Outside the Lines With Rap Genius - OTL 41: R.A. the Rugged Man Excerpt #1 - "Uncommon Valor" lyrics

SameOldShawn: You mentioned your father in that last answer. I know that one of your most famous songs, best-loved songs, "Uncommon Valor," was written from his point of view R.A. the Rugged Man: Yeah, yeah SOS: When you were writing that, did you ever have any second thoughts about being that open or writing his story out or anything? RA: Nah, man. All my lyrics is open. If somebody dies in my life, if somebody is f**ed up, or this happens, or I'm f**ed up...That's what I do. I write, man. Like, I got nothing to ever, ever, ever hide. That's why, if we do an interview, ask me whatever the f** you want. I'm not hiding nothing I feel the same way about my music. It's like, I'm put on a pedestal to some people. They look up to me. So here, I'm gonna give back to you people. I'm not a superstar celebrity, but I got some real hardcore, dedicated people who come to me for some of that openness and that truth, so I try to give them it SOS: Did he ever get to hear that song? RA: Of course, yeah. And he thought it was...he loved it, you know? I couldn't have wrote it without him! I called him up, I like interviewed him when I was writing the rhyme. I said, okay, what was the helicopter called? What was this? What region were you in here? Then I called my stepmother. I said, what were the exact diseases that the children had? One was microcephalic, the other one was cerebral palsy. And she said Max had cortical blindness. Okay, cool So it was almost like I was doing reporting. I called my stepmother and my father, and after I got off the phone with them, I wrote the rhyme