Kendrick Lamar - Mortal Man(2015)

[00:32.12] The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it
[00:34.94] Let these words be your earth and moon
[00:36.46] You consume every message
[00:37.97] As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
[00:40.59] And with that being said my nigga, let me ask this question:
[00:43.88] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[00:46.62] When shit hit the fan (one two, one two)
[00:49.52] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[00:52.48] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[00:55.08] The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it
[00:57.60] Let these words be your earth and moon
[00:59.30] You consume every message
[01:00.76] As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
[01:03.43] And with that being said my nigga, let me ask this question:
[01:06.96] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[01:09.42] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[01:12.15] Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask your friends
[01:15.45] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[01:17.78] Do you believe in me? Are you deceiving me?
[01:20.17] Could I let you down easily, is your heart where it need to be?
[01:23.06] Is your smile on permanent? Is your vow on lifetime?
[01:25.77] Would you know where the sermon is if I died in this next line?
[01:28.96] If I'm tried in a court of law, if the industry cut me off
[01:31.72] If the government want me dead, plant cocaine in my car
[01:34.61] Would you judge me a drug-head or see me as K. Lamar
[01:37.45] Or question my character and degrade me on every blog
[01:40.24] Want you to love me like Nelson, want you to hug me like Nelson
[01:43.18] I freed you from being a slave in your mind, you're very welcome
[01:45.95] You tell me my song is more than a song, it's surely a blessing
[01:49.09] But a prophet ain't a prophet til they ask you this question:
[01:52.32] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[01:55.28] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[01:57.73] Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask your friends
[02:01.18] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[02:03.55] The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it
[02:06.33] Let my words be your earth and moon you consume every message
[02:09.18] As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
[02:12.07] And with that
[02:14.85] Do you believe in me? How much you believe in her?
[02:17.56] You think she gon' stick around if them 25 years occur?
[02:20.36] You think he can hold you down when you down behind bars hurt?
[02:23.35] You think y'all on common ground if you promise to be the
[02:25.46] First? Can you be immortalised without your life being expired?
[02:29.02] Even though you share the same blood is it worth the time?
[02:31.89] Like who got your best interest?
[02:33.13] Like how much are you dependent?
[02:34.65] How clutch are the people that say they love you?
[02:36.54] And who pretending?
[02:37.58] How tough is your skin when they turn you in?
[02:39.13] Do you show forgiveness?
[02:40.32] What brush do you bend when dusting
[02:41.54] Your shoulders from being offended?
[02:43.10] What kind of den did they put you in when the lions start hissing?
[02:46.28] What kind of bridge did they burn?
[02:47.57] Revenge or your mind when it's mentioned?
[02:49.12] You wanna love like Nelson, you wanna be like Nelson
[02:51.93] You wanna walk in his shoes but you peacemaking seldom
[02:54.52] You wanna be remembered that delivered the message
[02:57.21] That considered the blessing of everyone
[02:59.29] This your lesson for everyone, say
[03:01.01] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[03:03.73] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[03:06.37] Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask your friends
[03:09.55] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[03:12.12] The voice of Mandela, hope this flow stay propellin'
[03:14.82] Let my word be your Earth and moon
[03:16.48] You consume every message
[03:17.79] As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
[03:20.60] And if you riding with me, nigga
[03:23.43] I been wrote off before, I got abandonment issues
[03:26.46] I hold grudges like bad judges, don't let me resent you
[03:29.16] That's not Nelson-like, want you to love me like Nelson
[03:31.89] I went to Robben's Island analysing, that's where his cell is
[03:34.72] So I could find clarity, like how much you cherish me
[03:37.58] Is this relationship a fake or real as the heavens be?
[03:40.18] See I got to question it all, family, friends, fans, cats, dogs
[03:43.26] Trees, plants, grass, how the wind blow
[03:45.53] Murphy's Law, generation X, will I ever be your X?
[03:48.73] Floss off a baby step, mauled by the mouth of
[03:51.24] Pit bulls, put me under stress
[03:53.17] Crawled under rocks, ducking y'all, it's respect
[03:55.55] But then tomorrow, put my back against the wall
[03:57.69] How many leaders you said you needed then left 'em for dead?
[04:00.48] Is it Moses, is it Huey Newton or Detroit Red?
[04:03.33] Is it Martin Luther, JFK, shoot or you assassin
[04:06.36] Is it Jackie, is it Jesse, oh I know, it's Michael Jackson, oh
[04:09.40] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[04:12.47] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[04:15.18] That nigga gave us Billie Jean, you say he touched those kids?
[04:18.11] When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
[04:20.77] The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it
[04:23.50] Let my word be your earth and moon you consume every message
[04:26.25] As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
[04:29.24] And if you riding with me nigga, let me ask this question nigga
[04:47.85] "I remember you was conflicted
[04:50.07] Misusing your influence
[04:52.57] Sometimes I did the same
[04:55.04] Abusing my power, full of resentment
[04:58.27] Resentment that turned into a deep depression
[05:01.07] Found myself screaming in the hotel room
[05:04.49] I didn't wanna self destruct
[05:07.33] The evils of Lucy was all around me
[05:10.83] So I went running for answers
[05:14.08] Until I came home
[05:16.46] But that didn't stop survivor's guilt
[05:19.72] Going back and forth trying to convince myself the stripes I earned
[05:24.27] Or maybe how A-1 my foundation was
[05:27.72] But while my loved ones was fighting the
[05:29.56] Continuous war back in the city, I was entering a new one
[05:34.40] A war that was based on apartheid and discrimination
[05:40.57] Made me wanna go back to the city and tell the homies what I learned
[05:45.13] The word was respect
[05:47.46] Just because you wore a different gang color than mine's
[05:51.86] Doesn't mean I can't respect you as a black man
[05:55.91] Forgetting all the pain and hurt we caused each other in these streets
[06:00.19] If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us
[06:06.53] But I don't know, I'm no mortal man, maybe I'm just another nigga"
[06:15.52] Shit and that's all I wrote
[06:17.87] I was gonna call it Another Nigga but, it ain't really a poem,
[06:21.62] I just felt like it's something you probably could relate to.
[06:25.33] Other than that, now that I finally got a chance to holla at you,
[06:28.64] I always wanted to ask you about a certain situa--,
[06:31.73] About a metaphor actually, you spoke on the ground.
[06:36.39] What you mean 'bout that, what the ground represent?
[06:40.09] The ground is gonna open up and swallow the evil
[06:43.49] Right
[06:44.66] That's how I see it, my word is bond.
[06:46.36] I see--and the ground is the symbol for the poor people,
[06:49.53] The poor people is gonna open up this whole world and swallow up the
[06:52.24] Rich people. Cause the rich people gonna be so fat,
[06:54.84] They gonna be so appetising, you know what I'm saying, wealthy,
[06:58.32] Appetising. The poor gonna be so poor and hungry,
[07:01.87] You know what I'm saying it's gonna be like... there might
[07:06.08] Be some cannibalism out this mutha, they might eat the rich
[07:10.30] Aight so let me ask you this then,
[07:12.44] Do you see yourself as somebody that's rich or
[07:15.70] Somebody that made the best of their own opportunities?
[07:19.77] I see myself as a natural born hustler,
[07:21.76] A true hustler in every sense of the word. I took nothin',
[07:24.67] I took the opportunities,
[07:25.97] I worked at the most menial and degrading job and built myself up so
[07:30.53] I could get it to where I owned it.
[07:32.00] I went from having somebody manage me to me hiring the person that
[07:35.23] Works my management company.
[07:36.80] I changed everything I realized my destiny in a matter of five years
[07:40.52] You know what I'm saying I made myself a millionaire.
[07:42.93] I made millions for a lot of people now it's time to make millions
[07:45.74] For myself, you know what I'm saying.
[07:47.04] I made millions for the record companies,
[07:48.61] I made millions for these movie companies, now I make millions for us
[07:53.46] And through your different avenues of success,
[07:56.78] How would you say you managed to keep a level of sanity?
[08:00.36] And by my faith in "all good things come to those that stay true.
[08:08.69] " You know what I'm saying, and it was happening to me for a reason,
[08:11.67] You know what I'm saying, I was noticing, shit,
[08:14.25] I was punching the right buttons and it was happening.
[08:17.08] So it's no problem,
[08:18.64] You know I mean it's a problem but I'm not
[08:20.02] Finna let them know. I'm finna go straight through
[08:23.12] Would you consider yourself a fighter at heart or
[08:27.08] Somebody that only reacts when they back is against the wall?
[08:33.27] Shit, I like to think that at every opportunity I've ever been
[08:37.44] Threatened with resistance, it's been met with resistance.
[08:41.67] And not only me but it goes down my family tree.
[08:44.75] You know what I'm saying, it's in my veins to fight back
[08:46.84] Aight well, how long you think it take before niggas be like,
[08:52.20] We fighting a war,
[08:53.76] I'm fighting a war I can't win and I wanna lay it all down
[08:57.91] In this country a black man only have like 5 years we can exhibit
[09:01.87] Maximum strength, and that's right now while you a teenager,
[09:04.83] While you still strong or while you still wanna lift weights,
[09:07.38] While you still wanna shoot back.
[09:08.72] Cause once you turn 30 it's like they take the heart and soul out of
[09:11.64] A man, out of a black man in this country.
[09:13.73] And you don't wanna fight no more.
[09:15.21] And if you don't believe me you can look around,
[09:16.96] You don't see no loud mouth 30-year old muthafuckas
[09:20.17] That's crazy, because me being one of your offspring of the legacy
[09:24.65] You left behind I can truly tell you that there's nothing but turmoil
[09:28.71] Goin' on so I wanted to ask you what you
[09:31.97] Think is the future for me and my generation today?
[09:35.22] I think that niggas is tired of grabbin' shit out the stores and next
[09:38.99] Time it's a riot there's gonna be, like, uh, bloodshed for real.
[09:42.83] I don't think America know that.
[09:44.52] I think American think we was just playing and it's gonna be some
[09:46.58] More playing but it ain't gonna be no playing. It's gonna be murder,
[09:50.20] You know what I'm saying, it's gonna be like Nat Turner, 1831,
[09:53.70] Up in this muthafucka. You know what I'm saying, it's gonna happen
[09:58.01] That's crazy man. In my opinion,
[10:01.92] Only hope that we kinda have left is music and vibrations,
[10:07.22] Lotta people don't understand how important it is.
[10:10.10] Sometimes I be like,
[10:12.00] Get behind a mic and I don't know what type of energy
[10:14.57] I'mma push out, or where it comes from. Trip me out sometimes
[10:20.26] Because the spirits, we ain't even really rappin',
[10:22.94] We just letting our dead homies tell stories for us
[10:25.32] Damn
[10:28.07] I wanted to read one last thing to you.
[10:30.81] It's actually something a good friend
[10:32.92] Had wrote describing my world. It says:
[10:39.84] "The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
[10:44.04] Its only job is to eat or consume everything
[10:47.42] Around it, in order to protect itself from this mad city
[10:51.45] While consuming its environment the
[10:53.78] Caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
[10:56.73] One thing it noticed is how much the
[10:58.46] World shuns him, but praises the butterfly
[11:02.05] The butterfly represents the talent,
[11:04.09] The thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar
[11:08.02] But having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillar sees the
[11:11.06] Butterfly as weak and figures out
[11:13.87] A way to pimp it to his own benefits
[11:16.85] Already surrounded by this mad city the caterpillar
[11:19.26] Goes to work on the cocoon which institutionalizes him
[11:23.80] He can no longer see past his own thoughts
[11:26.27] He's trapped
[11:28.13] When trapped inside these walls certain ideas take roots,
[11:30.80] Such as going home, and bringing back new concepts to this mad city
[11:35.37] The result?
[11:36.85] Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant
[11:41.62] Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations that
[11:45.70] The caterpillar never considered, ending the internal struggle
[11:50.85] Although the butterfly and caterpillar are
[11:52.71] Completely different, they are one and the same."
[11:57.47] What's your perspective on that?
[12:01.51] Pac? Pac?
[12:06.26] Pac?!
[12:06.78]