"The Culling" transcribed with the WFR community and gible at genius.com
"The Climb" and "Slow Your Roll" transcribed with gible at genius.com
"Don't Complain" transcribed with the WFR community and anonymous at azlyrics.com


01. One Of Us
02. The Culling
03. It Ain't Easy
04. The Climb (Interlude)
05. The Climb
06. Slow Your Roll featuring Aloe Blacc
07. Smokin & Drinkin
08. Oooohh (I Don't Need You) featuring Slug
09. Summer Rain (Interlude)
10. Summer Rain
11. Don't Complain
12. Break It Down
13. Break It Down (Interlude)
14. Heartbeat
15. Dream State



One Of Us

A diamond in the rough
A walk out in the rain
It's never been enough
Addicted to the pain
Why so serious
Searching for blame
Less than obvious
A broken picture frame

[hook]
It's a goddman mess, to cry in shame
All but one of us lose the game
It's the nature of things that stay the same
All but one of us lose the game
All but one of us

Like a spider's web
Waitin' for a fly
Something soft and sweet
It catch my (ruined?) eye
Drink from (sunken?) tea 
Drunk and, oh so high
Joy turns into grief
Plans they go (unright?)

[hook]

Beneath the joy and pain
Amongst the fear and pride
And minor victories
Thoughts of suicide
Faith in God and man
The universe provides
Grifters with their scams
Take you for a ride

[hook]


The Culling

Fire sale, chemtrail, apocalyptic hieroglyph
Try to (riff?), wind up stiff, find a spliff, smoke it
Light the fire, turn it higher, burn the wire, work for hire
(Pure?) desire, (dire stakes get brokered?)
Colonize, gentrify, do or die, Semper Fi
Simplified sympathy, Marley Marl symphony
Cold chilling, top billing, body count, cop killing
Supervillain rivalry, mighty arch nemesis
March from the genesis to the omega
Hit the bodega, arm-legga-legga
Arm-head mega, shine like Vega
Blackhole, supernova, superlover, Casanova
Golden era terror, Goldyn Chyld whilin'
Reservoir K-9, clans from the Highland
Syndicate assassin, heartbeat's bionic
Ancient masonic, sons of Mantronik

[hook, x2]
The culling is coming, grab your guns
Stack cash funds, and/fathers, teach your sons
When politicians talk - assume they're lying
Living on your knees - much worse than dying

Smartphone, spy drone, microphone, god stone
Home alone, Al Capone, Skull & Bone, terror dome
Satellite, socialite, Neophyte, troglodyte
Outta sight, parasite, chocolate white, Canaanite
Satanic Vatican, tyranic architect
Organic archetype, volcanic dialect
Titanic visual, ironic imagery
Iconic ritual, bionic symmetry
Sacred mathematical, live from the tesseract
Surgically tactical, spine of a silverback
Sign of the zodiac, megalo-maniac
Cardiac heart attack, talking red, walking dead
Zombified, Columbine, all the time, fast rewind
Raise the flag, back it out, flood the hood, rack it out
On the news, keep it quiet, sell the lie, make 'em buy it
Make a trial, start a riot, find a threat, classify it

[hook, x2]

(sample: Culling is)


It Ain't Easy

I got a heart with a zipper in
I got a scar from the stiches in
Got nothin' on my hands but time
Tryin' to get an upper hand 
Find a woman that will understand
I'm waiting on a sun kind of side

[hook]
(You know it) ain't easy, sometime waitin' is the hardest part
(It) ain't easy, when your whole world keeps falling apart
(It) ain't easy, tryin' to get it right from the very start
(It) ain't easy, sometime waitin' is the hardest part

And on the wall there's a picture frame
And I can almost hear a name
I need a woman that will make me kinder
I got a wish and a photograph
Of the woman that will make me laugh
And I'm worried that I'm never gonna find her

Just take your time
Don't waste your time

[hook, x2]


The Climb

[hook]
I built a wall
I built it strong
I built it tall
And every single day, it's just another climb
Worked so long and hard and I still got nothing at all
There ain't no reason to this grind
Heart is cold, my soul is old, my wall is stone
If you came for free love, don't waste your time
I built a wall
I built it strong
I built it tall
Every single day, it's just another climb
Don't waste my time
Unless you came to climb
Unless you came to climb

Brick by brick, flesh and bone
Bound here behind this old wall alone
Protecting this heart, carved in stone
The stone is a diamond, it's part of my throne
Part of my throne, that's the seat of a king
I'm looking for a queen, nah mean, Norma Jean
Where you at, baby gal, where your tattoo be?
What's your history, tell your mystery
A private dancer, hold up, pause it
Baby, everybody got some bones in their closet
They just hatin', it's all chit-chatter
And the feels of a heart, girl it really don't matter
Lime to the lemon, lemon to the lime
If murder was an art, I'd make your heart mine
I'd put it in a box to cherish for all time
Your love will never perish, girl, just make the climb

[hook]

[Everlast - doubled by Maiya Sykes]
'Cause everyday the grind, it just gets harder
- Unless you came to climb
And final finish line keeps looking farther
- Don't waste my time
They need all the sheep out to the slaughter
- Unless you came to climb
I'm brushing my teeth with holy water
- Don't waste my time
One step away from my damnation
- Unless you came to climb
Two days away from my starvation
- Don't (you) waste my time
Gotta pay (for) my daughter's medication
- Unless you came to climb
So I'll sell you a piece of my salvation
- Don't waste my time

[hook]


Slow Your Roll featuring Aloe Blacc

(Kendrick Lamar: You wanna see a dead body? {sample, repeated throughout})

[Everlast]
Firestarter, born to die a martyr
Blow your whole armada, clear out the water
Sun dried harder, hell's much hotter
Top notch shutter, Peckerwood dun-da-a
Some gotta love it, some gotta get above it
Push a man, shove it, 'til it ain't enough of it
Spike in your vein, white light in your pain
But that habit gon' cost your soul, so slow your roll
Stumble on across the road, a couple baggies from the man with the goat
It might catch a high buckshot low, now you know
Living down on Skid Row, just waiting 'til they tag your toe
Now you know, how it go, death comes slow

[hook: Aloe Blacc]
Oh, I wanna know
Is there a place up in heaven waiting for me when it's time to go?
Oh, I wanna know
When I fly to the sky, are they sending me down below?
I wanna know

[Everlast]
Down by the tracks, the foot on the hill
The junkie cats gathered, to cure their ills
The hookers and the trannies sell their thrills
Pimps in the cadillacs countin' their bills, I get chills
Is this a corpse in the alley, just under the stairs?
The hookers gettin' beaten, but no one cares, they just stare
You all need to feel it if you dare
The streets are watching and you best beware
People are tryin', life ain't fair, don't get scared
Tell me, how much can you really bear?
Before you caught up in the blinding glare
Love is kind, love is cold, love is rare

[hook: Aloe Blacc, x2]


Smokin & Drinkin

(The Notorious BIG: Take tokes of the Marijuana smoke {sample, repeated throughout})

I'm on my bullshit
Barstool pimpin
On a southern fried chicken
On a whiskey-soaked August day
And she told me last summer
That she lost her only lover
'Cause he's got himself locked away
He was cooking meth, trippin'
She was on a pole strippin'
Just American as apple pie
Now she's looking for a lover
'Cause she wanna be a mother
Trying to show me that she'd rather die
She looks a little bit weathered
But she's down for whatever
And she probably knows a trick or two
Says she got a few friends
If you got a couple ends
Boy, they'd probably
Let you fuck them too 

[hook, x2]
I'm on my bullshit
Smokin' and drinkin'
Still/just wasting my time
No worrying, no thinking
More women, more wine

I'm on my bullshit
Drinkin with some trouble
'Til I start to see double
And they put me in the city jail
Now, sometimes you may have problems
And the only way to solve 'em
Isn't always walk around with bail
Now I lost a few nights
And I lost a couple fights
Blacked out on a whiskey bench
I sold a lot of tix
Fucked a bunch of hot chicks
And a couple that might make you cringe
I've got to keep it one hundred
I'll say it if I done it
Don't give about how you feel
All you cheaters and liars 
With your cheap amplifiers
Talk about how you're
"Keep it real"

[hook, x2]

I'm on my bullshit
Low temp dabbin'
Pistol grip grabbin'
I'm a chrome plated man of steel
Severly underrated
Occasionaly hated
'Cause I like to tell it how I feel
When push come to shove
Got a whole lotta love
For the people still holdin' me down
Made a whole lotta ends
And I kept a few friends
Whole time I've been fucking around
 
[hook, x2]

I'm on my bullshit


Oooohh (I Don't Need You) featuring Slug

[hook: Everlast]
I don't need you to
...fix me up
...hold me down
...lift me up
...break me down
...say one word
...make one sound
...look my way
...come around
At all

Go on, get it 'ghost' with it
Take what I gave you, girl
Make the most with it
Move you back
To the east coast with it
Here's a half empty glass
Make a toast with it
Take a flick, hit the 'Gram
Make a post with it
Caption it, "no fucks given"
Don't believe the hype
Mr. White's been true and livin'
Unvorgiven, I'm unbreakable
Unwavering, it's unmistakable
Try to help you overstand the incapable
I can't stop, it's how I make paper, girl
I got kids that need feedin'
Diseases need treatin'
As far as I'm concerned, yo
I've never been beaten
Undiminished, undefeated
Sippin' on a Redbreast
Plus I stay weeded like
Like

[hook: Everlast]

[Slug]
I'd ask you if you crazy but I know from traditions
That's the way we dismiss your words and your interests
So even though you got me listening
The picture you project won't affect my vision
We took the long way to get where we're standing right now
And if it all pays out, we'll make the families proud
But if we fall down randomly, and can't explain how
I'll remember that I'm just another face in the crowd
Don't take it there, it's not complete despair
- I still wanna see your feet in the air -
We can get prepared, or we could split these hairs
And flip these chairs, and ditch dish wear, like "bitch, who cares?"
No, thank you, I'll be over there
Where the sun's trying to poke through that old smokey air
And later on, when I'm shiny like a silver dollar
I'll try to holler, we could find out how you feel about it

[hook: Everlast]


Summer Rain

(Maiya Sykes: My Life... {interpolation from Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Everybody Loves The Sunshine, repeated througout})

Low down bum, downtown bar
So far gone, covered in scars
Swung for the fence, shot for the stars
Miscalculating, landed on Mars
Ain't got a worry, ain't got a cause
Knows all the tricks and he breaks all the laws
Plays his first hand, no matter what it shows
Been chasing that dragon but it's trying to (pause?)

[hook]
Know that the worries, know that the fame
Know that the sorrow, know that the stains
They all wash away
Like a summer rain

I've seen the needle and the damage done
I feel peaceful, I was savage once
(These damage sons, these brandish guns?)
Tonight's top story: if it bleeds, it runs
The flies, and it dies in the firey flame
They broadcast live and they weed out your name
They say you're a hero, and call it a shame
But that doesn't do zero to dissolve the pain
So you turn to the needle, and recall the vein
It's on a game, it's all a chain
The drugs and the lies and the doubt and the fear
They'e all on the rise, and I wish you were here, cause

[hook]

Uptown girl, downtown law
Eyes so classy, your skin so soft
Ass so fine, your so so lost
Chasin' that dragon, no matter the cost
Dreams been shattered, a hope's been tossed
Her car keys breaking, her fingers stay crossed
It's hard as a stone, cold as a frost
Scared to the bone, she's alone and lost, but

[hook]


Don't Complain

Yeah, nah
I can't complain, ya know?

[hook]
Brand new sneakers and a fat gold chain
We do the good cocaine
And we don't feel no pain
So, yo, we don't complain
Everywhere I go, people know my name
We got the money and fame (haha)
But they don't treat me the same (they don't treat me the same, yo)
But, yo, I don't complain

Yo, Peckerwood status, life since Illmatic
Barnacle static, like radical fanatic
Jump out the Benz with a semi-automatic
And rob all my friends, like a fuckin' drug addict
Revolutionary, very necessary
You couldn't bust a cherry, fuck your commentary
I'm so legendary, born again rhymer
Youngsters act scary, when they 'round an old timer
Like "yes sir, no sir, truly it's an honor"
Farmer of drama, harvestin' karma
Kamikaze die bomber, on suicide mission
My mental condition, 'bout to come to fruition
I'm all natural, no preservative
Style superlative, you don't deserve to live
We never truly die, and God was never born
Tell your vision lies, and watch that murder porn

[hook]

I smoke like Willie, party like Waylon
Wilder than David Lee Roth from Van Halen
Batshit crazier than you'll ever hear from Sarah Palin
Here's to smooth sailin' on all these tough waters
Mothers love their sons, fathers love their daughters
All the things they give us, and all the things they bought us
The love they first gave us, and all the things they taught us
Like doin' unto others, lovin' all your brothers
And helpin' out your neighbors, when they need a hand
But everyone went solo, went from thug life to YOLO
When it's hard to tell a woman sometimes from a man
It's a ball of confusion, and everybody's losin'
Living fake lives up on Instagram
But everything's funny, when you front for the money
While the devil executes his fuckin' master plan
Like

[hook]


Break It Down

Cold and lonely New York December
Girl, oh everything I'll remember
Everyday I got Memphis on my mind
Written cards, and I'v been calling
Girl it's hard as I've been falling
A heart gets broken almost every time

[hook I, x2]
Now bringing me home to you baby, come home
I've been building this wall around my heart for so long
[hook II]
Girl you got to want to be around
You can help me break it down
Help me break it down

Old friends, like leaves, are scattered
back where everything still mattered
Sometimes things just never go your way
Bruised and broke, but I'm surviving
All these miles that I've been driving
Got all my hopes in this old blue Chevrolet

[hook I, x2]
[hook II]

Help me break it down (repeated)

[hook I, x2]
[hook II]

Help me break it down (repeated)


Break It Down (Interlude)

[Maiya Sykes]
Break it down
Some (people?) break it down
- Come home -
Break it down


Heartbeat

Down on the corner, around the way
Kids get murdered everyday
Everyday
(Never?) on the hill, where the rich folks live
Ain't too many people with fucks to give
No fucks to give
Police shoot a young man dead in his prime
(Stuff like that?) happens here all the time
All the time
Shorty goes to school with daddy's gun
Walks into class, shoots everyone
Everyone

[hook, x4]
(The) world's just a heartbeat
Looking for a heart

The tension's so thick, you could cut the air
And all we could do is just sit and stare
Sit and stare
A road full of people and I'm all alone
Counting all them days 'til I get home
'Til I get home
Stay a little high to numb the pain
Just like my pops, will (I) break the chain
Break the chain
Liquor on my breath, bloodshot eyes
Tryin' to cheat death, see a new sunrise
New sunrise

[hook, x4]

Down on the corner, around the way
Kids get murdered everyday


Dream State

(sample, repeated throughout: I won't let you make decisions based on... {inaudible})

Walk it, talk it, show it, prove it
Slow improvement, check the movement
Play the sectional, obey the sanctions
Search protection, close the ranks in
Find the tempo lively up your body
Move with the rhythm and fuck somebody
Hearts get racing, souls get broken
Like gunshot wounds leave holes wide open
Someday moping, someday hope
Pray the find love before the end of their road
Some turn to the dope, get high as a rain
Some only cope, when they disguising their pain
Some turn to their neighbor, some turn to their god
And some spoil the child while sparing the rod
And some point above while they pray for their schemes
And some say that love's only real in your dreams, like

[hook, x2]
All I have's a dream
It never was meant to come true
All I have's a dream
Loving you

Drop the hammer, omega, gamma
Last one ever, all ties get severed
Lies get spoken, hearts get jaded
Memories blur once true love faded
Long past prisons of class divisions
Paper incisions in rash decisions
Hash based visions of assassins' (hemps?)
Cash based devils in the back with grills
Track the winds, energy's kinetic
Crack that lense, photosynthetic
So sympathetic, broken heart chalice
Hardening like callus, fueled by malice
Fed by anger, ruled by violence
Schooled in suffering, hidden through silence
Love is so sacred, love's so pure
And love's the disease that you will not cure, 'cause

[hook, x3]