Black On Both Sides

I know I can't afford to stop

For one moment, that it's too soon to forget

I know I can't afford to stop

For one moment, that it's too soon to forget

In she came with the same type game

The type of girl giving out the fake cell phone and name

Big fame, she like cats with big things

Jewels chipped, money clip, phone flip, the six range

I seen her on the Ave, spotted her more than once

Ass so fat that you could see it from the front

She spot me like paparazzi, shot me a glance

In that catwoman stance with the fat booty pants, hot damn!

What's your name love, where you came from?

Neck and wrist laced up, very little make-up

The swims at the Reebok gym tone your frame up

Is sugar and spice the only thing that you made of?

I tried to play it low key, but couldn't keep it down

Asked her to dance and she was like, "Yo, I'm leaving now"

An hour later, sounds from Jamaica

She sipping Cris straight up, shaking, winding her waist up

Scene 2: my fam throwing the jam

Fareed is on the stand, big things is in the plans

The brother Big Mu makes space for me to move

"Ayo, this my man Mos, baby, let me introduce"

I turned around (Say word!) it was the same pretty bird

Who I had priorly observed trying to play me for the herb

Shocked as hell she couldn't get it together

I just played along and pretended I never met her

How you feeling? "Oh, I'm fine" My name is Mos "I'm Sharice"

I heard so much good about you, it's nice to finally meet

We moved to the booth reserved for crew especially

And honey love ended up sitting directly next to me

I'm type polite but now I'm looking at her skeptically

Cause baby girl got all the right weaponry

Designer fabric, shoes and accessories

Chinky eyes, sweet voice is f-ing with me mentally

We conversated, made her laugh, yeah, you know me bro

Even though I know the steelo, she wild sweet, yo

I'm 'bout to murk, I say peace to the family

She hop up like, "How you gon' leave before you dance with me?"

She blew my whole head with that duke, I was like, word?

I played it low though, I was like, yeah, aight, come on then, let's go

Niggas was mad, niggas was so sick, I tell ya

Yo, honey was so blazing she was just

Yo, she looked like Jayne Kennedy, word bond, to my mother man

She was that ill man, she take me to the dance floor

And she start whispering to me and sh-

"Yo, let me apologize for the other night

I know it wasn't right, but baby you know what it's like

Some brothers don't be coming right, I understand, I'm feeling you

Besides, can I have a dance ain't really that original"

We laughed about it, traced her arms across my shoulder blades

They playing Lovers Rock, I got the folded fingers on her waist

Heating my blood up like the Arizona summer

Song finished then she whispered, "Honey, let's exchange numbers"

Scene 3: weeks of dating late night conversation

In the crib heart racing, trying to be cool and patient

She touched on my eyelids, the room fell silent

She walked away smiling, singing Gregory Isaacs

Like, "If I don't, if I don't have you"

Showing me her tan line and her tattoo

Playing Sade, Sweetest Taboo

Burning candles, all my other plans got cancelled

Man I smashed it like a Idaho potato

She call me at my J.O., come now, I can't say no

Ginseng tree trunks, rocking the P-funk

Cocking her knees up, champion lover not ease up

Three months, she call I feel I'm running a fever

Six months, I'm telling her I desperately need her

Nine months, flu-like symptoms when shorty not around

I need more than to knock it down, I'm really trying to lock it down

Midnight we hook up and go at it

Burn a stoge and let her know, sweetheart I got to have it

She telling me commitment is something she can't manage

Wake up the next morning, she gone like it was magic

Ahh, damn it, my sh- is on Harrison Ford Frantic

My 911's unanswered by my fly Taurus enchantress

Next week, Mu hit me up, I saw Sharice at the Kittie club

With some banging ass Asian playing lay it down and lick me up

What?

Home, place where someone lives, a residence

The physical structure within, which one lives, such as a house

A dwelling place with a social unit that occupies it

A household

An environment offerin' security and happiness

The higher place, a native habitat

Place where something is discovered, founded, developed, or promoted

A source, a headquarters, home base

And, or related to a team's place of origin

On an entry point on which something is directed

To the center or the heart

I came up in the street around some real wild brothers

With more than one name and more than one baby mother

More than one case, been on more than one run

Got more than one enemy and more than one gun

For what now? All that's left to want is more

While them cats who's less privileged is just more raw

Less space 'cause the projects laced with more flaws

Less sleep 'cause the nights ain't peace, it's more war

The can is raw like thirsty, rainy season thunder claps

On the block with your old pop pleadin' number act

To the spot with the red top fiends is huddled at

To the crib where the little kids spend they summer trapped

With the jungle cats, lions and tigers, leopards and cheetahs

For gazelles, you get chased like a zebra, they blaze cheeba-cheeba

And dominate the weaker on the street

Hungry bellies only love what they eat and it's hard to compete

When they smilin' with your heart in they teeth

And the odds is stacked high beyond and beneath

Son, I've been plenty places in my life and time

And regardless where home is, son, home is mine

We all got to have

To a place that we come from

This place that we come from called is called home

We set out on our travels

We do the best we can

We travel this big earth and we roam

We all got to have

Some place that we come from

I said the place that we come from is called home

Even though we may love

This place that's on the map

Said, it ain't where you from

It's where you at

Some people live out (New York City, yeah)

Some people live in (Atlanta, ha-ha, ha-ha)

Some people got to live (Chicago)

Some people do live (Miami)

And all my people that live (California)

And other people got to live (London)

And everybody got to live in the whole big world

Together, just you and me

When I think of home, my remembrance of my beginnin'

Laundromat helping Ma Duke fold the bed linen

Chillin' front my buildin' with my brother and them

Spendin' nights in Bushwick with my cousins and them

Wild stylin' at Beat Street

Federal relief (Ha-ha)

Slowly meltin' in the mornin' grits we used to eat (Right)

Stickin' to your teeth, and teeth is hard to keep

With every flavor Now & Later, only a dime, a piece

Old timers on the bench playin' cards and things (Right)

Tellin' tales about they used to be involved in things

Start the drinkin', talkin' loud, cussin' up, and showin' out

Get the phone, call the cops, pick 'em up, move 'em out (Ooh-ooh, ah)

And it's all too common to start wildin'

I'ma pirate on an island seekin' treasure known as silence

And it's hard to find

Block parties in dark lobbies

Funeral homes packed, but only dark bodies

I can't sleep hardly, stirred up like Bob Marley

Marley Marl played the symphony, memory recalls

Son, I've been to many places in my space and time

And whatever my home is, son, home is mine

We all got to have

To a place that we come from

This place that we come from is called home

We set out on our travels

We do the best we can

We travel this big earth and we roam

Said, we all got to have

Some place that we come from

This place that we come from is called home

Even though we may love

This place that's on the map

Said, it ain't where you from

It's where you at

Said, it ain't where you from

It's where you at

Said, it ain't where you from

It's where you at

Where you hang your hat

Said, it ain't where you from

It's where you at

Where you hang your hat

Said, it ain't where you from

It's where you at

Where you hang your hat

It ain't where you from

It's where you at

Where you at

It's where you at

Booka-booka-booka-booka-booka-booka

Ha-hah

You know the deal

It's just me yo

Beats by Su-Primo for all of my peoples, negroes and latinos

And even the gringos

Yo, check it one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock

Three for the fourth comin' live, future shock

It's five dimensions, six senses

Seven firmaments of heaven to hell, eight million stories to tell

Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit

With the probable tenth, the universe expands length

The body of my text poses extra strength

Power-liftin' powerless up, out of this, towerin' inferno

My ink so hot it burn through the journal

I'm blacker than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle

Hip-Hop past all your tall social hurdles

Like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex

Broken glass wall better keep your alarm set

Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring

Say evacuate your sleep, it's dangerous to dream

But you chain cats get they cha-pow, who dead now?

Killin' fields need blood to graze the cash cow

It's a number game, but shit don't add up somehow

Like I got, 16 to 32 bars to rock it

But only 15 percent of profits, ever see my pockets like

69 billion in the last twenty years spent on national defense

But folks still live in fear like

Nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter black

That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack

16 ounces to a pound, twenty more to a ki

A five-minute sentence hearing and you no longer free

40% of Americans own a cell phone

So they can hear everything that you say when you ain't home

I guess, Michael Jackson was right, "You Are Not Alone"

Rock your hardhat black 'cause you in the Terrordome

Full of hard niggas, large niggas, dice tumblers

Young teens and prison greens facin' life numbers

Crack mothers, crack babies and AIDS patients

Young bloods can't spell, but they could rock you in PlayStation

This new math is whippin' motherfuckers ass

You wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add

It's mathematics

The Mighty Mos Def

It's simple mathematics

Check it out!

I revolve around science

What are we talking about here?

The Mighty Mos Def

It's simple mathematics

Check it out!

I revolve around science

What are we talking about here?

Do your math

Do your math

One, t-t-two. three, four

What are we talking about here?

Yo, it's one universal law but two sides to every story

Three strikes and you be in for life, manditory

Four MCs murdered in the last four years

I ain't tryin' to be the fifth one, the millennium is here

Yo it's six million ways to die, from the seven deadly thrills

Eight-year olds gettin' found with nine mill's

It's 10 p.m., where your seeds at? What's the deal

He on the hill puffin' krill to keep they belly filled

Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life

Young soldiers tryin' to earn they next stripe

When the average minimum wage is $5.15

You best believe you gotta find a new grind to get cream

The white unemployment rate, is nearly more than triple for black

So frontliners got they gun in your back

Bubblin' crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty

And end up in the global jail economy

Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence

Budget cutbacks but increased police presence

And even if you get out of prison still livin'

Join the other five million under state supervision

This is business, no faces just lines and statistics

From your phone, your zip code, to S-S-I digits

The system break man child and women into figures

Two columns for who is, and who ain't niggaz

Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings

But you push too hard, even numbers got limits

Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret

The million other straws underneath it, it's all mathematics

The Mighty Mos Def

It's simple mathematics

Check it out!

I revolve around science

What are we talking about here?

The Mighty Mos Def

It's simple mathematics

Check it out!

I revolve around science

What are we talking about here?

Mathematics