If a nuclear bomb dropped on my front lawn At dawn and tomorrow was gone And my…words traveled on the wings of song To spread wings for freedom’s spawn, then I’d be fine, cause I’d live in the headphones Kids waging candlelight riots alone To show they aint, cause no distance too great For intertwined faith and compassion to escape You wanna know why I write? Well all right There’s too much wrong so I work to make it all right And fight like my only choice Til I’m three inches deeper than Royce five nine The light lime don’t shine through the soil Darker than a barrel right before the recoil No matter what we make from our toil Life is gonna cut us down to size like a Mohle True - we all just pass through And real superheroes never wear a mask, dude Make summer cause there’s too much winter When miss fortune treats you badly, forgive her She’s just lookin for the company of misery So sometime you’re kickin it with mystery As long as you aint dead like chivalry Give your lonely island man the boot like Italy And I feel like life speed at light speed Someday I’ll say it speed without the middle e So I’m livin like the present tense a gift to me To see my history without a view of sympathy And life we choose turns the life we chose Until the day shows when the window to our souls Close forever. And ties are severed And never turns now and then we’re remembered, but… We just gotta cherish what we have There’s always some good inside of the bad… I said we gotta cherish what we have There’s always some good inside of the bad…

The sunshine just woke me up And my lady’s walkin with a new pair of dunks on And that’s it, so you gotta understand That’ll get the sheets off without using hands Wearing nothing but an ear-to-ear smirk So she picks up the phone and calls in to work We can get it on, and get each other off One, two, three times, then I got soft Hot shower, none of it cold Hop out into warm freshly dried clothes Stroll to the living room, morning cartoons She’s got the cereal and my favorite spoon No genocide buried in the news Sailing all smooth like a Caribbean cruise The weather says eighty, all blue So it’s all gravy, life, thank you Good day, today It’s a good day today Don’t go away Please don’t go away Good day, today It’s a good day today Don’t go away Please don’t go away No red lights, all of em green Windows down just to hear the birds sing Cruising down main, to my side is a hooptie And the ride bumps American Beauty, now Deep breathing, no smog in the air The pound calls says they’ve got a bulldog there They’re gonna put down, so I go and pick her up And we strut downtown, seeing love and nothing but Food bank full so the homeless all fed Not one kid on the corner with the meth pushers Get a text I inspect like a gumshoe “So you know you’re my man and I love you” Now it’s two, rendezvous at a barbeque Me and fifty close friends all scarf food M’s vs. Yanks, watch the Yanks lose If life is but a dream then I’m gonna hit the snooze Chorus It’s a good life, it only took like 25 years til the beauty in the night Time stops. I’m not lost in my thoughts Which means I’ve found now which means I’ve found god And I got me a goddess in the castle Ready to suit up any day to do battle I’d roam a thousand barefoot miles If it meant one second more seein her smile Today I don’t got to, tank on F Car makes it home, so easy I rest But wheezy on breath cause it’s time for round four Bed to the shower to the couch to the floor Fall asleep to a light summer breeze Wind makes chimes out the leaves of the trees What else can I say? Life’s a beautiful movie Today was a good day, Ice Cube can sue me Chorus

I've been writing since I was in Oshkosh LA gears on the day Kris Kross was New maybe yesterday to you But didn't learn til 92 how to tie my shoes And I was like six then, a late bloomer. No sooner did I trust than my parents split up And this happens to half of us But love seemed fickle so I went after lust Hanging on the jungle gym, try to look cool Four Square, won't lie, I kind of did rule All for the ladies, I was a fool Cause they were twice my size in elementary school To distract from my fragile features I would have the maxed out trapper keepers Ed Vedder and Pac were my teachers Writing while watching kickball from the bleachers Back in junior high I was more prolific In my writing than a Shakespeare, to get more specific. I replaced the lyrics with the love letters scripted Undelivered, just a product of the past hieroglyphics Too timid under five foot only and Didn't care enough to have a complex Napoleon I scored just as much as a goalie and Rediscovered basslines to keep me from lonely, and Puff was saying nobody could hold me While I was growing slowly other kids were puffin stogies A bad boy I wasn't, little old me Eyes in a state of misery, show me I can be something if I put my mind to it Put down the books and turned up the music And the truest form of self I managed Was written down when the words hit the canvas You know the dude in high school with the letterman’s And a bastion of girls that’d neverend? That wasn't me, its never been That’s probably why I had the chance to pick this pen Up and put down thoughts for rememberin Rocked EL-Ps by Aesop and Weathermen Didn’t know better than to try my hand at it Dive face first and see where I landed No studio, no microphone But had to take a chance or I’d die at home 33 – broke, bald, crazy Lampin at high school parties (“sup ladies?”) Slim chance though fame maybe Shady I’ve got enough faith to see where this takes me So I guess you could say this art saved me You do the same every time that you play me

Slug already covered all I’d ever write on women And Sage flipped a middle finger to the system Zion I’s vision was a world True and Livin Pac made a mission of changing our condition Def Jux and Anticon mastered the abstract Aesop metaphored poetic labeled backpack Black Thought took it back to its Roots, and Ali brought the Undisputed Truth OneBeLo’s got the smoothest flow And every word Treach ever spit I grew to know Beneath the surface, GZA was a genius The other eight let us all know what cream is Queen Latifah picked the name beautiful Genelec and Memphis Reigns crafted the unusual Congress called lyrics the cause of bad, it wasn’t And Chuck D made that enemy public… Chorus One for the mic, two for the graff Three for the DJ’s throwin down the scratch and Four for the b-boys and girls on the floor And five to you for keeping hip hop alive (2x) From beginning to the end Murs will always be a legend Em never changed a line to make it copasetic Ra never said a word unless he really meant it Big never touched a mic that he didn’t bless it’s Distribution lack left the Prophets Unknown Cleveland made it big through the Thuggish Ruggish Bone Benefit proved havin studios is secondary KRS changed the game By any means necessary Eyedea served kids cause of his Abilities L saw the big picture, so he had enemies Sweatshop crossed over the border Before the exit, K-Os returned rap to order In hip hop 101, these are the teachers For the student in the back lookin at an angel’s features Respect for every one of them, it’s humblin To study them and do my best from Run until I’m done and then it’s… Chorus I used to love her, that’s Common Sense Before it decided to go and Harvey Dent Downfall’s televised, revolution went When Dilla and Jam Jay far too early left So what’s left is a scene of the mainstream Underground slowly turning to the same thing Money rules everything, and to keep it brief It’s hard to make music if you can’t afford to eat That being said, this kid’s final test Is to write what I do until the day of my death Stay true to words that drip from my chest Thank you for saving me by letting this connect To your head, through your ears, in your brain, to your heart So a spark lights the dark from the start we depart And prove Nas wrong, for as long as we’re breathin It’s up to us if hip hop’s stayin or leavin

Any man that lays a hand on a woman aint a man And they don't got a spine to stand, understand? If one more attempt at justification For that bullshit’s given, I'll adjust my vocation To traveling the nation and taking on guys Who idolize cutting em down before they fly, cause There's no excuses for any abuse and Truth is if you weren't clueless you would've already knew this So let it be known that my rule of thumb Is a man who beats his wife get 25 to life Til he's done - I don't want my generation of sons To be told that it's cool or ok to hit girls You aint a man just because you got a penis It takes real virtue, homie, believe this If you can't see this or disagree with what I say The dick measuring contest is that way Dear woman - the world is yours Even if ther’s needledicks that may call you whores Those pricks are a dozen a dime So when they come around to knock you down, pay them no mind They just hate themselves and disrespect you No matter what, none of that reflects you That’s unless you continue the trend Of keeping bastards as lovers and nice guys as friends Spend your whole life trying to change Coal to a diamond, let me explain He’ll remain the same shit stain Pimp cane wishin, insane vision Of himself as a player in a major league Make believe king with a heart on his sleeve So please don’t leave those poor excuses For dudes with you, or you’re equally clueless A gentleman, that's what you are when you're raised, By a single mom and saw her get played By schmuck after chump that looked to her as a way To place the blame - I aint gonna turn out that way I'm the most awkward guy that you’ll meet So if-we-meet-I-promise-I-ain’t-gonna sweep your feet And discrete aint the word I would choose to describe All the actions that I take to find my future wife And rappers always write about how they use women As a way to cover up their insecure livin Make songs of how big their dick is And haven’t got a clue where the clit is Slow the roll of quarters, no one cares About the pillow talk or venereal affairs The woman you are with is a goddess, not a bitch Look in the mirror to see which is which, you prick

Dear woman that I met for five minutes at Starbucks And gave me 45 minutes of lust Teeth white as snow and the words seemed to flow Out your heaven made lip gloss, you even know How beautiful you are? I bet you do Dudes try to talk but they aint got a clue What to do in the presence of an angel like you You’re the reason god painted skies of blue And I hate coffeshops, I came for the bathroom Then I saw your hair soaked Vidal Sassoon Bubblegum tongue, tats on your shoulder They made you cover while taking yuppies orders Mocha brown eyes, macchiato complexion I’m not religious, but you make my confession You make Cleopatra look like chump change You’ll be the cause of my nocturnal cum-stains I’m just being honest Lovely goddess when I see you that it’s hard to change the topic But I promise that I will not ever treat you like an object Cause that nonsense don’t bring progress to the conscience if we’ve lost it All down, anyway, back to this day Try to get the courage for a few words to say What I think, I blink, heart skips a beat on action You get this letter on the bottom of a napkin

Do you have any castles that you want to have filled? You got any dragons that you want to have killed? Cause I’d do it without any armor No second thought of dying as a martyr I’m saying, if Rapunzel got a barber The climb would be harder but I’d still make it up And I don’t harbor any feelings of lust This is just doing what I feel that I must (and nothing more) Plus I’d rather burn out than rust A mayfly dying just to feel your touch And brush greatness, and I’m fine on a waitlist Longer than a doctor 90210 facelift Dream awake with grace that fate stitch - Getting by with a tapestry makeshift Break it down like the walls we all hide behind Some I’ll build, some are worthy of the climb So if men are from Mars, women are from Venus And my Earth mission’s have you screamin Lord Jesus In the sheets is where I’ll preach this sermon of completeness Deep into the outer spaces of your inner reaches This aint a race darlin, no Preakness We can slow it down for the love thing sweetest We can wait on what furthers our species And often time makes the chain love letter weakest No elitist no perfection pleaded All that’s needed is trust and a friendship Understanding and a little bit of patience And support on this journey almost famous Pursuin individual endeavors I don’t wanna feel like I’m tied down to tethers In this together, but we leave it alone In the meantime, in your eyes I see home Miss Rapunzel, let down your hair So I may climb that long golden stair Way to heaven maybe not, but the air up here’s Thin enough to make me feel I’ve burned through the stratosphere On the world, stars as my peers Face reflectin sunlight, ocean my mirror They say you got to recognize your fears And after meeting you it’s pretty clear I don’t got one Left – cause usually I fear what’s Next – so I don’t get a moments Rest – til I sleep with the barracuda Shark infested waters that I’ve learned to maneuver And, you don’t look the type to cock back a luger And I aint one to worry bout trackin down the shooter There’s a kingdom to build, so let’s make it World in our hands, so lady lets shape it

All he wanted was a little bit of happiness He thought it came from the game played on mattresses The fame gained from the record alchemists The life lessons earned to learn what true magic is Still about a mil from framed records So that’s enough for him to go and reframe perspectives On what the true definition for success is Looks to the rest like this is how the best live So the stress getting heavy Eye on the storm in the fifth ward’s levy Children in Uganda in wars turn deadly He feels guilty for every single ending That aint fairy tale, which is almost every spawn That’s in this world, including those gone Does what he can, not enough to write wrongs So he sits down and writes these songs (come on) Back to the lab again, back to the pad and pen Do the math and subtract off the has from been Cause he’s yet to be, so aint past tense Glad since last breath means the dreams cast went Back out the grasp of the ambitious starfighter Reaching through the fire while he’s preaching to the choir On a quest to fight desire place the next behind, see The path draw backward til the shadows blinding Cause he just wanna flow like him Rock a show packed to the door like them Wonder why he wasn’t even though he spend Half his life sitting in the waiting room, then It’s time to wake up, but hard when envy Keep him in it’s vice grip, trying for the ending Worried that he might slip down every rung Of the ladder that we climb before the journey runs done Breath, step, right, left Nose to the grind and shoulder to the wheel Digging in the heels on the slippery slope acrobat Avoid tying noose from the tight rope Eyes on the prize to find blue skies And scribe sunshine to burn what he despise Eyes on the prize to find the blue skies And scribe sunshine…scribe sunshine… He’s only livin cause he wants to make it better And the mission he envisions could make him live forever It’s now or never whether he wants to believe it He’s succeeded if the world’s a little better when he leaves it Twenty-four years from the fetus to the present He aint ever spoke a word unless he really meant it Never had a fear of being copacetic Life on the fly, with no time for an edit Never let it take away his 20/10 vision Livin with a plan no blind ambition Decisions made riskin his ability for wishin If he never catch a break then he’ll still go fishin Opportunity’s no door-to-door salesman If it never knocks he won’t let that fail him Sailin on the winds of change his only constant That remains, he aint pick his only option Eyes on the prize to find blue skies And scribe sunshine to burn what he despise Eyes on the prize to find the blue skies And scribe sunshine…scribe sunshine… All he ever wanted was a princess to live with He looked for it in the eyes of a mistress Love to lust in the quest for a quick fix Walk around town like he thinks he’s mister big shit He aint got enough left to give this Revolution power so he hold up a split fist One supports and one’s on the wish list He hopes turn reality before his feet stick Through the earthworms and the rose blooms He aint found how the butterfly cocoons When everything’s got a spot in the waiting room Consumed by his shadow in the light of the moon He tries to leave it all when it’s high noon And free from the bandits on horizons that loom, cause Before he knows it he’ll be in his tomb Riding out of Dodge cause there aint enough room

Froze. What do you say? When you're told you've only got a couple months Til today fades away, and tomorrow won't wait The fate we all face leaves no way to escape Faith tested. But grace is what's left with one another The best gift to be blessed with The end is taken care of, you can focus on the present Live a life called to action Manifest love as we all go passin I went in for a physical And didn't think too much of the ritual And spring was taking over for winter That's when I got the news about that tumor in my liver, now Some things happen, no reason And none of us know when we're leavin But I believe in this fragile vulnterability's Responsible for giving us the beauty of freedom, now I don't know the meaning of this journey But I feel that the joy is in the learning And asking the questions and taking the steps To work before rest Peace and love and respect in breaths Life left, but it's time to move on I've truly been blessed by every new dawn The best testament to those who've gone Take their best message and add it to a new song Chorus Lift your voice to the rafters Make magic from the moment we capture Leave beauty in the sweet hereafter It goes and it goes and it goes and it goes on… (2x) Smile. What can you do? But give thanks and praise divine time that is Given to you and make the most as it flies And we learn how to live when we learn how to die In a world imperfect, but that's not the final verdict We can plant a seed and see it bloom if we work it And even though we can't fix it all We can move to improve, and change no matter how small Is still change. It's still progress. And sometimes it'll feel like nonsense But keep your chin up regardless, you're making a difference And life is your witness. I'm so humbled to be given The chance to go in peace serving everyone livin Grateful for this life since beginnin Even though it didn't go exactly as envisioned The trial's all part of the magic Can never be perfect, for we don't get practice But we're all sewn together in this fabric Cut from the same cloth, infinity spanned it And my life was a stitch on the whole And here we go to my time to let go It's about us, not me Your love set this song...free... Chrous

Just be a good person, that’s my request Til the day you’re buried in your Sunday best Cause one day the next day will someday rest Some say that one way we’re some way blessed But don’t see it or believe it if we don’t get what we dream And it’s convenient it’s harder just to hold it than concede it In between this death and fetus we’re succeeded or defeated Cause we’re leavin it all behind – but only needed To find that through time in the grand design Doesn’t define the heights we can climb Fate isn’t left up for others to decide It’s by setting sight high that we won’t be denied Cause try though you may sometimes you’re bound to fall I’ll be damned if you’re done given it your all Cause there aint a thing wrong with some cuts and scars Yesterday’s gone, today you’re gonna be large Chorus Hold on, this aint the end Fight on til the day that you’re dead There’s light if you open your eyes So smile homie, everything will be all right This aint the end Fight on til the day that you’re dead There’s light if you open your eyes So smile homie, everything will be all right So they say sticks and stones are only thrown at those Who’ve got strength to survive the blows And I don’t know if that’s true, but if you keep movin You’re provin that you’re doin what you can to skip losin If life is an angry woman, loving her is fully worth it So it goes it’s far from perfect but it’s closer if you work it If you don’t you don’t deserve it Make the most and find your purpose Playing ghost will make it worthless Go for broke though you’ll get hurt it’s All that you can do, but I won’t promise you It’ll turn out even if you follow through So do what you do and let others do the same It’s hard enough as it is just to maintain In a world where the odds are against you from the start Everybody’s trying hard just to make their mark So they make their mark someone who’s got it in em To succeed no matter and take you along with em -Within a system that’s built to take us all down Even if we’re wishing to be tall now Taught division’s what gets us off the ground But buying in the ethics of the lifeboat we all drown What I’ve found, wrong I may be Is the light shines brighter when I find it in me When I get there I’ll bring you along In the meantime sing this song, it goes… Chorus