City Playgrounds - Talib Kweli, Hi-Tek

What we have here

Is the alpha and the omega

I spit it, bare witness to the greatest

And the latest, they try to hate us

Witness the evolution of spitting, it’s wicked and it’s decadent

Revolutions per minutes, every time the record spin

Retribution for cynics, like a stick-up kid with weapons

In Brooklyn, they say I run it, the 'Natti is checking in

No matter the terminology, blood splatter artistically

It’s looking like a Jackson Pollock painting, it’s a mystery

Really should be brothers united against the industry

The African diaspora scatter with shattered history

The game missing me, rap is so repetitive

Although I ain’t your blood or your cuz, it’s all relative

I got a gang of rhymes, and Tones' beats is banging

We moving through the streets like we’re slanging dimes

It’s magical, how the track’s so classical

The cats who got gassed up in their sweats like Plaxico

I’m back from my sabbatical, voice of the future, black radical

Keeping all the damages collateral

Listening to instrumentals

Thinking about all the things I’ve been through

The music is just a peek into my life, it’s a window

It’s so high tech and it’s all so simple

And if I’m knocked down, I don’t stay down

Even if I get down, I don’t lay down

Hotter than the tar on this empty playground

Hotter than the tar on this empty playground

Hey yo, I’m taking all bets and settling all debts

A giant leap for man begins with a small step

From a sword to a set, to my people on the picket line

Who’s sicking of getting treated like them aliens in District 9

I juxtapose my business model with my spirit

What I’m just supposed to keep you comfortable with the lyrics?

I know the flow’s disturbing, I know for certain just because

You know all about the artist don’t mean you know the person

You don’t know me, I run labels

These unstable rappers so phony

I try to listen but they’re boring as missionary position

So I’m shitting on these niggas like dysentery conditions

I’m sitting on the throne, you dreaming that it’s empty soon

Nobody feeling you, you’re screaming in an empty room

The tree that fall in the forest, nobody hearing you

Even though you fall the hardest, don’t get me started

Listening to instrumentals

Thinking about all the things I’ve been through

The music is just a peek into my life, it’s a window

It’s so high tech and it’s all so simple

And if I’m knocked down, I don’t stay down

Even if I get down, I don’t lay down

Hotter than the tar on this empty playground

Hotter than the tar on this empty playground

Yo, I build up my defenses when I’m left to my devices

Time gets suspended, more than DMX’s driver’s license

My music’s steady, not affected by the higher prices

People having sex in the streets like Dionysus

You know what my advice is?

Fuck my advice, live your life

Stop tripping like everything amount to crisis

I make the sacrifices, my history is black as ice is

I don’t think that I can trust you if you’re lacking vices

I never miss a beat, the liquor make me slurred, it takes my words

Tries to twist them like a Swisher Sweet with sticky herbs

American History X, your teeth’ll hit the curb

It’s easy 'cause I’m ill with the wordplay, I still flip the bird

Like Jeezy, strip it down, now it’s exposed

I suppose my flow is the emperor’s new clothes

Although I’m always by myself, I never ride alone

The music is on then I’m right at home, zoning

Listening to instrumentals

Thinking about all the things I’ve been through

The music is just a peek into my life, it’s a window

It’s so high tech and it’s all so simple

And if I’m knocked down, I don’t stay down

Even if I get down, I don’t lay down

Hotter than the tar on this empty playground

Hotter than the tar on this empty playground

Yeah, it’s pavement

Don’t be scared to think, man, don’t be scared

I know whats in your brain

It’s scary, man, you only usin' like ten percent

The other ninety percent is scary, man

But don’t be scared, scary ass niggas