Twofifteen

Two fifteen

Yo, the big wheel keep turnin' like Ike's and Anna Mae's

The church kitchen hustlin' dinners every Saturday

Pull over, let me grab a plate, I tend to gravitate

Towards how fish dinners from a styrofoam platter taste

My granddaddy sported plaid Donny Hathaway's

Hustlin' for everything we had 'til he passed away

When I would ask about what path to take

He used to laugh and say, "No man is an island but I'm a castaway"

Casualties, I seen 'em like the French Foreign Legion

On the streets, they used to carry out bizarre procedures

In jean jackets and Jabbar, Adidas

Back when local R&B was just as soulful as orthopedics

Me and my man twistin' up some reefer and wishin'

We knew On The Town, hitman in the likes of Sam Christian

On the edge of existence, man, listen

Understand, respect and fear was the all-American ambition

For badass kids in the laundromat, foldin' a load

Well lo' and behold, a whole 'nother fork in the road

My wish for them is that the truth is eventually told

Out on the corner, where whatever you can sell is sold

I heard murder ran, as vast as deserted land

Since back when Burning Man was blacks in Birmingham

Before the presidential election diversion scam

Matter fact, before they clapped Franz Ferdinand

You gossip on Jay and Beyoncé or Kim and Kanye

But keep risin' to the top, what my mind say

Picture my daughter drinkin' water with a sign

Say, "For colored girls," I ain't talkin' Ntozake Shange

Who said it's cynical? I was a king and general

Rich in every resource, precious metal and mineral

Before the devil entered the land of the plentiful

With that Jamaican funk, gotta get it into who

For generations under God, indivisible

Psych ward patience, vampires in a interview

Become institutionalized, what a nigga do

But what we had to do to survive, none of them could do

Who the technical culprit? I don't mess with no vultures

I'm electrical voltage, not the regular dosage

Too obsessive compulsive, I'm a fuckin' explosive

Mixed message in a bottle, I left with the postman

I'm that arachnophobia, black petroleum

Ceremoniously holy when at the podium

Even though it's hotter than weapons-grade plutonium

The people tryna check for the return of the Ichiban

Obi-Wan, universe, you owe me one solid

My homie Gonzalez, only know gun violence

On the corner where they probably on they 21 Savage

Catch two in your cabbage, Young Cesar Chavez

Division one, yo, when and where we get our rhythm from?

Continuum, still swingin' like a pendulum

Here the women come, sing it like Sarah Vaughan

Heard 9th up in a house from North Carilon'

Ain't no mannequin challenge, but y'all paralyzed

It's gettin' cold outside, a word from the wise

Y'all niggas better bundle up

But I bet it be a hotter summer, not for nothin'

Yo, the cops get down, especially when it come to us

Nigga better be a Rockefeller

Get that out your pocket fella, sayin' in acapella

Ain't a damn thing really changed as far as I can tell it

Another soul with no name, the helicopters hunted

Look like a couple of days before the doctor comin'

But that's my little cousin, watch him for me

I think the world tryna sock it to me

It kinda feel like everything is out of pocket for me

Who keep it a hundred when everything's partial?

Dignity and sanity is what the game cost you

Wake up to the paddles on your chest, we had lost you

I'm just paintin' a picture like Kerry James Marshall

I'm just takin' a picture like Carrie Mae Weems

So smile and say cheese, we in 2018

In a pyramid scheme, nightmares and day dreams

From the runaway slave to a modern day king