[INTRO: BLACK THOUGHT]
Welcome to the 2015 BET Cypher
My name is Black Thought from the legendary Roots crew
And my partner Questlove on the one and two
It’s my pleasure to be presenting a few of the stars
Of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton
So on go, my man Lin, my sister Renée, my man Daveed
We gon’ set it
[VERSE 1: LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA]
Lin Miranda here, have you not seen what we can do?
I write shows stacked with black and Puerto Rican dudes
I ride slow to avoid police procedurals
We write slow because I build ‘em like cathedrals
I used to do my homework in the back of a bodega
With abuela, saving up to get a Sega
I stayed up late to tape John Leguizamo’s Spic-O-Rama
Now I write plays, I literally came to bring the drama
And Hamilton’s a monument to hip-hop
I mix em up a Big, Pac, Raekwon, Doc, Dre, Em, Jay, Black Thought
Mix em up in a big wok
Woo! I better back up that big talk
I’m workin’ on various projects
I’m writin’ a song for the Rock next
You can Google that, I got Now and I got Next, ah
I’m full of surprises, it might take a minute to digest
I’m gunnin’ for Pulitzer prizes. Ah, it’s a bit of a process
But I got a Grammy, got a Tony, got a Emmy
Goddamnit, homie, somebody show me the way to the Oscars
But I digress, Hamilton god bless, Puerto Rico
I’ll see y’all at the Richard Rodgers
[VERSE 2: RENEE ELISE GOLDSBERRY]
Mother of two with one life to live
So I’ll jump on but I got no fucks to give
I came to represent the ladies in our hist’ry
We know the founding fathers but the mothers are a mystery
Spitting bars harder than Joan of Arc’s armor
Drivin’ Rosa Parks’ car, bustin out Frances Farmer
Airborne with Amelia Earhart, walkin’ tightropes
Being Pocahontas giving smallpox to white folks
Comin’ out swingin’ like Venus and Serena
On the screen I rep the queens from Nefertiti to Latifah
Ain’t I a woman? Like Sojourner, I’m the truth
Hand on the Bible, book of Esther, book of Ruth
Upgraded the Railroad to a chariot with Harriet
And Marie Curie brought some shit so hot we had to bury it
Get my golden lariat, I’m a Wonder Woman gunnin’ for ‘em
What you runnin’ from?
You hear the thunder rumblin’ something’s coming
Shatter y’all, hurricanes on wood frame houses
The name’s Renée, you’ll never be the same
BLAO. Game: blouses
[VERSE 3: DAVEED DIGGS]
Hittin the block like a hammer hittin the nail on the head
And come from a city where Hammer made hits and get people fed
And fightin so steady we hittin the block with hammers
And headed into the gritty and ready, crrracakak till they dead
Left the city asleep on syrupy medicine and my pockets start to swell
I should seek some acetaminophen, huh?
Three ounces in two styrofoam cups
Take twice daily, duck twelve. It’s never enough
Incredible press, to get 'em to lessen
The pressure on triggers, for niggas is bound to erupt
Call me Vesuvius, what you all foolin' with, quick and unruly and blow the fuck up
I’m a cut above, a uppercut away
They screamin’ “Finish him,” Mortal Kombat, immortal on raps
Diminishing returns make the burners come out, start to wave
Question me if you wanna, y’all, I was up on the stage
Playing a polyglot glutton, suckin’ a molly popsicle
So sick of the club I just turn up at the hospital
Ordering orderlies to turn the heat up four degrees
So I can take my shirt off and live out my California dreams
Scribble “Thug Life” in invisible ink
An umbilical minor chord-clipping metaphysical link
To the pastime high, wrecks, last time I checked
There was hella rappers in line for the time to scream “I’m next”
I just walked right in the door marked “Hamilton Stage,” stayed patient
Playing these dead presidents I’m getting my reparations
Dig
[VERSE 4: BLACK THOUGHT]
Here come the one in charge
A hundred bars to get everybody up in arms
When other artists all froze like a gun was drawn
I turn to a new black like the color orange, huh
When I was born, everyone was warned
That this prolific shit I mourn might become the norm
I come through Sun Tzu when it come to war
For one of mine, I’ll be takin’ every one of yours
‘Cause I ain’t even tryna bicker and blame
I feel like the bigger the name, the bigger the game
I spent long nights hunched over a flickering flame
Perfecting this particular slang, I’m sick in the brain
I’m on it, I seen it comin’ like a clairvoyant
So I just left the meter runnin’ and prepared for ya
I call it premonition, intuition, paranoia
But a lot of people are scared, shit, I’m scared for ya
I see the flag’s still getting swung hard
But we done turned the Motor City into a junkyard
We keep playin’ ourselves, and playin’ the trump card
The neverending search for something that’s for a fuck, hard
To keep up with the Joneses or them Kardashians
Only to be exposed like Ashley Madison
I’m like, is this a rerun? Oh, that’s what’s happenin’
Somebody probably goin’ be coming at this African
Look at me I’m a Six Million Dollar Man dressed as a rap god
Test my religion, get baptized
Too many of us bit the dust for crumbs of crust
In God We Trust, now watch it rust
Here when life ain’t even worth three loosies
A pair of chicken wings, cigarettes, two juices
They make new nooses, and everybody know what the truth is
And that’s what Black Thought from the Roots is
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