Talib Kweli
De La Kufi
[Verse 1: Brother Ali]
Speak to the people over the horn
Like Fela Kuti in my favorite kufi
I took a vow to spray the uzi til the day they do me
Do the right thing ain't a movie to me
I'm pale Mooney if you ain't raisin the stakes, then what you sayin' to me
I shoot the hard eight spit strychnine
Hypocrites trying to Bogard whats mine to bolster y'all shine
Y'all got lines in your costumes and cast rooms
This is incense in the back room kickin' your next tattoo
The big man ship has officially landed
Steady layin' hands on this [bleep] planet
Full-blown frantic always want it it the baddest
That's just part and parcel of my starving artist status
The hunger for greatness is utterly ageless
Bubble up on your playlist dumping blood on the pavement
You're playing with some bonafide born troubadours
Bursting through the studio doors hunting for superstars
Confiscating all pro-tools
Smack em out they fanny pack for rapping over vocals
We keep surviving, weaving and bobbin'
Increasing involvement and feasting and fawning
While elite people party, the inmates are free in the asylum
How not to be a product of this weak ass environment
Y'all gotta feel me though the mic game is regal
The light beams will reach you, they can heal a broken people
Regardless of the freeze we on the good shit still
R-I shukka Sean P and Bushwick Bill
[Interlude]
We are the good man
Yeah, son
Trust me
Am I a Blood, clot him?
And he just listens to what may I say

[Verse 2: Talib Kweli]
Check it!
Time favors the spit kickers and rhymesayers
Ev and Ali is my family, they stay in my prayers
Movin' on up like Dave Chappelle and John Mayer
Singapore eatin' a steam cake that's nine layers
Promoters owe so all my notes be promissary
Tom and Jerry rappers don't want none like monasteries
I'm honorary every verse is a doctorate
Collecting PhDs over degrees that doctors get
Where we live ain't just a trap they had to seal us off
The money, power, and respect is what they kill you for
I'm still involved even if the tried to kill us all
You a flash in the pan, you not hot, that's just a menopause
Passport pimpin' on the plane soon as i get a call
It's like, ever since I was born a n***a been on tour
[Felocci] Rios band for that Dutch river fall
Till writing iron made us tag graffiti on Brazilian walls
My elevation is high, you're just peaking
A mountain of rhymes, you need a Sherpa just to reach them
Or read him, cause when you see him, you start bleedin' from your eyes
Though I'm seeing from third, I never needed your reply
Leave you wheezin' on the curb, just for speaking to me wrong
We ain't friends just cause you rap, we don't have to get along
That's gonna have to be okay, go ahead and make a diss record
Rap your little heart out, feel better
[Outro]
That's a little rhyme, get that rhyme?
I put that rhyme in, because quite often dropouts come in to catch the show
Them dumb ass dropouts like those rhymes