A Beautiful Mind - Ransom

When you look at my brothers, what’s your first impression?

Does the sight of us leave you guessin'

Or do you understand the stressin', the aggression?

The look of no hope on my niggas' faces

Like the Lord overlooked us when he handed down his graces

See embrace us, falls short on the numb tips of street entrepreneurial fingers

Stuck in the walls of the project halls where the coke smell still lingers

External blingers is all we can be

'Cause on the inside we’ve been given nothin' to shine with

Gotta frown at some of this stuff

They say that new Duffle don’t sound hungry enough

I’ve never lied to you, this how I’m sumin' this up

It’s hard to replicate a hunger when nigga’s stomach is stuffed

I’m not a man that look for someone to bluff

Kept it a gram, now niggas numbers is up

Stick to your plans when niggas come to disrupt

Some niggas smile in your face while they put a gun to ya gut

A newly refined beautiful mind

If you needed an artist who’s in his prime, who would find?

'specially when you feedin the family, doin the crime

I know the feelin' bein locked in the cage and losin' the time

You should not be afraid of provin' ya grind

Visionary with the words that could lead a school of the blind

I’m paranoid in my mansion, losin' my mind

By the window with the tip of the barrel, movin' the blinds

No need for ya commentary

Where was niggas at when I needed the commissary?

Half of these niggas love to be in a cell

The other half dread it here like Martin Payne at the monastery

Everything we do with our lives gotta be honorary

On top of makin' it monetary

When it come to murder, I’m calm as any

Take a stand and you gettin' life as soon as your honor’s ready

Duffle Bag had to be him, savvy and grim

Soul searchin' in the valley of sins, daddy was him

Chip off the old block

And a gig is hard to get than coke

So niggas get their grind on 'cause TV tells us

Aim high, nigga, (?)

In the gutter where you can find me

Who else gon' give you the realest verses besides me

Corona’s got my eyes low, lower than Chinese

Supply these niggas masked up over them 5Gs

Supply the world with this vaccine, relax queen

I’ma little more than a Shaq meme in a rap stream

What that means I’m enlightened when I be writin

Black dreams of us fightin' the shackles they tried to tighten

I represent somethin' marvelous to us all

A blueprint if you fatherless and you poor

No new prints, the revolver is in the draw

I’m a warrior in a garden, not a gardener in a war

Steel against steel, I’m just sharpenin' up the sword

That’s regardless of your awards, I’ma harvest of the applauds

I die for you to live, put this martyr up on the cross

Went to Harvard and took a course, I’m an artist you should endorse

Duffle and Craven, somethin' amazin'

We holdin' every hustlers in (?) stuck in amazement

My every step crushin' the pavement, fuck the engagement

We Jessie and Walter White when they bubbled up from the basement

Who you think you 'bout to be cuffin' up in the station?

I never met someone I can trust enough to be patient

My flow is quite clean like COVID-19

Pipe dreams, they was never a rush to touch any patience

When a nigga goes from not doin' to doin'

What do you tell him, not to be a nigga?

Shit, I gots to be a nigga, that’s how I pay the bills

And I’ma do that whether I gotta sling this coke

Or exploit these rhyme skills…