Where do we go? What do we say? What do we do? 
Nowhere to turn, nowhere [bad word] and there's nothin new 
Where do we go for inspiration? 
It's like pain is our only inspiration

[Talib Kweli]
Yea, I see a place where little boys and girls 
Are shells in the oceans not knowin they a pearl
No one to hold 'em while they growin
They livin' moment to moment without a care in the whole world
Now, if I could help it I tell it just like it is
And I may say some things that you don't like to hear
I know this: that people lie, people kneel
People die, people heal, people steal, and people shed tears
What's real, blood spills, gun kill, the sun still - rise
Above me, [bad word] me, it must be, morning - time
Wake up, the stakes up
Everybody want the cake up, to break up with the crew
But when the [bad word] back for what you do
It's too late to make up - some excuse
 [bad word] 

[Talib Kweli] [bad word] from people who stronger than time and space 
Wherever [bad word] you gonna find the race 
I find a place in my heart for this hip-hop 
And pump blood through my vein my skin get hot 
I take you very serious and make you write more 
If I don't celebrate I got nothing to fight for
I'm tight raw, excite y'all like nightfall
I'm tight y'all, I walk the street like y'all
About action, talk is cheap, right y'all?
You start yappin' think about the beef you might cause
The trouble you could get into
You don't study, you not prepared and cats is testin you
What you gonna do when you gotta face
The manifestation of the words that you put in space 
They already there you cant take 'em out 
The studio gangsta inside you tryin' to break out
 [bad word] 

[Talib Kweli]
Yea, I see a place where little boys and girls 
Are shells in the oceans not knowin they a pearl
No one to hold 'em while they growin
They livin' moment to moment without a care in the whole world
Now, if I could help it I tell it just like it is
And I may say some things that you don't like to hear
I know this: that people lie, people kneel
People die, people heal, people steal, and people shed tears
What's real, blood spills, gun kill, the sun still - rise
Above me, [bad word] me, it must be, morning - time
Wake up, the stakes up
Everybody want the cake up, to break up with the crew
But when the [bad word] back for what you do
It's too late to make up - some excuse