(Don't) Excommunicate

It's a rhythm of being

A long shot in the dark

Less a life lesson more a method of heart

And it's all about effort

About meaning and nuance, son

Class is in session so y'all better faites attention

Excommunication is actually the deadliest sin

Been shut out so many times now, don't know where to begin

Extra computation required to analyze da reality I'm in

I just learned the world don't care 'bout me, much to my great chagrin

Numbers 33:55—flyin' high then I be in a tailspin

Barbs in my eyes, thorns in my sides—sufferin' be like my Siamese twin

Takin' it hard on the chin, tryna knock me down hard like I'm a bowling pin

Tryna roll a perfect 300 on me, they hopin' I'm just another might-have-been

Like they be—but their adversity be a stronger medicine

Cause maybe—the specter of failure be only inside my head

It's crazy—to realize the lies of the boogeymen

Amazed me—the truth was hidin' out the whole time like Huckleberry Finn

Now I seek first the Kingdom, yo I be guided by the light from within

Be sneakin' up upon ya like Hiawatha in my buckskin moccasins

Oratin' a new sensation, demonstratin' a new confederation as I pull up to the motor inn

In a cloud of dust like “Two Djinn,” fillin' my tub up wid bathtub gin

I be workin' magic in the kitchen, cookin' my bitchin' marchand de vin

Haters tryna slip me lies like Mickey Finn, yo I already dropped that shit in!

My motel room be a-rockin' jus' like a looney bin

So don't even bother knockin', boy just come right in

See I be, lockin' and loadin' but broke the firin' pin

Think somebody gon' hafta notify my next of kin

I be the bedouin wid a thin grin playin' violin metaphorically stuck in East Berlin

Reformatin' the system from within like I'm straight up Anne Boleyn

Strange, it seems that rap today serves to glorify the self

“Yo listen up y'all, I'm the greatest—ain't nobody else!”

All these rhymes describe some fancy liquor kept upon the top shelf

Penned by some gangsta in need of a little love and a little self-help

Now I applaud the hard effort required to get past that eighth mile

But Rap God just don't strike me as humble, so me, I try and dial back my style

Maudlin enough as it may be I think about death once in a while

Think about what really matters while we here an' livin' through all our trials

And yes I can attest to their struggle and their pain

But why we gotta be so competitive all da time, man it's insane

We in this thing together, we all got dumped in here the same way

Same space, same human race, same crazy place to continue to stay

Rappers tellin' me all the time how they transactin' they bidness

See I don't put value on all that stuff, yo I got none of that shit

Cost more maintainin' my bank account than what's actually in it (fo' real?)

Say it again, I know the Kingdom's within, so that's where I went to get it

Care more about humility and compassionate livin'

I still be fightin' the objectification of men and especially women

Care more about the beauty of this world and the miracle of subjectivity

Still be decryin' what the source of our problems gotta be...so why can't you see?

MC's rappin' 'bout their piece, that shit never bothered me in the least

What's fucked up is the threats they make—“I'll Hurt You,” “I'll Kill You,”—yo dog gimme a break

Y'all don't have to try to be the baddest mother shut-cho-mouth!

True mothers exercise love and restraint, that ain't never been in doubt

Guns are tools, and almost all of us be playing by the right rules

Take 'em away next thing y'all know they be comin' after our spoons

Stagin' false flags at Dairy Queen, still be seein' them kids gettin' killed everywhere

And there ain't no amendment protecting our right to bear our silverware

Fact is that guns are not the enemy any more than we be

Takes a human will behind the trigger to cause calamity

Wait and see how they be when disaster strikes and now they on their knees

So I'ma let my nine drop the next rhyme—this discussion be upsettin' me

How recklessly they pull the wool—be like Jason tryna find his golden fleece

Nina Simone set the tone, sent out tha humanitarian press release

Black or white we all got life (but try tellin' that to the secret police)

So this cultural obscenity be my only threnody for the victims of “security and peace”

Well what is rap but the spoken word

Roadmap through a life absurd

Life aquatic you got it solid

Ain't never killed no mockingbird

Stab in the dark; A Remark You Made

Jus' sum'n I overheard

What is rap?

Method for describin' what's occurrin' an' what's occurred

Poetic expression of life:

A fuckin' rare bird

Steeped in sound an' rolled in riddim

I smoke this verse wid 'em—now come an' get 'em

How many times I gotta go through this shit in my life

Explainin' myself to those who don't care to get it right?

Refrainin' from tellin' 'em all they missin' the point 'cause they lackin' the sight

Too-late contrite like Lot's wife after she looked 'round an' turned to sodium chlorite

Oops I mean chloride, don't get that shit into your eyes

Getch'all methaemoglobinaemia an' you prob'ly gon' die

There's a reason we teach precision in chemistry, for which we outta try to strive

Same reason we be lyrically precise, supplyin' demand for fresh rhymes

By the way this shit was written in one night so please don't fuck wit the copyright

Alright for an existentialist New Hampshirite half-Semite writing by candlelight

A romantic plight: slightly erudite wid an appetite for egg whites an' bentonite

Despite my insight never seem to get enough daylight

Not enough time in the day to handle all the rewrites

Gimme a dime for every time I hadda cut, paste an' re-recite

Workin' overtime on the page but you know I hang tight

An' it's a crime how we relate 'cause I ain't jus' bein' polite

Internal rhyme be sublime, ya know ma prose be airtight

It's by design: I'z be da signifyingest monkey like Dolemite (motherfucker!)

Lemme remind y'all at home to go an' check yo' pilot light

'Cause you arrivin' butcha might not walk away from this lyrical gunfight

I see a sign in the sky but look it's just a meteorite

Got a chime on ma radar...we pickin' up da Black Knight satellite!

Pantomime that we go through 'cause we lacking any oversight

War crimes is status quo now: can'tchall taste dat Turkish delight?

Recognize the launching site for tha Sunni-Shiite proxy fight

“It's mine!”—but whose birthright is it yo, Hittites or tha Canaanites?

Meantime da Ruskis got 'em both locked in tight inside their peep sights

Whole maritime conflagration, jus' waitin' to ignite

Paradigm be changin' atta speed of light 'cause da West got stage fright

“Better well hanged than ill wed,” as they say in Twelfth Night

Showtime!—NATO comin' atcha at a million degrees Fahrenheit

So realign y'all's allegiances lest y'end up gettin' extradited

Jus' sublime, take how them details on MH17 came to light

Been jus' dyin' to tell y'all why they downed that international flight

Exactly why were a hundred AIDS-cure researchers killed outright?!

But jus' try to find the mufuckas that ya outta indict

Same lies they toldja when they said we was “always alright”

Don't act surprised to learn we gettin' another round of apartheid

Now there be flies buzzin' round tha dead host of da geopolitical parasite

Green slime fulla terrorzymes: apoptosis o' dem failed-policy phagocytes

So cry out to the rock to 'hide us!' and then pretend to be contrite

That's fine, but I know y'all's convictions ain't exactly watertight

So sigh and shed a tear 'cause I think we mighta lost this bullfight

“And that's (just) the way it is,”—OK sure thang, maybe if you Hornsby or Cronkite

Yo, am I gettin' through wit this shit...hello?...yo, hello people...no?...yeah...aight...think they changed stations...nah ain't nobody there no mo...ain't nobody lisnin'...aw snap...yeah, ok...yea play it agin Sam...jus' put this bitch on repeat...somebody gon' stumble in here sometime...jus' gotta be tha right time...dig?