Natural Causes Reprise

[Intro]

You pick up the phone and you hear that little clicking sound with no dial tone, right? It's like the dial tone is about to come, but it never comes. And you say the phone is what? You say, "the phone is dead," right? So "dead" has more than one meaning. Are y'all with me? We're not just talking about those who got shot in a drive-by

[Verse 1]

Hip hop's middle aged

The first rappers started young as Lil' Wayne

It's been three decades since the rhythm came

Original rappers are entering their brittle stage

The average black man's life span

Is like three fifths that of a white man

He never put five grand in a life plan

So he can't afford to fall cause he might land

In a clinic where the nurse is the night man

They're to sign in visitors and wipe ass

His record label never told him 'bout the flight plan

They shot videos on beaches with white sand

[Interlude: Cornel West]

"American mainstream is obsessed with black creative genius – be it music, walk, style – but at the same time puts a low priority on the black social misery which is the very context out of which that creativity flows."

[Chorus]

They used to act all active and lawless

They used to live like bachelors balding

All actresses hit menopause and

Rappers will die of natural causes

They're gonna get hip fractures from falling

They're gonna need Viagra and bypasses

They're gonna wait for their grandkids to call them

Rappers will die of natural causes

[Verse 2]

And while they're alive and ruined by pain

Rap fans shall not Google thy name

The day you die, people share your music by AIM

That's postmortem internet eulogized fame

[Chorus]

They used to act all active and lawless

They used to live like bachelors balding

All actresses hit menopause and

Rappers will die of natural causes

They're gonna get hip fractures from falling

They're gonna need Viagra and bypasses

They're gonna wait for their grandkids to call them

Rappers will die of natural causes