Self-Construction

[Verse 1: KRS-One]

Today's topic, self construction

We all came together just to tell y'all something

Guns in school ain't right to me

You gotta be the peace you'd like to see

See yourself free

I use my mind beyond time to talk to the future me

See yourself wealthy

It's time to settle all these beefs, man, yo Nelly help me

[Verse 2: Nelly]

It's like we livin' in that you can't stop me era

Like man when I see you I'ma pop you era

Like we ain't learned nothing from the 2Pac error

From the B-I Terror, take a look in the mirror

Gets your hands out your pockets like man

It's time we get up get out and get sumthin' get a plan

You know a plan not a scam

I'm talkin' sumthin' beneficial in helpin' the next man

[Verse 3: Styles P]

From self destruction to self construction

Really depends on self production

Our family's dysfunctional but we could function

To make our next generation's options something

Better than we had which was close to nothing

Come from the ages of minimum wages

Brothers is outrages, millennium slave tips

Put it in the book but we ain't go through the pages

[Verse 4: Redman]

What I like to see is MCs get along

If you gotta buck a shot throw it in a song

Get your lyrics up it all sound wrong

When I drop I rock till the cows come home

[Verse 5: The Game]

I never thought I'd tell anybody to put a gun down

Till last week I saw a 12-year-old kid gone down

This ain't what life's about

All this shoot 'em up, "bang bang" you never think twice about

That's somebody's son you shot, somebody's daughter you slaughtered

I shed tears for our dearly departed

And the shooters get X'd like Malcolm

One dead in the grave, one behind bars is the outcome

[Hook: Ne-Yo]

Self construction

I said what we doin' to each other what we need

Self construction

Cryin' mothers, dying brothers what we need

Self construction

Never ever ran from the Ku Klux Klan

Shouldn't have to run from a black man

We need self construction

Hey, self construction, hey

[Verse 6: Method Man]

Look at the pot callin' the kettle black

I'm in the ghetto black

And I ain't tryin' to be where Dillon and Shawn Belle is at

I show these people where hell is at

It's right around the corner from no hope where the dope be sellin' at

[Verse 7: Busta Rhymes]

Ayo I'd like to see us open the lines of communication

Prioritizing and dealing with self preservation

Being constructive is something I'm completely endorsing

Cause the mind state of the youth kinda needed some reinforcement

[Verse 8: Wise Intelligent]

Hip-hop's responsibility goes far beyond rappin'

We can talk about the happens, sing songs without action

Activist activism must enforce your lyricism

This is how you counteract violence and lying politicians

[Verse 9: Rakaa Iriscience]

Cut throat America, powder keg California

Big business Wu Shaolin, hip hop is out to warn ya

Black or brown; brown and black, North and South beef

Self construction now, these rockers all about peace

[Hook: Ne-Yo]

Self construction

I said what we doin' to each other what we need

Self construction

Cryin' mothers, dying brothers what we need

Self construction

Never ever ran from the Ku Klux Klan

Shouldn't have to run from a black man

We need self construction

Hey, self construction, hey

[Verse 10: Talib Kweli]

I ain't cosigning none of that obnoxious rhymin'

We losin' babies to the streets so we could not be silent

Together we could stop the violence, we listen to music

Even bullets be whistlin' when the shots is firin'

[Verse 11: Rah Digga]

Chicks ain't even exempt now

Even got us goin' in and out of the pen now

Years in the game, think it's goin' on ten now

Must be mad think I'm putting the pen down

[Verse 12: Lil AJ, KRS-One]

I wasn't here for the first movement

I'm thirteen let me put in my 2 cents

A nation divided equals silence

So let's join together to stop the violence