[Shad]
Let's go.
Warmest wishes to those
Who chose to visit the show.
Frigid flow:
My tongue might stick to a pole.
What I'm spitting's cold --
Michigan snow.
Listen --
No, I don't put on airs;
I'm conditioned to blow.
I'm a star.
My sis called me that
Back before my posse rapped.
That's when my older homies told me,
"Just don't be a copycat."
Okay,
Copy that.
Hand me the walkie-talkie back.
This is real pride in my eyes;
It's not a cocky act.
Look at us struggling
And look at how those at the top react.
I'm not saying they're Nazis,
I'm just saying how can they not see that?
It's still a white world --
They don't even want that coffee black.
No prime time.
They don't even want that Cosby black?
Man,
A lot of cats wanna see the best watch.
Well, if you wanna see the best, watch:
This is like Red Fox mixed with a Ted Talk;
Mix tape icon sitting on your desktop.
Stop!
Check it out:
I'm still telling my people to let that light shine.
I never thought on the day I started to write rhymes
That I might climb,
And now it's like I
Just may be Jay-Z in my lifetime.
'Cause oh,
I'm killing these tracks!
I'm a vet,
But not the type of vet that's filling these cats.
Where the real emcees at?
I'm dying;
I need to hear someone as ill as me, stat!
Shad racks on racks;
Putting these raps on wax.
I know I shouldn't go this fast on tracks,
But I'm zoning,
You know it --
When I'm laughing, my hat's on back.
I don't rap for no fat contracts.
Till the day that I pass on,
I'll deliver every Jawn with my last song.
Less passive than a graduation cap poem.
[Lisa Lobsinger]
I've searched so far
For you.
I've worked so hard
For you.
[Ian Kamau]
I take a gasp of air like I can't breathe.
I wanna sit beside her like I can't leave.
I open up my eyes like I can't see.
I just wanna climb trees, so I plant seeds.
I walk forever, looking for a place to sit.
Feel like I'm just beginning,
Though they're wishing I would quit.
I'm trying to find my spirit
While they're trying to find a hit.
Been to the motherland,
Now I search for the mothership.
I walk miles in shoes worn as torn paper,
Eyes wide in the eye of the storm.
Found peace in a mirror;
That's me.
I died as I tried to conform.
I've been squinting, it's so bright,
But light is reflected inside of my skin.
I've been searching outside for an answer
Like I couldn't find it within.
[Shad]
This life is a hell steps from Heaven.
Fear is a jail --
I'm in a cell next to legends.
Ask Kevin what his view through these bars looks like.
I still think there's wrongs that these songs can right.
Good night.
[k-os]
Throwin' them modes,
Raising these rappers
Dressed up in their fancy clothes.
Everyone knows
Your reign is over 'cause you chose
Material riches over the rap essentials.
Ontario, provincial
Is not a minstrel's show.
With Allen Ginsburg flow,
Believe me, I know.
Be-de-de-ban-go.
Rappers be shucking and jiving like Bo Jangles.
Lyrically Van Gogh,
I tango,
Then eat a mango that fell
On a galvanized roof
In Trinidad when I was a youth,
Just coming up.
Rappers be dumbin' down.
Kevin be dumbin' up.
We livin' worth.
We livin' on a prayer in the air,
It's the Elohim.
Shadrach, come out,
Or else I'll blast a scene.
That's why we mold 'em,
Just like I told 'em,
We leave the mic frozen
'Cause we are the chosen.