Examination Of What

(album: Reachin' (A New Refutation Of Time And Space) - 1993)

One day while I was sipping some groove juice I realized
That in the span of time we're just babies
It's all relative, time is unreal
We're just babies, we're just babies, man...

Check out, check out
Every man's a planet and the props are there to get it
Insects roll together with the spirit in our orbit
Life, it comes & goes and you do not punch a clock
I don't take shit for granted, I think of Scott La Rock
Also of Tyrel and the battles at the borders
My cousins in the joint and the homeless gripping quarters
The forests are all shrinking, this deepens to my thinking
Don't cover up the nappy, be happy whatcha kinking
Dwelling, yes, you're dwelling as the norm is itty-bitty
Figure eighty-fitty for a smidgen of the city
In the Serengeti, get ready for a box
But beware of the shanks and the pistols and the Glocks
If your peoples don't getcha, you still ain't off clean
The politicians mask is worse than Halloween
I write the funky scripts so you know I got to kick em
Now tell me who's the vics and tell me who's the victim

What is really what is really what is really what...
If the funk don't move your butt
And if the box don't make you hot
And if the cats don't dig the raps
If your life ain't got no spice
Or if the guns just wreck your fun
Or if some shouts ain't in the house
Or if your crew ain't down with you

Peace, this is Mecca the Ladybug and I'm saying though
What is really what if I can't even get comfortable
Because the Supreme Court is like, all in my uterus
Peace, this is Cee-Know the Doodlebug and I wanna say
What is what if you can't walk through your hood with Bert, Ernie and Sesame Street posse
Trying to give the Snuffleupagus

My father taught me jazz, all the peoples and the anthems
Ate peanuts with the Dizz and vibed with Lionel Hampton
Now I'm swimming deep in the hip-hop with eclectics
Now do we gots the power or is it getting hectic
Scribble swings the paddle at the mantel where I placed it
Hip-hop grew from roots but some emcees never traced it
The old-jacks buckwild and some babies bore their fists
But the crew from outer space is here, shit
We grew up digging styles of the fabulous fifth Freddy
And scoping out for days crazy legs and rocksteady
Now bleach is in the laundry, the same old beats is handy
The label may okay it but radio won't play it
The censors are about so watch your mouth close your drapes
The legs that's in the boots is on the corner, with your tape
Making papes off the crust, for money and for lust
You're playing out the planets get slammed, trust
You think it, see it, run it and slam it
They peep it, hear it, lynch it and ban it
It just ain't the haps if they know they can't control it
Your grass be in the joint but they licked it and rolled it
So what?
I'm saying what

What is really what is really what is really what...
If the funk don't rule your cut
Or if the streets don't dig your beats
Or if my man ain't fifty grand
Or if the hoods don't think you're good
Or if your church don't really work
Or if the pigs wanna knock your wigs
Or if the jeeps don't roll with beats

Cause Butterfly is..baby, I'm just a baby, man
I'm a baby, I'm just a baby, man
And Mr. Doodle? (I'm just a baby too)
And Miss Mecca (I'm just a baby, man)
And Mister Silk, he's just a baby, too
And 801s, they just babies, man
And Miss Venus, she's just a baby, man
The ac-facts, they just a babies, man
And dps, they just a babies, too
Oh and, Dash, she's just a baby, man
Danny and Dani, they are my babies, man
Oh and Liz, she's just a baby, man
Oh and Stella, she's just a baby too
Doc Shane, he's just a baby, man
Mike Mann, he's just my main man
And Doctor Timba, he's just a baby, man
And nappy Jackie, she's just a baby, too
Benefi-cent, he's just a baby, man
Oh, and you
You're just a baby, man

Ladybug here y'all with Silver Tongue
Nice cold drums
With eyes, open wide
And open pride, which lies inside
The Digable Planets' eyes

Peace, this is Cee-Know, the notorious Doodlebug
Giving universal salutations to my peoples
Dwelling in the seventh dimension

Brother Butler
Uh, um, it was real fun
Sector six, here I come
Chilling out, pops and Dani I'm out, later