Swampland

Here to air the narrative out

And I swear that

You're scared of this arrogance now

It's apparent

But fear is a terrorist now

And I wear it

As clearly as therapist's couch

A whole spirit

On clearance

They sell it for clout

When in doubt

Just drown it out with shouts and pouts

How do you doubt the doubts that plague the pious?

Life is a good diet but taste requires an acquired palate

Spit game like I'm past salivating

Sick brain

Call the next patient

Malpracticing

Trying to practice it but I'm procrastinating

Get it cracking like the cast when the cast is breaking

I'm past the break-in

In the window

They look past the greatness

Guess they're looking for more cash and safes in

Tough pill to swallow when you gas and chasing

Now it's gas that's laced in

Now they act complacent

It's crazy how they act adjacent

The past amazes

Trying to change their habits when the habitat's a basement

Alligators on the ground

Swampland

So when we stand

Our stance is always to stand in

They planned it

Never planted the seed

Can't plant seeds if you plan to leave

Understand me?

Need to plant roots so the fruit is everlasting

The garden is the Earth

Is the dirt

Is the mattress

Trying to rise above it

They say it's all for nothing

But I'm up here with my brothers

So the sum of it is something

Tired of this dumping ground for black and brown bodies

My ideas flow through rivers and sound bodies

They're sounding so polished and well-spoken

So how could you kill hope when it hasn't yet awoken?

Tell me how the hell am I supposed to cope

With the loss of my peoples when it's not just a stroke of luck

When it's not just a hoax

It's not just a joke

They get tired of the rope so they open the dope

They go up in smoke

Not from tree

But from gunfire

They hang themselves with their own line

But I come tighter

They paint the world with the same brush

But I'm a rough writer

smokes everywhere

Rastas says "The world is a blunt"

My rhymes is much higher

Sometimes you need to fly low

Just to get a glimpse of the bottom

And when you're down there

You'll see

What it means to fly high

 

One small step for mankind, put my foot in the game

I call it jet lag, they say, "I'm shook, how you claim?"

All the foot soldiers took a good look at my name

But they the ones that wrote the book on how to put it to flames

And all I do is try to study how to stop droppin' rollin'

I ain't no player, I just try to stop the games

I'm that hurricane, try to keep the rocks from the rain

But sometimes you gotta watch where you aim

Sometimes you gotta watch where you ain't

Sometimes you gotta not, sometimes you gotta watch what you paint

And that's a frame that I can't explain

And this right here's for my future's posterity

A message for my brothers and sisters that might carry me

The lyrical composition, a story of my life

In all of my wrongs and my rights, the rights to my songs and my life

And this is my last will and testament

The last time you gon' hear me mention my profession in

I only write 'cause the lies are so prevalent

They say, "Don't say the word," 'cause it's negative

I'm like, "What?"

If I stopped saying it, what's next?

They'll try to stop my wrist and then they'll come for my neck

So they could break it, then they'll take it and replace it with checks

But what the heck is your paper worth if you don't own your respect?

And I was raised by my mother

It wasn't 'til I found myself that I became a man

And I was taught by my father

How to work and how to walk with a humble stance

And to the mothers, you can do it alone, but if you got a man

Then hold him accountable and raise him to be a dad

'Cause it's a whole lot of brothers in jail that's never coming back

A whole lot of brothers that's dead because they ain't have a dad

I feel like I'm making bread crumbs out of the whole loaf

'Cause I'm trying to make it happen with no starting five

Playing with no safety net, it's like a skydive

From where they barely making it out

It's so easy to die, a thin line

Between my brothers and my opps

'Cause it's brothers that wanna kill me and it's brothers that's in my blood

And it's brothers that's for my city and it's brothers that show me love

And it's brothers that's trying to diss me 'cause they wanna get a buzz

It's hard to tell who is who, so I treat 'em all the same

It's some brothers I look up to, it's some brothers that are lame

But I don't take it personal, I'm in a different lane

And I never met a critic who was better than me

So forget what you saying, you can keep your two cents

'Cause it's really hard to tell who really want me to win

When they take my secrets and they try to use 'em as they sins

So the best advice I could give is get the bread and stay fed

And stay away from brothers who ain't getting ahead

'Cause the quickest way to lose is listening to fools

And the quickest way to fail is trying to follow in there shoes

And I'm back in my bed, I was fighting the snooze

'Cause I'm out here saving lives, I ain't trying to hit the news

I'm just trying to save my soul and give the world the truth

I'm just trying to pay my dues and get it to my youth

'Cause my body won't live forever, but my spirit will

And if you keep the dream alive, then I live with you still

So when you down and out, just remember who you are

So when you down and out, just remember who you are