[t-mo]
Trying to keep my head above water
Selling myself short to meet the f**ing quota
Still there's n***as at my heels to get my paper
Stacking up in the bank, the layers on the cake-a
Thinking like jimmy, tami, oh it's low down
n***as be getting mad as i go 'round like pac
The sh** don't stop, i hid the rock in my sock
Did my day and a half, now it's autographs i be signing
Instead of police papers
Caught scheming, not pulling capers, no fed time
Just mental healing
What you dealing with? the angelic uplift
It's a way to save everything with your gift
(yeah)
Now a seed to a tree was to be
(yeah)
A boy to a man comes up quickest like a dream
You really don't understand why
'til you gone and dead
So when your time comes
Just remember what i said
Human'll find truth to tell a lie
Take away my past and don't show me i can fly
Sly like stone, it's on, you say peace
I can't relate homes, i'm on the f**ing streets
Believe it or not, i'm sure there be calmer situations
When dirty cops approach me joe, i'm on probation
Hesitating could get me took
What can i do? mildew?
Can i take your place on your next trip to
The islands of alto, so it's going down like that
I'm back to bat dropping wits on wax
To fit into the mix of the rich and scan'lous
Can't let 'em handle us any kind of way, f** it
And run away, i don't want it torn joe
I think they gay, don't wanna play my sh** up north
But that's okay, jealousy can go a long way
And what goes around comes around in the a-town
[big gipp]
Have you ever thought about what it would be like
If everybody woke up and said "f** work"
Webs of small talk, people caught up in this thing
I try to relax, but i stay shaking like the blue flame
It keeps coming, this and that, that and this
Another suing me, well i add him to the list
Flows and flows, with the girls with the tight clothes
Saying anything to get off in these back doors
Irritating like what's on them thirties
Ain't looking for no more friends, i got enough buddies
A thousand attempts with thirty cents to their name
I got enough pine but i can't find the flame
Sweet like honeys**les, country like that cha cha on the green
Jumping fences and rooms with large laughter
Original gene grafter, more and more ways to eat
Brews tested by the astronauts, turn the turn the watts up
Listen to what i said
Cnn all day in your eyes and your head
[khujo]
No longer can i ask when i'm in your presence
Now it's hard to tell whether you're trying to hurt or help me
At the bottom of this barrel scraping
Next time i promise to stand for self-determination
Instead of always taking from cool
Keeping the same color as you and me, continue to battle dna
Let's travel to a remote city get back, have mercy
Unravel and break the chains of chemical dependency
Plastic can eventually explode bits and pieces of my soul
Shattering, just not being put back together
We can rule, but still brothers won't use that tool
In between their shoulders, click
Hearts cold as bricks, nipples what better way to cripple
An entire race on the paper chase
Getting my toes stepped on, then kicked in my face
Every time i open my mouth i represent the south
Dirty like red, it was the lifestyle i led
Worshipping vanity, fornicating out of wedlock
Locked in yesterday's trunk of secrets, i fled
Went from sugar to sheet rock
Get your rocks, sweet licks turn sour
By the hour, over on tiger flower
If that light went on that meant go
Say what you really mean, i atone
For all the women i abused as a youngster
People got four fifths out this dumpster
[cee-lo]
Compositions should be able to make the connections
From reflections of living
Why every breath is god-given
Appreciating, especially waiting
Letting time do the educating
In order to know
Sunshine and the rain are both needed
Or the seed can't grow
It's given me some form of inner vision
How the paragraphs are prepared with precision
Unveiling evidence that this is no coincidence
We've been sent
Judge not by my skin color but my character's content
In no way is this an attempt to claim to be exempt
From my people's situations, but i have moral obligations
See i want to be all right with god
Long conversations at night with god
My arms are gonna always be too short to fight with god
To all this might not be appealing
But i can't help feeling the way i do
I realize that my reward won't come from any of you
See everybody got a little light under the sunshine
But unselfishly i still want to share mine
And what you choose to do is on you
You've got to stand on your own feet cause i ain't got but two
I can't knock you for not knowing
But i could for you not wanting to learn
Nor for asking, but i could for you not wanting to earn
No i can't, cause somebody even had to tell me twice
So this music is my sacrifice, so i'll be dedicated
Determinated and dependable, to demonstrate directly
And use the opportunity correctly
So forget the gold teeth
And uh, and uh
Forget the bald head
Forget it sound country
Just remember what i said