Tariq Trotter aka Black Thought - One Shot lyrics

Living in some times that's the craziest They say these legislators are the laziest Dedicated religious figures have gone atheist Each and everything must change there's no escaping this I'm on the block post apocalyptic smoke covers Coincidentally presented by the Koch brothers The magnitude of this is bigger than the both of us The attitude is trying to manage not to choke from it Go and get the bolt cutters. Open the flood gate Any relationship I've ever been in was love/hate The city I was living in really never was safe For some a temporary resolution was duct tape Now I'mma probably be on the black list But I don't give a f** so I'mma shrug like Atlas And if my skepticism was a brand new practice Would y'all be disappointed like you just got catfished? It's cold-blooded. I'm whole-heartedly cold-hearted and swole from it The same unseen hands still in control of it I should be minding own like it's a gold nugget But I'm on that same bullsh** just on a lower budget Waiting on chains that bend low To let day after tomorrow I sit by the window And the police state like your man Michael Winslow My kinfolk told me there's a brand new Jim Crow I've been going to bed at ten up at five Hustle to the bus and ride To the job It's feeling hot as the Fourth of July My lady just getting home. We living separate lives She couldn't be one of those Stepford wives if she tried They shot my cousin. He died. It wasn't justified I guess I see him if I make it to the other side The corner deli owner tell me hurry up and buy If everybody is somebody tell me who am I? The same figure who came from Anguilla Ain't nothing different I think I'm addicted to pain k**ers I'm unpermitted to enter the village Of Shangri La I'm depicted as being the k**a this dangerous, huh? Half dozen in one hand, Six in the other Yo, this is more than a suntan ; it's living color Black as oblivion Black as obsidian Black as the sky at midnight alto-meridian I am black as the porch who With Diddy, 2Pac, and Biggie in Black as the influence on the culture we're living in I survived the childless circuit Vaudevillian in Managed inspire the Beatles and Bob Dylan and them But did I miss the mark because I'm just as dark As John Hendrick Clark's inner thoughts At the time of the Harlem Renaissance After which Rights activists Deviated the flight path The black ratchedness Putting us back smack dab Where night catches us We just go along for the ride Pa**engers Gluttons for punishment. Masochists Still doing whatever master asks of us Will this generation go down as the last of us? Will being young men while black was hazardous? Into the proverbial masked avenger all these pretenders Suffer from symptoms of affluenza I'm just thinking out loud about Extinction and genders and plans My grandmother definitely remembers Listen her suits were tailor made Sundays Mahila played Simple familiar ways like the way she Knelt and prayed Well and Lord and master forgive us our trust Pastors had us well afraid I never listened. But I still obeyed I got to see how the gangsters played at such an early age When my father was there to set them to us early grave Their mom started chasing that base like Willie Mays My childhood was all of 40 nights and 40 days Trouble was my ball and chain Shorties would call me names Humble beginnings black daughters what that all became My journey from a dirty hallway to the hall of fame Music my therapeutic way to deal with all this pain I was headed for the drain Soaking before the rain water came And chaos that's when the order came I started what I'm supposed to in life Trying to move out of the dark and closer to the light They say when you get a chance to do it over . Do it right Because tomorrow was a promise every time we say "Good night" Listen Dope Shot Mug Shot Gun Shot Jump Shot Take your pick. But you only got only one shot Advice from a school teacher to a young tot Applying a sticker to a Spiderman lunch box When even role models tell us we're born to be felons And we ain't getting into Harvard or Carnegie Mellon And of these other people's blessings we've grown to be jealous It's not fair that's all they can tell us That's why I hustle hella hard I don't celebrate a holiday That could be the day a brother could have struck the lottery I refuse to ever to lose or throw my shot away Or chalk it up to just another one that got away So I'm unapologetic I'm on my calisthenics If I had giving it all I got I can not regret it My final destination's different from where I was headed Because I'm going to shoot for the stars to get it One shot