A Kid Called Roots - Country Cousins lyrics

[Intro: Raheem DeVaughn] Down cousins.. across the border I got cousins.. country cousins I got cousins.. country cousins WHOO! [Talib Kweli over Intro] Yo son, what the deal son? What's really hood son? (what's really hood?) Word is born, sh** is real, sh** is real Yo son, this block is def n***a need to go over here and pop off real quick I gotta get that gwop by all means, you know what I'm sayin son [Verse 1: Talib Kweli] Growing up in Brooklyn, sh** I thought that everybody talked this way Raised on Rakim and Run-D.M.C., so I thought that everybody walked this way "We fresh, we chill, we def, we ill," it's just some things that was taught to say And every Saturday morning, I watched cartoons with a bowl of Frosted Flakes Then.. the puberty came, started hitting them cuties with game and the truancy came (uh!) Started cutting in not just cla**, I was comin all fast, I was new to the game (uh!) Used to playin on T.V., courtesy of video music box Plus! Knew a lot of hustlas, goin O.T., comin back with the new hip-hop Like! E-40 holding down the yay (that yay), N.W.A. in L.A OutKast from the A-Town, way down in Houston they play the UGK I walk and talk kinda fast and thought of as a New York kinda rhymer (word is born) But must New Yorkers got family in South and North Carolina (come on!) L.A. is little Alabama, they walk and they talk with a country grammar New York think everybody else sound country, so they get started, started callin 'em 'Bamas Down south where we buy them hammers, down south where we sell them d** Down south where life is cheap, where they quick to fill you with them slugs [Hook: Talib] It's nothin, I'm from New York but I got country cousins It's nothin, we stay connected by the slang we bustin Want it simply put? You can't pin me when I spit gotta set everyone free I'mma underground king, n***a Pimp C free Word up to my man Bun B what? It's nothin, I'm from New York but I got country cousins It's nothin, we stay connected by the slang we bustin The thing we bustin, the game we hustlin, the things we cuttin The flame we cuppin, the lames we snuffin, your name is nothin! [Verse 2: Bun B] Growing up in P.A., I knew nobody out there talked like us Nothin but that county slang, "What up dog? What up cuzz?" Late night you see us guzzling 40's, menthols, wine, and weed Sitting on the back porch, getting zooted, feeling fine indeed Listening to Eric B. and Rakim or EPMD Cool C and Steady B, plus that Public Enemy Not to mention N.W.A., DJ Quik, and MC Eiht Down south we listen to it all, we didn't discriminate Then along came Geto Boys, Raheem, and the Royal Flush Rap-A-Lot Records based out in Houston, represents for us O.G. Style, The Convicts, Def IV and Too Much Trouble Odd Squad and Ganksta NIP put it down for H-Town on the double So I said, "It's time to hustle," got down with my brother C Put together UGK and sh** the rest is history We make hits by the dozen, put it down when they said we wasn't Trust me it's nothin, just another day in the life of your country cousins [Hook: Talib] [Verse 3: Pimp C] In Brooklyn, New York I'm down with Lord Jamar Back in P.A.T., man we be sippin the barre I'm down with J. from Houston and I think it should be But when I'm out in L.A. I f** with Ice-T Short Dog is my O.G., we been down forever Taught me the game, lane to lane, and keep my pimpin' together n***as don't understand by far back in the day It was Mase and then my brother put me up on Black Star Starving blacks often lose our way Cause we isolate ourselves and give our ghetto pa** away My n***as pa** away in an unreal way They mommas depleted, I'm just tryna make sure that their kids straight I'm on the chitlin' tour with my mic in my hand sh**tin' on these jealous n***as in the new world clan I wouldn't trade it for nothin, only a crazy man would I represent for the whole South, but mainly just for my hood The pimpin's good... [Raheem DeVaughn] I got cousins (I got cousins), country cousins (country cousins) Like blood that's thicker than water (it's nothin), down dirty 'cross the border I got cousins (I got cousins), country cousins (country cousins) Like blood that's thicker than water (it's nothin), down dirty 'cross the border They're my country cousins!