the remedy

Common featuring q-tip



Yo, we all got different things that we got to deal with. we always are

Trying

To put the blame on something else rather than sometimes looking at

Ourselves, recognizing a lot of the stuff that happens, sometimes it has to do

With other things...but if we look within ourselves, we could prevent a lot of

This nonsense sometimes, y'know. it's about

Relating back to the essence y'know what i'm sayin', where it all stems from.

I'm-a do my

Thing over this drum, like a native tongue.

Verse one q-tip:

Do what you will, if you feel that your steeze is real

Complicated with the skills over reel to reel

Brown skin is what i feel, my mind and body's appeal

Is to the no-frill mills, who hear the beats to chill

Constantly, i'm hearing black americans just sneering

Looking for a leader who can fill us up with ether

Hitting us up with great emotional chat

About the fact

That the black

Is constantly held back

Like 50 tracks back in a relay race

And the white team's ahead

So let's keep up the pace

And i be needing something that could feed my logical taste

At the end of the race is there a paradise place?

Yo, we can't get involved in what the next man is doing

Material gain we put too much in persuing

"yo duke, i need this dope so we can step to this party"

But we can all mardi grati

Minus that shit in our body

"what that got to do with that"

'cause kid that's the essence,

Your physical presence

Embodies every lesson

You can't run the rolls royce if the engine is busted.

Can't even life the knife to cut the mustard.

What we need to do first

Now listen to this verse

Let's concentrate on our spiritual plate.

Recognize your existence in this vast blue space

From a tiny cloud of blood

To the human beings with taste, sight, touch, smell

And sound

Let's deem it profound!

And prioritize this cause it was allah's wish

"allah? i'm god"

"no i ddon't believe that. that's a mystery"

"if god is so good why does shit be happening to me?"

There's divinity within

Because we come from the divine

A force that's not seen but yo we feel it every time

When the wind blows, and the earth turns,

And the rain drops, and the babies cry

And the birds fly, and the grounds quake,

And the stars gleam, yo

So many things are evidence of its existence

What we need to do is link it with persistence,

Hear me out, yo

Once we recognize that, we can move ahead

Native tongues, common sense yo he's hip-hop bred...

Common:

From the spiritual world my former life has developed

First person i lost close to me was stella

Some of my mellows

Lost their mothers and their brothers

For them i feel empathy

But i ain't pouring out fuckin' hennessee

I pour my heart out when i see dot out on the deck

Knowing two weeks ago he slapped-boxed with death

I hear of niggas dying in the wind and on the news

But when it's somebody you know it hits you

And emotions get bruised

I ain't been in your shoes,

I won't judge you for knocking

Because the spirit of the ghetto says "you gotta!"

They snatch you again from rock flippin'

Give back into the neighborhood, you better start kickin'

Stickin' stores

On the strip

I'm tired of arabs giving me my change back

Devil bomb my yesterday

My tomorrow he never gave back

I lay back, looking at the ceiling

Wondering what can i do

So my homie won't have to be dealing

Not cause you serving and i'm rapping i'm better

Just different pieces to the puzzle of black life

That we gotta put together, to better ourselves

Cause families we gotta raise

No matter how long the money

Shorter become the days

Men become like women

And no difference in the season

If you got popped five times

You breathing for a reason

Let's put this five, ten year come-up plan in progression

Before we count our papers

Count our blessings