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  1. Tracks
  2. Common
  3. Nobody’s Smiling
  4. Kingdom
Kingdom by Common

TRACK

Common

Kingdom

Release date: 30th May 2014

From Nobody’s Smiling
Spotify
More on Common

About This Track

Common confronts the moral weight of street violence with unflinching directness. The track opens with a spoken meditation on survival and spiritual reckoning, then moves into a narrative of loss and retaliation. A friend dies; Common stands over the body of the man responsible. The "keys to the kingdom" that might have unlocked a different life instead become the bars of a cell. The production, credited to No I.D., sits spare and heavy beneath a gospel choir that pleads for redemption even as the verses detail the logic of revenge. The song frames Chicago's epidemic of black-on-black violence not as abstraction but as the everyday mathematics of the streets, where the same desperation that drives one person to kill drives another to answer in kind. Common doesn't posture or moralise; he inhabits the contradiction between the spiritual yearning of the hook and the brutal necessity that the verses describe. The result is a record that holds both the desire for grace and the weight of having chosen otherwise.

"Kingdom" is a track by Common, from the album Nobody’s Smiling, released 30th May 2014. Full lyrics are available below.

About the Artist

Common

Common

Lyrics

Kingdom

[Produced by No I.D.]

[Spoken (Video version only)]

I do dirt, in search of a clear mind

Money talk, somebody's gonna hear mine

Grind early before 9:30

Got the nine and the thirty

Kiss of death, you heard me?

My world ain't worldly, any time could be my time

I get high, but still ain't seen Chicago skyline

In my prime, stakes is high cause it's beef

Out here in these streets

Everybody tryna eat off the same plate

Dead presidents, we want the same face

And to think, me and the president, we from the same place

Four-hundred and twenty-one murders, ain't tryna be of the same fate

If I die and go to heaven, will I make it through the main gate?

[Intro: Choir]

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

Ah yes, my Lord

Ah, ah, ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

Ah yes, my Lord

Ah, ah, ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

[Verse 1: Common]

Second row of the church with my hood on

My homie used to rap, he was about to get put on

At his funeral, listening to this church song

His family yelling and screaming, I hurt for ‘em

A cold world, that’s why we pack heaters

Listening to this preacher as he tryna reach us

I’ma need to go back, I gots to get 'em

Back and forth in these streets, that’s the rhythm

Revenge is 'posed to be the Lord's, but I use my own accord

When I seen him on the porch, cost my man his life

I can’t afford not to hit him

Shots ripping through his True Religion denim

These streets was my religion

I stood over him; his life is over, then

Now, these keys got me locked up with older men

Thought these was the keys for me to roll a Benz

They ended up being the keys for my life to end

[Hook: Choir & Common]

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh (Sing)

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah (Ugh, ugh)

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

[Verse 2: Common]

My money ain't straight, my fam ain't straight

Ain't wanna push kis, Heaven couldn't wait

I was hurting, couldn't get no work

You created me from dust—that's why I did dirt

You said that the last shall be first

Now, I'm in a hearse; what's this cash really worth?

My whole life, I had to worry 'bout eating

I ain’t have time to think about what I believe in

When the days of the Kingdom, for Chicago, gon' come?

I’m coming back like the Prodigal Son, and I got a son

And I don’t want my ways following him

The streets swallowing him, and I don’t want no hollows in him

His mama say she see his father in him— hope it’s the good things

'Til life was over, is when I understood things

Standing at the gates, ‘cause I know you’ve forgiven what I’ve done

I’m your son, do I have the keys to get in?

[Hook: Choir & Common]

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh (Sing)

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

[Verse 3: Vince Staples]

Sweet Lord Jesus, tell the polices to let a nigga breathe

My sinning father's seed

Got a shipment by the sea; see, my niggas tryna eat

Eat whatever’s on your plate, save some for me

The worst things in life come sitting six feet

Tryna hop the gate to Heaven ‘cause I couldn’t get a key

But these niggas play for keeps, and I gotta hold my own

Tryna watch my back ‘cause these stripes ain’t free

We still wading in the water

Cocaine blunts marinating in the water

Leina took a puff, and then she gave it to my father

Used to take the bullets out so I could play with the revolver

Satan serenading ever since I was a toddler

Tell ‘em, "Talk is cheap," niggas living for the dollar

So in God we trust, leave the praying to my mama, though

Another motherfucker out of control, just walking my soles

Whoa, littered with the abuse

They wasn’t for show, I promise every pistol was used

See, I was waking up afraid to see my name on the news

Broad day, bare-faced, giving niggas the blues

Nigga, who you? They know me on the streets where I grew

If you ain’t from 'round here, you get gunned down here

Make the best from the least on the quest for the keys to the kingdom

[Hook: Choir & Common]

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh (Sing)

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah (Ugh, ugh)

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh (Sing)

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah (Ugh, ugh)

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh (Sing)

Help me get, get the keys to the kingdom (Yeah)

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh-ooh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah (Ugh, ugh)

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

(And the streets say) Ah, yes

(And the people say) My Lord

(And we all say) Ah, ah

Ah-ah, oh-oh-oh

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

From Nobody’s Smiling

2014
Listen
Album
Nobody’s Smiling
Nobody’s Smiling
Common
Release year
2014
  1. —7 Deadly Sins
  2. —Diamonds
  3. —Blak Majik
  4. —Real
  5. —Out On Bond
  6. —City To City
  7. —Young Hearts Run Free
  8. —Hustle Harder
  9. —Kingdom Remix
  10. —Kingdom
  11. —The Neighborhood
  12. —Rewind That
  13. —Speak My Piece
  14. —No Fear
  15. —Nobody's Smiling

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Credits

Production & Engineering

Writer
Common, Ernest Fowler, James Poyser, No I.D., Vince Staples
Producer
James Poyser, No I.D.
Co-Producer
James Poyser
Keyboards
James Poyser, No I.D.
Ad-Libs
Eleanor Hampton
Assistant Engineer
Casey Cuayo, Mike Kuz, Ross Neiko
Background Vocals
The Kingdom Voices
Mixing Engineer
Young Guru
Recording Engineer
Craig Bauer, Michael “Law” Thomas
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