The Abolition of Manchild

[Verse 1]

Double down stroke, pound my head on concrete til it cracks

Double take, doubled over from this double cross on my back

Doubled my pleasure and pain with the quickest double timing

On the double, single out these cats that's having trouble rhyming

Triple threat vet, set it straight while rookies muddle through

Just call me the 23rd letter because I double you

Knuckle through other crews with jabs, hooks, uppercuts and combinations

Patience, you can't get inside the levelheaded throroughbred

The one who sets the foundation for movement like a riverbed

Don't subscribe to gun talk, so I give a what what your trigger said

Spit leaded graphite, keep my heart in my hand so that I can grasp life

Police the depths of my soul with a billy club and flashlight

That's right, the underworld has numbered my days

The track plays as I stumble across the stage

And rage against my rage in the sight of fleeting time

Because it's not the grapes of wrath that produce the sweetest wine

I bleed rhymes when I'm wounded, seems to happen more and more

Lie face down in a puddle of my own metaphors on the floor

And my heart pumps the art, so what will happen if I pass on

They could never last long, so the band plays my sad song

[Verse 2]

Soul Heir the manCHILD 2001, dead on arrival

Skin beneath his fingernails points to a struggle for survival

Clutching doubles of his vinyl with rigamortous in his throat

In his mouth, we found the words for the greatest song he never wrote

He was stabbed, choked, hung, burned, drowned

Strapped to the ground, forced to listen to thug rap gagged and bound

This manCHILD took hip-hop where no one else could take her

For that he was dragged for 40 blocks behind a Lincoln Navigator

Until it crashed into a pacer, flipped and landed on his neck

Blasting Gloria Gaynor's "I will Survive" from the tape deck

A blank check inside his pocket because you can't cash respect

In a word, his dental records spun at 33 1/3

Keeping his word through pain and death through static and distortion

Defeated 333 emcees post mortem

So, check your local listings to see his body on display

Soul Heir the manCHILD survived by his family and his DJ

[Verse 3]

Look through the eyes of a manCHILDless world so I can see

I don't like the way my beloved artform looks without me

A barren wasteland, artists afraid to face fans

Where they seek and destroy b-boys, forbidding them to breakdance

Where no one takes a chance because the patterns stand in place

Follow the formula, play the part, and you'll get more than you can take

Where they raise hell to be a man and no man searches for the answers

Without me, it's all just hype men, dat tapes, and back up dancers

Hold my banner for knowledge, wisdom and understand integrity

Every city Mars ILL goes, I leave another piece of my legacy

And if I thought ya'll would benefit, I'd paint manCHILD out of the picture

They fall and keep it to themselves, so I'll stand and deliver

Consider this, I understand this game is hit or miss

Whether graf writer, b-boy, turntablist or lyricist

This is serious, like water to a flame, able to cain

If you stopped doing what you do today would hip-hop stay the same?

If your name never graced a marquis, what are we losing?

If nothing changes in that world then tell me, what's your contribution?

Do you emancipate enslaved minds, or you just want to feel free?

It's not easy, but manCHILD's here because you need me