Star Side Intro

This Chicago, nigga

Surprise, it's the boy who lived
It's the West Chatham Santa with some toys to give
A .38 Special I call Noisy Cricket
I got a chain on now, call Roy G. Biv
It's the new New Edition like Poison, Bibb, Bell, DeVoe
It's time to make that noise again (perfect)
Lauryn Hill said she'd see me on The Voice again
But this the end of the road, like Boyz II Men

You better use your pen, baby, use your heart, child
Where's your viewpoint? Where's your art style?
Sometimes a teardrop can make your heart smile
Looking for a sign and He sends a star shower
Fresh off surviving the coup d'état
The music stopped, you just might lose your spot
No fairytale endings if you lose the plot
It's written in the notebook if you forgot

It's a love letter
I used to hate math, used to love letters (yeah, ho)
They had me in the class with the dumb niggas (yeah, ho)
This nigga come to class with an umbrella (yeah, ho)
Ditch school, daywalker, I'm a sun dweller (yeah, ho)
Until I met a brother Mike, he said, "Young fella (yeah, ho)
Everybody dies, some write poems" (yeah, ho)
So I raised my right arm and I said, "Right on"

Put my name on that don't-give-no-fuck list
America's own Niggas You Can't Trust List
I got a SIG Sauer called MC Hammer
I got a chain on now called You Can't Touch This
I said I gotta figure out a-, huh?
Gotta figure out a way to get this money by tomorrow
If you know me, it ain't funny anymore
If you owe me, ain't no running anymore

Oh, life will be
Just you believe in you
Put on that full armor
Learned that from my mama, she said-
Oh, life will be (life will be)
Just you believe (just you believe) in you
Separate the waters, it's a fleet of ocean liners
Star-side

Check it for STAR LINE
Working for STAR LINE
Check it for STAR LINE
Working for STAR LINE
Check it for STAR LINE
Working for STAR LINE
Working for STAR LINE

And we back
Look, Mama, I seen a star
Yeah, gettin' pretty and it ain't that far
Bright and bold and Black like me
And it's right in the mirror, I'm shining hard
The last time that my check got commas
My whips got horses, my chains got blinders
Teachers got laptops, the kids got binders
Celebrity barber, but my stars all lined up

The three went platinum, the one went diamond
I had a F-minus, but that's behind us
My pen on paper worth millions of dollars
Shout-out to the fact that they still ain't signed us
No contract, no fine print
No lease, no co-sign-ment
I emptied the safe for a case, I ain't never been broken
But you don't know how broke I been

Tell me, how can you now afford to file divorce
The child support, the back door, take the trial to court?
Either I'm the best or these times is good
There's only two reasons this shit could rhyme this good
Heavy is the crown, I'm ahead my time
I left breadcrumbs when I read my rhymes
So if I catch a red dot to the dome
They'll find me with a note on my head saying, "You read my mind"

The pen gon' flow, God, I'm your vessel
Now bless my soul, God, we gon' wrestle
The writing's on the wall, baby, it's a fresco
It's a Death Note, it's a manifesto

Oh, life will be
Just you believe in you
Put on that full armor
Learned that from my mama, she said-
Oh, life will be (life will be)
Just you believe (just you believe) in you
Separate the waters, it's a fleet of ocean liners
Star-side

All of us have something to say, but some are never heard
Over seven years ago, the people who watched stood together
And demanded to be heard
For over six hours, the audience heard, felt, sang, danced
And shouted the living word, in a soulful expression of the Black experience