Human Element

[Talib Kweli talking]

The other day I was walking, passing NYU on the way to

meet my pops, you know, and this white boy stops me, talking

'bout, he be in the National Socialist something or other,

trying to sell me a paper and, give me some, uh, Free Mumia

pamphlets.So you know I'm in a hurry, right, and I told him,

right, and he tried to check me, like 'Have you ever even heard

of the Black Panthers, and Mumia was fighting so you could go to

college, and...' All this, and I'm like, "Dude, you don't even know

me, man.I don't even fucking go here, man.I know who the

fuck Mumia is, man.Innocent niggas get locked up every day, man.

That ain't nothing new..."

But, yo, on the other hand, you tell some brothers Mumia's on

death row, and they think he's making records with Suge Knight.

I don't know, man, I guess it just really where you at

you know what I'm sayin'...Bust it.

[Talib Kweli]

Niggas on the street running like slaves

Trying to eat, yo, we averages

Twenty one years from the graves, back to baby carriages

The same hypocrites screaming pro-life and marriages

Be using religion to justify our savageness

'How bad is this?'

You and the creator need a mediator

Your priest is human

Your relationship with God is greater

The men who think they hard

Steady issuing death penalties

The people got no right to life cause they all slaves mentally

You turned'Thou Shall Not Kill' into a sham of a commandment

Your interpretation I cram to understand it

Like light

So if America is majority white

Then the prison's 'Another Country' like James Baldwin

Blacks and latinos all in the system

Like it's a calling to fall in the trap

That's why our blocks are infested with drugs and gats

In fact, cats on death row cause the way they think is illegall

One thing you can't forget when you're dealing with people

[Chorus 4x]

The Human Element

(scratched)

"Done some things bad, done some things good" -> Kurupt

[Dante]

I done walked on these streets 24 revolutions

Gon' start for play me more just from raw evolution

Fucking up your system like P&D pollution

Staten niggas free be in (?) institutions

It's the term of the century

Ohio got twenty seven penitentiaries

And get forty four thou' for each entity

See a nigga on the street, snatch him instantly

Here come the infantry, they shoot to kill intentionally

word is you could be disturbed mentally

Police balk, but that's business officially

What you thought, they supposed to show sympathy

We born enemies, they sworn to get ridda me

Protect to serve, you gotta be kidding me

Eventually, my conscious state made 'em contemplate

The price of freedom is your life man you compensate

Now think that all the way through, and let me commentate

And every common state be seem to dominate

And man accomodate laws they abominate

Through bars to combinate

And guards to confrontate

Souls are irrevelant

In cells like melanin

Judge without intelligence

Chorus 4x

[Talib Kweli]

My nigga starving in prison for bartering with ism

You tell me which is civilization and which is barbarism

He fell into the traps he knew was put here by the system

Some people got the knowledge, but they never apply the wisdom

If you ain't got it, then replicate it

Or join the growing ranks of the ill-fated

Slated to be publicly humiliated

If you ain't the problem, then the solution you have to be

We'll start a hoodlum intelligence agency like tragedy

We majesty, stay focused with thought and meditation

Deviling this Babylon with strength and dedication

Like that, and we don't stop

My A of life gon' remain on top

It's the Reflection, and we got the sureshot

And we only drop that pure hip-hop

This goes out to freedom fighters, graffiti writers

Innocent lifers, grassroots organizers

This goes out to single mothers

Soul bad brothers

Young lovers of the revolution that solutions

This goes out to cats raising babies

The the ones who react, say, when the world get crazy

Blaze one for the MOVE organization

Ramona Africa, and those that know truth is liberation

Chorus 2x

Hi-Tek put it on 'em

Free Mumia