[Intro Sample]
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We use the word everyday
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Now we don't know the capacity of this word
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Are we headed for conflict or not? (Yes sir)
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Because we did not break down the capacity
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Of the same what (The same word)
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Brothers and sisters, this is why we hung up the consciousness
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We've been taught wrong
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[Verse 1]
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Find a room to lock yourself in and close the door
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It's some heavy concepts that we gotta explore
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We gotta strip the word down rugged and raw
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The rhetoric of Martin King just ain't around no more
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Du Bois ain't here, James Baldwin neither, they all were leaders
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But they ain't help me get this Porsche two seater
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A lawyer left the hood, he never looked back
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To be a Forture 500 CEO and took rap
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So what if my pants sag with my hat turned back?
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The same swag got our merchandise flying off the rack
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Marketing companies is hiring blacks
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Fresh hip-hop lingo for your campaign ads
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Controversy surrounds who could say it and when
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Some niggas are full time, some play and pretend
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So fuck that, no apologies on the issue
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If it offends you it's meant to, it's that simple
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[Chorus]
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Tryin' to erase me from y'all memory
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Too late, I'm engraved in history (I'm here my niggas!)
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Speak my name and breathe life in me
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Make sure y'all never forget me ('Cause y'all give me life!)
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'Cause y'all use my name so reckless
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Whether to be accepted or disrespected (And I love it!)
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And I love it, especially when y'all do it in public
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And I'm the subject
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'Cause y'all my niggas
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[Verse 2]
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Yo, I was thinkin' a little bit
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What would it take to authenticate my nigganess?
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Ball ridiculous? 26 inches when I call up the dealership?
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Aww that's some nigga shit
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We only out for our own benefit?
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We havin' too many kids? We Claudines? Welfare recipients?
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The infamous free clinics is the sickest shit
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Make me think what the hell they clean they syringes with
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Everybody bleeding, the cops are the demons
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Courtrooms full of goons, jail buses leanin'
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Handcuffs squeezed too tight on youth life
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If you fight they just give in, people used to do sit ins
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They got Nigeria and Niger, two different countries
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Somehow Niger turned to nigger, and shit got ugly
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The problem is we started thinking like the colonists
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'Til Noble Drew Ali started droppin' that consciousness
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[Chorus]
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[Verse 3]
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My father was not a banker, neither was my neighbor
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When it came to gettin' paper who the hell was gonna train us?
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Oppresion couldn't escape us through the ages
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We changed the basis of derogatory phrases
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And I say it's quite amazing
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The use of ghetto terms developed out own language
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No matter where it came from
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It's celebrated, now people are mad if they ain't one
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[Outro Sample]
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Every word we use, it has a capacity
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And if you don't understand the words you're using
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And understand the capacity of it
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You are using words that is creating a destiny for you
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That you don't even know, or even conscious of
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[Chorus]
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[Chorus without Ad-libs]
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-----------------
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Y'all My Niggas
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| Nas |
