a shackle, down and ready for battle
I dabble in what you like, extend the boundaries of sound
Dialect with derelicts and give the homeless a pound
In all this found fans and I hope they understand
Does the man control the mic or does the mic control the man
In all this found fans and I pray you understand
[Verse #1]
I left my footprints on the ocean's waves before the storm came
But form changed to man overboard sinking self-aware
Thinking no one's there to catch me when I fall to the sandy floor beneath the coral reef
I pray the Lord my soul to keep. he holds the deep in his palm
And simultaneously, he gives his hand to me
The salty sea that made my eyes to weep is now beneath my feet
With concrete stability, steps I take to moves made critically
Peripheral at a standstill as Divinity makes his presence felt physically
It's miraculous but true. It's all for you
But the fact is that modern man is scared to death and torn in two
Because the truth draws him higher, undercurrent holds him down
Afraid he'll drown, he forgets those pieces of peace he might have found
Well at least he struggles 'cause to stroll too easily through those puddles
Lulls you to sleepy dreamscapes where your sensibilities are muddled
And I know that if he seeks God, he'll recognize him when he sees Him
And he'll realize whose hands he needs to be in..
[Verse #2]
When disaster strikes the field, the likes of them head for the hills
To regroup their bearings on their enemy 'til they're ready, dressed to kill
"It's better to feel safe than live in fear." I ask 'em, "Why is that?"
They responded, "We need stability in this comfortable habitat."
"So send the lower middle-class to the front lines, their death will protect us."
"We'll talk loud and hide behind our penthouses and brand new Lexus."
"It affects us to a point. Didn't you see the stock market crash?"
"We couldn't sacrifice our buying power. Tell me, how smart is that?"
I said, I saw the blast, heard the crash of lives shattered to pieces
Saw a street preached yelling loud and holding a sign about Jesus
I agreed and kept walking because I'm not quite sure what to do
I tried to front and talk a lot of patriotism, same as you
But the ideas ain't really new, see genocide, it happens globally
We just get shook up when it happens locally
So, love one another and be wise. Don't foster malice
In the name of revenge for Country until your soul turns callous, soul turns callous..
[Verse #3]
Before the world premiere of dawn light switched on and day broke through
Before the sky was blue, before any big-bang or primordial ooze
Before man stepped on the scene in his prowess unprepared for the challenge
Before the planets were set in place to hold the galaxies in the balance
Before time, before reason, rhyme, love, hate and emotion
Before the seasons, before the first word was spoken or heart was broken
Before defiance turned to evil revolt and all Hell broke loose
Before any creature would even dare to contradict his point of view
He was there, God, triune, omnipotent, controlling existence
Before people claimed to serve the Crucified was a slave religion
Before the fall of Adam imprisoned descendants with original scars
Before you were born of your mother to try to figure out just who you are
Before war and confusion, before reality, before illusion
Before the beginning, Elohim had mapped out all the conclusions
Before the restitution to come that Revelation promises all of us
Not Nostradamus' blind predictions through delusional blurred vision
The calm came before the storm with power to kill
The calm is present now and it lives within me still
The calm is present now and it lives within me still
[Verse 1:]
Double down stroke, pound my head on concrete til it cracks
Double take, doubled over from this double cross on my back
Doubled my pleasure and pain with the quickest double timing
On the double, single out these cats that's having trouble rhyming
Triple threat vet, set it straight while rookies muddle through
Just call me the 23rd letter because I double you
Knuckle through other crews with jabs, hooks, uppercuts and combinations
Patience, you can't get inside the levelheaded throroughbred
The one who sets the foundation for movement like a riverbed
Don't subscribe to gun talk, so I give a what what your trigger said
Spit leaded graphite, keep my heart in my hand so that I can grasp life
Police the depths of my soul with a billy club and flashlight
That's right, the underworld has numbered my days
The track plays as I stumble across the stage
And rage against my rage in the sight of fleeting time
Because it's not the grapes of wrath that produce the sweetest wine
I bleed rhymes when I'm wounded, seems to happen more and more
Lie face down in a puddle of my own metaphors on the floor
And my heart pumps the art, so what will happen if I pass on
They could never last long, so the band plays my sad song
[Verse 2:]
Soul Heir the manCHILD 2001, dead on arrival
Skin beneath his fingernails points to a struggle for survival
Clutching doubles of his vinyl with rigamortous in his throat
In his mouth, we found the words for the greatest song he never wrote
He was stabbed, choked, hung, burned, drowned
Strapped to the ground, forced to listen to thug rap gagged and bound
This manCHILD took hip-hop where no one else could take her
For that he was dragged for 40 blocks behind a Lincoln Navigator
Until it crashed into a pacer, flipped and landed on his neck
Blasting Gloria Gaynor's "I will Survive" from the tape deck
A blank check inside his pocket because you can't cash respect
In a word, his dental records spun at 33 1/3
Keeping his word through pain and death through static and distortion
Defeated 333 emcees post mortem
So, check your local listings to see his body on display
Soul Heir the manCHILD survived by his family and his DJ
[Verse 3:]
Look through the eyes of a manCHILDless world so I can see
I don't like the way my beloved artform looks without me
A barren wasteland, artists afraid to face fans
Where they seek and destroy b-boys, forbidding them to breakdance
Where no one takes a chance because the patterns stand in place
Follow the formula, play the part, and you'll get more than you can take
Where they raise hell to be a man and no man searches for the answers
Without me, it's all just hype men, dat tapes, and back up dancers
Hold my banner for knowledge, wisdom and understand integrity
Every city Mars ILL goes, I leave another piece of my legacy
And if I thought ya'll would benefit, I'd paint manCHILD out of the picture
They fall and keep it to themselves, so I'll stand and deliver
Consider this, I understand this game is hit or miss
Whether graf writer, b-boy, turntablist or lyricist
This is serious, like water to a flame, able to cain
If you stopped doing what you do today would hip-hop stay the same?
If your name never graced a marquis, what are we losing?
If nothing changes in that world then tell me, what's your contribution?
Do you emancipate enslaved minds, or you just want to feel free?
[Verse #1]
It's a common theme. The world is monotone and mean
It's grown into a full-blown bag of bones that holds reserves of self-esteem
And it's worse to melt a dream away with nothing there to replace it with
Smashed hopes never heal and when it peels away, his faith is stripped
The paces trip the walk and talk is cheap but still in stock
Public outrage screams for justice, looting shops and killing cops
The wheels can't stop because it's downhill and the music's up to loud
Fingers plug their ears, now shouts rang out and reason's not allowed
Believers got to proud 'cause we held the magic backstage passes
Now they act like fascists, blocking all the gates to heavenly access
And that's just when the package has no doorstep left to land on
Blacklisted seekers wander wondering what it means to be transformed
They can't see because the pastor's lingo wasn't made for their people
White-collar congregation makes contributions to his ego
And it's evil and it hurts and it tears us all apart
And I swear a man can blind you with the blackness in his heart
The shattered parts of speech are hard to reach in times of need
The cuts are deep, but I can't bleed unless I think it helps you see
I'll stand against oppression although they claim it sets me free
'Cause even when I'm speaking life I know that death is deaf to me..
[Hook]
Gather in together where the sky meets the basement
Gotta make the world a better place where you take it
Face to the sunrise, feet to the basement
Walk everybody, just walk, walk
Gather in together where the sky meets the basement
Gotta make the world a better place where you take it
Face to the sunrise, feet to the basement
Walk everybody just walk, walk...[Repeat]
[Bridge]
Go for the uprise, huddled in the playground
Cuddle the women and kids. Tell 'em to stay down
Fellowship with anybody willing to work
Then sell a bit of land between heaven and Earth
Catalog the converts. Carry cross for the crippled
Bury every soul that falls anywhere inside the middle
Bang your head against the backdrop. Block out the bad thoughts
Cut out the trash talk, ready for the blast off
Bang your head against the backdrop. Block out the bad thoughts
Cut out the trash talk, ready for the blast off
Bang your head against the backdrop. Block out the bad thoughts
Cut out the trash talk, ready for the blast off..
[Verse #2]
I wanna be a better man. I wanna strip the flesh from spirit
I wanna write the songs that people sing that inspire them to be fearless
Never changing my appearance for moments edited and altered
Full of awkward things to say today for the lucky seventh caller
I've considered every offer on its merits before I refused it
And that's mainly on the basis of their generic brand of two-cents
If there's land beneath the cruise ship, then it's time to rock the boat
If your label is a nuisance, then it's time to let 'em go
If it's time for execution, make sure to protect your throat
If you're losing your grip, hold tight to the end of the rope
If you're broken or you're broke, take a breath and count your blessings slow
It's feast or famine. Sometimes you starve, sometimes you choke
Sometimes you think, sometimes you know
Sometimes you pay, sometimes you owe
Sometimes it burns a hole inside but you're too proud to let it show
Reap or sow, keep breathing slow because we need to know the difference
There's a time to walk on the sun, but there's a time to keep your distance..
[Hook]
[Verse 1:]
It's there and it's here, it's far and it's near
All my hopes and all my fears are manifested in the sphere
It's distorted but it's clear, it's my enemy and my peer
It's as wack as radio rap and it's doper than Premier
It's all of what you see and it's all of what you hear
It's Def Jams, it's So So Def, it's On Def Ears
It makes you cheer and lets you chill, it saves and it kills
It's unbelievably creative and it's run of the mill
It's fake and it's real, it's politics and it's skills
It takes up all my money, but it pays all of my bills
Still it's simple to decipher and difficult to discern
It's hip-hop, it's paid in full, it's hard to earn
It's you must learn and I got it made, it's who's the man
It's brothers gotta work it out, it's parents just don't understand
It's overblown and underhanded, Pacific to Atlantic
Watching all your dreams get shattered and all your wishes granted
Where ignorance runs rampant and knowledge reigns supreme
Where loyalty's highly regarded but everybody switches teams
It's closet aficionados and It's microphone fiends
It's where we say what we mean by any means for Elohim
It's all that you despise and everything that you hold dear
It's war and peace, it's this and that, it's hip-hop and it's the sphere
It's all that you despise and everything that you hold dear
Yin and Yang, it's love and hate, it's hip-hop and it's the sphere
[Verse 2:]
It's up and it's down, It's free and it's bound
It's sight and it's sound, it's mainstream, it's underground
Profound and common sense, it's past and present tense
It's dollars, it's cents it's guilt it's innocence
It's bent and it's sober, it's on my mind and on my shoulders
It's the Bronx, it's Queensbridge, I forgot, the bridge is over
It's New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Minnesota
It's hip-hop, it's even freaking North and South Dakota
It's contained within my headphones but still it blows my speakers
It's big willie wannabes and it's Poor Righteous Teachers
It's living for the moment and it's dying over nothing
It's we're all in the same gang and it's headed for self destruction
It's tougher than leather, it's no one can do it better
It's ripping a freestyle and it's your writtens to the letter
It's a sling and a stone and it's fully automatic
[Verse 1: Manchild]
I got these blind musicians watching me listen to their songs
And I think they're catching on there's a chance that I might not belong
They got it wrong behind the rabid barks for justice
Where you can support the cause from where the movement never touches
Dearly beloved, I can see the devastation so clearly
And the night sky protects me when I'm running with the moon
I wanna help the lepers, I just don't want their sickness near me
I guess if you can't sing the song, you can try to hum the tune
I got these dues I'm paying and I guess I'm almost even
When I was stepping to the A.M., I could have sworn I caught y'all sleeping
I rhyme for a reason beyond the regional limits that block them
My double-sided tongue is sharp and it can't be boxed in
They're caught between some rock
rap fusion garbage
And a hard place to taste the truth and everybody makes do
HEY YOU! Yeah, I'm sorry, you don't get to play today
But after my crew wins the game, you can soak the coach with Gatorade
It's safe to say you're a ways away from the action
Your image is imaginary and this song is love-tapping you on the shoulder
And asking, "Is this what you had planned?"
While I'm slapping 'em senseless, you can feel free to bystand...
[Hook]
Can't really see from the cheap seats. Can't hear unless you listen
Can't get on the field and play if you don't got the right equipment
Can't hear what you're saying unless you step up to the mic
Wanna see life? Well this is what it looks like
Can't see from the cheap seats. Can't hear unless you listen
Can't get on the field and play if you don't got the right equipment
Can't hear what you're saying unless you step up to the mic
Wanna see life? Well this is what it sounds like...
[Verse 2: Manchild]
Conspiracy theorist backpackers, you don't have to run any faster
The government's not really after you, kiddo, you're just a rapper
But slave masters to exist, so point at them and wave your fist
Media's agenda becomes the mark on your head and plus your wrist
This is just in case you doubted that Mars ILL was about it
We linked with Bigg Justoleum for this public service announcement
You are not your outfit or the car that you drive
Commercials keep you needing what you don't really need to survive
You grow sedated, addicted to a lifestyle
Planned parents become barren, juggling a choice and a child
Of course it's a trial to speak loud and walk straight
I've found a voice is a terrible thing to waste
Wake Up! Take up your cross-section of the populace and follow
You're not promised tomorrow
So just move, move, we can't stop speaking until they all know
We're not promised tomorrow...
[Hook]
[Verse 3: Bigg Jus]
Seminal mimicry trickery gloomy cavalry garrisons
Who battle charlatans who love night targeting
The faintest comparison imbalancement crucially embarrassing
So woefully inadequate
Staring at other rhyme ancient and tailored so massive
Armchair quarterback chemical ali HAZMAT
You're just a little boy in a bubble with unrealistic dreams of a rap body double
And rhyming as a meal-ticket
That's why this culture got you lovesick
Born word eternal, life orbit, Keebler elf timing
Couldn't even flow on beat if the kick and snares were color coded
With dreams of a new bullet-proof 7 all dubs and silvery
But you lack any bass in your voice, cadence or delivery
And there's already been two Agatha Christie unsolved rapper murder mysteries
Don't let the sharks smell the bloody chum in the water
And start a feeding frenzy
Sometimes I feeling like I'm in an underground purgatory
Trapped between materialistic playa gunfire
And suburban nerdy voice, funny voice falsetto
War prone with a howitzer patrolling the 33rd parallel rhyming no fly zones
With homeland security all tainted and corrupted
If you ain't coming with that '88 Daddy Kane R-A-W
Like it was on the eve of destruction
Trust me, don't even touch it
Or get left on the side of the road and circled by buzzards
Or fossilized in some tar pit
We call it craps now they be triple and doubling it
Ever since Tupac's style gave birth to quintuplets
Biting is not a birthright, you starry eyed chipmunk
Gazing in the 18-wheeler headlights, waiting for the collision
Soccer-mommy waste of battle ammunition
So younguns, we lop 'em off earlier than circumcision
Stay hidden, Jiminy Crickets and all is forgiven
This was craft worked at Dust's crib
Then manchild slid to haunted gorilla silver back mountain lion of Judah
These bear paws hide zirconium claws made for pouncing
Even though I don't eat meat anymore
It's just order of selection prototype
MC's look tasty like melon, tofu and curry rice. Mmmmmm
Succulent with the slightest hint of lime
Way up in the nosebleed seats with torn ACL's on the sidelines
Coming rougher than one time with colorful things that go bump in the night
And magical 180 reverse suplex clotheslines
You need to slow down and think twice
You ain't a risk taker with the flow. You're a risk taker with your life...
[Verse 1: manCHILD]
I vent my anger on you strangers that I've never even met
As I employ endangered medium of recordable cassettes
To audibly connect, it oughtta be correct
Tattoo my name on your eardrum to make sure you don't forget
My faith and art that I protect leaves heads twitching like Torretts
As I vomit my opinion over volatile soundsets
Project through drums pounding, dumfounding the shallow
And keeping true heads smiling in the shadows
Baffle you with battle-tested methods from a distinguished master-linguist
Extinguishing the meaningless rhetoric and jargon
Leave the wack missing in action, their picture on milk cartons
As my tongue burns like arson, opponents begging me for pardon
No crates stacked with records with my picture on the cover
But that's far from the point at hand on one had to the other
From foreign sands to your motherland to your dreamy wonderland
ManCHILD spits so rap fans can understand the Son of Man.
[Hook:]
In stadiums with packed stands or just you and your mans
This jam is for the real rap fans
ManCHILD commands where you stand from Japan to San Fran
This jam if for the real rap fans
From NYC down to where the ATLiens land
This jam is for the real rap fans
Urban lands, desert sands, rock wherever you can
This jam is for the real rap fans
[Verse 2: Sharlok Poems]
Lyrics of steel, my flow heavy as anvils
Thoughts spread long and wide as cotton fields
Many play hard make me scream Actors guild
Bad actors getting killed first episode of the season
Stop rhyming for one reason cuz the ink pen stopped bleeding
Prick your finger the needle and start thinking
Into crowd I'm sinking, stage diving for the rap fans
Speak mine across the land like Robert Gaines with aerosol cans
Truth from mouth expands like rubber band being snapped back
Many crews are called wack because rhyme skills they lack
From the mouth words drag like dog with broke back
I'm floor bound, thumb tack off the walls with mine
With divine heart soul and mind and my mic skates
Numbers of souls saved climbing like Cali's crime rate
Like these record crates, flipping through beats rhymes and life
Sharlok Poems and manCHILD for rap fans delight
[Hook:]
In stadiums with packed stands or just you and your mans
This jam is for the real rap fans
Sharlok commands where you stand from Japan to San Fran
This jam is for the real rap fans
From NYC down to where the Californians stand
Urban lands, desert sands rock wherever you can
This jam is for the real rap fans
[Verse 3: manCHILD]
Fanatics buying records like the junk was pornographic
Fly rhymes get you higher than an addict in an attic
Don't stop for red lights and the mic directs the traffic
Climb Everest just to see the best correctly stab it
Blood, sweat and tears for years because you gotta have it
Mother hip-hop sticks my lyrics to the fridge with a magnet
So fat when I bust raps, the doc told me to cut back
But I make tracks for all of you cats and you don't want that
The backpack assassins, fatty marker taggin
Black and Anglo Saxon, any race you can imagine
Holding down your area to start a chain reaction
The fans deserve a hand cuz you made rap the main attraction
If you listen for the love and you're sick of all the babbling
I rain down like the weather, bring the pain like a contraction
Clearer than cellophane on plexiglass style
It's Sharlok Poems and soul heir the manCHILD
While the wack stack grands and don't care if you clap hands
I take a stand and make a jam for the real rap fans
Take a stand and make a jam for the real rap fans
Take a stand and make jams for the real rap fans
Yeah, we got something else to say, believe it or not
We don't claim to represent each element of hip-hop
I'm eloquent on the mic, flip language, that's what I do
Enlighten fresh subject matter and deliver it straight to you
In the vein of Pharaoh and Chuck D, I still feel lucky
To be able to share the vision and describe the way it struck me
Interrupting the senseless noise that ClearChannel services
Resurgence and revival to defeat this sense of worthlessness
And Dust
[scratches]
Well Dust completes the thought that I began
His words are drums, he's talking now, but can you understand?
Well I can, and there's a legion of fans that get it also
His audiomatic scratch patterns are all pro
Hit your torso full force, a course of future things to hear
Press your head against the speaker. Catch this double-feature
Make believers out of fence-riders and critics in one verse
But, yo, I got something to clear up first
See MC's are the mouthpiece and always the first to give props
To every person that's ever windmilled or knows how to uprock
But the b-boys could care less about the way you flow or rhyme
They don't even listen to any rap after 1989
So take the time. Take a minute and take a good look
They live inside the breaks and stay addicted to the "Good Foot"
Should you ever meet one that says he has my album
Take a picture for me 'cause that's rare, one in a thousand
And graf-writers, well let's be honest
You don't really like my music and I can't read the words you're bombing
I mean, who am I kidding? I've seen burners that moved me
And I like to ride the train and let the pretty colors soothe me
But I don't vandalize, I'm afraid someone might shoot me
And I'm available if any of y'all ever need to speak through me
But I won't push it anymore, see I'm giving y'all some leeway
[Verse #1]
I'm the explicit version without the illicit cursing
I sit atop these radio-friendly missing persons
A diversion from the 9-to-5 grind that you've been working
An answered prayer, we strike the match that keeps desire burning
This perverted graduating class is looking for the backdoor
It goes disco, ska, neo-soul and rapcore
Collision cracks a smile on a pile of shredded documents
There's only so long you'll piggyback on our accomplishments
You tried to say that it was virtue versus common sense
Guilt trip, that's all it is, so swallow pride and call it quits
The vaulted lips can fall off with the crabs in a bucket
In a land of rusty logic and 500 dollar budgets
But I can't believe the hype. See it's not the way that I'm programmed
I read between the lines and fingertips when you fold hands
In five years, they'll know what I know and you'll have no fans
And I'll still be making classic records as an old man...
[Hook]
If you know the words, you can sing these songs
And keep your hands to the sky so I can read your palm
We break it into pieces so all ears can listen
We break it into pieces so all ears can listen
[Verse #2]
There's a lot of politicians and lottery tickets selling folly
Parlor-tricking hollow promise breaking hearts and wallets
Economics downtrodden. The stock market is struggling
And all the sorrow's packaged up and Fed-Exed to the government
Subsidizing happiness, mandate what you believe in
But knowing's more than seeing now we're choking on the freedom
That we're breathing, and we all take a beating
When we treat God like a distant cousin 'cause we're so ashamed
And faith is more than Sunday School and sermons on the weekend
Speaking loud and pointing fingers and deciding who's to blame
Blatant accusations knock fam out the frame
I write the way I write because there's power in the name
And Christ is not a catch phrase or bumper-sticker tag line
It cheapens what He did and who He is to all his people
We're on different pages of the same book. Believe me, that's fine
Just don't get offended when Dust drops the needle...
[Hook]
[Verse #3]
Too hot for TV, radio, magazines and movies
Put in work off the clock while the sign reads "Off-Duty"
Sign verses, "Yours Truly," pollute the stream of consciousness
I'm calling public libraries and begging 'em for sponsorship
I'm the type of guy that's real easy to get honest with
Never mind the fact that in rap I'm like a monolith
The archetype pondering breaking the bonds that hold us
In a monstrous move that's reminiscent of the Kold Krush
Mold my will 'til it resembles divine covenents
Share the cup of Christ inside of this blessed suffering
Divide my publishing so the word can spread and scatter
Over every inch of global territory much faster
Cast lots for a chance to advance my point of view
In an avalanche of rap fans and it all starts with you
If all hearts could do their part beyond what we feel
We'd make it in one shot. But for now, we'll do it piecemeal...
[Verse 1: Pigeon John]
I live on the road, a modern day hobo
Trained to eat quick and expect the low blow
Get what you can from a dried up hole
In the land of the lost, cowboys in the sand
And my soul is the coal, and my life is the flame
And it's burning to earn all the lights and the fame
And it's turning to ash every step towards cash
And I'm losing it fast so I mash on the gas
But it's too late
My fate is a broken-hearted freshman even before my first date
And I smile at my call, another yes, yes y'all
With every summer, there's fall
So I just rock in my chair while they rock to the beat
A whole trainload of fresh meat
And it's so sweet how they dream, their young hearts beam
But they really don't know what it means, but they will though...
[Hook]
(There by subway train)Another day booked, I'm a fish on a hook now
(There by subway train)It's too late to turn out my ride 'til I die now
(There by subway train)Hitching a ride into town with my hands out
(There by subway train)I gotta go now, gotta go now, gotta go now...
[Verse 2: Manchild]
Took my car to the MARTA station, train to the airport
Feet to the bare floor, fists to declare war
Fame as a flare, tore pain from your stare
Used the game as a springboard, my name's at your in-store
Kick to the snare drum, get here to there, son
They stick to the chair like chicks that get their hair done
Spit this to spare none, rhyme liquid in rare form
Commit to prayer born, brought heat to stay warm
Rap is my two cents, backed by the movement
Sacrificed my words to give you Pigeon John and Blueprint
Pleased just to thank you, hang with a strange few
Five to the Deepspace, stay the same just to change you
Pen to the notepad, mind to the starshine
Knee to the groundwork, 'cause right now is our time
Plane to the down south, MARTA to the train stop
Walked to the car and drove back to the block...
[Hook]
[Verse 3: Blueprint]
Are we there yet? Let me know, I'm feeling restless
From traveling up what feels like stair steps
And I hope it doesn't make me weak when I start to question
How far I'm willing to go to deliver this message
But the point of no return is where we're all at
It's easier to push forward than to go back
And since I can't go back to life before rap
I'ma play this game and boost all my stats
I was born at a time when you earned respect
For the rhyme and the way you made words connect
Not the money that you made or the girls you sexed
A concept you obviously haven't heard of yet
I did more shows in a month than you did in your life
Ate gas station food, stayed up late nights
Met a couple women that I'd like to make my wife
[Verse #1]
If the eyes are the windows of the soul, then the mouth is the door
Where the pieces exit freely way beyond your control
And they're not yours anymore. Walk tall in bent stride
And propaganda lies on the gentle side of genocide
Words are used, broken, twisted and misquoted
The gossip was probably true the first time somebody told it
And slander's just a well-intentioned public exposition
That should have been handled man to man as something different
The bum decisions are done and repeated like that
Bite my tongue in half as an example of how to fight back
Write raps and raise a family. Build with the like-minded
Honor hides itself in strange faces. I'm always glad to find it
I'm reminded of the wonder of this world in which we live
How we kill ourselves to have but find freedom when we give
Climb reason and forgive in a quest for all that is
I'm standing right beside you 'cause this is where I live
[Hook]
I'm the voice in the distance, the image in the foreground
Don't have much, but what's mine is yours now
Can't put your finger on it, but you've seen me around
Wherever you're at, I'm just a couple doors down
[Repeat]
[Verse #2]
It's like 4 in the morning and I'm still here
Wasn't 'til 3:45 that I started thinking clear
Concern, anger, sadness, and now my heart is blinking tears
Take these necessary steps to my art can reach my peers
I've abused my voice so much that it's hard to sing this year
And my own songs can't echo in my set of ringing ears
Pages filled top to bottom with confidence and stinging fear
That no one understands what I speak and they can't hear
So I'll say it twice as loud and I'll mean every word
Can't keep it in my mouth until their peace is disturbed
From the least to the first, we can see where you hurt
And we dedicate this now, every beat, every verse
Every breath, every thought, every prayer, every stage
Every show, every moment, every night, every day
Everything that we say and everything that we do
It's dedicated to you. It's dedicated to you...
[Hook]
[Verse #3]
The moments that I'm walking through affect the way I talk to you
And this is what I'm called to do. It's almost like I'm stalking you
You're tired of falling through the cracks from all the broken promises
And it's tough to hear the voice of reason through these busted monitors
And as honest as I am, I can't hide behind the façade
I just wanna bring my people a little closer to God
If I'm martyred on MARTA, it was probably my time
But we're here now, hands on, transforming your mind
So if I ask you how you're doing, don't smile and say, "Fine."
'Cause it's written all over your face honey, and I ain't blind
Me and mine, we spill our guts, 'cause without it, we'd go nuts
The music is therapeutic, so just let it pick you up
And hold you tight. Move a little closer to the light
Be careful when you listen 'cause it might just change your life
And when you see me in the supermarket, just smile and say, "Hello."
And add me to the list of all the people that you know...
(Hook)
my life moves at the speed of the light
my life, I'm in the fight of my life for all of my
life
my life is in the limelight, my life here is finite
so gather round tonight and take a look at my life
verse 1:
I live the high life with lowlifes who want life to go
right/
they blow like amateurs while I'm a professional who's
pro-life/
in rap olympics Moabites hold records against physics/
and make my words a guillotine so that heads can roll
with it/
no limit to the breath that i breathe and this life
that i lead/
might just touch enough minds with rhymes, develop
thousand lifetimes/
bring sentences to life while you serve this life
sentence/
just a slave to every hour, counting seconds by the
minute/
me, I start where many finish, and my life to me is
endless/
trip towards the infinite coz life to me's a
pilgrimage/
skywalk like phantom menace, against all odds like
Jeff Bridges/
to live life first 'til second coming, hype verses/
verse words written down, world wishin' I might curse/
but my heart beats to the stroke of my pen and I'd die
first/
flirt with disaster and transfer life lessons on wax /
and make a soundtrack for life with every track/
hook:
my life moves at the speed of the light
my life, I'm in the fight of my life for all of my
life
my life is in the limelight, my life here is finite
so gather round tonight and take a look at my life
my life moves at the speed of the light
my life, I'm in the fight of my life for all of my
life
no money, broke life, breain' life down to a science
(my life might be a tragedy, my life will be a
triumph)
verse 2:
I got my mind on my money and my money in the next
man's bank account/
[Verse 1]
I rock spots with top-notch communication
On time like a stopwatch while others keep me waiting
Pop lock to a beat box while taking potshots at hard rocks
Who got their glocks cocked and what not
Flocks jock the man in the drop top that cops stop
Yesterday had the block locked, but then he got knocked
Talk chops like the microphones their home
But their ideas, their style and their life is monotone
In a flashback, it's all real instead of abstract
Should have been your own man instead of following the rat pack
Taken this instead of that path, calculate on that math
The writing's on the wall, graff style with cans and fat caps
The wind blows where it wishes, snakes are still viscous
World struggles for riches, rap lyrics still explicit
I kick it with the gifted, but everyone will miss it
They praise the man who built on the sand, but then it shifted
It's fatter than a lipid, we befriended the infinite
The cat who lived it, died, arose and then ascended
But heads still get lifted, they hear it then forget it
But they'll want to change their minds when it's finished
[Verse 2]
FM Radio is D.O. A., B, it's plain to see
It's N'Sync and LFO instead of NKOTB
It's all the same, CC you're A & R ASAP
And tell him MTV really ain't the place to be
See, I did some R & D when most where high on THC
And caught a vision in the form of Run DMC and BDP
Because KRS was the one before VH could get in line
Behind the music, but today it's really the music that's behind
I find T & A on NBC without a question
So I tune into PBS to try to teach my child a lesson
Cats run weapons from Route 66 to the BQE
I push my beliefs over beats in encoded mp3's
I praise G-O-D for the O2 I get to breathe
And for the way he reads my heart and my mind like ESP
While you communicate collectively, still you're all alone
Don't let the wave break
It's not my destiny
I made a mistake
When I forgot to see
The oceans in spite of me
Don't let the wave break
It's not my destiny
I made a mistake
When I forgot to see
Why do I choose to fear
When I can feel this love?
I know we're beautiful
I've seen our perfect scars
Don't wanna be alone [x3]
Here I am [x4]
Disconnected
None to hold
We crawl into the crumbling arms
Of love letting go
Why do I choose to fear
When I can feel this love?
I know we're beautiful
I've seen our perfect scars
Don't wanna be alone [x3]
Here I am [x2]
(Don't wanna be alone)
Here I am [x2]
Don't wanna be alone
(Here I am)
Why do I choose to fear
When I can feel this love?
I know we're beautiful
I've seen our perfect scars
Don't wanna be alone
Don't wanna be alone
Don't wanna be alone
(Here I am)[x4]
Can't hold a love inflatable
In line to be rejected
Cover the eys of innocence
With residue affected
I dove into your shallow will
To drown this, once forgiven
And in your belly find me still
Alone, alone
Waited so long for a pretty soul
Traded alabaster kisses for the antidote
Welcome to the promenade
Crusade
Martyred on a hilll of bones
They're just slaves
Try to kill the dead
And wind up hanging instead
I'd rather be a criminal
Don't wanna be forsaken
Defined in reflections of you
Confined to what I'm given
I sank into your shallow arms
This residentail heaven
And in your palace find my calm
Alone, alone
Waited so long for a pretty soul
Traded alabaster kisses for the antidote
Welcome to the promenade
Crusade
Martyred on a hilll of bones
They're just slaves
Try to kill the dead
And wind up hanging instead
Wrong, wrong
You're not the chosen one [x5]
Wrong, wrong wrong!
Welcome to the promenade
Crusade
Martyred on a hilll of bones
They're just slaves
Try to kill the dead
And wind up hanging instead
WRONG!
Welcome to the promenade
Crusade
Martyred on a hilll of bones
They're just slaves
Try to kill the dead
And wind up
Watching you feeling more
Breaking through an open door
Bring your rage
What to gain
All you ever bought was pain
I got life
I got mine
I?ve got family
I got time
I?ve got hands to make it right
And I?ve got love
And I will survive
(chorus)
Well I?ve got anger
And it?s in my soul
Well I?ve got rage
But I?ve got control
Well I?ve got patience
But you?re on my toes
You light my fire
Now see me grow
Anger strike
Weakened heart
Healing is our only part
Back to one
What you?ve begun
Love might be our strongest gun
Like the rain our hope is falling
Today he enters a room full of questions
Searching for truth/Seek and you will find
Open the doors
Today he enters the room for the last time
To give them one more chance to save him
In his will an opinion of how it should be
But judgement comes before redemption
Leading them on with a statement he made
Provoking reaction but disappointed
Drawing conclusions that came from a man
He's spinning in circles/There's no way to stop him
Love can regain its moments in contradiction
Love can slowly
(Chorus)
Teach me to embrace correction/connection
Worshipping it/In its will
Apply it to my life's direction/No more silence
Today he enters my mind for the last time
There's only one more chance to save him
He's made my decision/I'm losing my will
I bought what he's selling/I swallowed the pill
Can love reach its potential in silence
Can we all please lose our opinions
Close our hearts to avoid confrontation
I feel used
I confess
Got my manhood
and yet
Out of place
Overdressed
Smoke alarm
Cigarettes
And when it brings you down
You?ll learn to taste it
(Chorus)
Yeah
All worn out now nothing to prove
Yeah
Breathe in, breathe out, breakthrough
Look at me
Look at this
Nothing new
Nothing is
How lovely, the paintings I keep in my mind
Focusing on the smiles I've found time to time
Beauty the much overwhelming glow
When it disappeared
I knew it was time to let go
And I feel so low
A part of me
The damage is done
Feel so low
The less of me is bringing me down
Lullaby the carefully crafted words
A memory to distant to value its worth
Beauty the much overwhelming glow
When it disappeared I knew it was time to let go
And I feel so low
A part of me
The damage is done
Feel so low
The less of me is bringing me down
Wooooooo (x4)
Guitar solo
And I feel so low
A part of me
The damage is done
Feel so low
The less of me is bringing me down (x2)
Now I see everything (x6)
Beautifully it started out
Wasted worry on tomorrow
Beauty, fully was in doubt
Taking over
Change forever
When will I find life?
(Chorus)
When there's nothing left to say
And words don't hold the answers
Just to give it all away/As I breathe
Anxiously it wanted out
Bound by this, it always needed
Freedom served to keep him down
Freedom always was the reason
Learn the program
Make the model
Change forever
Lying awake with her ear to the phone
Listens to him but a dream of her own
She?s trying but she just can?t get through
Forgetting the pain and forgiving the lies
Convincing the angels that she sees inside
She?s crying is she giving up to soon
Angels sorry didn?t mean to run
Angels hiding losing everyone
(Chorus)
Damaged, words that were said
No apologies this time
You/We are lost not broken
Lost not broken down
Whatever comes to me
I find it?s so impossible to see
It?s difficult for me
Changing her life cause he told her she could
Chasing her dreams cause he said that she should
Wish that I could be you for just one day
How'd it be for me to think and to live that way
Maybe then I would see I would realize
Just who you are
Just one day inside of your head
Just one night of sleep in your bed
Maybe then I would know who you are
I don't know now
I would learn what to do if I were you
Always know what to say and just what to do
I would quit all the things that you hate
I would know why you don't listen sometimes
I could go to that silent place where you hide
I would see all the pictures of fear
I would see that you do what you can
It was me who turned tail and ran
I would know how alone you can feel
If I were you
If I were you for a little while
A day of two with your certain smile
And in your shoes I could walk a mile
Then I would know
I wish I knew how to lend a hand
Just what to do in this foreign land
If I were you I would understand
Everyday I wake up in the morning
I find my face in the coffee beans
Slug down a glass of mimosa
And in a minute I'm ready to sing
Stumbling on into the shower
Gotta hear my voice in the tile
Breaking off a verse and a chorus
Gonna send it two-thousand miles
Looking for a shot at the big time
Can't buy a break in L.A.
And I'm making my way to Nashville
And I'm starting at the break of day
Try to put my pen to the paper
Looking at the sky for the rhyme
Can't handle stiff concentration
Better have another sip of the wine
Spitting in the wind of destruction
You know it won't get it done
Looking for new inspiration
And I need a new place to run
Looking for a shot at the big time
Can't buy a break in L.A.
And I'm making my way to Nashville
And I'm starting at the break of day
Blessed be the Father
Blessed be the Son
Take me out of this hellhole
Tomorrow morning it's time for fun
(Guitar) (Piano)
Kind of getting lost in the shuffle
Feeling like a car on the road
Shooting for some time on the side stage
And I'm hoping that they see me blow
Making my way in the from the valley
Unraveling at the spine
Try to make some friends in the basin
But they never seem to have the time
Looking for a shot at the big time
Can't buy a break in L.A.
And I'm making my way to Nashville
