(feat. Fre, Grafh, Invincible, Jane Doe, J-Live)



"1, 2, 3, 4" [x10]



[88 Keys]

Yo, this is 88...

This is for Amadou Diallo

Rest in peace, you still here



[Fre]

Yo, I'm in a brownstone singin like Brownstone

Bird's eye view wit the bodega

Know Omega like Rakim

Thinkin about brother Diallo

I find it hard to swallow

Cuz 41 is a hard act to follow

Who is it, it can happen tomorrow

Goes down all the time in some African community

This one just hit closer to home

Cuz it happen it in our backyard

This that *shit* bring us closer to home

They ask "What you writin fo'?  What you writin on that paper fo'?"

Don't ask me nuttin, just tell me 

How is safer got me safe, that's why my raps sour

My peoples screamin "Black power!" and la razah 

From the Bronx, police bustin, it's redemption time



[J-Live]

Now in the squad car, CPR's supposed to be the motto

But in they minds, they be like "Yo, I'ma do Diallo"

I guess master's noose was a bitter pill to swallow

Cuz nowadays, tips ain't the only things that's hollow

Constitution, 41 more holes in it

And cops swingin sticks like they tryin to win the pennant

And stickin sticks places where they ashamed to admit it

But that's the straw that broke the camel's back

THEY GON' GET IT!! 



[Rubix]

Possessed by a nervous twitch and itchy writin finger

41 strokes through the barrel of pen for Amadou

More than a few of my personal friends

Since the beginning, it seems like it never ends

The story, ancient as lyrical allegory and it's all gory

The Little Shop of City Hall Horrors

Who bakes infiltrate, agent, provocator mission statement

Assassinate the Senate candidate, heavenly mandate



[Chorus: Mos Def]

We proceeded on a country road

His mother's eyes withered swoll

Her child was never comin home

Said a prayer for his soul

As the coffin had closed, committed to the earth below

First seed she would sew, would be a tree never grown

Shade that was never known

Who controls the Terrordome, the member hearts made of stone

Who love only what they own



[Invincible]

Stay on your toes for a true bruise description 

Match blue suits, walkin round wit a stick and *edit*

Ready to blast wit the wrath of a hollow tip

And the fact is my task is a scholarship

I feel it in my chest cavitity

The only death's apathy, so I change it for who's next after me

And that's the fullest reward

Keep the face of the lost on my bulletin board



[Wordsworth]

Yo yo, it's blue uniform, sirens, names, and badge numbers

Clubs, walkie-talkies, recipies for bad summers

Frisked, pissed after I tuck in my stuff

I really think they just like touchin my *nuts*

What's real stain they thoughts

Swear, but they won't say it in court

All they do is change the report

Riots, tryin to keep the crowd under control

They even got shows, Cops, LAPD, Highway Patrol yo yo



[A.L.]

From the cradle to the grave, they made you a slave

Brainwash to kill each other, that's the plague that they made

I search em like readin scripts that could save you today

White is right, black is wrong, that's the label they gave

Fryin in hell, applyin jails, they got you dyin in cells

Triple six in the mix, Levine to ?spell?

Prepare for the worst, and try to hope for the best

I take a stare at the hearse, can we cope wit the stress?



[Kofi Taha]

I live in the land of punches

Illegal chokeholds and excessive gunshots

Where there's one millionaire for every billion empty pot

And Adolf Guily think we static but he's in for a shock

They come wit automatics but we flip it

Use the one, create the four glocks and while stocks get washed

While school doors get locked and when jobs get blocked

The confi-dence get's rock 

And when the welfares drop into the jails we stock now

After Amadou wrestlin wit freedom tacks my mind into a headlock

But fuck H&R, I'm a true cat

Refundin power back to our Blocks



[Chorus]



[Tame One]

Good life, you can bubble or struggle

Use your brain muscle if you hustle

Don't let nobody touch you

Don't even trust the ones that trust you

Cuz  the ones you showin love to might bust

Seekin as a cancer, my man got shot by Haitians or Jamaicans

? wit confrontations and school my mind's racin

I pride these sensations over this, now I'm hopin this

We shine for, I never got a chance to rhyme for

My role models sold bottles and stole cars

And when they got locked, I accepted all the phone calls

That's when *niggas* was real

Back before I had a deal

Back when people called Villsburg Hooterville

ILL!!!



[Jane Doe]

My mind wonders on melodic jams

An exotic bird, caged wit the rage and the violence of my words

The same things I down I turn around and do

The white cops say *Fuck you* but I say Fuck you too!

Truth be totally hypocrites

And materialistic society, spirituality shunned or

While young kinds get gunned on

Hibernatin in projects, which you project-ing

The pigs is crucifyin but Africans is resurrectin, Jane Doe



[Grafh]

Battacky, sends cops to come and catch me

He better send a runnin back to run and track me

When I'm runnin through the back streets

The rat teeth of beast  lovin to black me

Eatin brothers like a picinic color cuz that's sweet

To lock a man up in prison, the standard of livin

Thinkin they make a better bred of man 

Than the man when he went in

Rub up a man for sinnin

Handcuff his hands to the system, banned from his wisdom

Wit insanity in him, his mind roams wit like a cyclone

Damagin victim, his eyes hold savage within him

Wrath wit the venom, poison his life 

No ointment to boisten the might

If it's on the left, walk to the right

Until death, do your part do your life

Like a boyfriend and wife, because the day times shorter than night

You know?



[Chorus]



[88 Keys]

Yo, black is fragile remember that

Cherish everyday

Live life to the fullest, aight