LUPE FIASCO Pharaoh Height LYRICS
mixtape: "Pharaoh Height" (2015)
In
I was born in a small village
I was still a child when we were raided by soldiers
Foreign soldiers
Torn from my elders, I was made to speak their language
With each new post, my masters changed
Along with the words they made me speak
With each change, I changed too
My thoughts, personality, how I saw right and wrong
Words can kill
Time and again, the country was ruled by a foreign tongue
When he was young boy, he lost his native language
The bedrock for any developing child
His country, his family, his face, his identity
Everything was stolen from him
Meet me on the corner, I be waiting on you
Thousand years of better right into forever
Fire on my feathers, far from out of heaven
Fight without a weapon, life without a lesson
Lost, I'm my own boss, pay my own cost
Fill my own goals, see my own hopes
Tired of all of this, wish I had a switch
One kiss then you cut me off
Knowledge is the power, college is for cowards
Hollering for hours, swallowing the sour
Skin stuck around the rims, peeking in on a life so sweet
The other side made it, why don't we?
From ancient times, every civilization's ruler has had the same idea.
When people unite under one will, they become stronger than the sum of their parts and what do rulers use to bring people together?
Language. "This world will become one, I have found the way.
Race, tribal affiliations, national borders - even our faces will be irrelevant.
The world that the boss envisioned will finally become a reality and it will make mankind whole again
Found a friend in the words and my words and it works
Take away the pain, take away the hurt
Make a way to make a change, make it sane
Specially if you plan on staying on this Earth
Low to the lows, high to the highs
Eyes to the sky, strive to revive, dying to survive
Pool full of cries but it's cool, I'm still alive
And every breath is every left soul
And the family never kept whole
In the slum, want to quest to be the best of being less
Never let go, the best road to the next level
And the scenes where it's mean to do the right thing
Not to be a good king but the best devil
So it's horns for the crown, torn from the ground
Roses by the roots stolen from the roofs on parade days
Look at them rain down
I was brought here a slave
But I leave here a pharaoh
America is a country of liberty, a meeting of immigrants
Instead of simply assimilating, its citizens live alongside others
So the major sought a system that used information
Words to control the subconscious
In his eyes, the greatest symbiotic parasite the world's ever known isn't microbial - it's linguistic
Words is what keep civilization, our world, alive
If you are what you say you are, the coolest
Won't you just shine down?
You are what you say you are, the coolest
Won't you just shine down?
**************************
Valleys
Pharaoh, pharaoh?
Pharaoh
Dollar mission, Mississippi masala getting
Guava Casaba melons, getting a spot at competition
Titties and teeth, so silly of me, no really, it’s free
Aye you can use the phone like a new computer wand
That’s an Ethernet pun, cause dial-up’s all done
When it took twenty minutes just to download one
Aye, you got a fine face, also a dime in your behind
Please can I find some time space to find base
Kinds of rhymes to describe how you’re designed great
And maybe remove the mind free
Like it’s overhead creams at the train yard
That Tom Cruise used in the War of the World's
Before the aliens came part
Remember that, I’m not a fan of the sci-fi
Like dial-up’s not a fan of the wi-fi
I’m in your eyes like little reflective little pools of tie-dye
And it’s 1972 and I’m some long-haired high guy
Driving a Volkswagen Beetle off into the California twilight
I usually got top cause I’m a guy right
But if you’re gay that’s straight too
Hey, I don’t hate, I got a couple of friends who went bi twice
Did that arrive right?
Do you like whole stories or just the highlights
Cause I like to write your life story on the sky
Made of Lite Brights, remember those?
10 years old, let me guess your age
You were a ten, ten years ago
Am I right, who you calling?
Maybe New Orleans
Where your Mother lives with your brother's kids
Because he locked up cause
Of what some other motherfucker did
Love to fib bout the Fibonacci sequence
Do you flicker like Liberace Sequins
Or maybe twinkle like little stars
And tingle like little scars
I run a wrinkle with you like a car hood
And crash test and b-box while we re-rocks
Saul William’s doing the slam set
Then wrap like saran over the pan
Keep the yams fresh, sweet
Five different songs, over five different beats
And this one’s called Valley
I wrote it on the plane in the chair by the galley
On the way to Cali, chicken in the salad
Sounds like a ballad
You loyal, so I’m Khaled
Buy your momma a palace, scratch that
Buy your momma what matters
Data says dollars hotter than two nevadas
Burning hole in the pockets
And in the wallets of all the rappers
Trappers attracting all the yellowbone Instagrammers
But what about us?
Pharaoh, Pharaoh, Pharaoh
It burns inside like lactic acid
Exorcise demons, turn them into gods
Turning in the rods for the bags of the catfish
I don’t believe that god is a black man
Spoiled child getting robbed for his black vans
Mars and other stars in the CAT scans
Back when I listened to Killer Priest
Had my mind thicker and bigger than Philip Heaps
Walking around in kufis with sunnis with thicker beads
Remembering the movies my duty was killing beats
Social villain unwilling to live in peace
I told you children I’m willing to live in beast
Streets, this is where Helen and Ellen meet
So you can get lost like Gilligan on the beach
The players getting mad they not kicking it with the freaks
Cause they took away they pussy and given it to the geeks
Like us, paradigm shifter, South Carolina Nine shrine shine giver
But not enough dimes to be a crime line tipper
The difference between "nigga", and "nigger"
Uh, Bernie Sanders need a Nike deal
Then I might consider that, he might be real
If Phil Knight, knight him then I might like him
Until then children, enjoy the white icing on the cake
Cake, cake, cake, cake
On the cake, cake, cake, cake
On the cake, cake, cake, cake
On the cake, cake, cake, cake
Yeah, yeah, pharaoh, height, yeah
What you need a little more? Okay, I’ll give you a little more, I’ll give you a little more a little more
Freestyle off the top, sitting on the stool on the block
Watching for the cops watching for the thots and watching for the shots
I’m watching for a lot, I gotta use my eyes cause they use me
Cause to them I’m like a price, so I say surprises
And they don’t deprive us, I just demises
And nothing ever lies yes, on my premisises
Watched for my demises
Maybe might like them, until then just enjoy the white icing on the cake
Cake, cake, cake, cake
The cake, cake, cake, cake
The cake, cake, cake, cake
The cake, cake, cake, cake
Ameri- the cake, cake, cake, cake
The cake, cake, cake, cake
Ameri- the cake, cake, cake, cake
The cake, cake, cake, cake
Ameri- the cake, cake, cake, cake
**************************
Of
Young peerer over Dilla
Behind the mic like the will of a vehicular killer
The threading, put it together like a three minutes to wedding
In less than three minutes of meddling, over melody and grand pian peddlings
I do represent the mind like IQs, intelligent signs in our kind’s a haiku
Cobra kai turn high top fade to Caillou, who inspect a man stance and fight the kaiju
Way beyond a hundred kicks, breaking bottom bricks and he on number six
This is that “there should be a name for it”
Hideo should go and make a game for it
Mama should make you change for it
Kinda rap that sends jaguars running back into the rain forest
Plans over panic, when Superman scans deadpan over planets
Make the fat man hand over the ham jam and lamb and Spam sandwich
A face black eyes and hand-to-hand damage
Make ‘em believe you can manage to have swam the span famine
Sesame the bird big, and the master plan mammoth
**************************
Kings
As I proceed to go dig through an old crib
Hold kids as I blunder through a pharaoh house
Thug Bones in guild did the parrow piss
But arrow heads then let the marrow out
I literally won't leave lettuce since I've received the brita
And when the sea leaves the land, who will feed the rivers, huh?
Crazy busy, make me, make me miss ya even when I'm with ya
If a phone calls in the club, but the music is too loud around to hear it
Do I still have to clear it?
Example: now I don’t list samples in my lyrics
Myth be told, 60 souls perished in the perish bill
Rode a pair of wheels on 50 scrolls with a pair of quills
Answered the question Americas, Amerikills
Been living inside envelopes with a pair of sills
Tall man like [?] downfall from a pair of stilts wearin' heels, that's high
As I proceed to find silver lining, it's stalagmite
Cat eyes and scarab crowns on a black grace
Two wave, not to see bubonic plague on your rat face
Practice on the uttering till it lactates
Then begin the butterin' of the pancakes
Push it to the margin flood the garden to the land lakes
Associate with mates who spit inside of they handshakes, yeah
As I walk through the shadow of San Fernando Valley
Walkin' like fingers how, how they rally on pianos
Up and down the dials I WKRP, in Cincinnati
Let's settle on the station like "Last gas for 100 miles"
May I have this last dance?
Grab her hands then proceed to do the runnin' child
Vindaloo the stomach growls, introduced to somethin' wild
Until we see civilization, Walmarts and Chik-a-falashios
Patients, our art isn't intimidation
But you can't process the progress
If you get your style ques from outta Complex
Nah nigga, that ain't hot
No, no and no shots, no boas and no thots
I walk 'em over to motorboat on the yachts
To go so sober on all the shirk and on overdose on salats, haann
Francis Ford Coppola’s broken plots
Hyannis Port localists rollin' in open drops
Titanic corpse smokin' from openin' dose with chops
Like Cannock moonlit leader loakin' with loaded Glocks, haaaan!
**************************
Schemes
(Uncle Lupe)
Alright it's time to go to sleep
(Hey Uncle Lupe)
What?
(Can you please tell us a bedtime story?)
Ugh, it's late man
Okay, okay okay, check this out, listen
Cold killer, bold old gorilla
Bold as a font with the thickness
Old as yellow gold in a Chevrolet with a stick shift
The story goes his mother left him on a church step
First step was out the front door then the first left
Down the block to the spots where the worst kept
Thirty years later got a thirty tier caper
To shoot up the scene and scheme
Plot, broken all down to two rounds of scotch
A pound means now and we too down to stop
Say ya got enough round for two thousand cops
Military grade, these things shoot round the block
Shh threat, check
The dame will hang out like chains round the neck
He ever seen her before, her face don't connect
No, so keep it on the low, go
Seizes her by the arm
Looks right into the eyes cause these be the charms
Sheba, King Tut suite at the Khalifa
Tied to a chair getting burned by cohibas
A well dressed thug who run clubs in the Koreas
The room smells like fresh hand made tortillas
He recognized the tattoos of a real big Maui brother
Known for bad news when his cash rules
Are you familiar with the shell of the cashews?
As he holds the needle up to the light bulb
White girls into drunk, he stands up runs to the window and jumps
Aim for the pool... splash
The impact from that almost split him in half
Voice from the past asks did he enjoy the bath
Laughs with his arm in a cast, hold up
Never what it seems, everybody wanna be seen
On the cover of a magazine
Everybody want big things
Everybody want big dreams
Everybody want bling bling
Everybody wanna be the king
Everybody bling
Everybody sings
Everybody wanna big thing
In the valley of kings and pyramid schemes
It's never what it seems, everybody wanna be seen
On the cover of a magazine
Everybody wanna sip lean
Everybody want a big dreams
Everybody want bling bling
Everybody want C.R.E.A.M
Everybody wanna have a team
Everybody wanna be the king
Everybody want a big scheme in the land of pyramid schemes
As he tried to do the math with Smearcon the fed
The contract states from here upon your dead
The girl at the bar is an underworld star
Settling on debts with north Zanzibar
Your names on the list, kitsch
A hundred million dollars worth of high grade fish
Tuna, Tokyo cartels worlds biggest consumer
A rumor bout a schooner off the coast of Montezuma
They say you slit the throat of a well known kahuna
Then torched the boat and fled into the Dunya
You’re hated more than a Kalua pig at a Jumu'ah
They want your head on a platter, not right now but sooner
I got you a .45 and a Mitsubishi tuner
Wait, wait I've never been to Costa Rica
And then it all comes back
Just as Smearcon falls with a ninja star in his head like
Then they slowly enter the room
I grabbed a .45, the ninja stars resume
I catch him in the cast and answer them with a blast, blow
Three more shots for good measure
Only exit is another window, pfft whatever
Short fall to the roof of the car
Then I get in, left arm covered in ninja stars
Then a zero to a hundred baby real quick
Look around the car for something else to kill with
Lamborghini headlights in the rear view
These Parisian streets not meant to veer through
Especially with just one hand
I let go to shoot back but the gun jams
Mitsubishi not built to outrun Lambs
So they gaining, heavy raining
Rear view explodes from deadly aiming
Arm paining, blood draining
Pains, head for the Louvre
Drive right through the glass pyramid with dope moves
A little shook from the landing
Driving through the Louvre in a rally car with great handling
Was at the Mona Lisa
Stop the car right in front of the dealer have a breather
Press play on the radio, voice from the speaker
Says get to Belgrade and take an ad out in the daily Politika
They says for a good time call this Ecuador slash Venezuelan chica
Next day at the airport meeted by a greeter who looks Corsican but Greeker
A little older wearing Michael Jordan sneakers
But I follow the leader
1995 S Class, in the back seat is a dead man who's car I just crashed
Smearcon's alive, audience now wonders how Smearcon survived
Let alone not be hurt, he taps a metal plate in his head from his Afghanistan work
What Visine for red retinas, what else would you expect from head predators
Ex-lecturer, at Exeter, the dean too secular
So now I'm totes hecklers, everywhere
Now Smearcon's on the team, so everybody's down for the scheme
(The final chapter in the incredible [?] saga)
(Smearcon's back!)
Now it's time to finish this, getting too late for international syndicates
To which the driver reveals his membership
This won't end well, he pulls out a grenade and says
(Damn you all to hell!)
(Wait, what happened? Uncle Lupe what's going on?)
Go to sleep
(But what happened? I don't understand)
Nope
(Please finish the story please)
Storytime's over
You asked for a story I gave you one
Take it, just take it
(This is the worst bedtime story ever)
Bye
Psych sucker, Smearcon is back
You really think that he would go out like that?
They're under attack, MAC under the back...
I'm just playing, it's really over
Its the end of the tape
Thank y'all man
Pharaoh Height two thirty
Shout to DJ BUSY
You know how we do
Hope you all enjoyed it man
Scott what up
What you thought I couldn't do this no more, huh?
Man listen, lets let this play out
Bogglin' Giblets
