Get By Side A (Remix)

[Intro: Talib Kweli]

Yeah, (Kweli) get by, I get back

Classic Brooklyn

Yeah, let's go, Kanye West

[Verse 1: Talib Kweli]

We sell crack to our own nigga

I'm back in the zone

My passionate poems got the feds tappin' my phone

It's like Timothy McVeigh, they say I acted alone

I got a whole team that'll put a gat to your dome

(To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by)

Yo, this remix is hot, we only dealin' with the live hip-hop

Yo, get by, get back nigga (Roc)

[Verse 2: Jay-Z]

Just to get by, nigga, I sold coke, nigga, I pushed lah

Carried a four-five, claimed I was rеady to die

Promised nevеr to cry, held it all inside

Reality was too much to take, so I

Kept my mind fried, slept for most of mine

Soon as I closed my eyes, then I woke up behind

Thinking either I load up these nines, or blow up with rhymes

‘Cause this flow of mine is like blow up, but lines of coca

And your folks think Hov' just wrote stuff to rhyme

Nah, I'm a poster from what happens seeing your moms

Doing five dollars worth of work just to get a dime

So pardon my disposition

Why should I listen to a system that never listened to me?

Picture me working McDonald's (Yeah, yeah)

I'd rather pull a MAC on you (Ugh, yeah)

Sorry, Ms. Jackson, but I'm packin', bye!

[Chorus: background singers & Talib Kweli]

This morning I woke up

Feelin brand new, I jumped up

Feelin my highs and my lows

In my soul, and my goals

Just to stop smokin' and stop drinkin'

But I been thinkin' I got my reasons

Just to get by, just to get by

Just to get by, just to get by

Everybody, throw your hands in the sky, it go

(C'mon, yeah, c'mon, get by, just to get by, just to get by, hands in the sky it go)

Ladies and gentlemen

You now rocking with the best

(Just to get by, just to get by, just to get by)

Talib Kweli (by-by)

[Verse 3: Talib Kweli]

We keep it gangsta, say 'fo shizzle', 'fo sheezy'

Desensitized to the violence on the TV during the war

Killin' each other is easy, its pourin' liquor for fallen niggas

Believe me, it's ghetto libation, seen it all before

Just to get by, my people, we get fly

My people, we get high, fillin' cigars with the lah

Nigga, come on! Even Jesus was stoned

Before receivin' the throne

I send a rest in peace to Nina Simone

[Verse 4: Busta Rhymes]

Guess I was used to just standin' on corners

Waitin' for paper bags with bundles of crack

Hopin' the week was good, so I could get money back

When I was stressed I possessed a side of my strength

That made me angry and bleed

With the frustration havin' me smokin' Newports and weed

'Cause when I would rely on my niggas and street mothafuckas

And reach out to wifey, and then I place a call on my mother

(To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by)

*Ayo, Mom, pick up the phone, I gotta to talk to you, Ma*

If you was five percent instead of actin' stupid and guessin'

You had to go and study your lessons

And know your math in the building in session

(To get by, just to get by, just to get by, just to get by)

Fuck around, you get your ass beat for not studying, nigga

Before grabbin' the mic before, we used to scream through a speaker

Before hustling crack, we quickly got with hustling reefer

Take a look at niggas seeing shit, I don't understand

And it's funny the way you compromise yourself as a man to get by

[Chorus: background singers & Busta Rhymes]

This morning I woke up (Damn)

(Talib, these niggas is crazy) Feelin brand new, I jumped up

Feelin my highs and my lows

In my soul, and my goals

Just to stop smokin' and stop drinkin'

But I been thinkin' I got my reasons

Just to get (get), just to get (get)

Just to get (get) Just to get (get)

[Verse 5: Talib Kweli]

Some people try to be fly

They faking, they lie

They snakes'll see the hate in they eyes

Look at the sky to survive

People try to get by

Fighting for a slice of the pie

Trying to eat and be high

How you know you really alive if you don't reach for the sky?

Your eyes, you keep on the prize

What you seek, you will find

Who the realest niggas? That, we let people decide

Who keeping it live, Brooklyn got the key to the ride, c'mon

[Outro: Talib Kweli]

Some people try to be fly

They faking, they lie

They snakes'll see the hate in they eyes

Look at the sky to survive

People try to get by

Fighting for a slice of the pie

Trying to eat and be high

How you know you really alive if you don't reach for the sky?

Your eyes, you keep on the prize

What you seek, you will find

Who the realest niggas? That, we let people decide

Who keeping it live, Brooklyn got the key to the ride, c'mon