Sometimes my hope slips away

I go through the day

Without a way to see passed the decay

To say a better day is coming got me running my mind

Wondering if I'm cunning enough to find

A new pattern of thought designed

So I can deal with this land of concrete

Cause them facts are ill, yo we're facing defeat

From the trees to the seas to the seeds of the ghetto

The fleas on the dogs back have already settled in

Won't allow no meddling cause they shoot

Do anything for the loot

Wicked politicians making wicked decisions

Straight lying to the public so they can begin another mission of war

Man my eyes are sore

Shit's hardcore

We can all make a change what we waiting for?

There's a million other people who feel like I feel

Too many cats are ending up with the raw deal for real

But, I read a book take a look

Put it all in perspective ignore the crooks

Who be rocking their politricks, while running for president

If we want their asses kicked, then let's set a precedent

See it's not you versus me

But it's you and me versus the war-industry

If you're asking me what it is that we can do against idiots like G.W. it's follow through

It's what makes you cope

It's what makes you grow

It's what makes you go against the grain

When they tell you no

But you've got to show

Your friends and foes it's time for change

It's what makes you cope

It's what makes you grow

It's what makes you go against the grain

But they can't tell you no

Because now you know the healing when you get hope

I'm holding on like someone pushed me over the edge

So sometimes when I rhyme it just go over your head

I try to bring it down to earth without sounding berserk

It's for the people high and mighty and them down in the dirt

Put in work like I'm nickle and diming

Standing on the corner religious like a shaman I aint thicking with rhyming

The punchlines, while they tickle your spine

They picket the line

And I'll never front for you, you aint getting consignment

People hope to get signed but to they suprise

The industry's falling down right in front of they eye

On my block brothers don't live brothers survive

Mothers pray through the night and hope they son is alive

Check the stoop, then the corner, then the hospital

The citymorgue matter of fact shit I got to go

To my son's school where they call me brother Kweli

No time for crying

Waiting and hoping like Buddy Holy

It's what makes you cope

It's what makes you grow

It's what makes you go against the grain

When they tell you no

But you've got to show

Your friends and foes it's time for change

It's what makes you cope

It's what makes you grow

It's what makes you go against the grain

But they can't tell you no

Because now you know the healing when you get hope

I'm hoping for better days and better ways to express

I'm hoping for spiritual growth and some mental progress

Hoping I'll won't be choking when it's time to take the test of time

As I'm standing in the limelight and rhyme

Will I shine? Will I be remembered as a person who took the time and opportunity to find the goodness of his own kind?

The kindness of this mankind?

The kind that makes the cynic in me just relax and unwind

It's the state of mind you can find me in

When I'm kicking back and I'm chilling

Looking at playing children, impressive buildings

And I'm thinking that we more than the money hungry idiots

Mass-marketing cats claim we be

Man they can't get with us

It's the fuss of living

Looking for a balance between taking and giving and making a living

Without making a pre-emptive killing shit has got to stop

I hope we'll find the revolution back in hiphop

It's what makes you cope

It's what makes you grow

It's what makes you go against the grain

When they tell you no

But you've got to show

Your friends and foes it's time for change

It's what makes you cope

It's what makes you grow

It's what makes you go against the grain

But they can't tell you no

Because now you know the healing when you get hope

The healing when you get hope