Understand

(album: Indie 500 - 2015)

[Talib Kweli:]
Good Lord I'm full of surprises
Here's something for you to ride with
[?] lay down, [?] pump up the volumes
Put you phone on silent
Yea, you need to understand the process
Why? So you can have respect for it
People be telling you what your job is
Like they the ones getting the cheque for it
Sometimes I get into my own head
It's like you never understood me
I'm not just telling y'all how it is
I tell my people how it could be
Know I'm exactly where I should be
One of the best that ever did it
They'll probly lie to you in public
But in private they'll admit it
Back in the shadow while snitches getting their tattle on
The Don like Magic Juan, and my saber getting its rattle on
Forging the fires of Avalon
My catalogue empowerment, your cowardice is towering like Babylon
Travel on the rivers of my father like Gil Scott
I'm colder than the fleece that keep them golden like Jill Scott
Frying up the bagel on the block cause it's still hot
Sentiment hollow like the bullets that kill cops
It's astrological like the flow [?]
It's astronomical like the Tribe [?]
The white dwarf star invisible to the naked eye
We making the tide rise like when the moon overtake the sky
You thinking if you can't see it or touch it it ain't real
If it ain't a physical reality then you can't deal
Still on the idea that you can't kill
Try to treat the symptoms not the root of the problem
The body can't heal

When we touch these mics we get busy
Come and have a good time with G-O-D
Make you shake the finger and wiggle
Scream, shout, laugh and just giggle
Shake that body, party that body
You ain't rocking with us? You'll be sorry
That's word, I'm not the herb
Understand what I'm saying? Saying? Saying? Saying?

[Brother Ali:]
From the earliest moment I remember me existing
I been driven, living for the vision
What to do when you wake up and realise
That the castle you been building is actually a prison
I'm right where the most high has me at
Trying to abandon the bad habit of glancing back
And any future I imagine that
All is exactly that, a fantastic track
Every breath I breathe I see it as a unit of my destiny
That did not exist until the second I conceive
Chest start heaving and the blessings I receive, that's what I believe
Living in the moment is a love like this
An OG told me I should hug my gift
If you could be pleased with what you witness
Then you will never distress no matter what might shift

[Talib Kweli:]
(This, you hear the sound of crickets when they walking through
These rappers say they loud but their audibles is horrible
Sad and boring, that's the categories that they fall into
God is on the line, this the final call for you)

Told the divine "I resign, I belong to you"
I heard a voice like, "Who you talking to?
Don't you realise that I am all you do?" (Go ahead man)
Borrow this mic, I'm tryna talk it through

[Planet Asia:]
Keep it on the one like knowledge and go the mileage with me
This is policy, monk magic dynasty, model [?] mantras
A direct current from the wise
When I wind up in the whirlwind
Bit the metals from gold to sterling
Planet sick, the world need surgery
Police popping kids and pirates out purging
I drown my pain in the verses, spit sermons
On the playback, eyes closed, with a big spliff burning
My movement is grassroots, that's how noble do
No shit Sherlock, the devil never told the truth
Respect to the great mind
Moving at the speed of light on a straight line
45 degrees I post, that's me shining at the center
Salute to the council of the elected host
The destiny manifested was in the message wrote
Cream of the earth is what the lesson spoke

[Talib Kweli:]
When we touch these mics we get busy
Come and have a good time with G-O-D
Make you shake the finger and wiggle
Scream, shout, laugh and just giggle
Shake that body, party that body
You ain't rocking with us? You'll be sorry
That's word, I'm not the herb
Understand what I'm saying? Saying? Saying? Saying?