Phoenix

[Dave Chapelle as RICK JAMES]
That's right bitches..
It's the beautiful mixtape
Look this shit is beautiful, it's one of the best mixtapes
You'll ever hear in your life
One of the baddes muthafuckin'
Funkiest muthafuckin' mixtapes, ever..
I said it... that's right bitches Talib Kweli
You're now rockin' with the best, the best!

[TALIB KWELI]
Yeah
When I was a young man I had stars in my eyes
Time is wrinkled like the hands of the elders that love us
I find a window to watch the path like ghetto grandmothers
They says eyes is the windows to ya soul
So I open the the blind to feel the breeze blowin' in from the winter chain
Surround myself with images of bravery
Cuz the soul of my people bared witness to slavery
I seen the inside of my heart it get dark
Like the flesh of my bone
And heavy like the breath of this poem
Plus, I seen lands so dry the trees cry
Tears fallin' like it's autumn the leaves die
Pre-packaged futures freeze dried, cross me by
The body count in the streets is knee high
Plus, I seen pubbles so deep the puddles speak
Ripe with stories that leap from the cluttered street
Blood'll be beet-red runnin' through the gutters cuz heat
The currency that we exchange with folks who tryin' to eat
I cried in my sleep, seen trains speedin' down the tracks of my tears
Runnin' down the face of the Earth, c'mon
I see it in the space that was the place of my birth
I play eye tag with death - she's such a flirt
That's some scary shit, I put it all in my music
Real loud makin' a scene if I seen it I use it, yeah
Beautiful strugglin' 'n' so I'm used to the bubblin'
What I be utterin' so hot it got the homeless people huddlin'
Haters mutterin' under breath, who ain't the best?
See the scavengers 'n' vultures pickin' at what's left
I rise from the ashes like a phoenix - believe it
Flow brand new like a fetus - believe it
Mean what I say if I say it, I mean it
I lived it, I breathed it, believe me, I seen it

[JEAN GRAE]
Man I pray ya'll passionate
I swing out like a little leaguer on a Sunday ignorin' the Catholics
Rebel rap with a spine plated metal back
I never fold medal gold with a vaultin' pole
Nigger I'm better known as light let me shine on you
Mind confident rhyme dominant lines constant
Caramello color hella mellow
The fellows run up 'n' "Hello"
Hella sorrow when I tell 'em taken "Holla"
I got that horrow vision, they say I'm masochistic
I don't think it's crazy they call me shady I'm flattered, get it?
My image is sick I'm in need of amedic
I should get a permanent residence in hospital bed it's
THe way I freak shit, you meek like that old rapper chick
I smack an actor in a wall 'til his back's in the brick
I rig 'em all with the mind basement 'n' trapdoors
It's me I'll clap the survivors until I see some rigormortis
I seen the forest through the trees
But only because I cut off all the leaves
And left 'em blowin' off into the breeze
That I create whenever I speak
I'm cheap fuck it, I need to win something
Before I kick this rap bucket in
Fuck it again, fuck you if this hasn't struck you
As a genius stickin' out like a bucktooth
I'm couth, yes I know it mostly regarded as pottymouth
Dirty like the city ground you on when the shotties come out
I'm witty plust I'm incredibly diligent
Dream of the president mac-millied I'm militant
I go along like a Philly bed I pity you
SIlly fool I know ain't nobody really feelin' you