Black Thought - Harvard's Innovation Lab Speaker lyrics

We're living in some times that's the craziest They say these legislators are the laziest Dedicated religious figures have gone atheist Each and every thing must change, there's no escaping this I'm on the block, post-apocalyptic smoke covers Coincidentally presented by the Koch Brothers The magnitude of this is bigger than the both of us The attitude is trying to manage not to choke from it Go and get the bolt cutters Open the floodgate Any relationship I've ever been in was love-hate The city I was living in really never was safe For some, a temporary resolution was duct tape Now I'mma probably be on the black list But I don't give a f**, so I'm gonna shrug like Atlas And if my skepticism was a brand new practice Would y'all be disappointed like y'all just got catfished? It's cold blooded I'm wholeheartedly cold-hearted and swole from it The same unseen hand is still in control of it I should be mining my own, like it's a gold nugget But I'm on that same bullsh**, just on a lower budget Waiting on change that been low ‘Til the day after tomorrow I sit by the window In a police state, like your man Michael Winslow My kinfolk told me there's a brand new Jim Crow I been going to bed at 10, up at 5 Hustling to the bus and ride to the job It's feeling hot as the Fourth of July My lady just getting home, we leading separate lives She couldn't be one of those Stepford Wives if she tried They shot my cousin, he died It wasn't justified I guess I'll see him if I make it to the other side The corner deli owner tell me ‘hurry up and buy' Everybody is somebody, tell me — who am I? The same figure who came from Anguilla Ain't nothing different, I think I'm addicted to pain-k**er I'm un-permitted to enter the village of Shangri-La I'm depicted as bein' a k**er that's dangerous, huh? Half dozen in one hand, six in the other Yo, this is more than a sun tan, it's living color Black as oblivion, black as obsidian Black as the sky at midnight ante meridian I am black as a portrait with Diddy, 2Pac, and Biggie in Black as the influence on the culture we living in I survived the chitterling circuit, vaudeville and then Managed to inspire The Beatles, and Bob Dyl' and them But did I miss the mark cause I'm just as dark As John Henrik Clarke's inner thoughts At the time of the Harlem Renaissance? After which, rights activists deviated the flight path To Black ratchetness, putting us back, smack dab When night catches us We just go along for the ride: pa**engers Gluttons for punishment: masochists Still doing whatever master asks of us Will this generation go down as the last of us? Where being young men-while-black was hazardous? Enter the proverbial masked avenger All these pretenders suffer from symptoms of Affluenza I'm just thinking aloud about extinction agendas and plans My grandmother definitely remembers Listen, her suits were tailor-made Sundays, Mahalia played Simple familiar ways Like the way she knelt and prayed, wailing "Lord master, forgive us our trespa**es," had us real afraid I never listened, but I still obeyed I got to see how gangstas played at such an early age What my father was into sent him to his early grave Then mom started chasing that base like Willie Mays My childhood was all of 40 nights and 40 days Trouble was my ball and chain Shorties would call me names Humble beginnings, Black Thought is what that all became My journey from a dirty hallway to the hall of fame Music, my therapeutic way to deal with all this pain I was headed for the drain Soaking, before the rainwater came And chaos, that's when the order came I started doing what I'm supposed to do in life Trying to move out of the dark, and closer to the light They say when you get a chance to do it over, do it right Tomorrow isn't promised every time we say ‘goodnight' Listen … hold up Dope shot, mug shot, gun shot, jump shot Take your pick, but you only got one shot Advice, from a schoolteacher to a young tot Applying a sticker to a Spiderman lunchbox When even role-models tell us we're born to be felons And we ain't getting into Harvard or Carnegie Mellon And of these other peoples' blessings, we're gonna be jealous It's not fair that that's all they can tell us That's why I hustle hella hard, I don't celebrate a holiday That could be the day a brother could've struck the lotter-ay I refuse to ever lose or throw my shot away Or chalk it up as just another one that got away So, I'm unapologetic I'm on my calisthenics If I have given it all I've got, I cannot regret it My final destination's different from where I was headed Cause I'mma shoot for the stars to get it One shot