[Intro]

A faithless preacher? Or you a mean motherfucking servant of God?

[Sene: Verse 1]

I said If I could ride Pegasus back to Exodus

Before the apple Adam ate, before Able exited

Before we made the atom split, we were all African

Kings around the black again, before slave trafficking

Before computers; If I could pick a territory it would be Zamunda, uh

Before Kunta, Before rumors of a Lucifer

Before I had to watch for the sirens on a lumina, or

Before I had go and to see my homies at their funeral

My life is beautiful, my life is brutal though

Era of the crack game, beepers and the crap games

AIDS became the black plague and angels changed their last name

Big body Benzes, graffiti on the benches

Friends turning friends in to get a lighter sentence

So if you hit heaven any earlier than I

Just know that I'm trying to make amends

Amen

[Verse 2]

In a fiscal year, the fish scale sold

Give more to the ghetto than the WIC check can

The mayor is a player and the pigs don't care

The rich are given everything the kids don't have

My first seeds coming and I'll be damnned

If you don't know that, this a cold cold land

I know some flippers that'll flip you for a pardon

So pardon if I'm dolo cause I don't trust Jack

You feel gangster cause you sold some drugs

But when the po-po come why you don't bust back?

Your man get the word and he come "CLACK CLACK"

Upholding the law, that's a joke not fact

I've dumbed it down for dummies now to undersound

Or understand what I'm humming 'bout

Shit, I even cut the drumming out

Sound stoned cause I even cut the loving out

[Interlude]

I often receive letters from people that quote famous names. Such and such a person, a preacher, a revivalist, a man of God. I read these books and I swear by the words of these preachers. I want to give them a warning my friend

[Verse 3]

A man used a poem to decide where he's living

It decides wheres he's going, determines where they show is

Determines how they look in it, determines what his dough is

My words built an ark like ?, like Noah's

Poets, hanging with poorest and the lowest on the totem

All fathers for the fallen

God tried to slow him, devil tried to call him

Came home, somebody grubbing on my porridge

I'm the New Yorkers

Fried rice sitting over pork chips

Loose stogs sold at the store where the whores is

Streets sniff enough blow to kill horses

"Fuck the Police" plays loud on the porches

But if I try to repent

Will I get into the pearly gates, forgive and forget

Cause if not, I'm busting every shot that I got

I don't see an angel Gabriel to pay my rent

You see criminals, I see friends and

You hear subliminals, well I see trends and

We left to wonder where the madness ends

Where the goodness starts

By the stars I bet

[Interlude]

It's not that we live in fear, we live in...we live in power. We have firearms, we have food, we have gold, we have friends, we have truth, we are not weak, we are not dependent. Ants store food, grasshoppers don't. Ants survive the winter, the grasshopper doesn't

[Verse 4]

Check it out

Passion, written in the caption

Sitting with the sinner saying prayers over caskets

Seeing silhouettes and it must be the absinthe

Miss home but it must be my absence

Traveling the map since back when

John became a Baptist, I feel as if

I could tell the story of the world but backwards

I can name my son globe, my girl atlas

Tell you why the sun glow

Come back with pieces of the sun, turn it up son, blast it

Rap baccalaureate, master historian

Swooping through the black hole, shotgun DeLorean

Home of Mos Def and Notorious

Bullets flying by you in the squeeze like accordions

Tell me where the chorus is

I've been falling back and talking to you on some roaring shit

Being my ? shit

Kate in the office with Jay on the phone telling y'all to support the kid

Kevorkian, caviar with a spork in it

What you talking? Put a fork in it

[Interlude]

What was that? An Exhibition? We need emotional content. Now try again!

(Student tries again)

I said "emotional content." Not anger! Now try again!

(Student tries again and succeeds)

Lee: That's it! How did it feel?

(Student thinks; teacher smacks his head)

Don't think. FEEL. It's like a finger pointing away to the moon

(Looks at student who is looking at the finger; smacks student again)

Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory! Do you understand?

[Interlude]

I was going to the worst place of the world and I didn't even know it yet

The purpose of war is to serve a political end but the true nature of war is to serve itself

War is a continuation of politics by other means

This is what it's all about John, this is what we're praying for

[Verse 5]

Can't shake it

Look all around, see Satan

Apes bathing with the atheists

Popes choosing alias

Our way, doomsday, dancing with the aliens

Anti-episcopalian (what an ugly thing to say)

Who pushed the prophet to the line?

Who's the guy that sprung the mallet helped to put the nail in him?

Anti-American, demon

Pail ?

That shit'll have him knocking on my door, feds tailing him

Shoot him down say that he was working with the Taliban

You can find me out in Brooklyn moving with my caravan

Gold Cadillac, brown fist ? shit

Just as long as I'm sitting on a mile

And my seed's got a queen just to help me when his pampers think

Cancer sticks, malt and liquor

Rome fell, watch as we fall quicker

Coke sells, folks don't sell drugs homie

And big brother hope you got your cellphone with you

You know you're really gangster when you're pulling out the jack

And they cap you because they thought you taking cell phone pictures

I grease my bows with that Mississippi mojo

Working like I'm in the dojo in this hell cold kitchen

You call it rap, I call it testimonials

To teach the kids and older folks some hard knock scriptures

[Interlude]

Well it was nice while it lasted

Uhm as you can see it would appear that everything has come back again

We had a good one, I can't complain (x4)

[Verse 6]

We hear cheers of a crowd

But ? still like tears tattooed to the cheeks of a crown

Man knows nothing

We can be fly but imagine what happens when we all fall down

Or better yet, who will they arrest if we all just decide to put the four-fives down?

Truths in the towers, locked away

And it's ugly as the Hunchback of Notre Dame

The streets hear still feel blood soaked stains

Targeting the poor like ? on planes

Trying to duck rubber that comes our way

Because real G's never kept a gun on safe

And reality is raw like prison's gates

Where folks do ? to sell their weight

Sell they momma, stores don't sell vests, they sell armor

You can a buy a bullet why your missus paint her nails and your kids look at video games

Same Walmart, same Target

Painted on our chest

And I put mine in the paint like Artest

We had a good one, I can't complain (x4)