1. |
Love Is
03:53
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I don’t know what Love is
But I know what it ain’t
It’s the canvas without the paint
It’s like appreciating sunshine
When you ain’t ever been through the rain
It’s like
Feeling the pleasure
But never dealing with pain
And Love
It ain’t a game
Like
When we’re winning it’s cool
But when we’re losing
You quit and complain
‘Cause when we’re down in the fourth quarter
You just hold out your arms
I’m going long
Throwing the bomb
Like a mortar
And you don’t go overboard
Or swim for shore
When we hit a little patch of rough water
Nah, you ride it out
Confide your doubts
Learn to know what Love is
Inside and out
But to take it there
We can’t fake it here
We could make it there
If we make it clear
We got a plan
And we’re going to stick to it
‘Cause Love is a hard grind
And when it’s our time
We get to it
So when it’s all done and through with
We could kick back
And watch the stars shine
We’ve been through it
True it was tough
But we made movements to trust
And fused it with good music
And used it for us
Now that’s
Love
Yeah, what is the meaning of
Love
And you know that I
Love, Love
But I need to know our Love is real
And no other Love comes close to our
Love
Yeah, what is the meaning of
Love
And you know that I
Love, Love
But I need to know our Love is real
And no other Love comes close to ours
Yeah, what is the meaning of?
Is it walking around all day
P.D.A. so we’re seen in Love?
Making sure we got witnesses
Or is it between just us?
Our business?
Is this?
Something for all of our friends
And family members
To analyze closely
And scan it relentless?
Or is it something only you and I can hope
To understand and cope with
Spanning oceans
And
Just as deep my Love is
Unfathomable
Making Love’s what I’d rather we do
But instead
Another fight
Another night with doubt
Wondering whether we still want in
Or want out
And
Thinking about what it is exactly
We got going on
Is it Love?
Perhaps we
Mistook some emotions for Love
It happens
A thin line separates Love and hate
And in fact
It’s almost invisible
That’s why we’re arguing one minute
The next
We’re getting physical
The truth is
I can’t define what Love is to you
It just is
Make Love
Live
And feel the lyrical
It’s
Love
Yeah, what is the meaning of
Love
And you know that I
Love, Love
But I need to know our Love is real
And no other Love comes close to our
Love
Yeah, what is the meaning of
Love
And you know that I
Love, Love
But I need to know our Love is real
And no other Love comes close to ours
Love is a hug and a kiss
On the cheek from my moms
And a night at the crib
With your girl when it’s calm
Now that’s
Love
Love, Love
Love is the feeling I get
From my niece and my nephew
Your peeps when you’re down and you’re out
And they bless you
That’s Love
Love Love
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2. |
Counting Time
03:09
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One is for the love
Two is for salaam
Three is for the calm
Until I drop the bomb
Four is for the sides on the door
I got to break in
To bum-rush the critics
For my Five-star rating
Six is for politricks
Shaytan and statesmen
Seven Eight (“Ate”) Nine
And Ten
Still waiting
For Nine-Eleven to sink in
Twelve is out drinking
While his Thirteen year old
Sells five bags for Lincolns
At Fourteen, he’ll end up in the klink
Or get shot
Or need a regular appointment with a shrink
And my ointment is my thinking
This game is a menace
Get Love until you score
Like your first point in tennis
Then America will give you Fifteen minutes of fame
Diminish your name
And claim business
Never personal in this race
In this race to get cream
Get yours in due time
Got mine in Sixteen
Count it up
One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
If I only had Sixteen left until I was gone
And this is my last verse
On my last song
Would I leave any knowledge of worth
To pass on?
When my Fifteen’s up
I hope the kid cleaned up
Fourteen up
Mack High Freshman class
Fridays ducked Seniors trying to egg my ass
Thirteen was the year
That I moved up top
All the girls in Junior High
Used to love me a lot
But the love got strange
The love done changed
Twelve o’clock at the bar
Trying to run my game
I wrote rhymes at Eleven
It was so damn fun
Ten verses at a time
Made my whole hand numb
Reminiscing on the time
Make a old man young
Nine Eight was great
Black Star on the plate
Seven days
Six degrees
Five senses
Four bloods
Three dimensions
Two turntables
One Love
Count it down, ya’ll
One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
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3. |
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I see my city up
In bad times
All my peeps commit mad crime
And doing mad time
Or getting slaughtered
On streets
It’s video recorded
So you could catch it on your local news
I kick rhymes like spoken blues
My mom loves me
But she could be jiving too and
My car’s sub-par
But I’m still riding through and
My job sucks
But at least it provides the food
And helps pay the bills
When the utilities are due and
I’m just doing what I’m doing
I try to keep it positive, true
I can’t speak for you and you and
You in the front
With your piece
Trying to stunt with your fleece on
Don’t give these killers a reason
‘Cause real killers don’t need a reason
And all that profile and show
Will land you in a pile of snow
Getting your freeze on, soldier
Your mission is over
Shouldn’t have been running recon
In a place where it’s colder
The heat’s on
Hell
Little shorties with asses on swell
Getting their freak on
Barely past the age of twelve
Young cats getting caged
In cells like they’re endangered
Jails and prison facilities filled
To capacity
So they build more prisons
It’s real
But still have the audacity
To tell us they ain’t got enough money for classes
So where’d the taxes go?
The way they tax us so
The government shouldn’t ever be strapped for dough
They take half our dough
And wonder why motherfuckers get jacked and smoked
Stupid, cats is broke
Sing the blues
I’m on the avenue feeling
The color of the sky when the rain clouds are gone
And when it rains it pours
But I just want to weather the storm
And live to see a new day dawn
Sing the blues
I’m on the avenue feeling
The color of the sky when the atmosphere’s clear
But when the clouds form
You’ll see me in the eye of the storm
Engaged in a fight to go on
To the breaka-breaka
Dawn doing my day-to-day
Today could be my last
So I don’t think I want to wake up
But I pick my face up
Off the pillow
Get out of bed
Wipe my eyes
Unsure of what lies ahead
Everything seems so unclear
Out of focus
Put on my glasses
And now I notice
The sun shines a little brighter
We got some good weather
My steps a little lighter
I feel a little better
But how long does a good feeling last?
The length of a song?
Or the depth of a glass of wine?
Or a question you ask
And the passing time it takes
To get the answer?
Truth is an emancipator
That’s why we’re in chains without data
When it rains
I’m in a room with Coltrane
And Cal Tjader
Drinking gin
Straight up
Until my body is numb
Or the pain become a dream
Or some nightmarish scene
Rewound and replayed
In my head
For three days
Then I rise from the grave
Like I’m saved
And I pray to myself
I can fulfill that vision
But life in my city’s like prison
Mentally
Or religion
A system of beliefs that oppresses
That’s why I don’t believe in the system
‘Cause the system need correction
Less correctional facilities
Less tax, more money
Yes, please
Less fees
More frees
More
Free speech
Free school
Free health care
Free Mumia Abu
Fuck welfare
Free information
Let all the people know
What you know
‘Cause I know
That you know
You want to hear us
Sing the blues
I’m on the avenue feeling
The color of the sky when the rain clouds are gone
And when it rains it pours
But I just want to weather the storm
And live to see a new day dawn
Sing the blues
I’m on the avenue feeling
The color of the sky when the atmosphere’s clear
But when the clouds form
You’ll see me in the eye of the storm
Engaged in a fight to go on
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4. |
Traveling
04:57
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Yeah, you heard the songs about this and that
Gun claps and gats
So-called official rap
And, um
You heard the songs that be dissing that
From underground emcees
Who want to bring shit back
But, um
What exactly are they bringing back?
Is it a place in their mind
Where they be lingering at?
Or a moment in time they cling to?
Like eighty nine when Rakim was the man
And Kane did his thing too?
Yeah I feel what you mean
But it’s time you seen
The only way we’re going back’s with a time machine
What’s the obsession with the past?
It ain’t healthy
You’re living in the now
Stop living in denial
Get some help, B
Denial is a river in Egypt
And turning back the clock’s beyond your achieving
Beyond all reason and rhyme
I’m all season like tires that
You need when you drive in my city
It’s a pity that you follow
When you should be leading
Us to a brand new era of emceeing
But stuck
On a date fixated on grieving
Like somebody died or you lost what you believe in
But you’re bringing it back
What you retrieving?
It’s real emceeing that died
Hip Hop is still breathing
I rock it from the morn to the evening
And you could learn a lesson
From that metaphor
It’s called progression
Move on
To move on you got to be strong
To be strong you got to keep on
To keep on we got to progress ya’ll
Yes, yes ya’ll
And Move on
To move on you got to be strong
To be strong you got to keep on
To keep on we got to progress ya’ll
Yes, yes ya’ll
I ain’t bringing it back
I bring it forward
Till my shit heard round the world
Like the kick by Norwood
And everybody knows that I’m for this
Real hip hop shit
So I ain’t trying to diss no recordings
I’m just trying to say
Shit ain’t in accordance
With making hip hop what it could or should be
Just forget about the past
Trying to recreate it
Keep the art in your heart
And your thoughts from being jaded
And skill
Reinstate it and it needs to be stated
That if you’re a DJ
Then you need to play this
Like my joint is your favorite
Instead of that
Watered down version
You androids are programmed to spin
I’m M.C.
Meaning I’m programmed to win
Microphone Cybernetically
Enhanced to ascend
To new heights
Crush new mikes
Get credit
Do shows
No edit
Your flows so pathetic
I compose alphabetically
Kinetically charged
Flows that explode when thrown
Like Remy Lebeau’s cards
And go hard
Like extremities when aroused
And bogard
Mikes for centuries if I get allowed
Keep on like the hook in this song
Don’t stop
Keep stepping
No looking
It’s gone
Boy you got to move on
Move on
Keep it moving
Keep it moving
Don’t stop
Don’t stop
Baby pop you got to
Move on
To move on you got to be strong
To be strong you got to keep on
To keep on we got to progress ya’ll
Yes, yes ya’ll
And move on
To move on you got to be strong
To be strong you got to keep on
To keep on we got to progress ya’ll
Yes, yes ya’ll
Life is a long road
Traveling your feet grow blisters
And callousness from challenges you meet
No mystery
Is greater than the reason
Why we even exist or
The reasons that I pushed you away
But I miss you now
Wish I could kiss you now
But really that’s a whole ‘nother issue now
No need for tissue now
I reminisce on how
Love used to be
So good
But memory’s no good to me
‘Cause no matter what I think or do
I could never repossess what I possessed in you
So I progress to the next you
And proceed
To plant a seed from the best fruit
And hope I’m successful
‘Cause remembering the pain that I felt
When it was over
I mean really over
I was sobered
But too late to wake up from my drunkenness
Not alcoholic
Just the captain of a sunken ship
Gone forever like my grandmother
May
She left me at the end of a cold
September day
Didn’t understand why she couldn’t stay
And even though I lost all faith
Still began to pray
I think about you all the time
Love
You became the very voice in my mind
Love
The way you used to radiate
I mean shine
Love
And wherever you are
I want you to know
I’m doing fine
Love
Moving on
To move on I got to be strong
To be strong I got to keep on
To keep on I got to progress ya’ll
Yes, yes ya’ll
And Move on
To move on we got to be strong
To be strong we got to keep on
To keep on we got to progress ya’ll
Yes, yes ya’ll
And move on
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5. |
Green Options (Up Early)
03:12
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Fresh
From the oven I’m back
Hot
Off the rack
Across the track
I’m forth and back
Like a conversation
I took some time for some contemplation
To think about the world I live
And the situations I face
On a daily basis
It’s like I’m lost in a desert
With no hope of oasis
Still I’m hoping for traces
Of asylum
From these problems
I got a million
Let me rank and file them
And go to war with the issues I’m pissed for
Not the wars politicians enlist for
That ain’t right ya’ll
So let’s fight for
Something mine and yours
Can unite for
And when the night falls
Is when life calls
I pick the right cause
Lead them to the light source
Out of darkness
Out of hate
Out of heartless
Cold habitats that are harshest
That ain’t far fetched
‘Cause I’m far from
Being fake
And I ain’t on the take
Like rappers on major labels
Got signed
And forgot about rhyme
They’re about bottom line, but
Bottom line
They’re about out of time
‘Cause the movement is moving
Time to stop snoozing
We are not losing
We’re cruising
To the finish line
Your auto needs tuning?
This is hip hop
No preservatives
No gimmicks
No claiming I murder kids
This is all real
This is all skill
This is all ill
Somebody should call a doctor
And tell him this is how he should rock the microphone properly
My live show is something you’ve got to see
For yourself to believe it
Or you could just trust me
I’m not industry
I’m in the streets
Hustling a bite to eat
Most nights
Don’t like to sleep
I’m the type that’ll write for weeks
Too hype for beats
Too nice
I need two mics to speak
And two nights a week for release and
Fourteen days on a vacation
On a beach
With the rest of my fam
And my peeps
My sister’s little man
And my nieces
I love them to pieces
Love from the deepest
Depths of the whole of my self
And soul’s inner reaches
So I hope they learn what life teaches
Without being burned too badly
But sadly
The world is a crazy place
Stone cold killers walk streets
With a baby face
Indoctrinated at an early age
To learn the code of the streets
And worldly ways
It’s all about the next generation
And what’s waiting on the horizon
Sun rise and shine
In your son’s eyes
And no one’s wise enough to know
What the next day holds
But the signs?
All there
Manifesting like
We might live in a world
Where kids question, like
Where did the seas go?
Where did the bees go?
Why don’t the flowers and the trees grow?
Where did the real emcees go?
Where did the songs about the rights of the people
And the fight for peace go?
I look into the eyes of my niece
So young and innocent
And wonder
What’s imminent?
Check the station
The world will keep spinning
But will people remain in rotation?
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TH.III.RD Buffalo, New York
Third of his name. THREE I's and TWO dots. BFLO, NY.
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