What is Real?

Will you you talk about being from the hood, like we're glad

Wear it proud, like it's a badge

But I'll be damned if, when I'm a dad my kids don't have more than I had

Please don't confuse your situation, with identity, it's not the same thing

You were pharaohs and scholars, long before the day you were armed robbers

But, whatever, it's dumb to be clever, better to act like your brains been severed

Like these Americans so called “artists” boasting about their latest garments

But the same labels make it very clear, they don't make clothes for dark skin

Can't you see they're laughing? The question that I'm asking

Real

Is it real, really?

Now is it real really?

Real

Is it real, really? (Is it real really?)

I doubt it's real really

Real

Is it real, really? (dolla dolla bill y'all)

Now is it real really?

Real

Is it real, really?

I doubt it's real really. (uh, get money)

Pop champagne got my chain, act like you got no brain

Pop champagne got my chain, act like you got no brain

Pop champagne got your chain, act like you got no brain!

Come on let's pop champagne!

Come on let's pop champagne!

Sorry, if I don't dance enough for the radio to play my stuff

And got no girls in the video playing the city ho loco shakin' their butts

I thought that rap was about content, I see now that's just nonsense

We judge MC's by the Bentleys, and how much they can have no conscience

How many chains can you wear, and not care, the cost was a village somewhere

Stones of begets, slowly forget, this ain't the first time there were chains on your neck

It was much worse, choose to accept, but now vexed, just perplexed

Of course that's all us people do all day, is pop champagne and have sex!

Why am I lying, I can't stand it, Chip on my shoulders the size of a planet!

I organic on the mike and the flames I will fan it

To burn down the galaxy I'm up to the challenge

Burn down the fallacy, scorch it with talent

Burn down the anarchy, restore the balance

I am the war with New York to Paris

No fun now around me, I'm far too savage

Yeah, hittin with knowledge, 'cuz we import it, ignoramus

You're playin' the stereotype, so of course you're famous

If for just one second you took your head from out your anus

You would see the motivation for your elevation

What is real?

Is it how much you make in the dollar bills?

What is real?

Is it how many you say you're gonna kill?

What is real?

Or is it something that I can truly feel?

Please tell me, please tell me, please tell me

What is real?

What is real?

Is it how much you make in the dollar bills?

What is real?

Is it how many you say you're gonna kill?

What is real?

Or is it something that I can truly feel?

Please tell me, please tell me, please tell me

What is real?

Still, I got love for you, though it's very clear that you hate yourself

I'm just saying don't food for the crap, being from the ghetto don't make you more black

Also the fact: this is bigger than the color of your skin

It's a matter that we're all in

Dumber you act, the bigger the cheer

The bigger the fool, the bigger career

It's about playing a role, the educated can't be controlled

It's about playing a role, the educated can't be controlled

So by keeping yourself dumb, keeping yourself under the thumb

By keeping yourself dumb, keeping yourself under the thumb

(Feeding your face on the foods that are?) dumb, keeping yourself eating the crumbs

Elevating some fool with a gun, keeping ourselves numb

So we can fit in in a world where the price of life is less than the cost of living

So we can fit in in a world where the price of life is less than the cost of living

Have you forgotten what is real?

Close your eyes and don't believe that all you see is all you feel

Got few tattoos, few bullet wounds? Silly songs? Deliver the tunes?

That tattoo may as well say coon, may as well grunt just like a baboon

That's what people see when they look at me, though they may applaud my stupidity

It's like sharks in a shark tank, watch them tear each other apart

Find the sharks entertaining, but that don't mean that we think they're smart

Or are for that matter, you maybe call yourself a rapper

Disrespect women, but, but you are the one who is a slapper

You get paid to degrade yourself, publicly castrate yourself

What is real?

Is it how much you make in the dollar bills?

What is real?

Is it how many you say you're gonna kill?

What is real?

Or is it something that I can truly feel?

Please tell me, please tell me, please tell me

What is real?

What is real?

Is it how much you make in the dollar bills?

What is real?

Is it how many you say you're gonna kill?

What is real?

Or is it something that I can truly feel?

Please tell me, please tell me, please tell me

What is real?

We all play our positions, convinced that we are so different

Accept these doctrines, and this nonsense, and we take these options

Without one second, never questioning just what the cost is

You're not a hater, you can't relate to the lowest denominator, dominator!

No, I don't wanna read the Source, I'd rather read some of Plato's thoughts

Of course, let us not ever forget, the place in which where he was taught

So if it ain't clear, none of these clown rappers could be my peers

It's philosophical, historical, speculations that I thought were rhetorical

Like what's real, is it my face if an atom is nothing but empty space?

Why the rock feel solid when I'm on it and a comet could collide with the Earth and dislodge it?

Or maybe sonnets, metaphoric, promises the tonic for all that (is chronic?)

Illness, apathy, ignorance tapestry that they weave to turn us into batteries

What is real?

What is real?

What is real?

Please tell me, please tell me, please tell me

What is real?

Please tell me, please tell me, please tell me

What is real?

Have you forgotten what is real?

Close your eyes and don't believe that all you see is all you feel