Back to Basics

[Verse 1: Kanye West]

Uh, uh, let's take it back to basics

When shit gets worse, we converse

How we need a new balance

Before the lines get crossed like Asics

Just look at what we got; if we don't shoot, then rebox

This is a beat that no flow can detox, so the respect is due

Like my Louie bag, I don't wanna have to check you

I'm Chi as Buck-Fiftys and Pelle Pelle leathers

Some say my beats made the Bulls play better

I say, black on black is the hate that hate made

Sara Lee with the dough, I'm talkin' bout the cake maid

McDonald's with the flow, served over a billion

You've seen the video, words over the building

Uh, I wish I could give you this feeling

I wish I could give you this feeling

And when the Workout Plan ain't work out, man

Me and Common is back on the corners again

On the corner

[Verse 2: Common]

Uh, yeah, uh, yeah, uh-uh, uh-uh

I open my eyes, the corner is like African tribes

The black is subsidized, the black enterprise, the passion arise

The youth fantasize, who got some cash in they eyes

If youth dies, mamas askin' rationalize

Tryna build a spot where ghetto bastards could rise

The ghetto has been bastardized by those that capitalize

Wonder if it's a plan that the master devised

To bring his people to a land where the blacks are despised?

On the corner