Get By (Remix) - Talib Kweli/Mos Def.mp3

[00:01.553]History
[00:03.629]It's happening every day, y'all
[00:05.225]Right now
[00:06.390]Everyday (Live, right now)
[00:08.390]Good morning, Vietnam!
[00:10.472]Listen! Brooklyn wins again
[00:13.025]It's the Stuy, it's the Bush, them niggas again
[00:15.671]Ta' Kweli, Mighty Def, and S. Dot on the guest lock
[00:18.753]Kanye, you're the dopeman of hip-hop, now let's rock
[00:21.520]And roll out, niggas (Roll out), my hometown niggas (Ouu, ouu!)
[00:24.419]I get it good in your hood, so slow down, niggas
[00:26.840]Watch the speed, though, mind your pedal and ease off
[00:29.396]Or screech off into a collision course with these walls (BAM!)
[00:32.420]You don't move, don't pray, don't lose
[00:34.802]Don't sleep, life passing, light flashing, life happens
[00:37.476]That fast, part of done, Black hands up in prayer
[00:40.052]Black guns up in fear, dying wish is to touch the air
[00:42.720]Seekin' heaven that wasn't here
[00:44.781]Eyes will not see another year, it's another day
[00:48.062]It's the same fight, different round, sound the bell
[00:50.820]Mix it up in victory, you live it up, the beat'll get risen up
[00:53.983]You're knocked down, then get back and get it up
[00:56.081]Get off of Queer Street and get with us (Ha)
[00:58.236]And get clear where we did it, from the heart, from the people
[01:01.109]From the top, from the Jeep, from the gut, from the street
[01:03.656]From my soul to the mic to the essence
[01:05.874]So in my absence, you feel the presence--exactly
[01:09.445]I make contact--for short, I MC (Mos!)
[01:11.787]Me and mine we don't just get by, we get free (Nigga!)
[01:13.944]And that's ready
[01:14.812]Just to get by, nigga, I sold coke, nigga, I pushed lah
[01:17.883]Carried a four-five, claimed I was ready to die
[01:20.544]Promised never to cry, held it all inside
[01:23.147]Reality was too much to take, so I
[01:25.818]Kept my mind fried, slept for most of mine
[01:28.478]Soon as I closed my eyes, then I woke up behind
[01:31.419]Thinking either I load up these nines, or blow up with rhymes
[01:35.168]Cause this flow of mine is like blow up, but lines of coca
[01:38.566]And your folks think Hov' just wrote stuff to rhyme
[01:41.143]Nah, I'm a poster from what happens seeing your moms
[01:43.829]Doing five dollars worth of work just to get a dime
[01:46.326]So pardon my disposition
[01:48.553]Why should I listen to a system that never listened to me?
[01:51.818]Picture me working McDonald's (Yeah, yeah)
[01:54.105]I'd rather pull a MAC on you (Ugh, yeah)
[01:55.559]Sorry, Ms. Jackson, but I'm packin', bye!
[01:56.913]Yeah! It's somethin' about that Nina Simone piano flow
[01:59.236]It's like a Michelangelo painted a portrait of Maya Angelou
[02:02.523]And gave it to a sick poet for they antidote
[02:05.299]If music get ya choked up, this is the tree and the rope
[02:08.039]This is Chi, nigga, I'm Mr. All-of-That
[02:10.746]**** a map, let's put this bitch on the almanac
[02:13.306]Dice, what they hittin' for, Lacs what you sittin' on
[02:16.038]Tracks who you spittin' on, rap 'til we get it on
[02:18.664]And don't let nobody with the power to sign
[02:20.876]Ever tell you you ain't got the power to rhyme
[02:23.531]They used to tell me, "Toughen up, put some bass in your voice!"
[02:26.264]They used to tell me, "Lighten up, put some Mase in your voice!"
[02:29.411]Lord willin' I ain't killed nobody
[02:31.524]But I have a feelin' this album that I'm gonna make a killin'
[02:34.375]Or not a shilling, this is love-it-or-hate-it music
[02:37.107]But at least we made it music
[02:39.780]And we didn't make it industry, this is gon' be interesting
[02:42.607]This'll be the end of me, or I'm finna be an entity
[02:45.163]Kanye, Jay-Z, Mos Def, and Kweli
[02:47.518]We are not makin' songs no more, we're makin' history
[02:49.991]This morning I woke up
[02:52.493]Feelin brand new, I jumped up
[02:55.082]Feelin my highs and my lows
[02:58.176]In my soul, and my goals
[03:00.464]Just to stop smokin' and stop drinkin'
[03:03.099]But I been thinkin' I got my reasons
[03:05.722]Just to get (by), just to get (by)
[03:08.349]Just to get (by), just to get (get buh buh buh bye bye)
[03:17.949](Just to get by, just to get by)
[03:20.369](Just to get by), just to get get buh buh buh bye bye
[03:33.018]We keep it *******, say 'fo shizzle', 'fo sheezy'
[03:34.811]Desensitized by the violence on the TV during the war
[03:37.379]Killin' each other is easy, its pourin' liquor for fallen niggas
[03:40.296]Believe me, it's ghetto libation, seen it all before
[03:42.730]Just to get by, my people, we get fly
[03:45.477]My people, we get high, fillin' cigars with the lah
[03:48.060]Nigga, come on! Even Jesus was stoned
[03:50.234]Before receivin' the throne
[03:51.362]I send a rest in peace to Nina Simone
[03:53.357]Back in the days we was used to doin' the shit
[03:55.447]I can't call it all in the streets
[03:56.831]We was hustlin' fiends that asked for it
[03:58.531]I guess I was used to just standin' on corners
[04:00.520]Waitin' for paper bags with bundles of crack
[04:02.375]Hopin' the week was good, so I could get money back
[04:04.665](To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by)
[04:09.548]When I was stressed I possessed a side of my strength
[04:11.434]That made me angry and bleed
[04:12.656]With the frustration havin' me smokin' Newports and weed
[04:15.361](To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by)
[04:20.144]Those be the times when I try to rely
[04:21.615]On my niggas and street mother****er
[04:23.267]And reach out to wifey, and then I place a call on my mother
[04:25.851](To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by)
[04:28.272]*Ayo, Mom, pick up the phone, I gotta to talk to you, Ma*
[04:30.370]If you was five percent instead of actin' stupid and guessin'
[04:33.254]You had to go and study your lessons
[04:34.949]And know your math in the building in session
[04:37.123]This morning I woke up
[04:39.046]Feelin brand new, I jumped up
[04:41.655]Feelin my highs and my lows
[04:44.673]In my soul, and my goals
[04:47.053]Just to stop smokin' and stop drinkin'
[04:49.801]But I been thinkin' I got my reasons
[04:52.249]Just to get (by), just to get (by)
[04:54.965]Just to get (by), just to get (get buh buh buh bye bye)
[04:58.391]Some people cry, some people try
[05:01.683]Just to get by, for my piece of the pie
[05:04.066]We love to eat and get high
[05:05.466]We deceive when we lie
[05:06.635]And we keepin' it fly – yo, yo, yo, yo, yo
[05:09.129]When people decice to keep a disguise
[05:12.219]Can't see your eyes, see the evil inside
[05:14.642]The best people you find
[05:16.064]Stronger people in mind
[05:17.366]I stay readin' the signs