Live Up

[Verse 1: Jean Grae]

Fuck y’all motherfuckers, fuck your fame

Fuck your team of niggas, fuck your name

I could crush y’all cold, ice, diamonds, profane prolific

I’m Cobain but living, I’m “Don’t Explain” Billie

Holiday’s spirit, you feel it in your veins, heroin

Addict conceal it like the pain I revisit every time

I do a line, more rhymes for nothing (So what’s)

(My time for?)  Writing off?  I endorse nothing but me

Shit, no product but free speech, prophetical

Sleestak, nobody can reach me—go tweet that, Greasy

I’m the preacher of freedom rap, just freedom from

Being wack, no Perry, Madea crack—go ‘head if you

Feeling that.  I know you gon’ give me flack for it.  “She

Wacky, black.  We, as a people, should stand for it”

Surprise, nigga.  I’ll open your eyes bigger—no, not for them thighs

I have been destined to rise higher than all this

[Hook: Talib Kweli and Jean Grae]

We came too far to give up

So now we just got to live up

I live high, forget lows

And I fly, and I grow

See, we so high when we get down

And once you fly, can’t forget how

I live high, forget lows

And I fly, and I grow, keep it moving, man

[Verse 2: Jean Grae]

Outcast, misfit, the chick don’t fit

Outlast your quick shit, cliques, hits, boasts, beefs

Wrists, ‘fros, the gold teeth, trend brought back

The shitloads of switched dress codes—damn jeans.  “Damn, Jean

You still rap?  You’re still a fucking thorn sticking

Yourself into more war?  For what?”

I’m so happy that you asked!  (Applause!) To crack jaws

To black eyes, to change mind, to crack joke, to chastise

To toast drinks, to expose, to promote

Think!  To post links, to face foes, to erase foes

To face those who ain’t know, to chase

Free caseloads with other free caseloads, but never

To catch a case though.  Old-school queso

Not to get poked on Facebook or fame, no

Just kidding.  This is for the same dough

Same lane-playing, same ball, same park, same glow

[Hook: Talib Kweli and Jean Grae]

We came too far to give up

So now we just got to live up

I live high, forget lows

And I fly, and I grow

See, we so high when we get down

And once you fly, can’t forget how

I live high, forget lows

And I fly, and I grow, keep it moving, man

[Verse 3: Jean Grae]

You gon’

Have to let me in at some point—eh, you probably don’t

‘Cept at gunpoint, and if I said I had a gun, it’d be

A cliché, plus it’d be a gun, plus be in your face

Welcome to my purgatory, the urgent story in a

Perpetual state, ignoring.  If you can imagine

The things it burdens on me, you can just imagine

The hurt—I’ve learned ignoring.  My person is the person

In the verses’ stories vs. the person in the first-person stories

Vs. the person to disperse the stories

No diversity that’s worth exploring, not commercially

Personal boredom can lead to shit that makes it worser for ‘em

I welcome it ‘cause Hell’s a flaming bitch, I’m working for him

It’s queer.  You gonna shaft or pack her in the rafters

This year?  Or tag her “backpacker stack” and slap her rear?

Whatever.  I’m irrational, passionate

Clear, living in a moment you never will come near

[Hook: Talib Kweli and Jean Grae]

We came too far to give up

So now we just got to live up

I live high, forget lows

And I fly, and I grow

See, we so high when we get down

And once you fly, can’t forget how

I live high, forget lows

And I fly, and I grow, keep it moving, man