Abandoned language only when I thought my masses couldn't manage
Wisdom gained with age is lost to page as adage
So tragic, that average trajectory
Incendiary thought and vast vocabulary makes none the less of savage
A fist or full clip might be quick to split that cabbage
This breath? It takes tactics
Haven't quite mastered movements after three full decks
What we seem to go through rarely ever makes sense
From the scorching country fields to the heart of projects
What we know of history's always marred in violence
So I, Etch my own stone into tablets
Never felt the need to live elaborate
Fuck the pretty niggas with their rings and silk fabrics
Need an ear to concrete to speak correct grammatics
Heard same beauty in my noise where the rest heard static
I've had it, Trying to explain this same formula
Perfect paranoia
Don't let me trust a soldier
Thought we'd all understand now since we're older
They pass manilla folders and 100,000 die
They built the public schools with factory workers in their eyes
Since we don't manufacture now they don't need men
It's easier to start wars than it is to feed kids
Damn we callous
We kept off balance
Kept off balance as I harness raw talents
Said a million times prefer bullets to ballots
Kept off balance
Ideas are valid
Ideas are valid
They say I'd best whisper
Ideas are valid
They say I'd best whisper
I say I'll keep a pen to pad and fingers on triggers
Should i aim at own temple or several?
Can't figure
It's hard to focus, perhaps our last opus
If younger heads quote this, then it ain't all hopeless
I wrote this with intent to resurrect a John Carlos
A Huey Newton, a Guevara in the midst
Can't accept the struggle's dead when there's blood on our lips
Positions shift but survival's all basic
Ain't a fuckin' thing sacred nowadays kid
Perhaps the racists ain't blatant but what's really changed?
Our peoples been trained to live in tight cage
The only thing we feel is mad rage
The closest thing to bring a smile to parched lips slipped silent through arthritic grip
A stoic life lasts instant
A starved infant would best paint state of our conditions
Populous with no ambition
Content to tear at flesh formed somber progression
So where's the lessons to digest within aggression?
These filthy blocks are all immersed in raw tension
Meanwhile you act like poverty was our invention
The meek inherent what and when is my question
I read your weak history text that never mention
A solitary second of my people's true intentions
Astute observations kept us mentally replenished
Resumed rituals retold tales as heretic, within my speech lies the last of my heritage
Hit headshots with higher average
All caught in labyrinth, shine when I speak you can't handle it
Chorus:
Turn that page muthafucka cause our story's all scripted
600 years, ain't a fuckin' thing different
Don't speak to us about strength and upliftment
The closest thing to paradise is mad distant
Mind's prism imprisons what light enters to ruin negative
Reactions attract interest from factions that lack oral traditions
In fact speech muted like Miles' horn
Though humble my soul's torn
Tempted to tell more
Labeled a failure
You fail to see my core
Won't let you just ignore
This fight's what we live for
Fragile image ignites wrath of ancestors
Revamped rhyme pattern gathers pulse from street wars
I seek more
Perhaps life's still atypical
Experience has got me cynical
Seen our best clipped at pinnacle
Provide cyanide in form of capsule
At times it seems my breath is just a hassle
Masked men poised to kidnap for known ransom
Ransack a stack of ill writtens
Reduced to ramble
Why's our inner streets left in shambles?
I know a nigga's got to eat.... but do we got to play sambo?
Suburban copies sloppily repeat what seen on airwaves
Completely miss gist of dimly lit stairways
How dare they make us trivial
Made it seem we never counted
My culture's demise was more literal than it sounded
Theories well grounded, inevitably unearth skeletons of fellow men
Pristine bones got bleached of their melanin
While they teach mere scraps of tinged truth
Corrupts youth
Views constrict these pupils
The useful made fools with eyes that blur proofs
My manner's uncouth as they complete loop
Kept the cyclical sense of this noose