Stay Around

Ladies and gentlemen

Kweli!

[Hook]

Won't you stay around with me?...

And please say the rhyme

Cause these rappers think that I'm

In love with your state of mind

Cause you a favorite of mine

And I know you on your grind

I don't want to waste your time

But baby won't you stay around with me?...

And let my love (and let my love)

And let my love

[Verse 1]

"Kweli, you should rap about this," "You should rap about that"

Any more suggestions? You in the back, yeah you

"You should rap more on beat," "You should rap more street"

"And never ever get your mack on, please,"

How 'bout you? "I like the way you're melodic

It's 'cause you capture hypnotic

Portraits, and seem to make the average exotic"

"Kweli, you nice, I know you getting some love, but you can't spit like a thug, 

And you'd blow, you make a hit for the club – word"

"I don't like your voice," "I don't like your choice of beats

It sounds like it's forced,", "And what was up with 'Back Up Offa Me'?

I ain't like that,"

"Now you should get with Hi-Tek, now he got nice tracks, 

Them other dudes is type wack"

Yeah, people, keeping it coming, I keep it bubbling

Like the heat from oven, boiling the water and the hate

So they light my fire...

I got a mic empire, my own label

I had to Emancipate Mimi like Mariah...

At some point I might retire, on some bullshit

My legacy, horseshit like Mariah's...

Illest flow found in the game, soothing like the sound of the rain

It's the dude profound with the fame, refusing to be sounding the same

Keeping the verses, deleting the curses, defeating the purpose

When the people go on strike, I'm in the street with the workers

Speaking the words from a pulpit, like the preachers at churches

Raise my hand, all the teachers get nervous

'Cause they know I air them out

And they ain't even really gotta hear me out

Keep it dirty like Pigpen, voice in the warrior's head like Lynne Thigpen

Clocking like Big Ben, old school slang, still find a way to innovate

Pete Rock got 'em feeling great, the ladies say

[Hook]

"Won't you stay around with me?

And please say the rhyme

'Cause these rappers think that I'm

In love with your state of mind"

'Cause you a favorite of mine

And I know you on your grind

I don't want to waste your time

But, baby, won't you stay around with me?

And let my love (And let my love)

And let my love..."

[Verse 2]

Light the tip of the L, this heavyweight rap tipping the scale

And we never let the system prevail, real picturesque, missing the sale

Never that, it's forbidden like Afghani sisters lifting the veil

I'm still leading the pack, these cats lacking

Just because you be having a dragon, don't mean you got the fire...

It ain't nothing to play with, it's sacred

My pen is the paintbrush, and dipping in paint, plus

Truth, love, joy, anger, hatred, and anguish

That's the spectrum of colors I paint with

I don't feast at the banquet 'cause freedom is the set that I bang with

Listen the conditions in my Slum Village is "Tainted"

I grew through the pavement, like the flower the girl drew in the paper

The sky bluer and the obvious save you

The rules of engagement that they use, attitudes of a slave

Man got me stressed out, losing my patience

The moves that I'm making across waters

Through contraband that I'm taking across borders

Information never lost in translation

Too many new words to be learned, 

I'm spitting fire giving third degree burns

Giving them heat stroke, hotter than rocking a peacoat

At Venice Beach, though all these rappers soup like miso, we go

Back in the days like reminiscing with Pete, yo

Ladies, welcome to the Kweli show

She goes...

[Hook]

"Won't you stay around with me?

And please say the rhyme

'Cause these rappers think that I'm

In love with your state of mind"

'Cause you a favorite of mine

And I know you on your grind

I don't want to waste your time

But, baby, won't you stay around with me?

And let my love (And let my love)

And let my love..."

[Outro]

Ladies and gentlemen, its Talib Kweli

Yeah, this 'Eardrum,' y'all

B-B-B-B-Banging on your ear drum

We got the incredible Pete Rock on the track, like...

I like that, I like that

I want to give an extra big shout to my man Dave Dar

Holding me down as always, and as usual

And his newborn son, Cannon, brand new to the world

He's now down with Blacksmith, Blacksmith is the movement

Jean Grae, Strong Arm Steady gang, Talib Kweli

It's what it is, yeah