[featuring cee-lo]

Common:

After bein' 25, you know, just trying to survive in the world

Bout to have a little boy or baby girl. who knows?

Anyway, just when you start gettin that little age and experience to

You

You start thinkin about stuff...tryin to make the right moves

So bust it out, this is what i was thinkin, check it

Yo, the education of the lon-chicka-lonnie lynn

Began, began with time

Bein my bloodline is one with the divine

In time brotha, you will discover the light

Some say that god is black and the devil's white

Well, the devil is wrong and god is what's right

I fight, with myself in the ring of doubt and fear

The rain ain't gone, but i can still see clear

As a child, given religion with no answer to why

Just told believe in jesus cuz for me he did die

Curiosity killed the catechism

Understanding and wisdom became the rhythm that i played to

And became a slave to master self

A rich man is one with knowledge, happiness and his health

My mind had dealt with the books of zen, tao the lessons

Koran and the bible, to me they all vital

And got truth within 'em, gotta read them boys

You just can't skim 'em, different branches of belief

But one root that stem 'em, but people of the venom try to trim 'em

And use religion as an emblem

When it should be a natural way of life

Who am i or they to say to whom you pray ain't right

That's who got you doin right and got you this far

Whether you say "in jesus name" or hum do allah

Long as you know it's a bein' that's supreme to you

You let that show towards others in the things you do

Cuz when the trumpets blowin, 24 elders surround the throne

Only 144,000 gon get home

Only 144,000 gon get home

Only 144,000 gon get it baby

Chorus cee-lo:

I've lived and i've learned

I have taken and i've earned

I have laughed, i've cried

I have failed and i have tried

Sunshine, pouring rain

Found joy through all my pain

I just wanna be happy with being me

Cee-lo:

Let me voice my concern

So many of my fellow brothers have given themselves a title

That their actions didn't earn

Our ignorance is in the same breath as our innocence

Subconciously, seeking to find an impressionable mind to convince

I've finally come to the realization why black people in the worse

Place

Cuz it's hard to correct yourself when you don't know

Who you are in the first place

So i try to find the clue in you

But evidently, white folks know more black history than we do

Why're we bein' lied to? i ain't know our history was purposely hidden

Damn, somethin' in me wanna know who i am

So i began my search, my journey started in church

It gave my heartache relief when i started to understand belief

Hustlin was like a gift spent my share of time in the streets

Taught me survival from this evil i'm just gonna have to deal with

And i felt like a fool when i tried to learn it in school

It almost seemed like a rehearsal when the only

Science and math are universal

Takin elder advice, read the bible, the koran

Searched scrolls from the hebrew israelites

Hold on, this ain't right, jesus wasn't white

Some leads were granted with insight

And it's all in the plan, but it took me some time to overstand

He still created with the imperfection of man

So, with followin' i disagree

By no means have i forgotten or forgiven what's been done to me but

I do know the devil ain't no white man, the devil's a spiritual mind

That's color blind, there's evil white folk and evil niggas

You gon surely find there's no positivity without negativity

But one side you gonna have to choose

Any chance to speak i refuse to misuse

So how can you call yourself god when you let a worldly possession

Become an obsession and the way you write your rhymes and

Can't follow your lesson

If a seed's sown, you make sure it's known, you make sure it's grown

If you god, then save your own, don't mentally enslave your own

If you god, then save your own, don't mentally enslave your own

If you god, then save your own, don't mentally enslave your own

Well, i've lived and i've learned

I've taken and i've earned

I have laughed, i have cried

I failed and i have tried

Sunshine, pourin rain

I found joy through my pain

Just wanna be happy...bein me

Bein me


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