LUPE FIASCO feat. Skylar Grey – Words I Never Said

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

[Lupe Fiasco]
I really think the war on terror is a bunch of bullshit
Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets
How much money does it take to really make a full clip
9/11 building 7 did they really pull it
Uhh, And a bunch of other cover ups
Your childs future was the first to go with budget cuts
If you think that hurts then, wait here comes the uppercut
The school was garbage in the first place, that’s on the up and up
Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the uppercrust
You get it then they move it so you never keeping up enough
If you turn on TV all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks”
Dude is dating so and so blabbering bout such and such
And that ain’t Jersey Shore, homie that’s the news
And these the same people that supposed to be telling us the truth
Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza strip was getting bombed, Obama didn’t say shit
That’s why I ain’t vote for him, next one either
I’ma part of the problem, my problem is I’m peaceful
And I believe in the people.

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

[Lupe Fiasco - Verse 2]
Now you can say it ain’t our fault if we never heard it
But if we know better than we probably deserve it
Jihad is not a holy war, wheres that in the worship?
Murdering is not Islam!
And you are not observant
And you are not a muslim
Israel don’t take my side cause look how far you’ve pushed them
Walk with me into the ghetto, this where all the Kush went
Complain about the liquor store but what you drinking liquor for?
Complain about the gloom but when’d you pick a broom up?
Just listening to Pac ain’t gone make it stop
A rebel in your thoughts, ain’t gon make it halt
If you don’t become an actor you’ll never be a factor
Pills with million side effects
Take em when the pains felt
Wash them down with Diet soda!
Killin off your brain cells
Crooked banks around the World
Would gladly give a loan today
So if you ever miss a payment
They can take your home away!

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said, never said
I can’t take back the words I never said

[Lupe Fiasco - Verse 3]
I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence
Fear is such a weak emotion that’s why I despise it
We scared of almost everything, afraid to even tell the truth
So scared of what you think of me, I’m scared of even telling you
Sometimes I’m like the only person I feel safe to tell it to
I’m locked inside a cell in me, I know that there’s a jail in you
Consider this your bailing out, so take a breath, inhale a few
My screams is finally getting free, my thoughts is finally yelling through

[Skylar Grey]
It’s so loud Inside my head
With words that I should have said!
As I drown in my regrets
I can’t take back the words I never said

LUPE FIASCO feat. Poo Bear – Brave Heart

[Verse 1]
May the Lord have mercy on my soul
Forgive me for my fetishes, my purchases, my clothes
Allow me to catch my rhythm so the nervousness just goes
That’s why I sound so certain in my verses and my flows
The verbiage just gets merciless, the wordsmithness just rolls
I’ve tuned into my pertinence, my purposes, my goals
The feeling when you realize you’ve been working for your foes
And the curtains have just opened and they worthlessness exposed
You remember where you’ve came from, where the purses was stole
There was nothing in the oven and just work up on the stove
And you blossomed from the bottom, yeah, you worked with it and rose
From nothing to a dozen and a garden now there grows
Tell ‘em!

[Hook: Pooh Bear]
Courage under fire, gave me a brave heart (That’s me)
Courage under fire, gave me a brave heart
(Yessir) Brave heart
(Yeah I got that) Brave heart
(You know) Brave heart

[Verse 2]
May the Lord have mercy on my soul
Like shows keep cushion where I land
Keep the devil off my heels
But please keep me on my toes
Like a reposessor checking for everything I drove
Like I owe, but I don’t
Paid my dues from the go
Doing donuts in the dome, keep my shoes on the floor
Revered by the rich, plus approved by the poor
I guess it’s better when they sniff it
And screwed up where they pour
See I flew so way up high
And I SCUBA’d way down low
Put the top down on my fears
Put the roof up on my woes
I dropped that food and liquor to put you up on my stove
They shoplifted and stole
That just let me know they know
That was Lupe #1, now this version #4
And I still feel like a virgin me versus the globe
From the surface to the cove
I took on the biggest wave
And I surfed it to the shore with no pomade in my fro
Took the wood from the slave ships and furnished my abode
Now that boat is now my bed, desk, dressers and my drawers
Now that’s a house of pain!
Plus I use nooses when I hang up all my clothes
Couldn’t change up if I chose
That’s me

[Hook: Pooh Bear]
Courage under fire, gave me a brave heart
Courage under fire, gave me a brave heart
(Yessir) Brave heart
(Yeah I got that) Brave heart
(You know) Brave heart

Brave heart…

(Yessir) Brave heart
(Yeah I got that) Brave heart
(You know) Brave heart

[Outro]
May the Lord have…
Mercy on my soul

LUPE FIASCO feat. Sarah Green – Letting Go

[Hook: Lupe Fiasco]
Things are getting outta control
Feels like I’m running out of soul
You are getting too heavy to hold
Think I’ll be letting you go

[Verse 1: Lupe Fiasco]
My self portrait shows a man that the wealth tortured
Self-absorbed with his own self-forfeit
A shelf full of awards
Worshiping the war ships that set sail on my sea of life
When I see my own self I wonder if we still see a light
We was tight seeing lights
Speaking right and breathing life
Now I see my demons and barely even sleep at night
I don’t get high life keep me at a decent height
As the old me I predicted all my recent plights
Exhausted. Trying to fall asleep. Losses at my recent fights
Burdens on my shoulders now, burnin’ all my motives down
Inspiration drying up, motivation slowing down

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Lupe Fiasco]
I’m begging me don’t let me go
We vow like the letter “Oh”
To never go our separate ways
And spin-off into separate shows
Tired of all the wardrobe changin’
Playing all these extra roles
Filled with all these different spirits
Livin’ off these separate souls
Point in life is getting hollow
Can’t wait for the exit hole
Give me room. The entry room. Let me in and let me go
So I can roam around this wilderness
See it for what it really is
I’m prepared to filter list
Magnify the youth in me, alibi the shootin’ spree
Amplify the revolution, sanitize the lunacy
Strip away the justice, justify the scrutiny
I can see the lasers shootin’ out of you and me

[Hook]

[Bridge: Lupe Fiasco]
Sometimes I feel like the world–
Sometimes I feel like the world is against me
And everything that I’ve done before
I swear we used to be so pure
But we can’t be in love no more
Cause I don’t wanna fight this war
But when I put down my gun
I turn around and pick up one
This uzi weighs a ton, but I think I’m done!

[Hook]

[Outro: Sarah Green]
Think I’ll be letting you go
Things are getting outta control
Said, it feels like I’m running out of soul
You’re getting heavy to hold
I think I’ll be letting you go
…Letting you go

LUPE FIASCO feat. MDMA – I Don’t Wanna Care Right Now

[Verse 1:]
I’m not a turtle, Imma turbo
Haters pray to god that I turn slow
Like I’m sipping on purple
But I ain’t on your globe
I’m in a whole ‘nother circle
Trying to keep it clean like church clothes
Said that respect was something had to work for
But that ain’t gonna work though
Get your respect, but lose all my worth, no
You can get that, get a hearse, go
Don’t leave 48 you’ll find a killer in the first floor
It was me boy, to commercials
Feeling out of place like PETA at a fur store
So I left with a couple dozen fur coats
Said I could never break away from your hold
Watch me, turn though
Said that I blew it like Turquoise
Just mad hear it all in your word choice
Know it hurts but I really don’t care though
Let me rub it in, get it all up in that ho

[Hook:]
I can see the morning creeping up on us
It’s like the world’s in my hands now
I’m feeling so rebellious from all of the envy crowding around me
I don’t wanna care right now
I don’t wanna care right now
No I really don’t, really don’t, wanna care right now

[Verse 2:]
Oh-oh Go-Go-God over everything-thing
You fly but stars over everything-thing
And I’m one of them, yeah one of th-the-them
Oh I’m not o-o-one? Well I’m a hundred th-the-then
I’m a hundred mother loving stars
You’re no lights, you’re an undercover car
I’m an ambulance, and a fire truck, and some strobe lights, tied up!
Shining all in your eyes, all out of yours and all into mine
Lights and stars is all intertwined
And I’m feeling like Malcolm looking all out the blinds
Any means any means, and you can do anything anything
And the flow tight, skinny jeans skinny jeans
Hit you like Pacquiao, Philippines Philippines

[Hook]

[Verse 3:]
Ya’ll know I’m the little homie Lupe, yes sir, who they
They yester, and I’m today, and tomorrow, hooray
Can I get a hip-hip for the new K-I-N-G, nigga I-AM-HE
Got the game in the clutch like I am G
You ball little boy, But I N-B-A
With a hand for the world, you a boy band with a dance and a twirl
I’m a rockstar with a band so thorough
Big ass tour bus that’s jammed full of girls
T-t-tell em what it do, holla from the bottom, yell it from the roof
T-t-tell em what it do, I don’t care about your curfew
I’ll tell you when I’m through boy

[Hook]

Tell em what it do, yell it from the bottom, yell it from the roof boy
Tell em what it do, holla from the bottom, yell it from the roof boy
Tell em what it do, holla from the bottom, yell it from the roof boy
Tell em what it do, holla from the bottom, yell it from the roof boy
I don’t wanna, I-I don’t wanna, I-I-I don’t wanna
C-c-c-care right now
I don’t wanna, I-I don’t wanna, I-I-I don’t wanna
C-c-c-care right, c-c-c-care right now

LUPE FIASCO feat. Casey Benjamin – Strange Fruition

[Lupe Fiasco]
Now I can’t pledge allegiance to your flag
Cause I can’t find no reconciliation with your past
When there was nothing equal for my people in your math
You forced us in the ghetto and then you took our dads
The belly of the beast, these streets are demons’ abs
I’m telling you that setup in them sit-ups is so sad
The system is a slab
Corruption is the swinger sittin high ridin dirty, drag racin into danger
And it’s so clean, pine trees smellin good
With work off in the trunk and niggas in the hood
So I can’t shed blood on any battlefield of yours
I pray the ugly truth comes and shatters your decor
And as it all falls down and tatters on the floor
I shed tears, I don’t know what really matters anymore
Cause I don’t know what really matters anymore

[Chorus: Casey Benjamin]
Many things, strangest things you ever seen
Oh, look at how they swing, would you look at how they swing?
Embedded they go, no eyelids gone low
Or gone by sundown, they’re dodging 5-0

[Lupe Fiasco]
Now as I wander through the city goin mad
I see the fruits of planting evidence instead of grass
A swindled generation with no patience, full of swag
Man, they so impatient with the stations that they have
As long as they look good when they be doin bad
Then the separation from the truth is gettin vast, fast
Be a slave at first or free at last
Double-edged choices make a nigga wanna pass
Double-headed voices from the eagle on the staff
The pyramid where eyes will split the spirited in half
Divided over money
Delighted by the dummyin down of the importance of crowns we’ll never have
That’s why my sounds and sermons are so full of wrath
Baptize your mind, let your brain take a bath
Swim inside the river get delivered from the craft
Of the witches in this business that be livin off your sad
Hatin on your happiness you hit ‘em off with laughs
Smile ’til they surrender, then you kill ‘em off with glad
Hello evil, I’m back

[Chorus]

LUPE FIASCO feat. Haley Williams – Airplanes

[Haley Williams - Hook]
Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky
Are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish right now)
Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky
Are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish right now)

[Lupe Fiasco - Verse 1]
Wishes that the world could see
From the position of my girl and me
From the perspective of laying on the hood of a car
Looking up at the stars with all the connections cut
Cause when you stuck, advantages vanishes
bandages on the damages of what depression does
So quest it cuz, who are they to question us?
Beating up our ear drums like Question Love
With all of their requests from above
Press from below, only directions to bus
Thus we laying in the cut on the Cutlass supreme
Looking up at the scene
Hoping it doesn’t cut, the fresh and the make up
Get re-fed the lines and reminded of what they mean
The importance of really acting like they important
And if you don’t feel ‘em you should force ‘em now…

[Haley Williams - Hook]
Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky
Are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish right now)
Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky
Are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish right now)

[Lupe Fiasco - Verse 2]
Wishes that mend the broken heart
Fill the open palm, pardon my flow and thoughts
My departure from the norm, the parch thats more warm
walks on from the marching of your armies and the dropping of your bombs
The walking on the waters now stomping on the pond
The ripples now a wave
It can’t be peaceful with a pistol in your face
You can’t beat the people so you picking on they place
I jump to defend I’m wage with a page
My pen’s mightier than them and I got missles on the stage
This couch is for the cowards and stretchers for the brave
And I happily lay upon the bed that I have made
Like house keep, sheets and pillow case
But I don’t sleep, dreams keeping me awake
They went up thinking they would never touch the ground
But we gon wish it ‘pon ‘em on the way back down

LUPE FIASCO – Unforgivable Youth

[Chorus]
This world, my heart, my soul.
Things that I don’t know.
The icicles they grow.
They never let me go.
Scars are left as proof.
But tears they soak on through.
Things I’ve done.
My young.
My unforgivable youth.

[Verse 1]
We land on the horizon. The passion in their eyes then.
What they think of islands and much more in their size.
Bountiful and plentiful and resource to provide them.
Supplies slim. Morale when so heavily inside them.
Now steadily declining.
Return is not an option as necessity denies them.
With this they choose to dive in.
Now along the shore and so aware of their arriving.
Other children of this land prepare to share in their surviving.
A pigeontry of feathers stands his majesty with treasure.
Now the material things that kings that could never last forever.
But secrets of the spirit world and how to live in harmony together.
Unbenounced to him his head would be the first that they would sever.
And stuck up on a pike up along the beach.
Kept up as a warning to the rest to turn away from their beliefs.
And so began it here. And for 500 years.
Torture, Terror, Fear til they nearly disappear.

[Chorus]
This world, my heart, my soul.
Things that I don’t know.
The icicles they grow.
They never let me go.
Scars are left as proof.
But tears they soak on through.
Things I’ve done.
My young.
My unforgivable youth.

[Verse 2]
Ways and means from mistreated human beings.
A slave labor force provides wealth to the machine.
And helps the new regime establish and expand.
Using manifest destiny to siphon off the land.
From native caretakers who can barely understand.
“How can land be owned by another man. Warns one can not steal what was given as a gift. Is the sky owned by birds and the rivers owned by fish.”
But the lesson when the heated, for the sake of what’s not needed.
You kill but do not eat it.
The excessive and elitists don’t repair it when they leave it.
The forests’s were cleared, the factories were built.
And your mistakes will be repeated by your future generation doomed to pay for your mistreatments.
Foolishness and flaws, greed and needs and disagreement.
And you rushed to have the most, from the day you left your boats.
You’ll starve but never die. In a world of hungry ghosts.

[Chorus]
This world, my heart, my soul.
Things that I don’t know.
The icicles they grow.
They never let me go.
Scars are left as proof.
But tears they soak on through.
Things I’ve done.
My young.
My unforgivable youth.

[Verse 3]
As archaeologists dig in the deserts of the east.
Appeared 100 meters wide and 100 meters deep.
They discover ancient cars on even older streets.
And a city well preserved and most likely at it’s peak.
A culture so advanced, and by condition of the teeth.
They can tell that they was civil, not barbaric in the least.
A society at peace. With liberty and justice for all.
Neatly carved in what seems to be a wall.
They would doubt that there was any starvation at all.
That they pretty much had the poverty problem all solved.
From the sheer amount of paper, most likely used for trade.
Everything’s so organized. They had to be well behaved.
Assumed they had clean energy, but took to no enemies.
Very honest leaders with overwhelming sympathies.
Religions kinda complex. Kinda hard to figure out.
And this must be the temple.
This White. House

[Chorus]
This world, my heart, my soul.
Things that I don’t know.
The icicles they grow.
They never let me go.
Scars are left as proof.
But tears they soak on through.
Things I’ve done.
My young.
My unforgivable youth.

LUPE FIASCO feat. Bilal – How Dare You

[Hook: Bilal]
You shine like the lights of Las Vegas
You feel radiant and outrageous
Your confidence and appeal, so sexual
How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?
How dare you come do me like that

[Verse 1]
I got my eyes on like the fire zone
Let’s be bygones
Won’t you come and be a line in one of my songs?
Maybe a whole verse, baby the whole Earth my home
So let me show you around the crib
Tell you what I do, I show you what I did
Flow is on the stove, I’m cooking for the kids
Wrist is in the freezer, heart is in the fridge
But we can warm it up, plug the Foreman up
Open the oven door, turn the saunas up
Stretch the Benz out, if it ain’t long enough
Get lost in the feeling, they’re no longer us
Hop up out the coupe, hop up on the bus
Give you ‘get to the backs’, code name for Rosa’s sons
We’re in a better place, give us condolences
It’s like a player’s wake, and like a coma love

[Hook: Bilal]
You shine like the lights of Las Vegas
You feel, you feel radiant and outrageous
Your confidence and appeal, so sexual
How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?
How dare you come do me like that

[Verse 2]
And I hope it’s all up to your standards
Cause babies really need to be pampered
I’m behind these tents like a camper
Cause you’re out there shining like chandler
Like a chandelier standing there in your radiance
I think we all need some shadiness
Or some vision care, oh no, you didn’t dare
While I was sitting here like Huey in his wicker chair
You know that isn’t fair, how you just entered here
Getting their hopes up, that they can interfere
You’re so insincere, you know I got you
Have you looked in the mirror? You know that’s not cool

[Hook: Bilal]
You shine like the lights of Las Vegas
You feel, you feel radiant and outrageous
Your confidence and appeal, so sexual
How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?
How dare you come do me like that

[Verse 3]
Let’s have a cease fire, be some peace triers
Let’s negotiate, because my cheeks tired
From smiling all day
Emotions need a Motrin, a Tylenol break
I know you see my strategy, if flattery’s a battery
Then I’m a rabbit with a pack of ‘D’s in the back of me
Pause/paws on all levels, everybody settle
I know it sounded weird, I’m just trying to impress you
I step forward with my best two
If all that fails, open swag to the rescue
I said swag, and I’m sorry
Don’t mean to offend your sensibilities I meant dress smartly
Just trying to get you out this party
Can you dig that? Ologist-Archae
Please be the Ferrari to my car key
And I’ma hold my baby down like a car seat

[Bridge: Bilal]
You know what you’re doing to me
You got that fire fire, baby
I just can’t get enough
No, I can’t get enough

[Hook: Bilal]
You shine like the lights of Las Vegas
You feel radiant and outrageous
Your confidence and appeal, you’re so sexual
How dare you? How dare you? How dare you?
How dare you come do me like that

Lupe Fiasco – Lamborghini Angels

It’s a mad world out here, I tell you
The world’s gone stark, raving mad
Everyone in the world is mad
It’s a mad crazy world

I see diamond-flooded demons
Lamborghini angels
Lamborghini angels
Lamborghini angels
Halos down with the doors flapping when they came through
Halos down with the doors flapping when they came through

With a circle on the floor he compels them to be pure
Pulls the beast out of his heart then impales it on a sword
Writes a prayer on some paper and then he nails it to the door
Just the good of you may enter by the mercy of the lord
Listen not to what he speaks, that’s been the cursing of his cause
A seduction of his senses by the devils he adores
The unholy has him hostage and his soul is now at war
Follow not his secret knowledge it will bring you no reward
Shun him while in public disallow him from your stores
Have no part in his affairs ’less his pestilence be yours
Make scoundrels of the righteous and virgins into whores
But we must still pray that his color will be cured

With her eyes to the ceiling and a needle in her brain
He looks back into the crowd, wipes the blood and then explains
How she slipped from this existence to the realm of the deranged
Her becoming must be halted to reverse what she became
From the looseness of her tongue, to the pollution of her aims
To do nothing is barbaric, the solution is humane
You must destroy the mind and hopefully retrain
You torture out the wildness, then replace it with the tame
Blank slate when she recovers, she won’t even know her name
Perfect wife and perfect lover, no resistance, no complaints
May God bless the scientific cure for the insane
Knew she couldn’t go to school, but she thought that that should change

With his crucifix inside his pocket said his mission is divine
Put his Bible on the bed and then he touched on his behind
Told him take off all his clothes and put your penis next to mine
Now the little boy think it’s normal because they do this all the time
With no life inside his body now he finally think he’s safe
But they cut off all his fingers while they piss all in his face
He take pictures with his killers then they sneak back to the states
Now he sit next to the picture of his wife when she was raped
With the teleprompter rolling he looks right into the lens
Doesn’t mention his redemption but absolves him of his sins
He forgives them in advance says that he will do again

My fellow Americans…

LUPE FIASCO – Put Em Up

[Lupe Fiasco]
Put one in the air like the king’s son
For the heir to the kingdom
That means I’mma be the king once the king done
If he don’t wanna leave then I might have to guillotine him
I sing some but I rap a lot like the king’s son
Microphone checker all across the board you should king him
(Diamond) mine my mind make princesses like (King) (Come)
Every second worth of thinking
Is enough to fill three rings like Ringling’s
That’s how I kept it on the air is like a re-run
And kept the kings comin in obscene sums
You see for me it’s life or death like a king thumb
Mean something
That’s why I don’t play when I relay like a team run
And treat every single day like a scene one
Outlook on life like I ain’t never seen none

[Chorus]
I keep my back to the past tell it bye (bye)
Face to the future tell it hi (hi)
Everything is super so is fly (fly)
Come and stick the fans up
Go on and get your hands up high
High
High
High

[Lupe Fiasco]
Post coast to coast gotta dose of every lingo
The latest famous 80′s baby like the dingo
Who evaded pushing daisies, dodge bullets like Remo
Remember like Ginkgo when we used to play bingo
Used to be in awe with the pushers and the pimps oh
Now I flip cars like the ribs on the Flintstones
Haters got mad and as sensitive as shinbones
Had a Goodyear and my intention is to blimp on
Even if I’m injured I’m gonna limp into the end zone
From game one to the super like Karrine dome
That mean I went to Disney World and you just went home
It’s Lupe and I ain’t from there
But they root for the away
Yeah they stunned there
Beautifully I play
Gatorade the coach and tubas need to play now
Usually I stay, put em on the roof with more truth for me to say

[Chorus]

[Lupe Fiasco]
The laboratory happy for me cause I’m back with my belongings
Ferrari ’bout as red as when Carrie was the prom queen
Think outside the box like Larry Merchant, Don King
The glacier in Jamaica or a penguin out in Palm Springs
Yeah, keep em in the air like a swan wing
And Im’a keep it magic as a Harry Potter wand swing
And my little shop with my terracotta pot
You be talkin bout your kush, you should come and here my ‘larm sing
So put them up like a robbery
A Derrick Rose lob to me
And watch and see I alley-oop it properly
Football or volley-b, hock-el-y, or sock-el-y
You just get the rock to me
Try and put me down like Gaddafi over Lockerbie
I’ll lock you in a locker b
Like Bruce Leeroy, like Johnny in a locker see
Shock is the only thing that Tupac is toppin me
Hot as rocket bottoms or kill ‘em where your lava be

[Chorus]

Lupe Fiasco – Bitch Bad

Yeah
I say bitch bad, woman good, lady better
Hey, hey, hey, heyNow imagine there’s a shawty, maybe five maybe four
Ridin’ ’round with his mama listening to the radio
And a song comes on and a not far off from being born
Doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong
Now I ain’t trying to make it too complex
But let’s just say shawty has an undeveloped context
About the perception of women these days
His mama sings along and this what she says
“Niggas I’m a bad bitch, and I’m bad bitch far above average”
And maybe other rhyming words like cabbage and savage
And baby carriage and other things that match it
Couple of things that are happenin’ here
First he’s relatin’ the word ”bitch” with his mama, comma
And because she’s relatin’ to herself, his most important source of help,
And mental health, he may skew respect for dishonor

Bitch bad, woman good
Lady better, they misunderstood
(I’m killin’ these bitches)
Uh, tell ’em
Bitch bad, woman good
Lady better, they misunderstood
They misunderstood
(I’m killin’ these bitches)

Yeah, now imagine a group of little girls nine through twelve
On the internet watchin’ videos listenin’ to songs by themselves
It doesn’t really matter if they have parental clearance
They understand the internet better than their parents
Now being the interent, the content’s probably uncensored
They’re young, so they’re maleable and probably unmentored
A complicated combination, maybe with no relevance
Until that intelligence meets their favorite singer’s preference
“Bad bitches, bad bitches, bad bitches
That’s all I want and all I like in life is bad bitches, bad bitches”
Now let’s say that they less concerned with him
And more with the video girl acquiescent to his whims
Ah, the plot thickens
High heels, long hair, fat booty, slim
Reality check, I’m not trippin’
They don’t see a paid actress, just what makes a bad bitch

Disclaimer: This rhymer, Lupe’s not usin’ bitch as a lesson
But as a psychological weapon
To set in your mind and really mess with your conceptions
Discretions, reflections, it’s clever misdirection
Cause, while I was rappin’ they was growin’ up fast
Nobody stepped in to ever slow ’em up, gasp
Sure enough, in this little world
The little boy meets one of those little girls
And he thinks she a bad bitch and she thinks she a bad bitch
He thinks disrespectfully, she thinks of that sexually
She got the wrong idea, he don’t wanna fuck her
He thinks she’s bad at being a bitch like his mother
Momma never dress like that, come out the house, hot mess like that
Ass, titties, dress like that
All out to impress like that
Just like that, you see the fruit of the confusion
He caught in a reality, she caught in an illusion
Bad mean good to her, she really nice and smart
But bad mean bad to him, bitch don’t play your part
But bitch still bad to her if you say it the wrong way
But she think she a bitch, what a double entendre

Bitch bad, woman good
Lady better, they misunderstood
You’re misunderstood
Bitch bad, woman good
Lady better, greatest motherhood
(I’m killin’ these bitches)

LUPE FIASCO – Form Follows Function

I’ma just go… and then we’ll figure it out from there
They say form follows function
And if you just function properly then things will form themselves
Yeah, that’s kind of what it is
So on that note… America’s most

[Verse 1]
First off gotta send shout outs to my niggas
Then shout outs to my inner demon that be creepin’ around my temple
Ready to set me off like Vivica or make me cross like a crucifix
Or the legs on a Buddhist sitter deep in thought
Thinking as deep as the sea of salt
And they sink in the same sea that we walk
Not that we Jesus, we just don’t wait until it thaws
But you can hold my hand like applause, pause/paws
With no homophobia involved
Now if I would’ve said that you can hold my balls like VFW Halls
That would’ve been the call, but naw
You can’t see in ours, but we can see in yours
You can’t see in ours cause ours is Kingdom Hall

Yeah, just like that, we just let it roll, you know?
Yeah, and check it, check it

[Verse 2]
So when that pond thaws and it’s no longer Gretzky
That’s when we jetski
I gotta catch up to myself, I kind of left me
Are the windows still blocked up? Let’s see
Maybe see something we couldn’t view before
Been in the stu all day cooking food for thought
Now out the soup du jour for you and yours
Might find sushi for your soul, we call that moving raw
Lions won’t cross the line
Cougars won’t move a paw
Chickens won’t cross the road
Dogs won’t roof at all
Always had flow, just added a front door, roof, and walls
Hotter than the fire that into which Koopa falls
But that’s only if you super dawg
Sicker than when you use your dog to do assaults
You can never really tell just who’s the fraud
Truth might still be alive like true and false
That’s why I never really trust unless it’s Lu endorsed
Sponsored by me and of course you know who enforced
Now that’s three me’s, like you warming up your vocal chords
Add a fourth if your vocals hoarse
Like Mister Ed
Get out of pocket have a horse’s head in your bed
Now that’s what I call a good night’s rest

You know? You know, just plays like that
When you just let it flow
When you sit back and just let it go, you know?

[Verse 3]
And now my vocals warm
Add a fifth and a sixth now I’m ready to perform
The Buddhist said that I am not reformed
If I ever be reborn I keep coming back as me
We don’t forget the other five as we
Weave the most wanted Angelina Jolies
And Morgan Frees
Send it around the room like we smoking trees
But it’s no purple in the circle then there ain’t no rolling
Bees just spoken words, thought provoking reeds
Hydro, I’m still strolling on the seas
Aloe, like the lotion from the leaves
And to achieve it took a lot of token like Chuck E. Cheese
All without touching weed
But I’m still hungry and I’m having lunch for three
This is my form, now what the function be

And aww at what I draw
And ooh at what I say like Imogen Heap
Good night niggas, go to sleep
You know? It’s like form follows function
And if you function properly then
The form will come out of it
And whatever it is, it
It just be what it is, you know?

LUPE FIASCO – Joaquin Phoenix

Okay, what up to my whirlwind, turn like tilt-a-whirls
I be throwin’ up my set, yes! ‘Urlin’ up the world and
Goin’ out, we goin’ in, say “Hello” to my girlfriend
Vomiting and conquering – That C-class is a “girl benz”

My class is overseas, I be on all around the world rims
Women’s international, my will is like my girl: thin
Goin’ in is goin’ wild, goin’ in is goin’ strong
Goin’ for the gold somewhere that goin’ in is goin’ on

[Record scratch, music stops]

Okay, what up to my whirlwind, turn like tilt-a-whirls
I be throwin’ up my set, yes! ‘Urlin’ up the world and
Goin’ out, we goin’ in, say “Hello” to my girlfriend
Vomiting and conquering – That C-class is a “girl benz”

My class is overseas, I be on all around the world rims
Women’s international, my will is like my girl: thin
Goin’ in is goin’ wild, goin’ in is goin’ strong
Goin’ for the gold somewhere that goin’ in is goin’ on

I can do this all day, I ain’t got an arcade
They all say I’m wall short of a whole hallway
One Hall’s short to keep from coughin’ all in y’all face
Man, I’m so appalled, I can keep them all safe

I can really ball and put them titties all in y’all face
That was Robert Paulson, and that deserves a pausin’
So, that’s block piercin’, all that’s missin’ is the bearer
For the coffin that is needed for this beat when I’m done talkin’

Ballin’ in the mornin’, this feel like my callin’
It’s the new witches brew, fall off in my cauldron
Lupe’s goin’ crazy, flow is goin’ almonds
We goin’ back to goin’ in, you gonna need a Garmin

Then go and get a car and put your Garmin and my broad in
Destination: everywhere, reputation: everywhere
Music drop, music stop, one man take up every chair
I know that that ain’t very fair how one man take up everywhere

But it ain’t for long though, it’ll be some closure
Or maybe I’ll be everywhere after I’m all over
Say goodbye then start the show, fall on off then start to blow
Actin’ like I’m rappin’, it’s that Joaquin Phoenix Facebook flow

Flow is in the microwave, call it Michael Tyson flow
Killin’ is a dirty job – Michael Myers, Michael Rowe
Bring it back like Michael Fox, see how far them Michaels go
I feel like I’m Michael Crichton writin’ with a microphone

I ain’t sayin’ that you should die, but you should leave your life alone
Maybe borrow one of mine, fast life, life at home
Life is like a box of chocolates, pockets full of Toblerones
Rocket full of wallets for what continent we shoppin’ on

Lupe Fiasco – Around My Way (Freedom Ain’t Free)

First off say peace to Pine Ridge
Shame at all the damage the white man wine did
Ghost dance, Trail of Tears, 5 million beers a year
And all that other crime did
More peace to the teachers of blind kids
To rebels in small cells keeping their mind big
Say everything’s hostile
Suicide bombers and prosperity gospels, emaciated models
With cocaine and blood pouring out their nostrils, they got to
Just to stay awake on the catwalk of life where everybody watch you
Straight hair, high heels and a handbag
Crucifixes, racism and a land grab
Katrina, FEMA trailers, human body sandbags
A peace sign and a pants sag
A money toss cause a 9 stripper mad dash
A friend request following a hash tag
Now everybody want it like the last laugh
A Michael Jackson jacket or a daft mask
Purple Jordans or the mixed girl in your math class
Stable is when the Ba’ath had Baghdad
But corporate jets really had to have that gas bad
War and they hope they all fall from the ratatat
Cause that’s just more dinosaur for the Cadillac
Live from the other side what you see
A bunch of nonsense on my TV
Heaven on Earth is what I need
But I feel I’m in hell every time I breathe
Reporting live from the other side what you hear
A bunch of nonsense all in my ear
Rich man, poor man, we all gotta pay
Cause freedom ain’t free, especially ’round my way

And we marvel at the state of Ottoman
Then turn around and treat Ghana like a garbage can
America’s a big motherfuckin’ garbageman
If you ain’t know, you’re part and parcel of the problem
You say no you ain’t, and I say yes you is
Soon as you find out what planned obsolescence is
You say no they didn’t, and I say yes they did
The definition of unnecessary-ness
Manifested
Say that we should protest just to get arrested
That goes against all my hustling ethics
A bunch of jail niggas say its highly ineffective
Depart from Martin, connect on Malcolm X tip
Insert Baldwin to similar the separate
To me, the truth is more fulfilling than a meth hit
Or finding really fast internet to have some sex with
It’s all one song short of a set list
Couple croissants shy of a continental breakfast
Or blowing out your birthday candles just to make a death wish
So absurd word to Chief Bone Necklace
Down at the Lakota Sioux Casino
A whole culture boiled down to giving you paquino
I go as left as a heart in the chest
Cause the Horn of Africa is now starving to death

An all white Los Angeles, the dream of Mr. Chandler
Hope and pray they take Columbus day up off the calendar
South Central an example of God’s gifts
So shout to all the mothers raising babies in spa 6
The projects of Oakland city, Detroit ghost towns
Monopolies on poverty where D-boy coke bound
It’s parts of Manilla like the video for Thriller
But the US Embassy is reminiscent of a villa
If poverty is chocolate and privilege vanilla
Then what’s the flavor of the Sunday preacher’s pedophilia
Cash rules everything around these niggas
As classrooms everywhere around me wither
Hither you can be Mr. Burns or Mr. Smithers
The tyrant or the slave but nowhere in the middle
Of the extremes of America’s dream
Freud fighting Neo, Freddy Krueger refereeing, naaa…

LUPE FIASCO – Audubon Ballroom

God is great!

[Verse 1]
Ghettos, America. U.S. to the izzay
Killa in the citywide sprizzay
Where there’s sunshine in the shizzade
Church won’t pull him out the pin like a grenade
For acting out their fears like a charade
‘Til they blackin’ out their tears like it’s lights out
Bring em out the black like a lighthouse
And wave to em before they wiped out
Lifesaver, threw em, hope they catch it
But it’s so Titanic to be iced out
That’s just scratching the surface like triple axels
Want to roll around that Bentley like Crystal Castles
In addition to the chain
That’s just to take the attention from the pain
Or is it the mission of the man
Audubon Ballroom, Motel Lorraine

[Hook]
Now white people, they can’t say nigga
So I gotta take it back
Now black people, we’re not niggas
God made us better than that

[Verse 2]
No break, ah wait
Little mayhem for your All-State, nay ham, all steak
Get a good ball great like a golf grade
Make the ball break
Just one swing, no putting
That’s how I try ‘n does things always
Especially when your past is
Martin, Baldwin, Audubon Ballroom
Turn the glass ceiling to a glass floor
Make a trampoline out of trapdoor
On that gasoline when I was back poor
Now they crafted out my dream underneath a tap floor
Backpack battle-cat underground rap lore
Anonymous but dominant – what’s a Mac to a hacker
In other words, lyrical Zuckerbergs
Pimp you may move a mouse but what’s a rat to a cat store
It’s like a gig to an app store
I rap Black history, you can only see my past if you fast forward

[Hook]
Now white people, they can’t say nigga
So I gotta take it back
Now black people, we’re not niggas
God made us better than that

[Verse 3]
Black Panthers, black anthems, black blues
With black answers for black stanzas: Langston Hughes
Breaking rules, ain’t it cool?
Took it old, and made it new
Black painters, musical black anger
Black mothers, beautiful black anchors
So let’s hear it for ‘em! Let’s hear it for ‘em!
Let’s hear it for ‘em! Let’s hear it for ‘em!
Black America! Trap America!
80s Babies! Crack America!
Rap America! Bad as Erykah!
From the era of family tearing up
But we just won big, can’t be undid
Form a whole culture in just one kid
Miami dope boys, Oakland militants
Harlem Renaissance it’s our deliverance

[Hook]
Now white people, they can’t say nigga
So I gotta take it back
Now black people, we’re not niggas
God made us better than that

LUPE FIASCO – Ayesha Says (Intro)

Hijabs, hoodies, afros, locks
Teddy bear, liquor bottle shrines, rocks
Tanks, prayer rugs, church pews, Mexican corn stands
Blood, sweat, and tears, police batons
Gas masks and bullets create graffiti on corners

Murals that salute freedom or death for liberty
Be it Inglewood or Egypt, Bedstuy or Baghdad
Syria or Liberia, the west bank or the west side of Chicago
Where food and liquor stores still occupy the block
While police and community watchmen justify why they shot
Emmit Till and Malice Green, Rekia Boyd and Trayvon Martin
Better not wear that hoodie while shopping for a carton
Or whatever they sellin in your food desert
Cause your soul is dessert and will be dissected and consumed
On the Fox evening news while we sing the blues
The new Jim Crow caged bird sings
Cause he’s tired of occupying his misery and of our marching
He wanna fly to a higher consciousness
But his school on academic probation
They gave him medicine, diagnosed him with a felony and mental retardation
So he refuses to cease the firin, nobody’s hirin
In Illinois, 67 is the new age when you retirin
Class lines have blurred, those who used to have, have not
Pensions bein snatched
Those who never have keep their hands stretched
Social services being cut
Sterilization clinics giving out pills to numb the womb
Young girls referring to their vaginas as tombs
Thinkin protests are temporary and trendy
Well rock a t-shirt and carry a poster
And two weeks later it’s back to normal
But they say times are changin’
The revolution is becoming second nature, causes are combining
People carrying torches, hope burning from their hands
Attaching explosive devices cause they keep stealing their lands
In the name of freedom

LUPE FIASCO - American Terrorist II

[Verse 1]
Through the fire, smoke, and broken rubble
Walks the secret life, bullet-proof and bulging muscle
Death-defying, highest flying over trouble
Can you please come and help us out our hopeless struggles
Sympathy is wearing off and dying out
In the face of all these enemies and crying out
Losing all this energy from finding out
The world is filled with ills, ever so close to timing out

[Hook]
Where, are those heroes
Where, are those super-heroes

[Verse 2]
Pondering, that super-villain’s got a point
Told the captain on the roof while they was smoking joints
Flicked the ashes down into the street below
Looked up, said he hate the city now, even though
He swore that he’d protect it when he landed
Their perspective’s now changed, all pretty much abandoned
The captain spray cologne around and said he understand it
It’s getting hard to separate the saints from the satanic

[Hook]

[Verse 3]
Last remarks, they did it to themselves
I killed off heaven, now I live in hell
So complicit and they all non-survival
Told them that they biggest rival is inside you
I do possess the power to revive you
But if I did that, I’d just have to fight you
Cause you truly are the hero and the villain
The world stood froze, hearing a truth so chilling
Reporters start filming, somebody shouted, “Kill him!”
He looked back in disgust and flew up to the ceiling
Busted through the roof and kicked over the building
Before it hit the ground, a younger hero flew around
And put it on his shoulders, said you’re naive now
But believe, you’ll believe me when you’re older
Every asteroid you stop and bomb you fly up into space
You ain’t saving them from danger, you’re keeping danger safe

[Hook]

LUPE FIASCO – All Black Everything

[Hook]
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything

[Verse 1]
Uh, and we ain’t get exploited
White man ain’t feared so he did not destroy it
We ain’t work for free, see they had to employ it
Built it up together so we equally appointed
First 400 years, see we actually enjoyed it
Constitution written by the W.E.B. Du Bois
Were no reconstructions, Civil War got avoided
Little black Sambo grows up to be a lawyer
Extra extra on the news stands
Black woman voted head of Ku Klux Klan
Malcolm Little dies as a old man
Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him
Followed by Bill O’Reilly who read from the Quran
President Bush sends condolences from Iran
Where FOX News reports live
That Ahmadinejad wins Mandela peace prize

[Hook]
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything

[Verse 2]
Uh, and it ain’t no projects
Keepin it real is not an understood concept
Yea, complexion’s not a contest
Cause racism has no context
Hip hop ain’t got a section called conscious
Everybody rappin’ like crack never happened
Crips never occurred no Bloods to attack them
Matter of fact no hood to attack in
Somalia is a great place to relax in
Fred Astaire was the first to do a backspin
The Rat Pack was cool group of black men
That inspired five white guys called The Jacksons
Eminem fitted in but then again he inspired a black rapper tryin to mimic him
And that’s what really rose up out of Michigan, the sign of white rapper by the name of 50 Cent, ha!

[Hook]
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything

[Verse 3]
Uh, and I know it’s just a fantasy
I cordially invite you to ask why can’t it be?
Now we can do nothing bout the past
But we can do something about the future that we have
We can make fast or we can make it last
Every woman Queenin’ and every man a Kingin’
When those color lines come we can’t see between
We just close our eyes ’til it’s all black every-THING!

[Hook]
You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything