LYRICAL – “PUT EM ALL TO SHAME”
All songs: Written and Produced by Lyrical & DJ Shame
All Songs: Engineered by Robie Rowland, Recorded @ Echo Studios
“No Doubt” also recorded & engineered by Jared Hancock at Surefire Studios
Also written & performed by: *=Love Jones, **=Sickmen, ***=J. “Presence” Scott, ****=Chris Huang
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Chapter I. Get Lyrical
The most sick with it, flows that are so intricate/
Unlimited potential on instrumentals & instruments/
"The determination, the dedication and discipline"/
“The Focuz” never left, just the records get more intelligent/
Growth exponential, the most exceptional specimen/
Mental and the physical, both reflections of excellence/
True credentials, so influential and relevant/
I choose to be respected, do business as a gentlemen/
See my profession is “professional lyricist”/
Professor Lyrical, international appearances/
Paid panelist, teacher, lecturer, analyst/
Who nearly every weekend is speaking at different campuses/
See my advantage is, understanding percentages/
And represent myself with a bachelors that's in management/
A few assistants but my persistence - I channel it/
Ta truly be successful, yet still essentially handle it
-Chorus-
Flows poetical, words evangelical/
Since Lyrical Lord Plourde was shortened down to Lyrical/
Cause my material sort of borders on spiritual/
Songs like psalms, my rap book is Biblical/
Strong palms- I snatch mics like criminals/
Delivering strong hooks that stick like subliminals/
I break down what’s compound to mineral/
And Elements like Euclid, intelligence I’m using it/
Mathematically fusing It, rap classes and music with/
Students at universities, universally proving it/
Arithmetically, choosing loops in a strategy/
Like Arabs algebraically battling back the Pharisees/
Dark matter- my mind travel the galaxy/
But battle anyone on theses streets, sleeping’s a fallacy/
Naturally- what I bring ta the tables’ skills unlimited/
Authentic like Shame on the tables- letting the records spin
-Chorus-
The irreproachable, flow the most notable/
Clearly the most quotable, lyrically downloadable/
Local and global respect, but still approachable/
Lottery pick, blue chip, yet remain coachable/
My approach to the craft, beyond devotional/
Beyond contractual, skills are non-negotiable/
Total perfection my goal- nobody closer to/
Once Shame laces soul in the tracks that's so emotional/
So poetical, authentic and lyrical/
That often other authors want my autographed material/
Now that's hysterical picture Lebron James?
In a game signing his name on a ball for Dwayne Wade/
A Shame, for you to beat me Lyrically when I'm recording/
That's like tryna cover Jordan on the court while wearing Jordan's/
Then watching the next morning as SportsCenter reporters/
Say “no one is more poetic than Lyrical Lord Plourde is”
Chapter II. No Doubt
Streamline, thinking up lyrics riding the Green line/
Meantime, sippin’ on Coke, mixed with key lime/
Free time, 617Live we primetime/
Unified Theory of rhyme schemes like Einstein/
"i" in the middle of M.C. for industry/
June 17th- every year we make history/
Shame on the tables, had ta bring my man back/
Early in the nineties when I first heard him scratch/
First heard me rap, going back through the memories/
Two mass men in the Battle World Supremacy/
I was in my infancy, wasn’t ready mentally/
Mathematically mapped out- retrospectively/
Life lies ahead of me, all of this was meant ta be/
93 till iNFiNiTi was all destiny
Definite with Chemistry, Shame cheffed the recipe/
”Jungles of the East”, left a Scientific legacy
-Chorus-
My life's symmetry, balance and flow, precise imagery/
Master myself and my square- divine ministry/
Rhymers mimic me, too few authentically/
Genetically connected to God charged kinetically/
Father resembles me, Mother Earth's telepathy/
In harmony with all things- I bring forth the symphony/
That’s the reason if most probably don’t mention me/
Any season even in snow, heated with energy/
My capacities’, much more I’m naturally/
Adapted to the elements intelligence & faculties,/
Fully functioning, Universities wondering/
How ta have me come for the student body and governments?/
I Try ta comfort them, teach others in front of em/
Put em all straight in their place while still lovin’ em/
Stare em dead straight in the face I'm straight buggen’em/
And sell em more merch when I’m done I’m straight thuggen’ em
-Chorus-
Words impeccable, birth verses incredible/
Classical, heavy metal, my genres span several/
Soul is ethereal, swing like Duke Ellington/
Rock like Chuck Berry, My role- very intelligent/
Respect level is tough...and you can tell it is/
Revered by our elders, loved like close relatives/
Grace the Land with a flow, blow like Elvis did/
Instrument's held lefty, burn em like Jimmi Hendricks did/
My main difference is out of my brains spittin’/
With change the game writtens, insane like Blake Griffin/
Plus any distance I drain from highly accurate-/
Highly talented, game is Ray Allen-ish/
Well practiced and versed, looking instinctual/
Only cause the work I put in is unthinkable/
So next time when I'm rhyming at some Palladium/
Remember all the time that I've put in the gymnasium
Chapter III. How It Should Be Done
Supremely Crafted, routinely mastered/
Rhyme schemes, conceived in my dreams, my sleep's practice/
24-7 been dedicated to rapping/
While still finding time in between for multitasking/
University Massachusetts my masters/
Earned the same time making Massachusetts some classics/
Teaching mathematics and university classes/
And music with my students the fusion is fantastic/
But don't confuse it, to battle me, that's a fallacy/
Sun, I put the Earth on the map in this rap galaxy/
My mentality, humble is what I have to be/
Cuz even though I'm known as the best there’s a hundred after me/
A hunted athlete, dumb to be humming happily/
When half these crappy, happy go lucky rappers are tragedies/
One minute I'm hot and the crowd claps for me/
The second that I'm turning my back, their gonna clap on me/
So don't grab on me, after I walk past at these/
Rap shows, the answer is "no" I am not having it/
It’s not happening, don't know what you expect to see/
Typically, you'll find me perfecting vectors and matrices/
Professor Lyrical, my material's basically/
Made to be poetic yet spoken, more motivationally/
So any vacancy, math, music or otherwise/
I'll graph you out my digits like perpendicular number lines
-Chorus-
Who the most motivational, standing ovational?/
Schooled in how to handle the tool, vocational/
Mastering the manual, hand you a demonstrational/
Able to train management, functionally operational/
Just in case you- were not aware the repertoire/
Meet your Butta Messenga, Legendary X-Caliber/
Lord of the Lyrical, sword slicing material/
Mastering the elements, Hip Hop's imperial/
Mental meditation, I travel through several layers/
Envision me cross-legged, somewhere in the Himalayas
Even though my body is probably sitting in Cambridge
Sipping coffee with some sloppy professors, acting all snobby/
Nothing will stop me, from skipping through archipelagos/
Spitting some acapella - with visual arpeggios/
Freestyle material - coming to me in visions/
So I listen, grab a pen, and convert em quick into writtens
-Chorus-
Overall, the whole game needs an overhaul/
Study my movements, establishing the protocol/
Who more meticulous? - speaking clear & articulate/
The &'s my ampersand cuz I'm symbolic & Prince with it/
White gloved Like Mike, but I'm still leaving my fingerprints/
On mics so deliberate, some say that I'm Simpsonish/
If yall don't know the story than you should probably look into it/
Would probably win the Heisman if music had the equivalent/
If I ain't one the best then Cam Newton is innocent/
If dudes wanna test - I will let them cheat and look ignorant/
This is why they call me Profess -or, just coincidence/
Cause I just have a way with the words when I play with sentences/
Even though degrees that I hold are based in numerals/
Lyrically the way that I R.I.P. is fit for funerals/
Or musicals, the way that i spit on stages eternally/
So truthfully a name like "Lyrical" is no Hyperbole
Chapter IV. Do U Need 2 B Reminded? –Featuring Presence & Sickmen of Invasion
My flow’s preposterous-Impossible, novices wanting to copy it/
Imposters pose Lyrical with their marketing and posturing/
But, I’m more in the genre of the Dali Lama and Mahatma Gandhi/
Or maybe Marley's Baby Mama Mixed with some Salvador Dali/
Literally, Da Vinci with it, lyrics- Leonardo-like/
Beautiful as a Hale Berry, while leaving with my model wife/
-A lot of my life, has been dedicated to excellence/
My regiments have been well documented as evidence/
I never been one of them rappers bout hate & fear when spitting/
Now my writtens' more quoted than Shakespeare & Dickens/
"An architect", erecting up a Taj Mahal marblesque/
Monument, "a Master of Ceremonial novelists"/
Mighty as “Hard Rockers" the problem has never been confidence/
Its modesty too much Cash Money & not enough Marvelous/
Too many Remy or Aston Martin topics centered on profits/
So it’s ironic they never be talking bout Jesus, Buddha or Muhammad
Chapter V. Poeteacher -Featuring Violin by Chris Huang
I am impassioned, soul that's old fashioned/
A classic, a modern day Johann Sebastian/
Beethovien, flow that's hand woven in/
With finer strings then you'll find on a violin/
Stradivarius, Master Artesian/
On hand-blown glass, my craft is pure genius/
The multivariate – flow for all season/
Raps get tracked out on graphs that's Cartesian/
So Thelonius, James Brown and Coltrane/
Improper Bostonian, Old school as Soul Train/
Paying homage to those dudes from old days/
With Hall of Fame status and vocals like the O'Jays/
So harmonious, motion so melodious/
Musical choreography when spoken at the podium/
The Professor, The Pastoral, Historian/
Master of Ceremonies Poetical Bacca- Laureate
-Chorus-
The flow's so academia, hooded robe and regalia/
The verses floodeth over, I'm so Mesopotamia/
Holder of diplomas & scrolls with gold frames on them/
Lower in the left hand, signed with old names on them/
Poems I'm arranging them, paper is Origami/
Folded over into a pattern sequential as Fibonacci/
Rap on the instrumentals as lavish as Liberace/
Elaborate as my bachelor pad- now that’s all behind me/
Now my wife she lay beside me, so gorgeous upon the sofa/
Now the Plourde's home aroma is so William Sonoma/
Pebble grained leather in plaid twill with mocha/
Mantle match the Mother of Pearl handle and poker/
Senior Director of Investor Relations, with paid vacations/
Punta Cana in December, on Christmas with reservations/
Now we so Golden Ratio, so Alger Horatio/
Going from "Rags to Riches" replacing what’s on your radio/
Able to go from amateur, Provost to Chancellor/
Shaking hands daily with Substitutes and Janitors/
Soloist at the seminars, Intellectual Lecturer/
Only one at the podium, known to be standing next to the/
Mayor with one shoulder, the other's rubbing with debutantes/
Delegates, intelligent- eat at elegant restaurants/
Rest of us Ghetto Fabulous...blessings unto my Audience/
All of my true constituents- still yearning for scholarship
-Chorus-
Highly conceptual, intellectual emphasis/
Stressed in every syllable- still incredibly delicate/
Infinitesimally balanced with spacial elegance/
Save them to place in palaces, frame up my greatest sentences/
I’m Feng Shui all day, come peep my residence/
While still real enough for the streets to reap the benefits/
My recent effort is, reading the recent evidence/
I've reasoned that we’re needing ta reach the children with deficits/
So my attention, is focusing more messages/
Ta get em with the music, and making them more competitive/
Better businessmen, better at every discipline/
And better with the letters and numbers for younger listeners/
So if you’re older and motivated as citizens/
Then your participation as witnesses isn't "innocent"/
Your just as guilty if you don’t make them apprentices/
Complaining you’re too busy, just criticizing the President
Chapter VI. Moving Up –Featuring Love Jones
Crack of dawn-you’ll find me up in the back of the yard/
Its calisthenics every morning stretching out on the lawn/
Practicing hard, don’t even need a show to perform/
Just put me on any stage- and I’ll be working on form/
Running the drills, how I stay sharp with the skills/
In the coast of Cambridge Mass, but I come from the Mills/
So run for the hills, still- no I’m not run of the –mill/
But Lyrical might make a run for your Governor/
Political still, we making the mills off of prisoners/
I ain’t for the penalty, to many little Hilters/
And I ain’t hailing nothing but a cab in the rain/
No Chief, plus these Cabinets are hard to arrange/
And hard to explain, most are just slogans for change/
I be my own role model, in the Rover I Range/
Drove through the plains, Logan – even flown on the planes/
Or Fung Wah, find me flowing over tracks on the train – with Shame
-Chorus-
My whole method's-totally flow epic/
Spend hours on the mic to sound like it’s no effort/
But give credit, where credit's due - so check it/
Some of its God given, most of its work ethic
I live to record, that’s why they call me Lyrical Lord/
Literature that I’ve written, keep em open for sure/
Cause over the shores, at first I hadn’t flown before/
Scared to fly, now find me on a word wide tour/
Shame on the cut, in fact even Shame on the track/
Half the reason of half of Mass got their name on the map/
Engraved in wax, Invasion -and X-Cal go back/
We owe are legacy to Shame, since he came to UMass/
Inspired my rhymes, ta write like my life’s on the line/
There’s no squares in my circle, keep my cipher divine/
My geometry, diameter, circumference divides/
That’s why Shame’s on the slice like he serving up Pi/
Another tangent, my plans never to be cosined/
Just do the math and draw parallels like equal signs/
Speak your mind, please before I throw down/
Cause I ain’t trying mess around with you Bozo Clowns/
Won’t slow down, ain’t about dumbing it down/
I’m Novocain for the brain how I’m numbing the crowd/
They loving the sound cause they ain’t seen nothing around/
A little substance could bring the club tumbling down/
A little substance in their system and they stumble around/
Once I hit em with the wisdom that be so profound/
So for now, ain’t tryna place blame on you/
Just sing the chorus before I have to sick Shame on you!
-Chorus-
This is that highly ceremonial, flow so matrimonial/
Imagery, that’s so vivid, the lyrics more like pictorials/
Much fame from the rhyming, with substance- no ice shining/
Success is… “my wife crying, when I upgraded her diamond”/
Never been one trying- to ball out to the maximum/
Dropped the new iNFiNiTi, upgraded the Maxima/
“Sky’s the limit”, Wanted to “push the 45 infinit”/
Till I seen the Benz kitted, and pictured it all tinted
Always been the exception, bent rules to adjust them/
Addictive personality, verses – sent to perfect them/
Classics I resurrect them- & futuristically twist them/
If I Ruled the World, then Nas and Lauren had children/
Skilled and Vintage, - from the Mill City bodega’s/
Typically any given, now find me sittin’ at Strega/
Tippin’ the waiter major, for making it vegetarian/
And pullin’ out the chair for the woman I ended up marrying
Chapter VII. It’s A New Thing
This is the track that us kats can rap to/
That kats in the back wanna tag and graf to/
BBoys coming in their matching track suits/
Get down on the ground and spin around on their backs to/
Techniques, DJ’s will scratch to/
Mix and match to learn to adapt to/
Youtubing it, video interviewing it/
Improving it by noon a 100,000 are viewing it/
Dude, I ain’t really tryna revive old school/
Just tryna reach the kids and keep em from going postal/
Cuz how we supposed to do what we supposed to?/
When the youth ain’t close to you & won’t approach you?/
You want results in the schools- teach ProTools/
Then teach em bout the waves and the phases we go through/
Then in math class, teach em ta rap fast/
Percentages, investments, street scams and NASDAQ/
Cause in their backpacks, probably the sad fact/
These little Soldier Boys, they ain’t checkin’ for RasKas/
But how they supposed to if they ain’t spoken to?/
When even at open houses their folks feel “spoke to”/
Unapproachable educators wont coach em through/
Lack of role models when schools ain’t multicultural/
I ain’t insulting you I’m tryna reach the multitude/
Children is the future so it really isn’t up to you/
What they wanna do, but I can probably promise you/
The language of the world universally is musical/
You keep preaching them Parish Sermons that’s beautiful/
And I ’ma keep pressing EPs- Business as Usual
-Chorus-
Politicians are missing the whole point,
They ain’t seeking votes, we seeing them finger point/
Crab mentality, like cats who used to battle me/
Who couldn’t really beat me, just wanted me beaten badly/
Mostly physically, flows be too mentally/
Upon a higher plane, to remain the same Enemy/
Change identities, neighborhood celebrities/
Superhero disguise the eyes they show integrity/
Independently, Democrat or Republican/
You need to pay attention to people running the government/
Cause elected officially initially/
Sometime still forgets effective immediately/
And the media can be so deceptive/
Over-sensitized attracts our attention/
So pay attention to station’s agendas/
And how they pit us against different races and genders/
Just remember the words of Bambata/
“Have fun, love, unity, peace,” and keep karma/
And keep honor on ya like armor/
Faith in the most High and we’ll rise like Obama
Chapter VIII. This That -Featuring Sickmen
Who got that ill serial killer skill material/
Musical translucent flow, almost ethereal?/
It’s “Lyrical-culus, wrong kat to battle with/
My mathematical talent's more ancient than an abacus”/
The most miraculous, lyrics upon analysis/
Dope beyond reproach- that's overmatching all challengers/
Quote myself cause there's no other analogous/
No other professor with feather pens and calluses/
Palace ofl X-Caliber jousting on wild stallions/
The Ponce De Leon of the fountain pen battalion/
Mic medallions swing loose with valiance/
A trophy wife- my ring finger is platinum/
I feel it’s obvious skilled as non-novices/
The oppositely typical hobby for home offices/
This is that positive, Bobby Brown, prerogative/
Quietly understated yet overwhelmingly confident
-Chorus-
The young Spartacus, future Pulitzer novelist/
Never was once a novice, was born with a sense of awesomeness/
Improve the art like a view of the tomb of Mausolus/
Authoring logarithms more beautiful than the nautilus/
Touch the pencil to Temple- I am Artemis/
Topics that's architectural, building our greater consciousness/
Ain't got the foggiest, what I'm saying? It's obvious/
But you can bob along or just nod your head with the audience/
Enjoy the ambiance, now you hear where the party is/
Cause with some call and response, I turn mausoleums to Mardi Gras
With one caveat, never eating no caviar/
I’m good up in ya Marriot, courtyard with a candy bar/
Cause I’m a normal dude, yeah I like foreign food/
Rooms with a view, but you don't have ta act all formal dude/
I'm for the multitudes, find me teaching multiples/
At multiple college universities on the humble dude/
Been in a few magazines, graced the cover too/
Used to tryna MAC on that cheese and chase them comfort foods/
So in a month or two, maybe like a year or more,
Check for the professor and you’ll probably start to hear me more/
So please cheer me more- If you feel I'm dope/
Cuz half these rap kats are Demi Moore, better when they Ghost
-Chorus-
My advice is why try and fight this?/
Nicest metaphorical lyricist since Christ was/
Preaching parables, running through endless battle drills/
Military intelligence- scuba gear and a parachute/
Running through obstacles without the use of opticals/
My early morning workout is more like mission impossible
My total disciplines keepin’ my subjects interested/
Feminine intuition- I learned it from all my women friends/
Invited them over cause they made my writing doper/
Had 2 of em on the sofa, now they fighting to push over/
Tryna to get closer cause they think I’m on some sexiness/
But really miss- I’m really just a lyrical perfectionist/
My only question is sensatory perception/
Hypnotical suggestions and learning the true lessons
Confessing ta priest and High Priestess of my genius/
My wisdom was obtained from the knowledge that trained Jesus
Chapter IX. Obvious
Intense clarity, you are viewing a rarity/
Glaringly till it’s obvious/novices don't compare to me/
Fairly remarkable, how there is no one comparable/
Unstoppable how I clobber competition is, comical/
Bunch of comedians needing someone ta laugh at them at/
Don’t even know their talent is/like one of the many Kardashians/
Too many are actors and not enough of them practicing/
Actually wanna be rappers just think its magically happening/
Well I got news for them, skills I have are unusual/
Musical super human more scripture than all Jerusalem/
Improve perpetual, always room on my schedule/
To better myself and my level of lyrical skills beyond incredible/
Evoking excellence, sentences that I architect/
The consequence, awareness of upper levels of consciousness/
Confident of responses from audience's at concerts is/
All positive, but that would be almost stating the obvious/
-Chorus-
Categorically - Lord Plourde's the authority/
Majority of topics, got Hip Hop seniority/
But more importantly, more and more are boring me/
Forcing me, taking action, cause half of them's rappin' horribly/
Sucking orally, suddenly, something's morally/
Wrong when "Liking" songs to be "Friends" is called "Supportin'" me/
Once it’s forcibly reinforced, your forcing me/
To possibly, "Unlike" you in real life -like broccoli/
Get all brolicy, follow a new policy/
Cause honestly, most rappers are babies who whine colicly/
Wanna be callin me "hater?” I probably know what the problem be/
"Hit Lyrical up on Twitter, I'm bitter he wouldn't 'follow me'"/
Well yall can swallowing, orthodontistly tonsil me/
And anonymously call me and offer some deep apologies/
Tell me your sorry, all softly speaking all wobbly/
-Yall oxymorons- seriously be comedy
-Chorus-
Virtuosity, you are viewing a Prodigy/
Putting them, all to Shame with a higher level of artistry/
Our whole philosophy, simply to do it properly/
Ironically somehow in Hip Hop, now that’s a novelty/
Meet the, anomaly- one of the most modestly/
Known names producing I'm introducing ya properly/
To one of the most copied, so it's shame on, them/
Spinning, them two tables I got Shame on them/
One of the most fabled, imitated and borrowed/
But shame would never say it he's, not a man of bravado/
The Vinyl Reanimator it's the mixer extraordinaire/
Battle winner and digger all biters beware/
The type that is rare, ability, mixed with humility/
Skills that pay the bills, more consistent than utilities/
Simply I turn the tables now on DJ Shame/
How nice you are up on the slice homey, please explain
Chapter X. Flawlessness (Acapella)
I am built for this with the skills and will travel/
While yall "Semipro" with your flow, your Will Farrell/
While my "Desire" is more higher than Pharoahe's/
I am- not the typical rapper rapping about buying apparel/
But- I stay fly whenever what's fly's classic/
But It’s obvious I'd rather be drop-in on taking classes/
I'd rather travel the atlas speaking at campuses/
Talking about these labels instead of what labels on my pants these "is"/
And I ain't knocking rocking primates on your pockets/
But its obvious monkey see monkey do, when dudes go shopping/
If you got it- drop a deposit on a vacation in the tropics/
Cause a trend will come and go, but half of this stress is mostly nonsense/
I've done concerts at colleges round the continent/
Had continental breakfasts, at several different conferences/
Corporate endorsements, with several of different sponsorships/
All cuz these acapellas I prepare are spit with flawlessness
Chapter XI. It’s A Shame -Feat Love Jones
Successful, sounds so stressful/
That’s cause the industry we swim in's a cesspool/
Woman are slaves, getting abused like sex tools/
As lames gas em up like the price of jet fuel/
The game's a mind field we all must step through/
So guess who's- coming with all your rhymes to the rescue/
-So clever, so fresh, no next dude/
Could ever being doing it better if they cloned me in test tubes/
But that's the problem homey somebody went and dressed you/
With some designer name they went and pressed on your sweat suit/
You’re not alone my dude, everyone else too/
They show us on TV, we doing just what they tell us to/
We all gelling to a tendency Central/
Like Comedy- how television’s holding our mental/
Mind control, taking over our pencils/
Till the rhymes are all the same and we just change instrumentals
-Chorus-
The consummate professional, in concert or processionals/
My vocals in a zone of their own - exceptional/
So I take exception to anybody suggesting/
That I would ever settle for less than total perfection/
No question, the talent level is staggering/
And proof of what a human can to do when we choose to master it/
Choose to imagine it-, viewing your future happening/
Establishing yourself and your music beyond comparison/
Beyond the packaging, industry manufacturing/
Swagger that’s artificially flavored faker than saccharin/
Lacking the judgment, and presence of moral character/
But listen I ain't judging, it’s probably poor parenting/
Poor handling, horribly poor management/
These poor adolescents need lessons in how to handle it/
Promoting these acts as young, stupid and arrogant/
Till insecure rappers act immature and embarrassing
-Chorus-
I summon the power –of the souls before/
For I am the sum of power - of my father’s four/
My heart is pure, my mother that I love and adore/
Gave birth on this Earth to a Lyrical Lord – Plourde/
So scholarly, flows none can follow me/
Known for the way that I wail like Bob Marley be/
So topically before my time/
That I’m forced ta wear black to absorb my shine/
Rhymes, revolutionize –do what I please/
I’d rather die on my own two, then live on my knees/
Do -what I believe, through time to achieve/
Since preschool dude I presumed ta lead/
I- never drank, never smoked no weed/
I-just simply wrote rhymes and continued to read/
Continue to bleed for the cause where it out on my sleeve/
Cuz we all still slaves ta this Wall Street greed/
Indeed, we just a few kids writing on your city blocks/
Waiting on the public pools before somebody is getting shot/
It's all budgeted, cram em in, crush em in/
Turning up the heat, murder, then it’s no wonder it's/
All poor folks, Boston to Norfolk,
No joke killing our own, selling them more coke/
Endless suffering, kats out struggling,
Smothering each other popping Aspirin to Bufferin/
But don't spend it if you ain’t got it, don't cop it/
I see it dropped too often on a youngin’s coffin
Chapter XII. Love Life
Know for the most part, some is feelin’ ashamed of rap/
So for the record- that’s why I called Shame for track/
To blame it on rap? That’s probably a little to far/
In the hood when these dudes go and shoot up a car/
They never, ask the question “where the guns come from?”/
Or ask the Governor one time “Where these drugs come from?”/
I just come from another friend’s funeral this month/
And plus at hip hop shows these dudes shoot up the club/
Your beautiful love, why you tryna hang here for?/
All night I’m hearing music calling woman a wh*re/
She like “That’s all right I’m just supporting my man/
Tryna ride or die and hold it down for my fam”/
Listen- it’s all a plan in every urbanized district/
Downgrade the services, jobs not existent/
To keep us over the threshold of poverty/
It’s practically impossible owning your own property/
Receiving yourself a quality, education is probably/
Harder up in the hood when these good school’s majority
Places the priority, on improving the economy/
Their tax base erasing what's faces most minorities/
It’s kind of sorry, when if you have to move here/
When even sports owners know, they having to revenue share/
Continue to care, I’ll send you out a prayer for us both/
A little patience, have faith and just let your stress go
-Chorus-
It’s like sometimes we trying ta plan the best for our seeds/
And give em, some water to grow in their time of need/
Even, rhymes they need they ain’t hearing no more/
Cause Hip Hop’s now controlled by the sponsors of tours/
And the media is owned by the same big four/
Universal’s GE, of course supporting the wars/
So it’s importing for, every gain that they make/
And every music video they go and produce to be fake/
You need ta, take your time try and age like wine/
Cause all these overnight success stories simply is lies/
And ladies all these dudes tryna get in your thighs/
They ain’t bothering doing the fathering they simply gonna slide/
Cause if he done respect you, he wouldn’t of sexed you/
On the first night he met you, next day wont text you/
So hear my plan let me lecture the next dude/
So little man here can tell it next to his nephews/
I know she fine and she look all good/
She need a real man to hold her one who look all hood/
Listen- she need a man with his head in a book/
One who tryna get ahead instead of be checking his looks/
Look, one whose responsible, by any means possible/
One to hold her hand when she’s over at the hospital
Holding down a job and holding it down for her/
And shower her like God’s gift with frankincense and myrrh
Chapter XIII. Put Em All To Shame
I’m vegetarian, I never have meat on a stick/
I choose fruit, never loose, never beef over chicks/
I keep it biz, never personal, endorsing your commercial to/
Sell more of my own, in reverse a role reversal of/
Fortune on the cover of Forbes before I’m 44/
I’ve been in the Source before, it opened up doors/
I want more, than just material, music up on your stereo/
Lyrical cereal replacing Wheaties and your Cheerios/
Heroes to me were people like Ida Wells/
And Nelson Mandela, thirty years in a cell/
I learned to rhyme well, listening to Kane and Rakim/
The training begins, I started lifted weights in the gym/
The brain of a kid, running wild like a slave on the run/
Illusions of my own freedom, got me speaking in tongues/
Like teachers and nuns, or preachers with guns/
Beat us religiously, until your concept of individual identity/
Is blended into the melting pot, felt not a thing/
15 years later, all I see is the bling/
The poetry’s gone, listen I wrote so many songs/
With so many bars, it’s hard for me to know em apart/
So where do I start? I file em by class and type/
And memorizing them in my head in my class at night/
The classic type- of rapper who’d be glad to fight/
Battle anyone, and teach em how to rap more tight/
A sight for sore-eye fight for the poor/
With eyes on the prize, I’m sure of what we doing it for/
Humans are more, than we thinking we are, twinkling stars/
Metaphorically the truth lurks in knowing your start/
Knowing your art, Noah’s Ark alone in oceans of dark/
Closer to quarks in the heavens than a boat at the dock/
Hoping to start, mad discussions on the start of it all/
9 dimensions of the world, holding time in a ball/
A fly on the wall, listening to all of yall squawk/
Like a bunch of wining kids who lost their ball at the park/
Spark the cipher still, writer whose ill, mergers and business deals/
Forget the land fill want 40 acres up on Sugar Hill/
I’ll walk into the office of a corporate exec/
With force of a tech, and hit him in the forehead and step (with knowledge)/
Weapons kept, like Magic and Bird, below the jersey/
Extra heavy mad legend like Larry, Dirty like Harry/
Now I carry black Mike’s in a case, my mic in a case/
Just in case a player want to take it on stage/
Make my way towards a doctorate, make a tender offer than/
Buy myself a corporate apartment with Boston offices/
A view of the Charles, maybe two in Nepal/
Meditating like a Buddhist, find solutions for all/
Youth at the mall, they don’t have a clue at all/
Looking for some sweat suits and some shoes to ball/
In two to four, we old enough to send them to war/
The Senator’s wrong, he better start amending his laws/
Cause his son shops at the same shop for Armani’s at Copley/
With speech and dress a little more properly/
Pronounced than the rest of us, in a fancy restaurant/
Eating his croissants, thinking about the new shoes he bought/
But he forgot, his pops that is he voted for war/
To get him voted for congressional doors/
Now North Korea’s going nuclear, in moments like these/
We always send a few thousand more kids overseas/
So how can it be, got little kids fighting at all/
Don’t like it all, rich or poor, you’re still to small/
Go back to the mall, shop at Barnes & Nobles and read/
A book about the world we live in so global indeed/
Locally need, more rappers who can read and write/
Believe in the fight, instead of just believing the hype/
So leave the mic, until you can rock it like this/
And think you have something positive to possibly give - kids
Chapter XIV. Do You Remember? -Featuring Love Jones
For years Hip Hop has been lost in ‘stagnicity’/
Cross over pop that lost authenticity/
Eventually, grade school rap so elementary
Mirrors our educational institutions identically/
Eric B & Rakim, now ‘Whistle ta different Melodies'/
A force now divorced like KRS & MS. Melody/
Now Clear Channel and Viacom own everything/
Reality is MTV - check the scheduling/
We all obsessed with the private lives of celebrities/
Privatizing everything -bastardizing the 70's/
Got advertising executives living in luxury/
Irresponsibly sponsoring causes of death and poverty/
I know probably people think the majority/
Of what we choose is freewill but not in no monopoly/
Those with seniority, can manipulate minorities/
By views that they choose on the news spewed dishonestly/
We've lost authority - Hip Hop's now morally-/
Challenged we trade our talents for small salaries- always/
Similar businesses, using viewers and listeners
Systematical slavery, institutional prisoners/
Confusing us like idiots, most of us act like children/
Braggin’ bout what we selling' inside of our own buildings and/
Actin like buildin’ is totally out the question/
To busy actin like we be grossing millions no question/
Here's my suggestion, ta some it may sound blasphemous/
We need more activists, rappers who rap passionate/
See I ain't bashing another rapper like Fabolous/
Just simply saying some of us need to spell it more accurate/
With more confidence, mathematics like calculus/
More congress law and politics interest in the establishment/
Reestablishing what we gained from our guardians/
And passing it on down again reacquainting the audience
-Chorus-
This ain't one of them club jams/
This is more for the symphony/
Orchestras in the mezzanine for the musicians having epiphanies/
This is history, literally in the making/
Choosing the red or the blue pill, Lyrical up in the Matrix/
These are true skills, but still routed in basics/
Charting the constellations, doing the manual calculations/
Best seller potential on instrumental arrangements/
But probably never will be until I'm named one of Oprah's favorites/
Until that day comes its endless preparations/
Advocating for reparations through community rehabilitation/
Civic engagement, improving our educational/
Institutional situation through constitutional compensation/
Where standing ovations are the show of appreciation
And the positive affirmation that we have achieved communication/
Throughout the crowd and perhaps across humanity/
Substituting humility into our swag instead of just vanity