[cLaY]

"Expansion Outro" Talib Kweli from the album Reflection Eternal.

[TomFoolery]

Who?

[TomFoolery]

[Talib Kweli] (Spoken)
Yeah, so we got this tune called "For Women", right?
Originally it was by Nina Simone.
She said it was inspired by, you know,
Down South?

In the south, they used to call her Mother Antie
She said No Mrs,, just Antie.
She said if anybody ever called her Antie
She'd burn the whole goddamn place down.
But, you know, I'm over past that.
Coming into the new millenium, we can't forget our elders



[Talib Kweli]
I got off the 2 train in Brooklyn, on my way to a session,
said, "Let me help this woman up the stairs before I get to steppin'".
We got in a conversation, she said she's a hundred and seven
Just her presence was a blessing, and her essence was a lesson.
She had her head wrapped, and long dreads that peeked out the back
Like antenna to help her get a sense of where she was at, imagine that--livin' a century, the strength of her memories;
It felt like an angel had been sent to me.
She lived from nigger to colored, to negro, to black
To Afro then African-American, and right back to nigger.
You figure she'd be bitter in the twilight
But she alright, cuz she's seen the circle of life.
Her skin was black like it was packed with melanin
Back in the days of slaves she packin' like Harriet Tubman
Her arms are long and she moves like song,
feet with corns, hand with callouses, but the heart is warm.
And, her hair is wooly and it attract a lot of energy even negative
She gotta dead that the head wrap is her remedy.
Her back is strong and she far from a vagabond
This is the back of the masters' whip used to crack upon.
Strong enough to take all the pain that's been inflicted again, and again, and again, and again, and flip it
To the love for her children, nothing else matters
What do they call her? They call her "Aunt Sara".



[Talib Kweli] (+ Background Vocals)
I know a girl with a name as beautiful as the rain
Her face is the same, but she suffers an unusual pain.
Seems she only deals with losers who be usin' them games,
Chasin' the real brothers away, like she confused in the brain.
She tried to get in where she fit in on that American Dream mission,
Paid tuition for that receipt to find out her history was missing and started flippin'
Seeing the world through very different eyes,
People askin' her what she'll do when it comes time to chose sides.
Yo, her skin is yellow, it's like her face is blond, word is bond
And her hair is long and straight, just like Sleeping Beauty.
See, she truly feels like she belong in two worlds
And that she can't relate to other girls.
Her father was rich and white, still livin' with his wife,
But he forced himself on her mother late one night--they call it rape, that's right.
And now she take flight through life with hate and spite inside her mind
That keep her up to the break of light a lot of times.
(I gotta find myself)
(I gotta find myself)
(I gotta find myself)
She had to remind herself
They call her Safronia, the unwanted seed
Blood still blue in her vein, and still red when she bleeds.
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)



[Talib Kweli] (+ Background Vocals)
Teenage lovers sit on the stoops up in Harlem,
Holdin' hands under the Apollo marquee, dreamin of stardom.
Since they was born the streets is watchin' and schemin'
And now it got them generations facin' deseases
That don't kill you they just got problems and complications that get you first,
Yo, it's getting worse, when children hide the fact that they pregnant 'cuz they scared of giving birth.
(How will I feed this baby?)
(How will I survive, How will this baby shine?)
Daddy dead from crack in '85, mommy dead from AIDS in '89.
At 14 the baby hit the same streets, they became her master
The children of the enslaved, they grow a little faster.
They bodies become adult, while they keepin' the thoughts of a child
Her arrival into womanhood was hemmed up by her survival
Now she 25, barely grown out her own
Doin' whatever it takes strippin', workin' out on the block, up on the phone, Talkin' about:
(My skin is tan like the front of your hand)
(And my hair...)
(Well my hair's alright whatever way I want to fix it, it's alright it's fine)
(But my hips, these sweet hips of mine invite you daddy)
(And when I fix my lips my mouth is like wine)
(Take a sip don't be shy, tonight I wanna be your lady)
(I ain't too good for your Mercedes, but first you got to pay me.)
(You better quit with all the questions sugar, who's little girl am I?)
(Why I'm yours if you got, enough money to buy.)
(You better stop with the compliments, we running out of time,)
(You wanna talk whatever we could do that it's your dime.)
(From Harlem's from where I came, don't worry about my name,)
(Up on one-two-five they call me sweet thang)



[Talib Kweli] (+ Background Vocals)
A daughter come up in Georgia, ripe and ready to plant seeds
Left the plantation when she saw a sign, even thought she can't read.
It came from God and when life get hard she always speak to him,
She'd rather kill her babies than let the master get to 'em.
She on the run up North to get across that Mason-Dixon,
In church she learned how to be patient and keep wishin',
The promise of eternal life after death, for those that God bless,
She swears the next baby she'll have will breathe a free breath, and get milk from a free breast.
And love beeing alive, otherwise they'll have to give up being themselves to survive.
Being maids, cleaning ladies, maybe teachers or college graduates, nurses, or housewives, prostitutes, and drug addicts.
Some will grow to be old women, some will die before they born,
They'll be mothers, and lovers who inspire and make songs,
(But me, my skin is brown and my manner is tough,)
(Like the love I give my babies when the rainbow's enuff,)
(I'll kill the first muthafucka that mess with me, I never bluff)
(I ain't got time to lie, my life has been much too rough.)
(Still running with barefeet, I ain't got nothin' but my soul,)
(Freedom is the ultimate goal; life and death is small on the whole)
(In many ways I'm awfully bitter these days,)
('Cuz the only parents God gave me, they were slaves!)
(And it crippled me! I got the destiny of a casualty,)
(But I live through my babies and I change my reality.)
(Maybe one day I'll ride back to Georgia on a train,)
(Folks 'round there call me "Peaches", I guess that's my name.)

[TomFoolery]

bump

[cLaY]

that song is loooonnnngggg, i jammed it last night whilst smoking thou phattest of the blunts.