Crooked Ways

[Verse] Uhhh... Word to Grandpops who couldn't fathom the Obamas' I don't hate America, just demand she keeps her promises 20-teens looking like the 60's, it's crazy A nationwide deja vu, what my people 'posed to do? Go to schools named after the Klan founder Word 'round town is y'all don't see why we frownin' Native American students forced to learn about Junípero Serra How is that fair, bruh? Some heroes unsung and some monsters get monuments built for 'em But ain't we all a little bit a monster? We crooked! Man, your heroes are worthless And man can sure try, but only God gives purpose You crooked! Be humble or be quiet Your kingdom can catch flames as effortless as riots Entire empire's a card castle, chill And the strength of your whole team is crumbled with one meme It's crooked! Your whole works is twisted He ain't old enough to buy beer but go on and enlist him Send him to Iraq and why he come back crazy? 'Cause no human being should see the inside of a baby You expect trust in a system that needed to be convinced Of the madness of trustin' a court that waved a Confederate flag It's crooked! That's twisted, demented, perverted, got fallen written all over us And got the nerve to judge each other Crooked! That logic fatally flawed Like sickness is a sign that you out of the will of God Like one ounce of crack gains the same amount of jail time As eighteen of cocaine, but ain't they the same thing? It's crooked! Stay eating our own kind And muster up a scandal 'stead of celebrating shine And somehow that's righteous like the world needs to know We exposin' them posers with judgmental boulders Crooked! And at one time, we built pyramids One can only wonder why we ain't wiped ourselves out yet We're as good as it gets: crooked! Clueless buffoons put a man on the moon And I still can't get cellphone reception in my room It's crooked! Boy, that's often off-kilter Awful standoff-ish, plan is outlandish And awful uncanny, resemblance a mis-mark Like Chris Columbus might as well have landed in Denmark Me - just an Allstar Chuck Taylor rhyme sayer And the fact I ain't get lost on the way here is amazing Me, just a crooked stick in awe of His goodness And somehow the school-to-prison pipeline missed this And moving minds swiftly and change an entire industry Tailor made for greatness 'cause cuz got bad blood Yeah, y'all still lookin' at a Tunnel Rat Pen player, earthworm, battle cat, hates trend Might learn my lesson the day after the world ends And been wrestling with it since my wife was my girlfriend Crooked like I'll take a bullet for my wife Yet I wonder what's under the skirt of the girl on my flight These eyes are mine, wander lost sight, come and get me Homie, I'm not a leader, just a hippie with daddy issues Shatter dreams and promises, a closed-minded hypocrite All the while standing in the pulpit, the culprit We are all of the above, right and wrong and indifferent Yet none of the above, it naturally fit in this Subjects and predicates subjected to my detriment Dedicated to elevating devastating pride It's quite a ride but if you look inside, bruh Some things just don't make sense, go wit' it We stay perplexed at the truth that defies logic But who say that logic the best way to understand it? Man, that's the thinking of our colonizers Truth is proven only through ears and eyes and If you can't touch it, then you can't trust it That's why they can't explain the love in my daughter's eyes And that's that conscious rap, oh that's played out You old-school, you old, dude, you aged out It's not cool, them old rules, they phased out There's new rules, them new dudes ain't like you They say you hating when you don't toss 'em a re-tweet I study for every test and y'all is looking for a cheat sheet Things I gotta tell ya, love you too much to be scared of ya Concoction of contradictions, misnomers and paradox Conclusion confusion like the way that I see me An apex predator, ten steps ahead of ya Desperately trying to hide my insecurities Papier maché property trying to hide the duct tape Defending my card castle like it could stand in one gust of wind The lust of eyes shackle me just as I be tackling My inner demons eat through my marriage and my parenting What is arrogant and humble? Eloquent ridiculous, confident and nervous The smell of cigarettes and broken dreams Sold out the tickets for the VIPs Bands that could've been contenders now Venice Beach vendors Like dawg, that could be me I swore I'd never wear skinny jeans My homie looks real dumb in size 40 Dickies That's laughable, better be adaptable And hit the road to see how far that rabbit hole go This is present tense None of this "already I've been delivered" mess None of that pseudo-righteousness I'mma let you guess the rest Lusted little clusters surrounded by natives That's the picture of foolish pride in the eyes of General Custer They watched his eyes slowly close like "Yeah, guerro, we remember the Alamo" It's confusing, American generals get statues Even for the battles that they lose People are so perplexing Perpetuating the same hate they out protesting And Netflix exposing the holes in our morals like Whose side are you on: Walter or Sky's? You cornered now 'cause every corner boy is now humanized Tryna make ends meet just like you and I That shifts your paradigm, bruh that go Change your life on sight like the skies in Morocco What is man but rich soil toiled in fine Hennessy A beautiful garden that cost a pretty penny Listen it's freely given, but you've been warned These halos stay balanced on the tip of our horns We crooked!