[Chinaka Hodge]
Small things to a giant
[Verse 1: Daveed Diggs]
Sometimes you gotta stand on tiptoe
For a little bit of perspective on the sh** go
Down in a town full of genius schizo
-phrenic tenants tending to a scale so tipped slow
Dip, toe in water
Test it even though you know it's hot
On a block where chalk stencils can talk
To the good old days when A's could knock out parks
And the Eaiders knock out lights
And the knock in the parking lot was a sight to see
Here cause there's really nowhere else to be
Feeling the weight of a city growing fat off hipster chic
Fusion food, organic beets
It's a wonder that we still tongue in cheek
When it's so much hand to mouth in the streets
Hands down the tooth of the town
It's the sweetest
Feeding on the every bit of good I got into this piece
Maybe [?] I can keep the giant sleep
Long enough for me to do something to get up on my feet
Swollen back, broken
Can't hold up my history
Panthers snapping at my ankle
Cause they struggle don't mean sh** to me
You see on the day by day
Where's my gun, mother may I spray
Late merry monster is on it's way
And it's wayward wanton whims may make us a meal today
Feel me here alone
A warrior with no spear to throw
Too many rappers and too many poems
For a beast that's illiterate to give its sh** its own
I wanna go there, there
Hear me drowned out by the town merely
A man like me can barely be seen clearly
Under these lights, I am disappearing
[Hook: Daveed Diggs]
And what's the use of screaming if you can't hear nothing?
Don't be fooled by the quiet, yeah
And what's the use of dreaming if you can't touch nothing?
When the sh** goes down and we riot
Remember it is small things to a giant
[Verse 2: Chinaka Hodge]
Too much to wrap my head around
And so I wrap my head around
These brothers and they cousins when I'm pa**ing on they beats
We Africans in heat
Accustomed to it, rusted Buicks
Tandem in these streets
Holla what you want, cousin
Just the same old shlock[?]
Can't afford to raise my babies and maintain on this block
I'm watching Dog Town plummet
To this Pixar, hipster, art walk summit
So I'm coming, blunt it, hunt it, gun it, won it
From the hundreds, to the bottoms
I'm watching all my options
It's optical illusions and environmental toxins
Like this small pond and big fish
These black girls in french tips
The itty bitty pills and the wide body scrapers
The Chauncey Bailey types and their black m**m bakers
Big secrets, no confidence
Lies with no consequence
Strung out on these opposites and opulence and opiates
Guess that's that Golden Gate sh**
That "Oakland takes the cake" sh**
The object of your hate sh**
The subject of a rape kit
I'm obviously on, honestly gone
Outside my zone screaming big sh**, no time
My uncle got a cabin and it's not rent to own
Stop leasing what we mortgage
Get the f** out my home
[Hook]
And what's the use of screaming if you can't hear nothing?
Don't be fooled by the quiet, yeah
And what's the use of dreaming if you can't touch nothing?
When the sh** goes down and we riot
Remember it is small things to a giant
[Verse 3: Daveed Diggs]
We all figure that we bigger Thomas
Missed out on a bigger promise
Halfway to the trigger, a n***a by circumstance
But if I'm being honest
Maybe I'm just lazy
Maybe I'm too stay to the ways of the Bay
Maybe, maybe everything I thought of as home is really just a building erected to be standing in my way
Maybe I should break out
But how do you break out of home, when home is your heart?
And I know what heartache's about
And really, I'm too grown to cry over spilled anything so dispelling my doubt
Is something I'm very versed at
But something that I rarely write a verse about
‘Cause that sh**'s too big to let it in
When you begin
[?]
Finally begin finding those hiding places mind is within it
Within a minute is so manipulating
[?]
And I'm holding onto my stature
‘Cause I'm getting older
No more of master
Slaving away everyday to find the time like a ba*tard
Looking for [?]
[?] Finding no tracks
‘Cause really it don't snow in the Bay
No ice for the wrist and no glistening
Just hammers and hay
What's the matter with that?
As a matter of fact, we like it that way
Born hard, bred hard, and hard we will stay
More scarred by hearts than necessary
More parts upstart than martyrs
We pray
To the gods of gangstadom
Pray on a week so thanks to them
We don't feel meek and danger and
I'll be giant until everything'll break again
Defiant and ignorant of the stakes
The waves are crashing down and we standing up in the breaks
Can't swim but willing to wait as far as it takes
[Hook]
And what's the use of screaming if you can't hear nothing?
Don't be fooled by the quiet, yeah
And what's the use of dreaming if you can't touch nothing?
When the sh** goes down and we riot
Remember it is small things to a giant
Yeah, remember it is small things to a giant