[Talib Kweli]

Yo I was sold to a sick European by a rich African battlin

Middle Passages, I can't go back again

Battlin years of denyin history, lies with mysteries

Wives with misty eyes watchin their niggas be beaten viciously

Battlin the worldliness and North America

Ran by the river, only stoppin to pray

Shaped up predators

Terrorists with etiquette who vote and kill their president

Their capacity for evil so evident and prevalent

Ain't no hesitation they rob, a nation dissolved

While we sit back waitin to evolve

Those who would trade in their freedom

For their protection deserve neither

Fuck a name, fuck tradition

Religion - you learn Jesus

Turn the other cheek

Inherit the Earth, just stay meek

Fuck the way you speak

Try to walk, we chop off your feet

Fastforward to 2003, niggas beef

The psychology of children are slaves to run deep



[Mos Def and Talib Kweli]

Hell yeah, hell yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yo

What's beef? hell yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yo

That's beef, hell yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yo

It's always your own peoples

Sometimes it's your own peoples yo

Yeah yeah, hell yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yo

What's beef? hell yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yo

That's beef, hell yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yo

It's always your own peoples

Sometimes it's your own peoples yo



[Mos Def]

Beef is not what Jay said to Nas

Beef is when workin niggas can't find jobs

So they tryna find niggas to rob

Tryna find bigger guns so they can finish the job

Beef is when the crack kids can't find moms

Cuz they end up crime box or locked behind bars

Beef ain't the Summer Jam for Hot 97

Beef is the cocaine and AIDS epidemic

Beef don't come with a r