 (spoken)
This is a real nigga P.S.A. from the Black Star embassy in Brooklyn entitled "What Is Beef?"
(Talib Kweli):
Yo, I was sold to a sick European by a rich African battling,
Middle passages, I can't go back again.
Battlin' years of denied history, lies and mysteries.
Wives with misty eyes watching they niggas be beaten viciously
Battling the wilderness of North America,
ran by the river, only stopping to pray. Chased by predators:
Terrorists with etiquette, who vote and kill they president,
Their capacity for evil so evident and prevalent.
Ain't no hesitation involved, a nation dissolved,
while we sit back waitin' to evolve.
Those who'd trade they freedom for protection deserve neither.
Fuck a name, fuck tradition, religion, you learn Jesus.
Turn the other cheek, inherit the earth, just stay meek.
Fuck the way you speak, try to walk, we chop off your feet.
Fast forward to 2003; Niggas beef.
The psychology intrudin' the slaves to run deep.
(Chorus) x2
Hell Yeah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
What's Beef?
Hell Yeah, yeah yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
That's Beef
Hell Yeah, yeah yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah
Its always your own people, sometimes it's your own people
(Mos Def):
Yo, Beef is not what Jay said to Nas,
Beef is when working niggas can't find jobs.
So they try to find niggas to rob,
Try to find bigger guns so they can finish the job.
Beef is when the crack kids can't find moms,
cause they in a pine box, or locked behind bars.
Beef ain't the summer Jam by Hot97.
Beef is the Cocaine and AIDS epidemic.
Beef don't come with a radio edit.
Beef is when the judge is calling you defendant.
Beef, it come with a long jail sentence,
Handed down to you in a few short minutes.
Beef is when your girl come through for a visit,
Talkin bout her pregnant, by some other nigga.
Beef is high blood pressure and bad credit;
Need a loan for your home and you're too broke to get it.
And all your little kids is doin' is gettin bigger,
You try not to raise them around these wild niggas.
Beef is when a gold-digger got your seed in her,
A manicured hand out, like, "Pay me nigga,
Or I'm tellin your wife,
And startin up some foul rumor that'll ruin your life."
Beef is when a gangster ain't doing it right,
And other gangsters then decided what to do with his life.
Beef is not what these famous niggas do on the mic,
Beef is what George Bush would do in a fight. (that's right)
Beef is not what Ja said to Fifty.
Beef is world and earth not being here with me.
When a soldier ends his life with his own gun,
Beef is trying to figure out what to tell his son.
Beef is oil prices and geopolitics;
Beef is Iraq, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip.
Some beef is big, and some beef is small,
But what y'all call beef is no beef at all.
Beef is real life, happenin every day,
And its realer than the songs that you gave to K-Slay.
This has been a Black Star P.S.A.
From Mos Def, Pretty Flaco, Black Dante,
From the Black Star Embassy B to the K!
|
Switch to English 