1. |
80s Babies Grown Up
04:33
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intro
for the 80s, 80s babies
thats what they call us
but we all grown up now
but we can reflect...
reflect on where we been
how we got here
and think about where we're finna take this
we that
we that, we that special generation
everybody claimin the 80s
but cant nobody claim it like us
first verse
so im an 80s representative
the difinitive, decade
recipient of the benefits
of the 60s and the debts paid
where the best laid
genocidal policies
of reaganomics thrive
so we celebrate
being alive at 25
'cause gettin cream is how houses
without our fathers rasied us
and they schooled us to be street smart
so fukk the letter grades and
its money over bitches
so us women stay degraded
and the hateful love relations
be the reasons that we jaded
and we pass the nigga syndrome
to the babies we be makin
and we claimin that the system
should be blamed for what it made us
convinced that inhumanity
is part of human nature
rat racin, paper chasin
and obsessed with bein famous
but we're smart too
dropouts of the fines of the art schools
graduate and entrepreneurs
sharper than sharks tooth
launderin the money
that the older homies gave us
from the sellin of the drugs
that made the tales they told to raise us
chorus
aye we the children of computers
and the rocket ships blowin up
mtv era, shit hip hop
bout as old as us
the AIDS epidemic
and the boycotted olympics
HEY! WE 80S BABIES BABY
BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP
jordan slam dunking and
tyson with them upper cuts
black folks livin good
the huxtables was showin us
nintendo and transformers
light brights and legwarmers
WE 80S BABIES BABY
BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP
second verse
conceived by young lovers
gettin down to soul music and
birthed into a social experiment
set to ruin us
shaped by black communities
with nationalist influences
and hustlers usin dope money
fueling revolutions
but they always kept a bankroll
jewels and jordan shoes
and their women told us young girls
how we could pimp it too
sellin sex so they confuse
bein empowered with abused
steady flash to show we have it
and abandon all the rules
so yea im rockin berkinstocks
yea i drive a german car
but yo im still at war
i aint forgot the modern holocaust
paddy waggons haulin off
black bodies without a charge
to face incarceration, death
and sodomy by prison guards
my generation's different
from the set ins and the million march
movement aint as fluid
so our contributions written off
rebellin for the hell of it
we wreckless but we got a cause
its freedom and the fortune
and wont stop until we get it all
chorus
aye we the children of computers
and the rocket ships blowin up
mtv era, shit hip hop
bout as old as us
the AIDS epidemic
and the boycotted olympics
HEY! WE 80S BABIES BABY
BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP
jordan slam dunking and
tyson with them upper cuts
black folks livin good
the huxtables was showin us
nintendo and transformers
light brights and legwarmers
WE 80S BABIES BABY
BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP
third verse
we learned the game from the gang bang
and the golden era
but we san with MJ when he was
mannin in the mirror
karl kani cross colors and girbauds
is wat the gear was
and drive bys and extension cords
is what the gear was
we told to go to college
on them athletic scholarships
or be like maxine waters
and get deep into them politics
or enterprisin like the nation
on that black empowerment
or be like nino brown
and build a criminal conglomerate
a million different roads but yo
the path is still success
tryna balance out the street cred
and the corporate respect
activist execs tryna rep correct
ballin out so when its time to pay the debt
sometimes there dont be nothin left
what can i say
no excuses, but the truth is
we growin
and what we do now
will designate the future
and we know it
trust,
we know the load thats on our shoulders
its a must
that we world a better place
than it was left to us
chorus
aye we the children of computers
and the rocket ships blowin up
mtv era, shit hip hop
bout as old as us
the AIDS epidemic
and the boycotted olympics
HEY! WE 80S BABIES BABY
BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP
jordan slam dunking and
tyson with them upper cuts
black folks livin good
the huxtables was showin us
nintendo and transformers
light brights and legwarmers
WE 80S BABIES BABY
BUT NOW WE GROWIN UP
credits
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2. |
Hansberry Legacy
03:27
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verse 1
I used to wanna rock the mic like mc lyte
and say that salt n pepa nice what my mic sounds like
I used to write to beats rhymes and life tribe tracks
Trapper keeper kept the rhymes organized in my back pack
pen in my pockets, old school mixtapes stayed in my walkman
recognized the samples, from the soul joint played in the days I was crawlin
and to the boom bap I was raised into walkin
hat to the back, one overall strap
on the tlc tip with the condom eye patch
I catch the rhyme scheme studying the greats
Freestyle to the beats/ boogie down to the breaks
Whether doin the butt or the humpty hump
Or writin fresh on my knock off reebok pumps
Just a youngen in the culture that the people called a gimmic
A trendy epidemic we’d be through with in a minute
Hook
And as a shorty i was in it just to mimic
Did the knowledge gained the wisdom got addicted and committed
Joined the lineage of poets, activists and musicians
To the rhythm are!
Now that im grown a little bit I represent it
Stay attentive to the culture and the conflicts that’s within it
Good and bad I don’t defend it, live and give it to descendents
Let em know that they are!
{sample says} young gifted black
Verse 2
my generation is the ripening fruit
Picked for the feast to give the people all a bite of the truth
cores carrying the seeds that will enliven in the youth
And then return to dirt to strengthen up and widen the roots
That been growin since the 60s
sprouts germinated during great migrations at the turn of the century
strange fruit harvest, rotten,
and bloody bodies hangin from the branches had the soil all sodden
trod into our souls by the word of the authors
and spread through the songs that were heard from the marchers
blues from the jook plus the gospel from the churches
made the music for the movement that was more than lip service
inspiration for the living and the mourning for the murdered
made its way through the airwaves and everybody heard it
till the system tried to crush it pushed it underneath the surface
where it bubbled underground and in the 80s it erupted
Bridge
the fashion and the function
the flashin and the stuntin
the taking what they said we couldn’t have but always wanted
from nothing to abundant
the styles that we come up with
the voice of revolution and conspicuous consumption
the window to our world that everybody used to peek in
the mirror of our selves and the conditions that we be in
like the old slave hymns with hidden messages of freedom
backspun and cross faded so we could receive em
Hook…
And as a shorty i was in it just to mimic
Did the knowledge gained the wisdom got addicted and committed
Joined the lineage of poets, activists and musicians
To the rhythm are!
Now that im grown a little bit I represent it
Stay attentive to the culture and the conflicts that’s within it
Good and bad I don’t defend it, live it give it to descendents
Let em know that they are!
{samples says} young gifted black
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