Few Good Things

[Part I]

[Verse 1: Saba]

I put the punch in the kick instead of punchin' a clock

It's no wonder that this is timeless

Nights spent sleepin' on the floor, need a bed or at least a cot

Since his dreams startin' to define him

The grind never stopped for the workin' class, fuck a Birkin bag

I learned my colors, then I had to watch what color shirt I had

Like a concierge, I show the way of our concernin' past

But everybody can't come along, I come to terms with that

I ain't never been one to burn bridges or burn a bag

Ironic, money turn a man into an island

And a friend into a financial advisor

Take a family and divide it in America, the land of the tyrant

Still with the same niggas, and that mean the women too

The only thing change what I paid for the tennis shoe

Like Eminem on the stage 'fore he blew, this is livin' proof

Bad things come in threes, good things come in few

Yeah, few

[Chorus: Saba]

All the fears we had to run from

And he only want a few things

We went back to where we start from

Not the only one

All the fears we had to run from

And he only want a few things

We went back to where we start from

Not the only one

[Verse 2: Saba]

Niggas reppin' blocks like the taxi wars

But the thing about turf is that it never actually grows

I tried to focus on the sprouts like a grocery store

But in the hood, shit don't always go how it's supposed to go

So we adjusted like a tailor makin' alterations

Altercations in a Austin neighborhood was all for paper

Group think swear that it was all contagious how we all complacent

I said, "Fuck it, I'm all in" like I was off to Vegas

The followed days, I grew my dreads like I was part Jamaican

Know the journey waitin' is a lonely one, they'll call him crazy

Because believin' in yourself not often celebrated

People projectin' a mirror image that is merely hatred

The fear he faces is the same as me, I'm peer adjacent

All truth, you know I don't lie like Shakira shakin'

Iridescent people show they colors, I assume they true

Bad things come in threes, good things comin' soon

Few

[Pre-Chorus]

And he only want a few things

[Chorus: Saba]

All the fears we had to run from

And he only want a few things

We went back to where we start from

Not the only one

All the fears we had to run from

And he only want a few things

We went back to where we start from

Not the only one

[Part II]

[Verse: Black Thought]

From what we knew about my mother

She was cut from the cloth of South Carolina Gullah

She knew to keep the root a right amount of color

Her old soul remind you of somebody abuelas

It's smooth the way she dip into her mental capoeira

When she starin' into your soul and you tryin' not to let her

Now and then you might get a word if not a operetta

When she take it upon herself to drop a acapella 'bout

Different rules, relatives you can't pick and choose

How they quick to get confused and then disapprove

Grown actin' like they still in school

But in the grand scheme of things, it all seems pretty minuscule

A cool toast to the people we adore the most

Let's hold 'em close like the water headed for the coast

I'm wide awoke, what I'm haunted by is more than ghosts

It's when you slip and sippin' a mornin' roast

Listenin' to Hall and Oates, oyster flex on a ashy wrist

As I reflect on what got me this

How I'm one of Cassie kids, we from S.P. and we come in twos

I'm unenthused, but good things come in fews

[Part III]

[Verse: Saba]

I tried that invincible shit, but the principle is

When it's niggas defendin' your wig, then it's a pendulum shift

I tried to spend a little less like a minimalist

But then I can confess that this gets harder the bigger you get

The rich'll get rich, the poor get pissed, that's just what it is

We seen everything from the gutter to glitz

Adults in the crib tellin' they kids to cover they ears

Fight with a youngin and watch they older brothers appear

Like two in the front and one in the rear

The fun subsides when you gotta swallow your anger or stomach your fear

All the money a myth, it's a sunken abyss

But necessary for the family to have somewhere to live

So you stuck with makin' decisions more than some wouldn't get

The baggage that come with the bag, hope you not fumblin' it

Marathon, not a sprint, like I'm honorin' Nip

When commas the common denominator, all the percent

Got us movin' to the Pacific in hopes that it would be different

The boat we was on had physics that left some of us swimmin'

Don't ask 'bout my independence, we not financially literate

Dangle a million dollars when oxygen was the mission

We just wanna breathe, we been drownin' down here for centuries

Black and brown boy identity, families that depend on me

Art get turned to assembly line every line my lineage

Glass half full, the other half was the emptiness

We turned a bunch of nothing to abundance

Few good things

[Outro]

When— When— When uncle Eddie got married to auntie

He— He married my aunt

You have to tell the story