[Intro: singers (Talib)]
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Deliver us, deliver us (Yeah)
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Deliver us, deliver us (What? Yeah)
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[Talib Kweli]
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And what the people say? We wanna live it up
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And what the people want? Please deliver us
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And what the people need? Hey...
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I got that, yeah
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[Talib Kweli]
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I call these rappers baby seals, cause they club you to death
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I could call 'em Navy SEALs, cause they government feds
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What become of the vets? They drugged up, they fucked up, they in debt
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There ain't no love and no respect, it's like a gang it's like a club or a set
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Hip-Hop's the new WWF
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What do you rap or do you wrestle? Niggaz love to forget
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We got til it's gone, you think you on, you still hustlin backwards
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Your topical norm a tropical storm, it's a fuckin disaster
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Back to the topic we on, it all started at Rawkus
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They couldn't find the words to describe me so they resort to the shortcuts
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Is he a backpacker? Is he a mad rapper?
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An entertainer or the author of the last chapter
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We living in these times of love and cholera
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Synonymous with the apocalypse, look up the clouds is ominous
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We got maybe ten years left say meteorologists, shit
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We still waitin for the Congress to acknowledge this~!
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[Chorus: Talib Kweli & singers in the background]
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What the people want? Please deliver us
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We wanna live it up, please deliver us
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Th-th-this is the, th-th-this is the, this is the hostile gospel
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I'm reaching through the fire - please deliver us
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I'm preaching to the choir - please deliver us
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Just keep it real with us, you scared to spill your blood
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Your words rung hollow, we need someone to follow
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[Talib Kweli]
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You ain't promised tomorrow, so get your paper up
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You can't always just borrow and asks for favors bruh
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Stand on your own two, never covet thy neighbor's stuff
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Karma's a bitch so watch your mouth and what you sayin bruh
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I start a conversation based on general observation
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Hip-Hop is not a nation, take it to population
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Niggaz got a lot to say when locked inside the belly of Satan
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Awaitin trial debatin how the hell I got placed in this system
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Am I a victim or just a product of indoctrination?
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They exploit it and use me like a movie with product placement
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You hear the congregation; this is the hostile gospel
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The truth is hard to swallow it'll leave you scarred tomorrow
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Keep it honest our motto, these niggaz keep it bottled
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I'm the writer who reach the fighters like speeches by Cus D'Amato
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DJs stickin to vinyl like "Fuck Serato"
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Suppliers who ride around the block, in the custom models
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Ballin like the struck the lotto you know who the cleanest is
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A nigga keep it reeich with the stitch and greedy geniuses
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I'm not a hipster, but I flip it like a sneaker pimp
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Expose the game, treat it like a bitch
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Smack fire out these hoes, cause they snitch and tap wires while I plead the fifth
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You can't trust a soul in the biz, so be careful who you eatin with
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and sleepin with and also who you chiefin with
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You never know they might've added in secret ingredients
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[Chorus]
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[Talib Kweli]
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Freedom's a road that's seldom traveled, watch hell unravel
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Right before the eyes of the soldier who fell in battle
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The single mother who raised her daughter to bear the sacred water
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And not take the hand of every man who make a offer
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To black kids wishin they white kids, when they close they eyelids
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Like, "I bet they neighborhood ain't like this"
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White kids wishin they black kids, and wanna talk like rappers
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It's all backwards it's identity crisis
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The industry inside us is vipers with fangs trying to bite us
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Drug suppliers is the health care providers
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We cakin, makin narcotics outta household products
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We ain't workin out 'til we exorcise the demons that's inside us
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Plus they seem to just provide us with enough rope to hang ourselves
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Enough dope to slang ourselves, enough toast to bang ourselves
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It's officially nigga season, these niggaz is bleedin
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That's why I'm spittin freedom we had enough of trigger squeezin
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[Chorus]
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[Outro: singer]
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In these tryin days and times
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All I need is to be free
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I can't do |