[Intro: Lupe Fiasco]
Yeah-yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yay
Ayy, ay-yeah-yeah
Ayy, ayy
Ayy
[Chorus: Nayirah, Lupe Fiasco]
I'd keep a secret, but I'm honest
If I ever go and leak it, may reactors go atomic over me
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I don't believe in nothing solid
But if we are trapped in here, I hope that we go supersonic when we think
Yeah-yeah
I kept my promise to the streets (Streets, streets, streets, streets)
I kept my promise to the streets (Streets, streets, streets, streets)
I kept my promise to thе streets (Streets, streets, streets, streets)
[Verse 1: Lupe Fiasco]
To develop myself in a finе way
Life is a sine wave, Einstein mind in this time-space
When they try to keep, you gotta climb gates
Escape from a city that's defined by crime rate
Design traits that minimize the grind
Then divide on your mind's states
Find breaks, gaps to recline safe
Resign a sign and rewind tapes
Get your line straight, recite it all right
Even if you gotta do it in nine takes
Be centered, remember where the mind's placed
How many more runners can the shrines take?
The ground don't know how the wine taste
When do n***as know to stop buying cakes? Yeah
[Chorus: Nayirah, Lupe Fiasco]
I'd keep a secret, but I'm honest
If I ever go and leak it, maybe I'd just go atomic over me
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I don't believe in nothing smaller
But if we will try to heal, I hope we go supersonic when we leave
Yeah-yeah
I kept my promise to the streets (Streets, streets, streets, streets)
I kept my promise to the streets (Streets, streets, streets, streets)
I kept my promise to the streets (Streets, streets, streets, streets)
[Verse 2: Lupe Fiasco, Nayirah]
To see my vampires in the sunlight
To look my eye, right in the suns
And bring all my knives to the gunfights
One life, live a hundred ways
But never break it down like gum bites
If done right, you'll be unliked, but you'll be unlike
When you gotta run where snares on the drum type
Where they hung whites, psych
Where they hung blacks
Even hung like a black life is a batch, don't come twice
You could light a fire with a thumb swipe but you need a lighter
If you got the motion, but none of the components
Then it's karaoke and it don't really matter if it's sung nice (Oh, woah)
[Chorus: Nayirah, Lupe Fiasco]
I'd keep a secret, but I'm honest
If I ever go and leak it, maybe I'd just go atomic over me
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I don't believe in nothing smaller
But if we will try to heal, I hope we go supersonic when we leave
Yeah-yeah
I kept my promise to the streets (I kept my promise)
I kept my promise to the streets (Woah, woah)
I kept my promise to the streets
[Verse 3: Lupe Fiasco]
Cross my heart and I hope to, cross my arm when I Osu
Add a little dollop of Dali, then sell it all out at the O2
Computers ain't got no souls, but I be giving da'wah to the Pro Tools
Gotta control all your trolls, don't sulk and soak in your socials
Let the punches break like Goju, went from fish sticks to Nobu
I ain't afraid of no ghosts, sticks still pick up fish like the old you
Bibimbap with the soju, Food & Liquor, that's Domu
Stand behind me like Jojo, spirit bomb when I show you
Molotov cocktail, Goku, bottlin' up what I go through
Westside Chicago, Lu', Lu', Lu', Lu' (Lu', Lu', Lu', Lu')
[Outro]
This school here, I— I feel, in our martial art adventures
We— We sorta like, bring our history, our culture
You know, into— to our environment of the martial arts
We— you know, our pain, our suffering as a people
It's all in here, you see
So that's why we try to, like the army says
"Be the best that you can be"
We— We try to be the best of— of artists that we can be
So the arts to me is— is a, uh, is a— is a thing of, uh, upliftment
It— It exhilarates me and it makes me
It makes me become actually who I am
You know, I'm a warrior in spirit and I'm a fighter for my people
And I cannot be a fighter and a warrior
For my people if I did not, uh, condition, train and condition myself