Saul Williams Album

Can you feel it? Nothing can save you
I'm tougher than bullets, so baby, pray to your savior
I've never been shot but I bet you I'm braver
I'm taking my spot, nigga, I ain't afraid to

Be me
Sometimes I find it very hard to be
(WHO?)
Me
(The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of NiggyTardust!)

Yo, the banana peels are carefully placed
So keep your shell toes carefully laced
The illest nigga got peppered and maced
Now amplify this, turn up the bass!

Picture me
Lampin' in the company car
Rims like Tibetan prayer wheels,
Nigga what? I'm a star
I cruise the block like a feather,
Back and forth til I land
As the song in your ear,
Or the book in your hand
Now.. this fuckin' world is
'Bout to know who I am
Got your whole system up in my trunk
That dog-eat-dog, make-my-woofers-bark
Atomic crunk
All my trill niggas know
Who be bringing da funk
Lees and shell toes like it's Black History Month

Yo, the banana peels are carefully placed
So keep your shell toes carefully laced
The illest nigga got peppered and maced
Now amplify this, turn up the bass!

Yo, the banana peels are carefully placed
So keep your shell toes carefully laced
The illest nigga got peppered and maced
Now amplify this, turn up the bass!

Yo, the banana peels are carefully placed
So keep your shell toes carefully laced
The illest nigga got peppered and maced
Now amplify this, turn up the bass!

There was one
Bore witness to the rays of the sun
Synthesized in her own image, photo negative shun
The development of Parliament, the phallic bop gun
Thus, the mother-ship connection spawned the birth of the drum
Ancient drum begat drum
Kingdom go, kingdom come
Ancient sector of the scepter risen up to the sun
Hidden hand of man begat patented clone of the drum
Boom Bap strapped into a wire, tightly coiled, and re-spun

(TRIGGER!) sound, trigger gun,
Drum machine, machine gun
Bodies piled, carefully filed under beats that were once
Reprogrammed to become
Unplugged concert of sun
Every ray with sample clearance, every two begat one

(BOOM BAP!) Hard as a gun
White cross-trainers unstrung
Let these suckas know the cost of making Harriet run
Let the North Star be your guiding post when turned from the sun
Until knowledge reigns supreme over nearly everyone

Yo, the banana peels are carefully placed
So keep your shell toes carefully laced
The illest nigga got peppered and maced
Now amplify this, turn up the bass!

Yo, the banana peels are carefully placed
So keep your shell toes carefully laced
The illest nigga got peppered and maced
Now amplify this, turn up the bass!

I was born
In a Convict Colony
And I was torn
From the land
That mothered me
Mother may I?
She says 'yes you may'
Well, today I
I say right here today

You're a Convict Colony!
If you're running
From the Sun

Your a Convict Colony
A Convict Colony
And you don't really want it

I was birthed
From the earth
Fought my way
To this day
Now I'm gone
Truth be told
I'll be here
'til your gone

You're a Convict Colony!
You're running from the Sun

You're a Convict Colony!
Your reaching for your gun

You're a Convict Colony!
You're running from the Sun

You're a Convict Colony!
A Convict Colony

And you don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want it
You don't really want...

So you don't like the way we're running things?
And you don't like the way the chisel clang?
You want to blame it on the government --
on why you got no money for your rent?

You wanna start a revolution?
And blame it on the institutions?
You know there's only one solution.
Now tell me what you're gonna do son?

The trigger is you.
The nigger is you. (2x)
So what you gonna do?

You wanna blame them boys in Lebanon
and act like you don't know where they get it from?
You wanna project all your problems
and murder every way to solve them?
Would Jesus Christ come back American?
What if he's Iraqi and here again?
You'd have to finally face your fears, my friend.
Who's gonna hold your hand when that happens?

The trigger is you.
The nigger is you. (2x)
So what you gonna do?

What do you teach your children about me?
What do you teach your little children about me?
Pimp, thug, bling, drug, Lord of the Undergrounded Kings.
How can you be so sure I won't call down the rain?

What do you teach your little children about me?
You point your gun when I am running, I see it clear.

The trigger is you.
The nigger is you. (2x)
So what you gonna do? (repeated)

I can't believe the news today.
I can't close my eyes and make it go away.
How long? How long must we sing this song?
How long?
How long?
‘Cause tonight we can be as one. Tonight.

Broken bottles under children's feet.
Bodies strewn across a dead end street.
But I won't heed the battle call.
It puts my back up, puts my back up against the wall.

Sunday Bloody Sunday. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

And the battles just begun.
This many lost, but tell me who has won?
The trench is dug within our hearts.
Mothers, children, brothers, sisters, torn apart.

Sunday Bloody Sunday. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

How long? How long must we sing this song?
How long?
How long?
‘Cause tonight we can be as one.
Tonight. Tonight. Tonight. Tonight.

Sunday Bloody Sunday. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Wipe your tears away.
Wipe your tears away.
Wipe your tears away.
Wipe your tears away.

And it's true we are immune.
When fact is fiction and TV: reality.
And today the millions cry.
We eat and drink while tomorrow, they die.
And the real battles just begun
to claim the victory Jesus won on

Sunday Bloody Sunday. Sunday Bloody Sunday.

And when my fears arise I blow them out.
Blow them out...

Death creeps through the streets over programmed beats.
A rabid dog in heat on a dead end street.
Oil slicks, the only rainbows that canvas gray concrete.
Shadows of skyscrapers fall when Mohammed speaks.
Corpses piled in heaps. Sores and decay, reeks. Placing tags on feet.
A Nike Air Force Fleet. Custom made. Unique. Still in box.
White sheet. Ripened blue, black, sweet. White tank top, wife beat.

Hearts in two-step beat - Break.
Dance pray work whip - Break.
Neck jump back kiss - Break.
Ashes, dust, kill, crush - Break.

Consider yourself:
less than, inferior to, half man,
superior to woman, unbearable likeness.

Consider yourself:
almost, never quite, dark-skinned, lily white,
black as sin, devils den, whiteness.

Consider yourself:
outcast, criminal, unseen, invisible, point blank,
ready cocked trigger.

Consider yourself:
Hardcore, dirt poor, hustler,
BCH, whore, reverend, doctor. Nigger.

Hearts in two-step beat - Break.
Dance pray work whip - Break.
Neck jump back kiss - Break.
Ashes, dust, kill, crush - Break.
Build up, pimp strut, slap - Break.
Cotton, corn, crop, wheat - Break.
Dance, whip, work, pray -Break.
Neck, jump, back, kiss - Break.

Let it out.
Blow it out.
Spit it out.
Get it out.
Beat.

Let it out.
Blow it out.
Spit it out.
Get it out.
Beatings.

Let it out.
Blow it out.
Spit it out.
Get it out.
Beasts.

Let it out.
Blow it out.
Spit it out.
Get it out.
Get it out

By the horns and get it out.
Cough it up and spit it out.
Get it out.

Break the cycle, break the chain
break the hurt and break the pain.
All my doubts and all my fears,
break the spell that keeps me here.
Break the cycle, break the chain,
break the whip and break the pain.
Get it out.
Spit it out.
Break.

Ladies and gentleman
it is with the greatest pleasure
that i present
NiggyTardust

NiggyTardust, Grippo King, philosopher, and artist
downright to the marrow, he's the arrow
through the heartless
sunlight in the afternoon, his shadow
travels furthest

Woven through the heart of doom,
he's bursting through the surface
hardly nervous
Suffice to say, he understands his purpose

Threshold king of everything, a comical absurdist
Sometimes when he talks he sings,
yet keeps his high notes wordless

Sing along when Niggy sings, without you he'd be worthless,
homeless, earthless, Venus Hottentot up in the circus
freak show, hear him speak so properly 'cause every word is
measured against meaning, probably scheming to unlearn us

Don't you call him by his name
white people call him Curtis

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy
Niggy

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy (nothing!)
Shutup.

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy
Niggy

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy
(nothing!)
Shutup.

Put your mama on the phone
You can't say that girl, Niggy grown
What your daddy gonna do?
He can't deny what he knows true
What the preacher gonna say?
Preacher can't say shit, boy, the preacher's gay
What your granny gonna do?
She can't deny the truth

Hey!
NiggyTardust here to stay!
Paint him on your lunch box or your thermos for a fee
You might win the chance to hang with
Niggy for a day
Side affects may include simply doing what you say

Hey!
NiggyTardust, no guitar
Ghetto gothic millionaire
a super-duper star
Side affects may include simply being who you are

You are yourself, my darling dear,
and were never a nigger

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy
Niggy

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy (nothing!)
Shutup.

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy
Niggy

When I say Niggy, you say nothin'
Niggy
(nothing!)
Shutup.

So what y'all niggas wanna do?
I'm standin at the pearly gates
So you can run and get your crew

I'm knocking once then I'm bustin' through,
with some gold diadoras and a shirt that reads "Do Unto Who?"

What y'all niggas wanna do?
Elevate the race or love these other muthafuckers too?
The choice is yours which means it's up to you

But how can I love myself if I
can't love you?

NiggyTardust

Feel the music
Son, we got you programmed like a beat
When I press snare, Yo, guard your grill
Press kick, you move your feet
You can't compete
Got my hydrants parked on every street
I'm federal, NGH
Son of Sun
Come close and feel the heat

I am the streets
The white lines only seperate me from me
You hydroplane in false god's name and still crash into me
Sign and tree, mountainside, guardrail into the sea
They thought they stole you from my arms then carried you to me

Here's the key
DNA encoded in a beat
White rocks in a vial, NGH, ain't got nuthin on me
BCH I'm free
Ask these editors at MTV
Far as they know they're publishing some new school poetry
Let it be
'Cause even that will do to turn the key
Doorways into the other worlds
The truth shall set you free

You are me
I am you
But also I am he
Shepherd of a bastard flock that grazes in the streets

Feel the beat
Nod your head
Lean back
Yo, touch your feet
Let me see you pop that thang right there, girl, in your seat
Feal the heat
Count this page amongst your whitest sheets
Comfort in my every word
Slide under
Countless sheep

Hail Mary, Mother of God
Got the whole host of angels shuffling in my iPod
NGHs learned to raise their voices when I lowered my rod
Staff of Moses
Pharaoh knows it
Son, my word is my bond

Tune my heart with my mind
Speak my nature
Divine
Called this shit into existence back in '79
With the future in my pocket
Tightly gripped like a nine
Keep my finger on the trigger
Waitin for the right time

Ancient NGHs align!
Path of cosmic design
Blood of kings 'cause Saturn's ring don't need no diamonds to shine
Yes, the reason for the season
Ornamented, divine
Coded language of the mystics with my fist in the sky
Keep your head up
We present the real, my NGH
Dead up
Book of the Dead
History bled
This NGH fed up
Led us to despair, some into prayer, and they won't let up until they got up worshipping them false gods instead of the realness

God of the streets
My NGHs feel this
We nod our heads and worship through beats
Go 'head and kneel
It's the love that makes the cipher complete
And it's displayed through the way the bass line marries the beat

(I'm fighting every war at once
And I'm winning
You can't think of me
as you did in the beginning)

By the time you hear this song you've gone wrong
Caught in the labyrinths of time, in your mind
Unlearn
Unwind
But not to worry
There is no hurry
"Come unto me", says she

"You've been polluted, uprooted by time
You have been muted, computed
But I'm a living vessel of the One, of the Moon of the Sun"

Hey
You ain't as dead as you seem
WTF!
But you keep living your lies
Hey
Your lifes a bore but you dream
Bring yourself to be yourself tonight

I see evidence in how you hold you head
I see evidence in how you say what is said
I see it in your eyes that you've been hypnotized

"You've been polluted, uprooted by time
You have been muted, computed
But I'm a living vessel of the One, of the Moon of the Sun"

Callin' haves and have-nots
Every cell on the block, every NGH with a trigger, empty barreled or cocked
marching like a parade of scars like you been stabbed or shot
Son, we smoking these batons right in front of these cops

Callin' out to the kids
All my NGHs with bids, whether suited up or booted up or stuck in the mid
You can download it or boot it up, my pupils unlid
All my students of the underground with record store gigs

Callin' out to the girls, the inventors of worlds, the intelligence of relevance and elegant pearls
Pour like nectar from the lotus, Big Bang Opus in swirls down the sweaty back of hairweave tracks and dried jheri curls

Callin' out to the pimps,
Hat cocked slump with your gimp
On your wrist
With just a twist of lime to go with that limp
Hold your cup up so this ancient rain can find its way in
Let these niggas know the cost of reaching heavenly bliss
Yes

Scared money don't make none (8x)

It was all a dream
I used to fantasize I was Malcolm
or Martin in the pulpit, the ballot or the bullet
I swear
I used to pray to change back the year when NGHs spoke of MTHRSHPs w/ space helmets for hair
Well, now what have we here?
Thugs and poets
What we seem to have in common is we're common as air
Yes, the lowest rung of anthems sung each day every year
From check cashing to latest fashions while they ration out fear
But I'm fearless
Sometimes I feel alone
Homeless
Peerless
What will it take to shake the land for all the land to hear this?
I can't bear this!
Born of pages torn from ancient prayer lists - descendant of the womb
The lotus blooms when I come near it
I declare it: time to re-align karat to carrot
What was olden remains golden
Sceptered tongue
I dare to share it
All who hear it know at once
Royal Highness over blunts
Thug of thugs
Pimp of pimps
Golden tongue
And Ivory Fronts
Grind and hustle
NGHs know the heart is just a muscle
all praises due
You made some papers I wrote upon
I trust you will invest
'Cause chances are the game is just a test
Professor of the truth
Talk real talk
Emeritus
I am the King
As I command my son to dance and sing
We celebrate our Earthly fate
My daughter gives me wings
We are One
Descendants of the Mothership and tongue
Southern trees have born strange fruit
Hail! Salute! A troop well hung

So come along
Everyone's invited
Heroes of distinguished paths
Victims and Convicts
Those who dare not stand alone
And those who stand unfettered...

Fuck the bullshit
Whether from the hill or from the pulpit
Today, I put my money on the fall of every culprit
The truth prevails!
When all else fails
Drug dealers make the music...
Then guess who's back?
Your souls answer to greenback, hoes, and crack
The chord that's strung from anthems sung right now to way way back
The legacy of Hennessey
Distilled to brownish black
Rolls off the tongue
A pointed gun
Fake NGHs best stand back
The trumpet calls and yes, yes, y'all the Emperor's changed his hat

What's a song if you can't fuck to it?
I want to move deep in the gut of it.
But what's the right kind of behaviour
To qualify as someone's saviour?

What kind of question is that anyway?
I know I don't deserve your time of day.
But since you're giving me some time tonight
Then hold me close girl and just squeeze me tight.
Raw.

I want to touch you on the other side
Where all your anger, fear, and hurt reside
I want to get to know the part of you
That I can crawl inside, the heart of you.
Raw.

Oooh..

And I can't become my father
when it's all been said and done.
His completions won't complete me.
I've divided me by one.
I'm the answer to his riddle.
I'm the caution of his wind.
I'm the spoon wedged between
tongue and teeth beneath his trembling grin.
And I dare add my revision
for I dare not suffer twice.
And I dare not re-invent the past.
And I dare not be the Christ.
And I welcome any sufferer.
And I welcome any Saul,
sitting in this room on wooden
bench waiting for Joi to call.
And I suffer here alone, Lord,
perturbed by my every thought.
How I've tried to strip them to the bone,
I've struggled and I fought.
Every jealous, warped intention,
smuggled, sewn into my genes.
Every hidden mongrel tendency exploiting me in me.

Each time I put them under
But still they wanna test me!
I cry out through the thunder
You storm right past me!
I search and I ponder.
I question and wonder.
I roar and I thunder.
Please let me in.

I've been waiting here for what
now seem the better of an hour.
I've raised every crippled question
from the dead and given power
to the abscense of my sanity.
The presence of a fear
that lies in between forgotten dreams
that pile up every year.
Up above your highest testaments,
down below the wooden floor,
there's a gutted room,
pitch black at noon,
beneath a hidden door.
Deep within you'll find the attributes
of every sunken man
who must bang his head against the dead
each day he tries to stand.
And he's standing pressed against the very woman
that he loves.
Kissing eyes and lips,
embracing hips,
surrendering to her touch
and just at the very moment
that he touches heart to heart,
she pulls from his touch,
'cause it's too much to mend what's torn apart...

Each time I put them under
But still they wanna test me!
I cry out through the thunder
You storm right past me!
I search and I ponder.
I question and wonder.
I roar and I thunder.
Please let me in.

It's so hard to be
the man I would be
if hatred and fear no
longer appeared.
I swear, I've become
the skin of a drum,
the heart of a man.
Divided I stand.

No one ever does
Memories are like promises that are seldom kept
Hence, why Jesus wept
Every day we are torn away from the ones we love
There's no God above
Only if you would spend your gift to uphold the truth of just me and you
And we represent all the time we've spent getting to this day
There's no other way
Aren't we who we claim to be the descendents of?
Whom we place above, we must place within and slowly begin to love
No one ever does
Suddenly, who I thought was me was not me at all
And I feel so small, sitting way beneath who I want to be
I don't want to be who I've grown to be
Only if I might somehow riff on the way before let it be some more
Lift me from this floor if I can't walk I'll crawl to love
No one ever does

We are broken
instruments
burst wide open
smashed and bent

Not what you'd expect
from these city streets
Who serves to protect
The orchestra in me?

Conductor, conductor
I feel electricity
Conductor, conductor
Can you bring out the song in me?

(instruments, instruments, instruments)
Banged and blown through
(instruments, instruments, instruments)
Banged and blown through
(instruments, instruments, instruments)
Banged and blown through

We are broken
instruments
burst wide open
smashed and bent

Not what you'd expect
from these city streets
Who serves to protect
The orchestra in me?

(instruments, instruments, instruments)
Banged and blown through
(instruments, instruments, instruments)
Banged and blown through
(instruments, instruments, instruments)
Banged and blown through

Conductor, conductor!
Conductor, conductor
Can you bring out the song in me?

To manifest your dreams before you manifest your fears.
To navigate beyond the treachery of self-despair.
To find the balance between all you sense and all you see.
To find the patience and the strength it takes to let it be.
To stand amongst the crowd and have the strength to hold your own.
To throw away the pen and pad and simply be the poem.
To rise above hatred to love through seeming contradiction.
To seldom take a side and learn to compliment the friction.
To bring about the change within that we can't live without.
To shift and re-arrange ideals and learn to deal with doubt.
To voice the victory and unlearn ways of self-defeat.
To learn the value of "Yo fuck the words, just ride the beat."
To leave the comfort zones of all you know to all you feel.
To step beyond the void and realize the unknown is real.
To re-imagine every obstacle as just a means,
of honing craft and learn to laugh at failures funny dream.

There has to be some other way to stop the fight!

I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?
I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?
Each day we sing and pray for guidance through the night.
I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?
I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?

To not allow the worshipers to take up all the space.
To dance at funerals and grieve when true love shows it face.
To meditate upon the lesser things like hair and nails.
To find new meaning in your freedom when your freedom kills.
To walk the runway on the one day when you lost your stride.
To show your face when you feel more inclined to run and hide.
To keep it gutter when you utter "No it won't stop!"
Until the ones that point their guns at niggahs get got!
You're gonna get got!
You let these niggahs get got!
Lying on the black top.
Relying on the have-nots.
You're gonna get got!
Get popped!
Get cocked!
You let these niggahs get got!
Let these niggahs get got!

There has to be some other way to stop the fight!

I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?
I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?
Each day we sing and pray for guidance through the night.
I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?
I was raised to be lowered.
Was I raised to be lowered?

Hallelujah.

All these other suckas make me sick.
Inshallah we've come this far, the past can suck my dick.
Blessed be the virgin (especially if she's nice and thick).
May your first time be full of grace, respect, and not a trick.
First communion. Sacred as the day you were conceived.
Born in sin? Nah, think again: Repent and disbelieve.
Heaven lies between your thighs. There lies the trick! Deceived.
Holy blood shed once a month until we nurture seed.

Was I raised to be lowered?
Was I raised to be lowered?
Was I raised to be lowered?
Was I raised?
Was I raised to be lowered?
Repeated 7X

Bitch nigga
Gun trigger
Dick's bigger, why fuck?
Killer, blood spiller
Bitch, steal a mac truck
Bad luck fuckin' with this black buck
Bigger Thomas, I promise
Leave a corpse in the furnace

Nigga what?
I'm complicated down to my strut
Like the way I hold my gat flat on its side like a pug
And I'm tickling the trigger make it laugh from its gut
You would think I'm a comedian the way it erupts

Nigga what?
I represent the ashes and dust
All that soot up in your chimneys got ya stuck in a rut
You can fire
Hold your fire, son, I'm smokin you up
You can whistle your desires
Even Buddah got snuffed

Nigga now
I'm standing on the corner of Wow
Exclamations pointed at me cuz I'm gettin' these nouns
Got these kids inventing adjectives and gaining renown
Cuz I am nigga
I am

Nigga please
The air, the earth, the fire and seas
Third dimension, fourth dimension, fifth dimension with ease
Oh, the chicken never thought I got ya smokin' them trees
Ask your front door what my sawed off got you snortin' them keys

Nigga what?
But I ain't gonna knock open up when it's time to Meet your maker ain't no changing the plot
You're an actor in the series nigga, I own the lot
And I'm here to serve these royalties like gold in a pot

Callin haves and have-not's

Hey, ain't no need to stop that
Hey, ain't no need

God and pussy
Objects of desire
And ill repute
Some rather seek up high than
dig and grindin in the truth
The angel of my eye have been too fly to substitute
with any other form than the messiahs
Black Mariahs
Mother ship, Grandmother moon and sea
The wave and form of beauty born of Eden's apple tree
And every single Adam stands erect and prays to be
The follower she offers sweet communion
Holy union

Let me see you run it just like that
Move your hips from side to side
Come forward, push it back
Let me know firsthand the land of glory that I lack
I surrender all to you if you surrender back

Holy God
Where'd you learn to squeeze it tight and then
move it slow enough for me to question everything?
You slowly start to tremble
Heaven's walls begin to sing
Tsunami ever after
Cosmic slop on everything

Hey, ain't no need to stop that

Bitch nigga
Gun trigger
Dick's bigger, why fuck? (Ain't no need to stop that)
Killer, blood spiller
Bitch, steal a mac truck
Bad luck fuckin' with this black buck
Bigger Thomas, I promise
Leave a corpse in the furnace