(feat. Talib Kweli)



[Talib Kweli]

[Chorus]

Turn the lights down low and the speakers up high

Feel the energy that we bringing inside

Doin it right, ridin all night

Payin the price, livin the lives

[women's voice]



Take it from me, in this business it ain't unusual to lose your soul

So I zone and put the microphone on cruise control

To let my hands be free

I shape and mold the energy in the room like pottery

Methodically in tune is probably how I be

I walk with God most cats is children of a lesser

On the face of earth they like swords that fester

When they get a little light these snakes be acting all extra

With congratulations that be mad fake like vester

If it's a scam they the investor

A lot of  ??? like professor

I make sure my words stay honorable like ??Rob Vinesta??

So true heads is glad I'm hear giving lyrics out the stratosphere

Giving birth, my cipher stay pregnant with ideas, so push

Ever since way back in Ethopia it's known as cush

To the now how we roll through flatbush

We civilized most people in my state is kill or die

Still I rise real hip-hop is still alive



[Chorus x2]



Most of these rap goons, they suck like vacuums

I rhyme great they stuck on primate like baboons

They steady coming lazier than Sunday afternoon

Make me want to turn that shit off and cool out to jazz tunes

But I'm back soon, resurrecting hip-hop is my dream

So you can get the whole picture like a wide screen

Sometimes the road is dark so I flash my high beams

Nobody knows the troubles I've seen

You see these weak in the knee emcees speaking to me

Like they freakin the beat, seeking to be in my company

When in actuality they leaves on the tree compared to me

I'm basically the square root of what they reaching to be

But you can't now can you, I pay my dues on the annual basis

How to lace it I wrote a manual face it

You small like granules and on that fake shit

We keep it down to earth well y'all act like you on spaceships



[Chorus x4]

A few extra