Talib Kweli
Time Zone
[Apani]
Time zone travellin, unravelin
The secrets of mysteries that follow humans for centuries
Theories appear crisp and clear to me as air
Magically through meditative focus, mechanically I'm there
The dreams stay in connection, then awake
To the main theme in a carefully constructed scene
Which began with a bright beam of light
Become a satellite seen as a flash in the sky
Through the eyes of a writer, who shall remain anonymous
Lust for higher learnin, surgin, burnin, yearnin
Inspired by spirits of great grand descendants
Get rich off the dark skin signin over freedom on documents
Marked with X's, illiterate, stiffed up languages
Slave masters metaphorically ripped out they larynxes
Yet they beat drums and sang songs
Now I keep it movin along in the same form and context
Since the torch has been cast to the next generation
My main motivation is to be a cipher nation
360 degrees all around, above, and below
Is the planet where I hold jurisdiction, yo
Kweli I know you fed with this whole situation
I know you reflect on revolution
Can only be one conclusion, one action conduces
Changes - some civilizations have been in war for scores
Blood shed on history pages and in the end
What side wins? Old has been replaced by the new
When all is said and done, stand out amongst the few
As examples of what one can do
It's a true story, cried at the end when Denzel died in Glory
Knock on wood when I'm gon' be, launch me into the galaxy
I'll be a solitary star in the constellation
Transferrin information into the minds of young prodigies lookin up
Wishin all my energy until the day they become
Entities parallel to me, the universe's Cycle of Destiny
What exists is more than we see, more than we see...
Forget the years you been alive, we livin in the same age
Tell me where your mind is at, we livin in the same age

Tell me what's on your mind, we livin in the same age [x3]

[Kweli, vaguely] yo, yo, outrageous, courageous, advantageous..
[Kweli]
Once again on mission, driven by ill thoughts that we envision
Got a lotta ambition, now we got a pot to piss in
Cats seem to be quick to whip they shit out, and they missin
While I aim straight, it's a new era, you feel the transition?
Man listen, you know the libras, how they just balance it out
Through the ages, droppin wisdom like sages
While the whole world go through phases
Peep how the rhyme is vintage like a wine
Gets better with age and time
N***as think they free - who need to change
When you can enslave the mind? like true conquerors
They call the explorers brave
Say they collectin when I say they rob graves
It's complex, you know what, I be ? Apani
Do this ego trippin, like De La, on Nikki Giovanni
So I try to put that behind me but it got me
In an ill position like the Kama Sutra
The past kicks my ass back to the future, it reminds me
Not the losers, but the winners tell the story
Ignore the truth, take out the gory details and get the glory
My grandfather died when I was a shorty
He fought for our country
It couldn't be his cause to this day, they still don't want me
My great grandmother put arsenic in the master's tea
After she came from hearin a speech by Marcus Garvey
Not separate or equal, so fuck Ferguson and Plessy
Folks of slaves, bringin it like Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey
The Age of the Industry, the plantation system was dead
Let em work, they can make enough to eat
And keep a roof over they head
You still a mothafuckin slave !
Doesn't matter if you near-white or little light
Or blacker than a thousand midnights
We right in the new age with new slaves, we need to bless the stage
Cause the audience' brains affected by devils like cage
Call us brave, but the system got our peoples actin depraved
Forget the years you been alive, we livin in the same age
Yo tell me where ya mind is at, we livin in the same age
Take that wit'chu to your grave, grow up before you show up [x3]
[Apani]
Time is relative, we livin in the same age
Open up your third eye, we livin in the same age