hatt's crib

[Gil Scott-Heron talking]

We beg your pardon, America. We beg your pardon because the pardon you gave this time was not yours to give. They call it due process and some people are overdue. Somebody said brotherman is gonna break a window or steal a hubcap or gonna smoke a joint and brotherman gonna go to jail. The man who tried to steal America is not in jail.

[Verse 1: Trademarc]

Hey America, why am I so buried in debt?
Middleclass to little class, I’m picking through trash between cheques
What little is left of my self-respect is stretched so thin
I almost bought into original sin
While these double-chin wide-grin preachers got fans in bleachers
They’re writing them blank cheques while I can’t get paid for features
I’m stressed, leeches backing the war and taxing the poor
And claim it’s in the name of Jesus in their speeches
To each his own I’m sure but I doubt Christ would endorse a war
It’s a culture of corporate vultures merging and purging
Insults versions of life, our civil rights claims are certain
As bad as it gets we’re still just marionettes behind the curtain
From the rafters puppet masters of diversion and division
Got us living like insurgents and religion are converging on front lines
Like vagrants in bus lines, fuck rhymes, I’m Emmet Goldman
Caught in the body of Rutger Hauer, I devour ammo
And spit live rounds over pianos
I’m Yul Brenner tearing down towns while candidates
Playing Bruce Jenner tend to give us the runaround
I don’t fuck around surrounded with troops
We want truth, I be John Wilkes Booth in a minute
If we don’t get it so get with it or get litted with lead

[Chorus]

America, land of the free, home of the brave 
And they ain’t even know that they’re slaves
Such a dirty road to pave, the bill’s owed and paid with your soul
Cause they made it their goal up in America
Land of the free, home of the brave, born with one foot in the grave
Such a dirty road to pave and the peoples in the dark
When their fate’s downloaded and saved

[Verse 2: Esoteric]

If America’s the beautiful then why is life so fucking ugly?
With politicians that could give a shit about this country
The most powerful was built on bloody money
The government’s a joke but ain’t a damn thing funny

[Verse 3: Granite State]

Whatchu want from me? My time, my pride, my credits or rap?
Build me up, cut me down and try to sell it back? Fuck that
By now both my feet are in the grave
Is there nobody to blame or is everybody slaves?
In chains and we ain’t seeing freedom
Been deceived like we need em
But in my time of need you always leaving
See it from my side, you’ll maybe realise why
We contemplate suicide OD’ing on lifestyles
And supersize these fat little kids with fast food
They’re keeping up with trends but can’t keep em in schools
The tools are there to build your future
Now just pick out your blueprint
And if all else fails just blame it on music

[Chorus]

[Verse 4: Esoteric]

Hey yo these days you gotta spell America with three K’s
We living on a prison planet, stay in line and behave
We have all the freedom of a Clear Channel DJ
You play what he say, the first amendment betrayed
Thoughts that are progressive, the music is the message
They fear the insurgence, they want indentured servants
Pick up your local newspaper see who sucks
Even Quagmire knows eight years of Bush is too much
Shanifa Saphire show the blues cause we’re fucked
We’re trying to Superman the planet when Iraq in a stuck
There must be miraculous luck passing over us again
In the form of helicopters dropping bombs
In the end we’ll find a smoking gun, there’s more than one
Overdone bloated tongue, local scum like Chase Ever
And his points total none, the snake is slithering
You gotta watch your back dawg when you’re living in

[Chorus]

[Unknown speaker talking]

… disgusted and so am I. If you tear the whole system down, what does that say about America? They’re wrong. They can’t be wrong. The world is fighting right now to preserve our way of life. You can’t attack it blindly. You have to realise no one will talk. Everyone has been gotten to.

Popularity: 2% [?]

[Intro]

Rain is falling, so have I.
See how life turns around, fucka.

[Verse 1: Termanology]

Hey yo, a lot of y’all hated me when I was coming up
Then you fronted, what, now my chips doubled up
God, it must suck being you now that I’m coming up
The rain fell on you, homie the fun is up
I’m all about the cash, been getting dough
Could’ve been catching cases distributing the dope
You be the ?, you abandoned the real shit
We branded, who cares what the fans’ll think?
Cover their eyes with wool, I’ll do this violent poem
Not these raps who prefer to keep em blind to those facts
Most raps don’t have a message so
You’d be lucky to hear this shit up in a record store
I be getting dough but the fans poor so
The dough go out the hands for the fan’s ?
All the cash in me that I spring for I cash in
My passion is thrashing these rap tracks
And I’mma body these cats before I go out man
It’s hard for years, see I know nothing about pain
So watch out with your mouth frame
It ain’t an east west south thing
It’s a watch your mouth thing, bam

[Bridge]

When it rains it pours and it’s about to come down hard

[Verse 2: Esoteric]

A lot of y’all ain’t fuck with me when I was new to this (nah)
You said my flow was weak, you said my dreams were ludicrous
But the table’s turned motherfucker, we the brutalest (tell em)
The game changed and these haters don’t know who to diss
Coming up it wasn’t easy, rappers talking breezy
The only screen they hide behind be on their porch believe me
We same church, different pew, the game hurts
Tt isn’t you we all got different MC’s that we listen to
So Eso did a bid, no he didn’t, yes he did
Motherfuckers fight over stupid shit kid
For any type of season, dudes hate on cats for no reason
MC’s and DJ’s are put on display for cats to hate away
But tune em out and the hate just fades away
Your self-esteem is in the gutter but truthfully
It don’t make you a victim, motherfucker

[Bridge]

[Verse 3: Trademarc]

A lot of y’all just blaming me cause ya suck
A lot of y’all still came to me to make a buck
A lot of y’all no-names are simply out of luck
And a lot of y’all got names for me? What the fuck?
I’m checking my receipts a little more
Checking for deceit a little more
Every twenty-four I see the or
I see the core of everybody is evil
Fatal or fetal, regal to penal, rags to riches
Illegal itches, I’m looking for glitches up in the system
I ain’t trying to be a good Christian
This position is 80’s Pistons (bad boy)
You know I say it with the mix listen (sad boy)
I’m mad coy by admission but efficient
My position is East Coast Avenger
Y’all least close contenders
Pretenders like Christie Hein(?), drop the mind bender
I redefine what you call social ladders with your hopeless chatter
I realign like a spine I aspire to find a fine line
Between it being cool to be dumb, you’d be a fool to be numb
Or succumb like pretending that you ain’t from where you come
Or do what you’ve never done
I’m on some more reality shit and I’ll rip like Reverend Run

[Bridge]

Popularity: 1% [?]

[Verse 1: Trademarc]

I need these flashy teeth, expensive kicks, no shit?
Everybody’s looking at me
I’m like this close to being on TV if need be
This life got me in a fistfight
Teens be picking apart so often it gets to be an art
And that’s the easy part
Try going home, living your life more alone
When the stones start blinging and the phone stop ringing
And it’s well-known that I’m prone to addiction
The friction between real life and fiction
Got me fishing for pills and liquor, a quick fixer
That’s a contradiction, so’s a crucifixion (huh?)
I don’t think you really know what it’s like
To be the spark of a light, the bark of a fight
The part that I’d like to throw away ain’t never gonna go away
The truth hides among lies like a stowaway
And I’m burning both ends to the center slow
And I’m learning both men will never know
Or never show true depths of their soul
Or the hand that they hold from the deck life throws
It’s just how it goes, it’s just how it be
Me, I’m at an all-time low
The face in the mirror ain’t never gonna get clearer
So I better let it go but let it be known
When I’m finally gone I’mma make sure
I take a few of you along

[Chorus]

I have faith and ? for year(?)
I have felt the torment and the fear
And I need to know
In my shadow of a man
Who I now am

[Verse 2: Esoteric]

Yo, chill, can I speak?
Wifey tell me that I’m overstressed
That I’m going through a blind rage stage with no focus left
Every preacher thinks it’s right when the hope is left
Every critic thinks it’s hype when the dope is left
All the street teamers out of rap, the soldiers left (Peace)
No ideas coalesce, no dough to invest
I’m so depressed, head hits the pillow
I stay awake all night I can’t cope with that
Where’s our soul go when we pass?
What’s the worth of a rebirth if we can’t recall our past?
The thing makes me think my dawg gets me
The same shit that makes me think that I can talk to Leslie
It upsets me, she’s been dead a year
I believe she can hear cause my imagination lets me
Maybe wisdom will remove me from this road to atheism
But I doubt it, you can’t re-route it
This kid is crazy like these snares from the early 80’s
In tune with his soul like this piano roll
And like these reanimated keys
I’ve been thrown for a loop basically
Banished and based in a basement of complacency
So ill I don’t wanna see Buffalo Bill
Being chained cause prisoner isn’t a good look
When you can’t find a trace of faith within the good book
Or a speck of respect without the hood look
With all the records we wreck we got the hood hooked

[Chorus]

Popularity: 3% [?]