1.Be(Intro)
I want to be as free as the spirits of those who left
I'm talking Malcom, Coltrane, my man Yusef
Through death through conception
New breath and resurrection
For moms, new steps in her direction
In the right way
Told inside is where the fight lay
And everything a nigga do may not be what he might say
Chicago nights stay, stay on the mind
But I write many lives and lay on these lines
Wave the signs of the times
Many say the grind's on the mind
Shorties blunted-eyed and everyone wonderin' where I'm
Bush pushing lies, killers immortalized
We got arms but won't reach for the skies
Waiting for the Lord to rise
I look into my daughter's eyes
And realize that I'ma learn through her
The Messiah, might even return through her
If I'ma do it, I gotta change the world through her
Furs and a Benz, gramps wantin 'em
Demons and old friends, pops they hauntin' him
The chosen one from the land of the frozen sun
When drunk nights get remembered more than sober ones
Walk like warriors, we were never told to run
Explored the world to return to where my soul begun
Never looking back or too far in front of me
The present is a gift
and I just wanna BE
2.The Corner
Vocal：Common／Kanye West／The Last Poets
Memories on corners with the fours ＆ the moors (pronounced foes
and moes)
Walk to the store for the rose talking straightforward to
Got uncles that smoke it some put blow up they nose
To cope with they lows the wind is cold ＆ it blows
In they socks ＆ they souls holding they rolls
Corners leave souls opened ＆ closed hoping for more
With nowhere to go rolling in droves
They shoot the wrong way cause they ain't knowing they goal
The streets ain't safe cause they ain't knowing he code
By the fours I was told either focus or fold
Got cousins with flows hope they open some doors
So we can cop clothes ＆ roll in a Rolls
Now I roll in a 'Olds' with windows that don't roll
Down the roads where cars get broke in ＆ stole
These are the stories told by Stony ＆ Cottage Grove
The world is cold the block is hot as a stove
On the corners
I wish I could give ya this feeling
I wish I could give ya this feeling
On the corners, robbing, killing, dying
Just to make a living (huh)
We underrated, we educated
The corner was our time when times stood still
And gators and snakes gangs and yellow and pink
And colored blue profiles glorifying that
Streetlights ＆ deepnights cats trying to eat right
Riding no seat bikes with work to feed hypes
So they can keep sweet Nikes they head ＆ they feet right
Desires of streetlife cars ＆ weed types
It's hard to breath nights days are thief like
The beast roam the streets the police is Greeklike
Game at it's peak we speak ＆ believe hype
Bang in the streets hats cocked left or deep right
Its steep life coming up where sheeplike
Rappers ＆ hoopers we strive to be like
G's with 3 stripes seeds that need light
Cheese ＆ weaves tight needs ＆ thieves strike
The corner where struggle ＆ greed fight
We write songs about wrong cause it's hard to see right
Look to the sky hoping it will bleed light
Reality's and I heard that she bites
The corner
The corner was our magic, our music, our politics
Fires raised as tribal dancers and
war cries that broke out on different corners
Power to the people, black power, black is beautiful
Black church services, murderers, Arabs serving burger its
Cats with gold permanents move they bags as herbalist
The dirt isn't just fertile its people working ＆ earning this
The curb-getters go where the cash flow ＆ the current is
It's so hot that burn to live the furnace is
Where the money move ＆ the determined live
We talk play lotto ＆ buy german beers
It's so black packed with action that's affirmative
The corners
The corner was our Rock of Gibraltar, our Stonehenge
Our Taj Mahal, our monument,
Our testimonial to freedom, to peace and to love
Down on the corner...
3.GO!
Vocal：Common／Kanye West／John Mayer
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go, go
Uh, on the count of three everybody run back to your fantasy,
now
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go, go
And on the count of three everybody run back to your fantasy,
now
(Common)
(Go) She was a bad (uh), the type at the club niggaz would grab
her
(Go) Fantasized when I had her, in the bathroom sweatin' with
her ass up
(Go) The body of a dancer, we had chemistry cuz she was a Cancer
Thought forever it would last for, but forever move faster, so I
had to
(Go) Still I gotta pause when I think about her in dem draws
(Go) And a ooh baby she liked it raw and like rain when she came
it poured
(Go) And like a car that I can't afford I would want it then
want some more
The positions our frames explored let me know she was secure,
back for more I wanna
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go, go
Uh, on the count of three everybody run back to your fantasy,
now
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go, go
And on the count of three everybody run back to your fantasy,
now
(Common)
(Go) Freaky like the daughter of a pastor, said I was bait for
her to master
(Go) Little red corvette now she was faster, wet dreams Le'maire
cream the bathroom
(Go) We made love and then laughter, and anyway I wanted I could
have her
Said there were some girls that did attract her, a new chapter
she was after so I said let's
(Go) To a place that you wanna be, uh get what you want from her
and me uh
(Go) Free love I wanna see uh, hot sex in the third degree uh
(Go) You gettin' served while servin' me uh, dirty words
encourage me to
Rock steady and sturdily on, you turnin' me no turnin' back the
further we
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go, go
Uh, on the count of three everybody run back to your fantasy,
now
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go and on the count of three
(Go) go, go, go, go, go, go
And on the count of three everybody run back to your fantasy,
now
4.Faithful
5.Testify
She walk into the court her knees buckle
Saying for a man to survive he needn't hustle
Seen and been through struggle her whole life
Made a transition from being his ho to his wife
Stifling, the night upend the ATF bust in
Her daddy was a hustla so she love them
Looked at the jury how can they judge him, she screamed
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Please let me testify
Fear in her chest her face in tears, had her mans back he was
facing years
In her name though the place was his
They trying to take everything except the kids
But years she been through stumbling fights
While he trying to hustle that white
Up all night wondering if hes alive
Seeing him tried she bubbled inside and screamed
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Please let me testify
The judge called for order the court reporter makin her words
shorter
His lawyer sat next to him, she could see how the trial was
affecting him
It hurt for her eyes to connect with him, using her lies for
protecting him
They arrested him for murder, and gun possession
As they read back her confession she screamed
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Please let me testify
The court awaited as the foreman got the verdict from the
bailiff
Emotional outbursts tears and smeared makeup
He stated, he was guilty on all charges
She's shaking like she took it the hardest
A spin artist, she brought her face up laughing
That's when the prosecutor realized what happened
All that speaking her mind testifying and crying
When this bitch did the crime- the queenpin...
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Before you lock my love away, before you lock my love away
Please let me testify
You accuse me of a, you accuse me of a, you accuse
Please let me testify, please let me testify
You accuse me of a, you accuse me of a, you accuse
Please let me testify, please let me testify
6.Love is...
7.Chi-City
Vocal：Common／Kanye West
And ya say Chi-City
(Kanye West) We don't stop, naw, we don't quit
I rap with the passion of Christ, nigga cross me
Took it out of space and niggaz thought they lost me
I'm back like a chiroprac' with b-boy survival rap
It ain't ninety-fo' yo we can't go back
The game need a makeover
My man retired, I'ma takeover
Tell these halftime niggaz break's over
I'm raw, hustlas get your baking soda
Too many rape the culture
Leave rappers with careers and they faith over
It's a war goin' on, you can't fake bein' a soldier
In the basement, listening to tapes of Ultra-
Magnetic, to the fact the messiah is black
I'll turn the TV down, we can take it higher than that
I wonder if these whack niggaz realize they whack
And they the reason that my people say they tired of rap
Inspired by black Muslims and Christians
Pushin' cutlasses, dope, and other traditions
In the conditions of the city, the city
The city, the city, the city, the city
Come on
A black figure...in the middle of chaos and gunfire
So many raps about rims, surprised niggaz ain't become tires
On the street you turn cold and then go screech
I tell 'em 'fuck 'em' like I do to police
The beast is runnin' rampant
I'm in between sheets tryin' to have sex that's tantric
For the ghetto, tryin' to make a get-up stand-up anthem
You spit hot garbage son of Sanford
What you rappin' for to get fame or get rich？
I slap a nigga like you, and tell him 'Rick James bitch!'
With your Hollywood stories, on porches
We polly hood stories about who became rich
And whatever light they hit, we wanna hit the same switch
You didn't know where to aim it, you still remain bitch
I'm forever puttin' words together
Some'll sever mothers from daughters and fathers from sons
The name Com' has never been involved wit' run
Unless its DMC, or runnin' these broads to bein' free
I'm harder than the times, you hardly scary
Hopin' God's inside you, God is Halle Barry
They ask me where hip-hop is goin', it's Chicagoan
Poetry's in motion like a picture now showin'
It's the city, the city y'all, the city
Uh, the city y'all, come on
And ya say Chi-City
(scratched together) Common Sense, from the city of wind
8.The Food(Live)
Vocal：Common／Kanye West
＊ Live version from the Dave Chappelle Show
Tonight's musical guest
Two of Chicago's Finest emcees!
Give it up for Common and Kanye West!
'It's Common Sense!'
Yeah! 'Common Sense!' - {＊scratched＊}
It's Common Sense! With Kanye West!
On the Dave Chappelle Show!
Everybody gotta eat right？
It's the food baby!
I walked in the crib, got two kids
And my baby mama late (uh oh! uh oh! uh oh!)
So I had to did, what I had to did
Cause I had to get (duh-ough! duh-ough! duh-ough!)
I'm up all night, getting my money right
Until the blue and white (po po! po po! po po!)
Now the money coming slow, but a least a - know
Slow motion better than (no-oh! no-oh! no-oh!)
You love to hear the story, again and again
About these young brothers, from the City of Wind
Like juice and gin, in the city we blend
Amongst the hustle, titties and skin, fifties and rims
Y'all know the Sprewells and trucks that's detailed
Heartless females that wanna ride in em
Felt the southside venom in raw hides and denim
Pimp minds collide wit em, a system that tries victims
We living in, my man in the fast lane pivoting
On the block white is selling like Eminem
On the block it 'Jump Off' like Kim and them
On the block it's hot, you can feel it, in your skin and then
Shorties get the game but no instructions to assembling
Eyes bright, it seems like the fight is dimming them
Call my man cuzo, like I'm kin to him
He trying to stay straight, the streets is bending him
It's all good in the hood, like raps and gems
Throwbacks and Timbs, blacks and rims
Whether on ball courts, attires of all sorts
We never fall short, wit us it's Our Force like And 1's
Some waves, some air guns, the days of the fair one is over for
Cats is colder than four below, wit self I go toe to toe
Wondering if it's for the art or for the doe
Though I know to grow a - gotta learn to let go
Though I know the doe I got to bring back to the ghetto
Arrows on Terot cards pointing to the grind
Po' livin in more prisons, pointing to my mind, shine the light
up
Clench my fists tight, holding the right up
Freedom fight in dark gear for the years to get brighter
Situations, and jobs get tighter
My man trying to get his weight and height up, c'mon!
I - I know I could make it right
If I could just swallow my pride
But I can't run away or put my - away
You can't front on me
I - no I can't let it ride
No no not tonight
See I can't run away or put my - away
You can't front on me
9.Real People
Yeah, yeah, you know how me and 'Ye do
Real People walk in the streets, the streets is talkin'
Often it's beef this city never does
People walk and talk in they sleep
Cold sweats and wet dreams
On how to get green our faith is all in a jeep
Black souls raw and they deep
Hypes tryna talk with no teeth
Shorties sayin' ball or retreat
A lesson we all speak at one point or another
Whatchu expect from one who smoke a joint with his mother
Anointed hustlers in a fatherless region
Through the pain wish they know that God was just teachin'
We want decent homes
So dreams we say out loud like speakerphones just to keep em on
It's like a colored song that keep keepin' on
I guess knowin' I'm weak is when I'm really bein' strong
Somehow through the dust I could see the dawn
Like the Bishop Magic Juan, that's why I write freedom songs
For the real people
I wonder is the spirits of Bob Marley and Haile Selassie
Watch me as the cops be tryna and pop and lock me
They cocky, plus they mentality is Nazi
The way they treat blacks I wanna snap like paparazzi
We're the children of a better God searchin' for better jobs
We could cop ghetto cars tryin' not to catch a charge
They say the dope game is sour
Now they doin' homework that's when they follow you for hours
Come to your crib and devour all that you work for
Must be more than paper these niggaz hurt for
Through the purple haze I circle days I rhyme that work for pays
Tryna reverse the slave's mind and insert the brave mentality
Heard that it's drama at home
Can a dude break free and still get honored at home
I was told by a chief it's the games nature
When you're glowin' some will love and some will hate ya
It's real people
Black men walking wit white girls on they arms
I be mad at em as if I know they moms
Told to go beyond the surface, a person's a person
When we lessen our women our condition seems to worsen
The weary cursin' the sky
Talkin' to themselves givin' the version of why help and hurt in
they eye
I live across from it, some of it I do be in
I be showin' niggaz lives
Like UPN
It's real people
Yeah.
For you and yours
Good music
Forever
Yeah
Rock on
We keep on
Uh.. Yeah
Yeah, yeah
The real...
10.They Say
11.It's Your World(Part 1＆2)
| 
