Verse 1:
They say O, yo what's up with the album?
It's been years and you ain't put out none
Like I been sittin' in the house just loungin'
You know I got kids and they all need outfits
But you don't care about that, you just doubtin'
You see me on tv, one you should be proud then
Instead you lookin' at what I ain't do
Instead of what I came through, it's painful
That's why my own family don't know me
I won't let them tear me down, they won't hold me
I'm too intelligent
Plus I learned there's a difference
Between your family and your relatives
Just because we got the same bloodline
That don't mean we got the same love line
And that ain't to say I don't love y'all
I love y'all, I just rise above y'all
Hook:
I, I rise above, above all your hate and your lack of love
I rise above (and y'all can't stop me)
I rise above (so go ahead watch me)
Baby I rise, I rise above, above what you say that I can't become
Yes I rise above (and keep on climbing)
I rise above (I keep on rising)
Verse 2 (Neo P):
You could say that I'm floatin'
Been a long time since my mind started openin'
Hoping things would change, the game's broken
So I gotta fix some things, this is a token
Of my appreciation, initiation
Of the new me switchin' faces
The old me is one of the homies
Forty of OE, puffin' on green, uh
Nowadays that stuff I don't need
Those type highs have nothing on me
I get high off life and such
Thus I spit fly on mics I clutch
When the lights is up and the cameras are flashin'
Just know I'm from where the hammers are blastin'
While they asking, “how did he get there?”
I just look ‘em in the eye, isn't it clear?
Hook:
I, I rise above, above all your hate and your lack of love
I rise above (and y'all can't stop me)
I rise above (so go ahead watch me)
Baby I rise, I rise above, above what you say that I can't become
Yes I rise above (and keep on climbing)
I rise above (I keep on rising)
Verse 3:
I'm from a people that rose above
To hell with Jim Crow, this is Rosa's bus
We mess around start ownin' stuff
On some Cathy Hughes and some Oprah stuff
Be up in operas folding bucks
In Girbauds and Chucks, I never owned a tux
Little man that's some older stuff
If you ain't smile on that you ain't old enough
But you from the ‘80s you know what's up
That's the era of terror that showed us d**
Cops rollin' up, shots flowin', blood
On the ground, they rounds make ghosts of us
Somehow I took that, composed and loved
Stood tall in the booth, some chose a crutch
And I don't hold a grudge
It's called growing up, that's how I rose above, see
Hook:
I, I rise above, above all your hate and your lack of love
I rise above (and y'all can't stop me)
I rise above (so go ahead watch me)
Baby I rise, I rise above, above what you say that I can't become
Yes I rise above (and keep on climbing)
I rise above (I keep on rising)
(*O'hene's final comments*)