Talib Kweli: 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