Musicians From The United States

"My big brother was B.I.G.'s brother So here's a few words from your kid brother If you admire somebody you should go ahead tell 'em People never get the flowers while they can still smell 'em."

"But if you really cared for her Then you wouldn't have never hit the airport to follow your dreams Sometimes I still talk to her But when I talk to her, it always seems like she talking 'bout me Every interview, I'm representin' you, makin' you proud Reach for the stars, so if you fall, you land on a cloud Jump in the crowd, spark your lighters, wave 'em around If you don't know by now, I'm talking 'bout Chi-Town."

"I met this girl when I was three years old And what I loved most, she had so much soul She said, 'Excuse me, little homie, I know you don't know me But my name is Windy and I like to blow trees.' I told her in my heart is where she'll always be She never messed with entertainers 'cause they always leave She said, 'It felt like they walked and drove on me.' Knew I was gang affiliated, got on TV and told on me I guess that's why last winter she got so cold on me She said, 'Ye, keep making that platinum and gold for me!'"

"People talking shit, but when the shit hits the fan Everything I'm not made me everything I am. I know people wouldn't usually rap this But I got the facts to back this Just last year, Chicago had over six hundred caskets Man, killing's some wack shit Oh, I forgot, 'cept for when niggas is rappin' Do you know what it feel like when people is passin'? He got changed over his chains a block off Ashland I need to talk to somebody, pastor The church want tithe, so I can't afford to pay Pink slip on my door, 'cause I can't afford to stay My fifteen seconds up, but I got more to say-- 'That's enough Mr. West, please, no more today.'"

"In my past, you on the other side of the glass Of my memory's museum I'm just sayin', hey, Mona Lisa Come home, you know you can't roam without Caesar."

"She don't believe in shooting stars But she believe in shoes and cars Order the hors d'oeuvres, views of the water Straight from a page of your favorite author And the weather's so breezy Man, why can't life always be this easy?"

"I had a dream I could buy my way to heaven When I awoke, I spent that on a necklace I told God I'd be back in a second Man, it's so hard not to act reckless To whom much is given, much is tested Get arrested, guess until he get the message I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny And what I do? Act more stupidly Bought more jewelry, more Louis V My mama couldn't get through to me The drama, people suing me I'm on TV talking like it's just you and me I'm just saying how I feel, man I ain't one of the Cosbys, I ain't go to Hillman I guess the money should've changed him I guess I should've forgot where I came from."

"And I'm back on my grind A psychic read my lifeline, told me in my lifetime My name would help light up the Chicago skyline And that's why I'm Seven o'clock, that's primetime Heaven'll watch, God calling from the hotlines Why he keep giving me hot lines? I'm a star, how could I not shine?"

"N-Now th-that that don't kill me Can only make me stronger I need you to hurry up now 'Cause I can't wait much longer I know I got to be right now 'Cause I can't get much wronger Man, I've been waiting all night now That's how long I've been on ya"

"When it feel like living's harder than dyin' For me givin' up's way harder than tryin' Lauryn Hill said her heart was in Zion I wish her heart still was in rhymin' 'Cause who the kids gon' listen to, huh? I guess me if it isn't you Last week I paid a visit to the institute They got the dropout keepin' kids in the school."

"Good morning and look at the valedictorian Scared of the future while I hop in the DeLorean Scared to face the world, complacent career student Some people graduate, but be still stupid"

"Forrest Gump mama said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates' My mama told me go to school, get your doctorate Somethin to fall back on, you could profit with But still supported me when I did the opposite Now I feel like there's things I gotta get, things I gotta do, just to prove to you You was getting through, can the choir, please Give me a verse of 'You Are So Beautiful To Me' Can't you see, you're like a book of poetry Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, turn one page and there's my mommy."

"I wanna tell the whole world about a friend of mine This little light of mine and I'm finna let it shine I'm finna take y'all back to them better times I'm finna talk about my mama if y'all don't mind I was three years old when you and I moved to the Chi Late December, harsh winter gave me a cold You fixed me up something that was good for my soul Famous homemade chicken soup, can I have another bowl? You work late nights just to keep on the lights Mommy got me training wheels so I could keep on my bike And you would give anything in this world Michael Jackson leather and a glove, but didn't give me a curl And you never put no man over me And I love you for that, mommy, can't you see? Seven years old, caught you with tears in your eyes 'Cause a nigga cheatin', telling you lies, then I started to cry As we knelt on the kitchen floor I said mommy I'ma love you 'til you don't hurt no more And when I'm older, you ain't gotta work no more And I'ma get you that mansion that we couldn't afford."

"I was sick about awards, couldn't nobody cure me Only playa that got robbed but kept all his jewelry Alicia Keys tried to talk some sense in him Thirty minutes later seein' there's no convincin' him What more could you ask for? The international asshole Who complain about what he is owed? And throw a tantrum like he is three years old You gotta love it though: somebody still speaks from his soul And wouldn't change by the change or the game or the fame When he came in the game, he made his own lane Now all I need is y'all to pronounce my name It's Kanye, but some of my plaques, they still say 'Kayne'."

"Little was known of Sierra Leone And how it connect to the diamonds we own Though it's thousands of miles away Sierra Leone connect to what we go through today Over here, it's a drug trade, we die from drugs Over there, they die from what we buy from drugs."

"Why everything that's supposed to be bad make me feel so good? Everything they told me not to is exactly what I would. Man, I tried to stop, man, I tried the best I could, but You make me smile."

"I know it's past visiting hours, But can I please give her these flowers? You know the best medicine go to people that's paid. If Magic Johnson got a cure for AIDS And all the broke motherfuckers passed away, You telling me if my grandma was in the NBA, Right now, she'd be okay? But since she was just a secretary Working for the church for thirty-five years, Things supposed to stop right here?"

"How we stop the Black Panthers? Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer. Who gave Saddam anthrax? George Bush got the answers."

"I'm tryin' to right my wrongs But it's funny, them same wrongs helped me write this song."

"Jay's favorite line: 'Dawg, in due time!' Now he look at me, like, 'Damn, dawg! You where I am!' A hip hop legend I think I died in that accident, 'cause this must be heaven."

"They say people in your life are seasons And anything that happens is for a reason The devil is alive, I feel him breathin' Claiming money is the key, so keep on dreamin' And put them lottery tickets just to tease us"

"And I heard 'em say Nothing's ever promised tomorrow or today From the Chi, like Tim, it's a harder way So this is in the name of love like Robert say Before you ask me to go get a job today, Can I at least get a raise on the minimum wage?"

"I'm Kan, the Louis Vouitton don Bought my mom purse, now she Louis Vuitton mom I didn't play the hand I was dealt I changed my cards I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars I went to the malls and I balled too hard 'Oh My God, is that a Black card?' I turned around and replied 'Why yes, but I prefer the term African American Express.' Brains, power, and muscle like Dame, Puffy, and Russell Your boy back on his hustle, you know what I've been up to Killing y'all niggas on that lyrical shit Mayonnaise-colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips."

"Ain't nobody expect Kanye to end up on top They expected that College Dropout to drop and then flop."

"Now I could let these dream killers kill my self esteem, Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams I use it as my gas, so they say that I'm gassed But without it I'd be last, so I ought to laugh."

"I woke up early this morning with a new state of mind, A creative way to rhyme without usin' knives and guns. Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to God, And keep your face to the rising sun. I feel like one day you'll understand me, dawg You can still love your man and be manly, dawg"

"Now that you're gone, it hit us Super hard on Thankgiving and Christmas, this can't be right. Yo, you heard the track I did man, 'This Can't Be Life'. Somebody please say grace so I can save face And have a reason to cover my face."

"And I still won't grow up, I'm a grown-ass kid Swear I should be locked up for stupid shit that I did But I'm a champion, so I turned tragedy to triumph Make music that's fire, spit my soul through the wire."

"How do you console my mom or give her light support Tellin' her her son's on life support? And just imagine how my girl feel, On the plane scared as hell that her guy look like Emmett Till."

"Two words, Chi-town raised me crazy, So I live by two words: 'Fuck you, pay me' Screaming, 'Jesus, save me' You know how the game be, I can't let 'em change me 'Cause on judgment day, you gon' blame me Look, God, it's the same me And I basically know now, we get racially profiled 'Cuffed up and hosed down, pimped up and ho'd down Plus, I got a whole city to hold down From the bottom, so the top's the only place to go now."

"Told 'em I finished school, and I started my own business. They say, 'Oh you graduated?' No, I decided I was finished."

"Always said if I rapped, I'd say somethin' significant But now I'm rapping 'bout money, hoes, and rims again."

"My flow is in the pocket like Wallace, I got the bounce like hydraulics, I can't call it, I got the swerve like alcoholics. My freshman year, I was going through hella problems 'Til I built up the nerve to drop my ass up out of college."

"I get down for my grandfather who took my mama Made her sit in that seat where white folks ain't want us to eat At the tender age of six, she was arrested for the sit-ins And with that in my blood, I was born to be different Now niggas can't make it to ballots to choose leadership But we can make it to Jacob's or to the dealership That's why I hear new music and I just don't be feeling it Racism's still alive, they just be concealin' it."

"To the hustlers, killers, murderers, drug dealers, even the strippers (Jesus walks with them) To the victims of welfare for we livin' in hell here, hell yeah (Jesus walks with them) Now, hear ye, hear ye, want to see Thee more clearly I know He hear me when my feet get weary 'Cause we're the almost nearly extinct We rappers is role models: we rap, we don't think I ain't here to argue about his facial features Or here to convert atheists into believers I'm just trying to say the way school needs teachers, The way Kathie Lee needed Regis, that's the way I need Jesus So here go my single, radio needs this They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus That means guns, sex, lies, videotape But if I talk about God, my record won't get played, huh?"

"God show me the way, because the Devil's trying to break me down The only thing that I pray is that my feet don't fail me now And I don't think there's nothing I can do now to right my wrongs I wanna talk to God, but I'm afraid 'cause we ain't spoke in so long."

"We'll buy a lot of clothes, but we don't really need 'em Things we buy to cover up what's inside 'Cause they made us hate ourself and love their wealth."

"It seems, we living the American dream But people highest up got the lowest self esteem. The prettiest people do the ugliest things For the road to riches and diamond rings."

"Man, I promise, she's so self conscious She has no idea what she doin' in college That major that she majored in don't make no money But she won't drop out, her parents will look at her funny. Now, tell me that ain't insecurr, The concept of school seemed so securr. Sophomore, three yurrs, ain't picked a carurr."

"Would you believe in what you believe in if you were the only one who believed it?"

"Life is 5% what happens and 95% how you react!"

"Know your worth! People always act like they're doing more for you than you're doing for them. Ask yourself this question, "Why would they do that?" Obviously, you bring something to the table for them to even do business with you."

"Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!"

"I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' George Bush doesn't care about black people."

"If you have the opportunity to play this game called life, you need to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don't appreciate their moment until it's passed. I know everybody asked me the question, they wanted to know, 'What, Kan, I know he's gonna wild out, I know he's gonna do something crazy.' Everybody wanted to know what I would do, if I didn't win... I guess we'll never know!"

"When I had my accident, I found out at that moment nothing in life is promised except death."

"You know why my spirit's callin' Darkness can't take light from me Haven't you gone far enough? Sacrificed the ones you love Gave up on your sanity Like some twisted fantasy What would I say to everything? Your actions cost everything."

"Mama, your son in the red hat Had suffered set-backs, had 'shouldn't-have-said-thats' Had made everyone mad Give 'em enough of they own rope to hang 'em with The paparazzi never really got what my angle is They treat my married life like some type of entanglement."

"Here go all your problems again Three, two, one, you're pinned Don't you wish the night would go numb? I've been feelin' low for so long I ain't had a high in so long I been in the dark for so long Night is always darkest 'fore the dawn Gotta make my mark 'fore I'm gone I don't wanna die alone Sadness settin' in again Three, two, one, you're pinned Took your thoughts and penciled 'em in Should've wrote 'em down in pen And maybe they'd come to life."

"Startin' to feel like you ain't been happy for me lately, darling Remember when you used to come around and serenade me But I guess it's gone different, in a different direction, lately Trying to do the right thing with the freedom that you gave me Wrap your arms around with your mercy I give up on doing things my way."