Testo Hurricane (feat. common, mos def, & the jazzyfatnastees) The Roots

Hurricane (feat. common, mos def, & the jazzyfatnastees)

Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the bilnd
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind

Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the blind
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind

[Black Thought]
Yo, talk about paying the ultimate price
Hurricane been incarcerated all of his life
Started out at like twelve
Trapped in a belly of hell
Grew into a man inside of a cell
Yo, anger just swell up
At a early age that develop
Hot head and now it ain't shit y'all could tell him
They said he's on a road to become a felon
But instead he swung blows that'll spilt your melon
He did his thing and was the king of the ring, undisputed
Started making noise but they tried to mute it
They put him through it
For him to make the system look stupid, [yo]
They rather look you in the face and shoot it
And leave your spot looted [or what]
Or leave your whole life blank futured and caught
When you scream at it and do it
With sweat leaking from the outline of your soluid
Don't understand the point that you at
Or how the hell you came to it?
Flashback to images of that night, out in Patterson
They pulled him over heading home from a gathering
And when they told him the charge it kind of baffled him
Murder in the first for the champ, we on that again?

Chorus

Hurricane
Accuse a Hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for Hurricane, Hurricane

[Black Thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Forever, imagine your locked down forever
Could y'all stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
You tell me that you know the pain
Yo, imagine if your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever, imagine your locked down forever
Could ya'll stand the weather?
You built for that weather?
Yo, know what'm saying?
Know what'm saying?

[Common]
You gotta fight for what you believe in
Nobody knows the troubles seen
This flick left me wondering
'What can become of kings and young kids?'
Summer dream deferred, incident occured, freedom blurred
A freedom that would only be retrieved again in words, later on
The cops, y'all know what they be on
A nigga's life is like a field that they play upon, away and gone from
Natural lifer, a soul he had to fight,
Learn it himself, sleep days, stay up half the night
Amongst dead man walking, he got afterlife exercising,
Developing his knack to write
Never leaving his cell, in this world he trapped himself
What he loved on the outside world, detached himself
You know the cards Blacks get dealt by the system
He drew a picture of freedom with many dimensions
This picture proved to be bigger than Black and White
A young soul named Lesra brought him back to life
It's amazing to a man what a book could do
And how certain books seem to look for you
This is the story of a champion's fall and rise
The story left me wiping my eyes
Peace Ru

Chorus

Hurricane
Accuse a Hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for Hurricane, Hurricane

[Black Thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Yo, yo, forever, imagine your locked down forever
Could y'all stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
You tell me that you know the pain
Yo, imagine if your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever and ever yo, locked down forever
Could you stand the weather?
Yo, yo i can't even explain the pain
Just imagine if your life was like a hurricane

[Mos Def]
Yes, I am the inescapable, the irresistable,
The unnegotiable, the unchallenged [who dat?]
I am time
I scroll in measurements, control the elements,
I hold the evidence, I tell the story [say what?]
I am time
I know no prejudice, I bare no sentiments
For wealth or settlement, I move forward [who you?]
I am time
You can't recover me, conceal or smuggle me,
Retreat or run from me, crawl up or under me,
You can't do much for me besides serve
Me well and have good dividends returned to you
Or attempt to kill me off and have me murder you
Many have wasted me but now they are facing me,
Treated me unfaithfully and now endure me painfully
Plaintively, I wait to see what history will shape to be,
Who's hearts will never die inside the sake of me
Angel's scribe the page for me,
Keep a full account of all the names for me
And make a special mark for Hurricane who (?) patiently

Chorus

Hurricane
Accuse a Hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for Hurricane, Hurricane

[Black Thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Yo, yo, a Hurricane forever,
Imagine your locked down forever
Could you stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
I can't even explain the pain
Imagine if your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever, imagine your locked down forever and ever, ever
Could you hold it together?
Yo, can't explain the pain with words, know'm saying?
Just imagine if your life was like a hurricane

[Verse 4]
The clouds clashed and the heaven's gave birth to star
God placed it in a man on the day he was born
Convicted minutes after, a true natural disaster
Framed for manslaughter, the Hurricane Carter rising
From out the south water, like torrential rains
In the ring no opponent escaped unscathed
You can't believe the world we live in's injust
All I see is more proof, there's no place for us
They had my man Carter locked in a cage, like an animal
Drive him to the point where the mind work mechanical
Or works by remote control
It was done to all of us, they tapped directly into our soul
Either it's sing-sing, or it's bars around your mind
There's no where to run, no where to hide
In a six-by-six a guilty man cries
For repentance and lost is what innocence is

Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the bilnd
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind

Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the blind
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind

Chorus

Hurricane
Accuse a Hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for Hurricane, Hurricane

[Black Thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Your locked down forever
Could you stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
I can't even explain the pain, know'm saying?
Your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever, imagine behind bars forever
Could you stand the weather?
You built for that? Is you cut for that?
Don't be telling me that you know the pain
Your life was like a hurricane, yo

Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the bilnd
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind

Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the blind
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind