Sometimes my hope slips away
I go through the day
Without a way to see passed the decay
To say a better day [bad word] got [bad word] my mind
Wondering if I'm cunning enough to find
new pattern of though designed
So I can deal with this land of concrete
Cause them facts are i'll yo we're facing defeat from the trees to the
sees to the seeds of the ghetto
The fleas on the dogs back have already settled in
Won't allow no meddeling cause they shoot
Do anything for the loot
Wicked politicians making wicked decisions
Straight lying to the public so they can begin another mission of war
Man eyes are sore
 [bad word] #39;s hardcore
We can all make a change what we waiting for?
There's a million other people who feel like I feel
Too many cats are ending up with the raw deal for real
But, I read a book take a look
Put it all in perspective ignore the crooks
Who be rocking their politricks, [bad word] for president
If we want their asses kicked, then let's set a precedent
See it's not you versus me
But it's you and me versus the war-industry
If you're asking me what it is that we can do
Agaist idiots like G.W. it's follow through

It's what makes you cope
It's what makes you grow
It's what makes you go against the grain
When they tell you no
But you've got to show
Your friends and foes it's time for change
It's what makes you cope
It's what makes you grow
It's whats makes you go against the grain
But they can't tell you no
Because now you know the healing when you get hope

I'm holding on like someone pushed me over the edge
So sometimes when I rhyme it just go overyour head
I try to bring it down to earth wothout sounding berserk
It's for the people high and mighty and them down in the dirt
Put it work like I'm nickle and diming
Standing on the corner religious like a shaman I aint thicking with
rhyming
The punchlines, while they tickle your spine
They picket the line
And I'll never font for you, you aint getting consigment people hope to
get signed but to they suprise
The industry falling down right infront of they eye
On my block brothers don't live brothers survive
Mothers pray through the night and hope they son is alive
Check the stoop, then the corner, then he hospital
The citymorgue, matter of fact [bad word] 
I got to go
To my son's school
Where they call me brother Kweli
No time for crying
Waiting and hoping like Buddy Holy

It's what makes you cope
It's what makes you grow
It's what makes you go against the grain
When they tell you no
But you've got to show
Your friends and foes it's time for change
It's what makes you cope
It's what makes you grow
It's whats makes you go against the grain
But they can't tell you no
Because now you know the healing when you get hope

I'm hoping for better days and better ways to express
I'm hoping for spiritual growth and some mental progress
Hoping I'll won't be choking when it's time to take the test of the time
As I'm standing in the limelight and rhyme
Will I shine? Will I be remembered as a person who took the time and
opportunity to find the goodness of his own kind?
The kindness of this mankind
The kind that makes the cynic in me just relax and unwind
It's the state of mind you can find me in
When I'm kicking back and I'm chilling
Lookin at playing childeren, impressive buildings
And I'm thinking that we more that the money hungry idiots
Mass-marketing cats claim we be
Man they can't get whit us it's the fuss of living
Looking for a balance between taking an giving and making a living
Whitout making a pre-emptive killing, [bad word] has go to stop
I hope we'll find the revolution back in hiphop...