Talib Kweli - The Human Element (feat. Tae) Lyrics
[Talib Kweli talking]The other day I was walking, passing NYU on the way tomeet my pops, you know, and this white boy stops me, talking'bout, he be in the National Socialist something or other,trying to sell me a paper and, give me some, uh, Free Mumiapamphlets.So you know I'm in a hurry, right, and I told him,right, and he tried to check me, like 'Have you ever even heardof the Black Panthers, and Mumia was fighting so you could go tocollege, and...' All this, and I'm like, "Dude, you don't even knowme, man.I don't even *****ing go here, man.I know who the***** Mumia is, man.Innocent niggas get locked up every day, man.That ain't nothing new..."But, yo, on the other hand, you tell some brothers Mumia's ondeath row, and they think he's making records with Suge Knight.I don't know, man, I guess it just really where you atyou know what I'm sayin'...Bust it.[Talib Kweli]Niggas on the street running like slavesTrying to eat, yo, we averagesTwenty one years from the graves, back to baby carriagesThe same hypocrites screaming pro-life and marriagesBe using religion to justify our savageness'How bad is this?'You and the creator need a mediatorYour priest is humanYour relationship with God is greaterThe men who think they hardSteady issuing death penaltiesThe people got no right to life cause they all slaves mentallyYou turned'Thou Shall Not Kill' into a sham of a commandmentYour interpretation I cram to understand itLike lightSo if America is majority whiteThen the prison's 'Another Country' like James BaldwinBlacks and latinos all in the systemLike it's a calling to fall in the trapThat's why our blocks are infested with drugs and gatsIn fact, cats on death row cause the way they think is illegallOne thing you can't forget when you're dealing with people[Chorus 4x]The Human Element(scratched)"Done some things bad, done some things good" -> Kurupt[Dante]I done walked on these streets 24 revolutionsGon' start for play me more just from raw evolution*****ing up your system like P&D pollutionStaten niggas free be in (?) institutionsIt's the term of the centuryOhio got twenty seven penitentiariesAnd get forty four thou' for each entitySee a nigga on the street, snatch him instantlyHere come the infantry, they shoot to kill intentionallyword is you could be disturbed mentallyPolice balk, but that's business officiallyWhat you thought, they supposed to show sympathyWe born enemies, they sworn to get ridda meProtect to serve, you gotta be kidding meEventually, my conscious state made 'em contemplateThe price of freedom is your life man you compensateNow think that all the way through, and let me commentateAnd every common state be seem to dominateAnd man accomodate laws they abominateThrough bars to combinateAnd guards to confrontateSouls are irrevelantIn cells like melaninJudge without intelligenceChorus 4x[Talib Kweli]My nigga starving in prison for bartering with ismYou tell me which is civilization and which is barbarismHe fell into the traps he knew was put here by the systemSome people got the knowledge, but they never apply the wisdomIf you ain't got it, then replicate itOr join the growing ranks of the ill-fatedSlated to be publicly humiliatedIf you ain't the problem, then the solution you have to beWe'll start a hoodlum intelligence agency like tragedyWe majesty, stay focused with thought and meditationDeviling this Babylon with strength and dedicationLike that, and we don't stopMy A of life gon' remain on topIt's the Reflection, and we got the sureshotAnd we only drop that pure hip-hopThis goes out to freedom fighters, graffiti writersInnocent lifers, grassroots organizersThis goes out to single mothersSoul bad brothersYoung lovers of the revolution that solutionsThis goes out to cats raising babiesThe the ones who react, say, when the world get crazyBlaze one for the MOVE organizationRamona Africa, and those that know truth is liberationChorus 2xHi-Tek put it on 'emFree Mumia
