The Roots - And Then You Shoot Your Cousin Album Lyrics

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Theme From The Middle Of The Night

[Verse 1 - Nina Simone:]
Only the lonely love
Only the sad of soul
Wake and begin their day in the middle of the night
To breakfast on their pride
Where joys and tears just dried
To breakfast with the moon
In the middle of the night
Then to cut once more, my miserly hoard
Of your kisses in this darkness restored
To grasp your absent grace
In desperate embrace
To make your false heart true
Middle of the Night...The night

 

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Never

[Hook - Patty Crash:]
Street dreams, close your eyes
Take a bite to the memory
Street dreams, this is the moment
The moment that feels like forever
This is the end to where I began
And it feels like forever
They say time flies
Down from sky and says never
I look down... all I see is never
And all I know is all I know...

[Verse 1 - Black Thought:]
I was born faceless in an oasis
Folks disappear here and leave no traces
No family ties nigga no laces
Less than a full deck nigga no aces
Waitin' on Superman losing all patience
Gettin' wasted on an everyday basis
I'm stuck here can't take a vacation
So f*ck it, this shit is damnation
This is reality mane
Ain't no surprise I've been bangin' without any mane
What is this gotta be brave
When into the night I'm going to go quietly mane
Life is a bitch and then you live
Until one day by death you're found
I tried to keep both of my feet on the ground
But I know my head is surrounded by clouds
Spirallin' down, destined to drown
Forever is just a collection of nows
Off on my own, nowhere is my home
Approaching infinities fork in the road
When I was young something I often was told
It's not a bargain if it costs you your soul
Costs you your pride, caution aside
I'm gone with the wind and I'm long for the ride
Wish I could rest and open my eyes
But time ain't finna fly down from the sky
A place where the lonely love
Not another soul's there, only us

[Hook]

[Outro - Patty Crash:]
I woke with a tear drop
All I know is what I know
I woke with a tear drop
All I know is what I know
It's all I know
All I know..

 

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When The People Cheer

[Intro - Greg Porn:]
Lights, camera, chemical reaction
Attracted to a body of lies with fat asses
Thank the most high for the high of high fashion
My art of war is killer couture, denim assassin

[Verse 1 - Greg Porn:]
Am I a douchebag or just another doo-rag?
Tryna get ahead on some brand new-wave shit
For your entertainment money is the language
So every time I speak I'm tryna make another payment
I do 'em dirty, sleep and get a dirt nap, that works
Tell my P.O. ask me where I work at
Think I woulda learned that sleeping in the bird trap
Living on the run like somebody tryna burn fat
I don't give a f*ck, now maybe that's abstinence
Or the arrogance of someone who ain't got shit
That think money over bitches is a stock tip...

[Hook - Modesty Lycan:]
I live in a trap where things go crack
Wake up in the boxes with a box of Apple Jacks
Everybody acts like God is all that
But I got the feelin' he ain't never coming back
So I got an angel that answer my prayer
Floating on the cloud that I blow in the air
Nobody wins but nobody cares
They just want blood when the people cheer

[Verse 2 - Black Thought:]
I'm down to 95 dollars, that's the extent of my riches
Out of 99 problems, 98 of 'em is bitches
Out here hollerin' what's ironic is
I've honestly been tryna do what's right
But some jawn legs in the air tonight, like Phil Collins
I'm a sex-addicted introvert
Sucker for a pencil skirt
Looking for a shorty coming from work, that I can pervert
On my existential grind doing consequential dirt
Searchin' for physical pleasure if I don't go mental first
Molly poppin', trolley hoppin'
Know somebody prolly watchin'
That ain't stoppin' me from coppin' a feel
Karate choppin' in this after-hours spot
Watching mommy body rockin'
First I feed her vodka shots then she eat my Johnnie Cochran
Livin' fast, drinkin' capt'
One of them hoes even had
The audacity ask me how long this thing would last
I said, "You wanna pay for class? Get on that stage and shake your ass."
She keep a dick in a box and in an emergency break the glass
I make her laugh
She makes it clap
And then she gives me lap dances and I'm thankful that
She keeps providing the place for me to be unfaithful at...

[Hook]

 

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The Devil

The Devil never rest, come day, come dusk, come dawn
You compromise and wind up sold in parts
So don't it strike you funny when you look him in the eye
The Devil looks a lot like you and I

 

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Black Rock

[Intro:]
Black Rock

[Verse 1 - Dice Raw:]
Hey what's for breakfast?
Same as yesterday
Oh that's right cheeseburger and a 40 ounce
Hey, what's for dinner? Nothing nigga
But last night I had dreams of a porterhouse
Ay yo for real I feel like
Cattle in a slaughterhouse
But f*ck that grow another here's a quarter ounce
It ain't no hydro, but it gets you high though
Them niggas look like casper what the f*ck do I know

[Hook:]
At the end of this tunnel, it's red and blue lies
Once you pay the price you can never do right
One thing I know all I did is wrong
Maybe there ain't nowhere I belong
The only thing in front of me is a bullet in the head
They hoping one day that they find me dead
Until then I make a place in this world
For me and my baby girl

[Verse 2 - Black Thought:]
Got the dead drop way until the A.M
Mumbo Jumbo niggas onomatopoeian
Call it how I see them ain't no rhyme or reason
I'm on some different bullshit everyday just like per diem
I damn with animal anguish
So love no bitch die richer than language
Guilty of sin depending on the reeds shaking in the wind
Just a question not an answer out here depending on its end

[Hook]

 

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Understand

[Intro - Dice Raw:]
Never understand

[Hook - Dice Raw:]
People ask for God, 'till the day he comes
See God's face - turn around and run
God sees the face of a man
Shaking his head, says "he'll never understand"
People ask for god, 'till the day he comes
See God's face - turn around and run
God sees the face of a man
Shaking his head then says, "man'll never understand"

[Bridge - Dice Raw:]
Never understand, never understand
Never understand

[Verse 1 - Black Thought:]
Gravedigger, dig a hole that fit a black nigga
My body's stiff as a Madame Tussaud's wax figure
My transformation: a caterpillar from crack dealer
And backpedaller was no less, than spectactular
Yeah I was trappin' money, flippin' like a spatula
Now put that sucker in a box like Dracula
I led the devil in a dance
An electric slide across the line I drew up in the sand
Dead, ended
Love is like a harlequin's romance
Lost between sips of liquor, that empty bottle in my hands
It was a shot away, but I never got away
Dreamed a little dream of me, but that was an anomaly
Yea, people as for God...

[Hook]

[Verse 2 - Greg Porn:]
Holy, Sugar, Honey, Ice Tea
I guess that's a prayer for a player like me
In my church clothes baking buzz on the bible
The sweet temptation of my grand daddy's rifle
Got me thinking 'bout doing a jihad with these guys
Who only True Religion look better than Levi's
Who baptize glasses with beers and blood stain
You preaching to the choir, that praise the drug game
Hallelujah
'Til the cops cuff me in the back of a cruiser
Or the firetruck wash my soul down the sewer
I count my blessings and blow it on a nun to resurrect my erection
I pray, I pray, All Dogs Go To Heaven
Or to a new hell with a Wi-Fi connection
So I can pay for my sins on PayPal
Or own a holy ghost, a greyhound


[Hook]

 

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Dies Irae


[Instrumental]

 

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The Coming

[Hook - Mercedez Martinez:]
I hear somebody screaming
Again bracing for the fall
Close my eyes but I never wonder
I have seen it all

[Verse:]
They don't remember
Was it coming was it going
Running from the sun
Listen through the morning

[Bridge:]
I'm coming
Take my chance my footsteps in the road
No one sees and no one knows
I'm coming
I'm coming
I'm coming

[Musical Interlude]

[Hook]

 

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The Dark (Trinity)

[Verse 1 - Black Thought:]
Mountain high and valley low and river wind and tunnel deep
I have traveled chasing demons screaming all I find I keep
If you don't pay like you weigh alright okay that's fine with me
I'ma just spray my heat and say my piece and lay you down to sleep
Ain't nobody tell you clowns to speak
I'mma AK you down the street
Draw that bump that's built for the riots see how quiet y'all can keep
Ain't no wilding it ain't no problem
It ain't no question it ain't no beef
Cut that check then things are sweet
I'ma go buy some diamond teeth
I'll be damned if my setback gonna help you get back on your feet
No surrender no retreat
Nigga we out here trying to eat
Hashtag diamond dog tag
Money bag, nice swag, pockets need an ice bag
Toe tag, body bag
Niggas lose their lives sad
Rockets in their flight path
Breaking bad, making bad
Choices out here thinking fast
Smoking wet and drinking bad
Soaking wet and sinking fast
Shoot them niggas making cash
Stick them niggas take their stash
The law of gravity meets, the law of averages
Ain't no sense in attempting to civilize savages
Even though I wish I could be spared my embarrassment
I'm a nigga, other niggas pale in comparison
We out in Paris yet but still a nigga perishing
No idea how much time's left, f*ck trying to cherish it
A life in times unchecked, now that's American
Inherit the wind, pressure in everything

[Verse 2 - Greg Porn:]
The world ain't ready for someone like me
And life is sex, stress, drama and I'm hooked on all 3
I'd rather O.D. than be the next O.G
You fronting for a whore that already chose me
One man revolution that's supportin prostitution
I'm trying pimp the game, where balling don't mean hooping
And riding don't mean cruising
It mean keep your bitch-ass moving
If you ain't built for bruising, redrum ain't in your blueprint
In a jungle made of concrete, every animal Jumanji
On Eazy-E and PCP, ass-cash or EBT
How you monetize pigeons on a power line
On a road to the riches every dudes a dollar sign
I don't mind, I don't mind, long as all the smoke is mine
And the liquor store delivers faster than a Papa Johns
And I heard that def-ass caller money's on the other line
The last episode of Good Times is my life

[Verse 3 - Dice Raw:]
It's a phrase they say in the streets when the young players meet:
Get rich or die trying
But the funny thing about that phrase to me
Is that these little niggas be lying
Cause don't nobody wanna die
But everybody trying to get rich though
But the f*cked up thing about that
These lil' niggas don't how to get rich so
I still run with those angels
Man I still peep all those angles
Speaking with guns, sticking in tongues
Talking that Arabic and that Yiddish
Riding them trains, stashing them chains, bangles
Yeah I played all those games, though
My tag on the wall, you niggas look up
You can still see my name yo
How did I end up where I'm at?
It's kind of hard to explain yo
I remember all i wanted was a gold chain and a Kangol
I remember all i wanted was a gold chain and some Jordans too
Crossed that bitch, then I got that bitch
Now all I want from her's an abortion
My mind filled with distortion
My eyelids say caution
Yeah I sold crack to get my soul back
They say it's gonna cost a fortune
And I wonder if Allah take debit?
'Cause a nigga got real bad credit
If not I ain't got a whole lot so a nigga like me just can forget it

 

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The Unraveling

[Hook - Raheem DeVaughn:]
I die here within (I die here within)
To be reborn again (To be reborn again)
And I'm somebody new today
Free of my sins today
Feels like they're washed away
A man with no future, a man with no future

[Verse - Black Thought:]
What did the thief say onto the hanging man?
"Here come the hounds, lay your burdens down in advance"
Redemption in the slow grind of chance
My grandmother's hands, the pomp and circumstance
Free at last!, free at last! A different me at last
Scattered like an ash, or history that's past
Came from nowhere, disappear just as fast
A life out of balance, a touch out of grasp
A timetraveler headed to a night catches us
The final stop on the line for all passengers...

[Hook]

[Outro - Raheem DeVaughn (x2):]
And I'm somebody new
Free of my sins today
Feels like they're washed away
A man with no future, a man with no future...

 

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Tomorrow

[Verse 1 - Raheem DeVaughn:]
Send a message to God in Heaven
I'm thankful to be alive
Cause you sleep from 11 to 7
And work hard from 9 to 5
Cause can't nobody last forever
And everybody has to die
And everybody needs protection
I pray it don't pass me by

[Hook:]
Cause everybody needs an angel
And everybody needs to smile
And everybody has an angle
And everybody wants tomorrow right now

[Verse 2 - Raheem DeVaughn:]
Some say that happiness will never find you
Until you find yourself
Some say that happiness is all around you
It ain't how you measure your wealth
No, I say it's free to be yourself
We all fall short sometimes
It costs nothing
It costs nothing, to help sometimes

[Hook]

[Outro:]
Now [x3]