Lyfe 'N' Tyme

[*whispered*]
Take a look around.. take a look around..
Take a look around.. take a look around..

[E-Vocalist]
Yo, I had dreams but financially didn't have the means
Wore dirty jeans and bought hot sneaks from dopefiends
I know it's hard but three bucks (?) is real
Out here gats kill sellin crack stackin money to chill
And 57th in the summer's like a hand grenade
Taps on that ass because my block stay paid
I'm not afraid, after money's made I parlay
Uptown burk after work at the arcade
Addicted, to cash like kids to cotton candy
And had many ways to slide papes to my phalanges
Even in high school my teachers knew the half
Cause if I wasn't in class, I'm the restroom playin craps
Keepin my game on tight like menstraul cramps
Sellin twenty rocks for sixty knocks of food stamps
But now I'm on the up, no time to live foul
Concentrate on stayin straight, cause now I got a child
All the while, King Tech, put it in effect
Engineered it all the ears and produced by Fredwreck
for a sec, use your mind to process the data
My sound hits hard like a real Oakland Raider
Never been a playa hater or a Phi Kappa Beta
But if you, front on me now E-Vo' attack that ass later
Until my dyin day I make papes and parlay
I've traveled around the world but make my home in the Bay..

[*whispered*]
Take a look around.. take a look around..
Take a look around.. take a look around..

[Chorus x 2]
I know you know where I'm comin from brother
You got to learn about yourself before you love another
Don't be afraid of what hides in the shadows
("Leave your 9's at home and bring your skills to the battle" ->)

[D-Wyze]
Well the kid be alright, my crews get you fived and live right
I'm ill, so watch the bad boy spill the phil's
What is it? Mad verbal off the fifty-fifth hill
So check the word life, because it's real
I was raised on this Eastside, the poor side of hell
Where all the crackfiends all dwell
Where the brothers sell knocks of twenty knocks on all spots
And get hemmed by track star Oakland (?) cops
I ran with a wild pack
Hard like Yukon trucks, with straps like backpacks
Stackin cash for the fun
I was nasty with my knucks cause I was taught when I was young
But shit, it's ninety-four ain't no fightin no more
I see blood all over the walls and niggaz on the floor
I'm mad dog - I'm tryin to make a leap like a frog
I wanted to do some new shit, write rhymes become a hit
I started off at CMT but that's another story G
A misconception of words, I had to cross to All City
Word life, now D-Wyze is stakin on the wife
I work hard for what I've gotten but I'm, still a little trife
Despite, the dope and violence, I love what I've done
Now stick my, dick in your eye so you can see where I'm cumin from
It's hard Oak, motherfuckin Cali
One time to stay alive, puffin blunts in the alleys
It's one world

[*whispered*]
Take a look around.. take a look around..
Take a look around.. take a look around..

[Chorus]

[Repeat: x4]
I gotta free my mind

I gotta free my mind, free my mind
Yeah, I gotta free my mind, free my mind
I gotta free my mind, free my mind
Yeah? I gotta free my mind, free my mind

From sand docks to auction blocks to R&B
From hip-hop, how many rappers flip-flop to get props?
Signed the dotted line but didn't read through the costs
(When your album sits on the desk) "That's when ya lost!"
Followed your label's notion no promotion now you're audi
And that's the type of moves that make an artist act rowdy
Emcees fallin victim to financial, seduction
Then watchin creative weight extracted, like liposuction
Your A and R like see'n'are got many styles to suit ya
But if it's false to me I've never been an ass smoocher
Since I don't brainwash minds, with talkin nines and
How I shoot ya, it seems no multi million dollar contract's
In my future, I could swallow the bait and get gassed
Like petroleum, but contracts break like Rock Steady
On linoleum, no wackin in my format, no Grammy awards
Rap over break loops and samples, no R&B chords
On a mission from God, to make the conscious souls nod
When I'm rhyming, I take tracks of coal and then
Compress em to a diamond, I'm in the mind state
To escalate, when all rappers participate
It's fate for rap to elevate

[Repeat: x2]
I gotta free my mind (yo as a matter of fact)
I gotta free my mind (we're not goin out like that)
I gotta free my mind (we got the power to stay)
"Other rappers, they went slip slidin away"

You're goin, downtown to leave your mark on the biz
You reminisce, you and your A&R was first friends
You got talent and you ain't afraid to splurge hip-hop
Better thrills than Jordan alley-oops the pill but still
Got verbals like murder, so call on Perry Mason
Twenty-five to life, is what I'm facing, for this fate's in
The element of fine print I've read it and overseen
By judgmental pompous ass phonetics, the critic
I'm still the rapper for the rhymes that he expresses
Or manifests, no frontin, I wrote the shit while blunted
Take control, don't be a fuckin fish on a pole
Label's will leave you murdered in a river with no soul
It's true, for what you say is what you do with the flow
For labels MC's come and they go, but B.U.M.S.
We leave our mark for hip-hop's devastation
In our strive to stay alive for my record's elevation

I gotta free my mind, free my mind
Yeah, I gotta free my mind, free my mind
I gotta free my mind, free my mind
Yeah? I gotta free my mind, free my mind