Lupe Fiasco - Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free) lyrics

[Produced by Simonsayz and B Sides; Additional production by Lupe Fiasco and Chill] [Verse 1] First off, say "Peace" to Pine Ridge Shame at all the damage that the white man wine did Ghost Dance, Trail of Tears, five million beers a year And all that other crime did More peace to the teachers of blind kids To rebels in small cells keeping their mind big Say everything's hostile Suicide bombers and prosperity gospels, emaciated models With c**aine and blood pouring out their nostrils, they got to Just to stay awake on the catwalk of life where everybody watch you Straight hair, high heels and a handbag Crucifixes, racism and a land grab Katrina, FEMA trailers, human body sandbags A peace sign and a pants sag A money toss cause a nine stripper mad dash A friend request following a hash tag Now everybody want it like the last laugh A Michael Jackson jacket or a Daft mask Purple Jordans or the mixed girl in your math cla** Stable is when the Ba'ath had Baghdad But corporate jets really had to have that gas bad War and they hope they all fall from the ratatat Cause that's just more dinosaur for the Cadillac [Hook] Live from the other side what you see A bunch of nonsense on my TV Heaven on Earth is what I need But I feel I'm in Hell every time I breathe Reporting live from the other side what you hear A bunch of nonsense all in my ear Rich man, poor man, we all gotta pay Cause freedom ain't free, especially 'round my way [Verse 2] And we marvel at the state of Ottoman Then turn around and treat Ghana like a garbage can America's a big motherf**in' garbageman If you ain't know, you're part and parcel of the problem You say no you ain't, and I say yes you is Soon as you find out what planned obsolescence is You say no they didn't, and I say yes they did The definition of unnecessary-ness Manifested Say that we should protest just to get arrested That goes against all my hustling ethics A bunch of jail n***as say it's highly ineffective Depart from Martin, connect on Malcolm X tip Insert Baldwin to similar the separate To me, the truth is more fulfilling than a meth hit Or finding really fast internet to have some s** with It's all one song short of a set list Couple croissants shy of a continental breakfast Or blowing out your birthday candles just to make a d**h wish So absurd, word to Chief Bone Necklace Down at the Lakota Sioux Casino A whole culture boiled down to giving you pokeno I go as left as a heart in the chest Cause the Horn of Africa is now starving to d**h [Hook] Live from the other side what you see A bunch of nonsense on my TV Heaven on Earth is what I need But I feel I'm in Hell every time I breathe Reporting live from the other side what you hear A bunch of nonsense all in my ear Rich man, poor man, we all gotta pay Cause freedom ain't free, especially 'round my way [Verse 3] An all-white Los Angeles, the dream of Mr. Chandler Hope and pray they take Columbus Day up off the calendar South Central an example of God's gifts So shout to all the mothers raising babies in SPA 6 The projects of Oakland city, Detroit ghost towns Monopolies on poverty where D-boy coke bound It’s parts of Manila like the video for "Thriller" But the US Emba**y is reminiscent of a villa If poverty is chocolate and privilege vanilla Then what’s the flavor of the Sunday preacher’s pedophilia? Cash rules everything around these n***as As cla**rooms everywhere around me wither Hither you can be Mr. Burns or Mr. Smithers The tyrant or the slave, but nowhere in the middle Of the extremes of America’s dream Freud fighting Neo, Freddy Krueger refereeing, now… [Hook] Live from the other side what you see A bunch of nonsense on my TV Heaven on Earth is what I need But I feel I'm in Hell every time I breathe Reporting live from the other side what you hear A bunch of nonsense all in my ear Rich man, poor man, we all gotta pay Cause freedom ain't free, especially 'round my way [Outro] Great American rap resurrect... Lupe on the check Westside till I die!