Talib Kweli - What If? lyrics

[L-Fudge] The likes of me, F-U-D-G-E brains compete Wit CP0-3's intelligence Accompanied by Mike Z-double-O-T Shabaam Sahdeeq, Skam, Kweli, and Spinna permanently Deadin the neglegence [Mike Zoot] I buy trees all the time, twenties and dimes You see it in my rhymes frequently, when every other line There's the reference, the understood preference is that I'm biased To black shh, black shh to keep me more hype Seasoned trees get minus disposed right there Mixed it the ten piece, divide my share Amongst n***as to overrun it, it's a long climb to the summit On the lazy afternoon, on the boom oh how I love it So I does it but imagine if I wasn't, fascinated Wit the sense of heat that stressin me, fled to frustrated Ticked off, pissed off, tried to get my dick off I'm savin a little money, twenty dollars ain't sh** I'm still hungry, and thirsty You haven't seen the worst of me yet Since we met it's back to back cigarettes All my breath hurt, my chest nervous wreckin the session Imagine Mike Zoot, my brain off d**, any questions? (yes, yes) "What" (25x) [Talib Kweli] We bring it back to science, wit the finest of Medina Imagine all the people livin in, maybe I'm just a dreamer Non-believers microscopic like ameobas Runnin out of phony acts, be at the underground spots when you need us Defeat the purpose of the circus, guess who the animals (guess who) They over-work us and jerk us till we ain't thinkin clearly (come one) Cuz the history we stay weary of various theories Question evolution and use to pa** this lesson through revolution Ask what not to do (yes), without firepower how is you militant? (yes) That type sh** we don't forget like elephants (never forget) We stompin black holes in space If you tore this wicked system down, what would you build in its place? You gotta plan then we rollin (come on), don't waste my time (please) There is land that is stolen which is rightfully mine What if slavery never happened and we was never colonized? What if governments never lied and white folks apologized? Or if the environment didn't create the context for the art When n***as celebrate the d**h and breakin black mommas hearts What part, would a MC like me play wit my positive talents play If there was no negativity to keep the balance? [Shabaam Sahdeeq] What if '87 never happened? No innovative hip-hop, no crack kingpin, no park hand-clappin Damn, one to his chest, the tool jam He tried to flash a black casket, his son's a ba*tard What if the guns was gone soon as your sons was born? Back to the fisticuffs, only the snakes get bust ]From greed to lust, I seen em all fall face first Rapidly tappin the frequency and get dissed by chemist I be exposin the scandalous Sahdeeq, maniscription is the beef sh** What if the sky fell into the sea?, apocalypse now Crushin the globe on a quest for your long lost souls What if I catch the red-eye flight to J-A And build wit the knotty's on the hill all day? What if I smacked the grin off your chin When you say, that the cats on this track don't have nuttin to spray? "What" (17x) [L-Fudge] What if all world sort of didn't straight up exist? You wouldn't witness the diabolicness that'll twist Your head off, and s** the juice out your neck like a sports bottle Rip a rhyme full throttle, and put the sun in a clutch If you confused you can use your bad luck for a crutch So what you if tried to spit my brain's a pit, throw em in Shake a watchness up and stitch his lips to the opening I'm hoping above average becomes the new average Some mediocre rappers are flipped to sub-standard Demanded, the day da county dazzlely degenerate Three-oh-five representative the slang that scam Deep thought wit Shadow Man in Miami we do things Like sellin rap n***a's hoes to y'all for weddin rings Wit more mysteries than conspiracies wit change links We're strangely spittin thoughts by my lonely After all this close contact you still don't know me [Skam] What if? to me is the same question I've asked myself Exactly twenty years I just blew the penitentiary Imagine if disease, prejudice didn't exist Materialistic dreams of purchasing that Lexus would be deaded What if we remained primative depended on natural resources? To live and didn't have technology to abort our kids How about if there was no rated-R flicks to corrupt our minds? Or if world wars ain't take place and didn't interrupt our times? What if this free world sh** didn't have us hypnotized? Or cannibalism was a permanent state of mind? The d**h rate, grows faster than we can produce yellow tape The main suspect is society for committing this mistake Categorizing everything, I sit back and dig up some more "what if's" Hand em the drama that any bring Black and blues ain't results to some of em being mad at you Egos are devils sittin on shoulders, trickin em to blast at you word "What" (to end)