"Knockturnal" lyrics
It's all good, do or die, man
I hear ya, before I come out and go to work and whatnot
I hear a shoot-out and whatnot (yeah right)
You know, what you hear, pop-pop-pop
Listen, and I'm like, "Yo"
My moms'd be like, "Yo. You ain't going out in that."
I said, "Look, yo. A brother gotta make a living."
You gotta do what you gotta do
The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life
The city get restless when the sun go down
The words get heated and the guns go
I used to joke and smile now everyone's so foul
He grab the heat before he leave out the front door now
Check the weather, what's the forecast?
Tryna make it rain, looking for more cash
Little man ain't got no parents, who you gon' follow
When your role models send you to the store for a cold bottle?
And you come back and see 'em in cuffs will be enough
To hate police, and define manhood as being tough
Sneakers scuffed and them toes turnt up, this shit is aggravating
It's hard to put holes in denim, this ain't a fashion statement
Yelling out "That's my car", so fascinated
By material gain, it's already ours in our imagination
The matri-nations of supremacy is masturbation
The master race should make you want to mash your face
And run right up in somebody gates, like "Where the fuck the safe?"
Small, quiet dude in the back, like "I know just the place"
He flash a toothy grin the jakes love to hate
And then he flashed the gun he had tucked in his waist
The conversations, son, I'm hearing are overbearing
Ain't no preparing for how much the hood be oversharing
(Word) The night time, always the right time
When your blood is what's flowing through the school-to-prison pipeline
The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life
When you ain't got a pot to piss
Everybody on the block is your competition
Police all in your pocket, you're forced to forfeit
When your espionage is corporate, that means you got an office
Instead arrested for the petty theft
Expected to apologise for every breath
A warrior stood in the face of many deaths
But since they colonized us, are there any left?
He in the streets like he ain't got a home
Writing a poem to the beat of the sobs and moans
Ran into Joan, skin chocolate as a Toblerone
Clickety-clack of stilettos on wet cobblestones
Streetlights illuminate how truly dark it is
The block is a college, you got a degree in marketing
A doctorate in swallowing, this pimping paid her scholarships
She popping out her tits 'cause they pay her to be provocative
Broke niggas tryna holler though (holler though)
But they ain't got no dollars though (dollars though)
It sound like, "I'ma hit a lick any day
So fuck you bitch, she don't look that good anyway"
(You don't even look good anyway) Since when is pettiness a virtue?
Cops circle the block, they went from "stop and frisk" to "stop and merc" you
Smoking dark purple in a crop circle
Fast life, this entourage is saying, "Got terfs."
The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life
I hear ya, before I come out and go to work and whatnot
I hear a shoot-out and whatnot (yeah right)
You know, what you hear, pop-pop-pop
Listen, and I'm like, "Yo"
My moms'd be like, "Yo. You ain't going out in that."
I said, "Look, yo. A brother gotta make a living."
You gotta do what you gotta do
The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life
The city get restless when the sun go down
The words get heated and the guns go
I used to joke and smile now everyone's so foul
He grab the heat before he leave out the front door now
Check the weather, what's the forecast?
Tryna make it rain, looking for more cash
Little man ain't got no parents, who you gon' follow
When your role models send you to the store for a cold bottle?
And you come back and see 'em in cuffs will be enough
To hate police, and define manhood as being tough
Sneakers scuffed and them toes turnt up, this shit is aggravating
It's hard to put holes in denim, this ain't a fashion statement
Yelling out "That's my car", so fascinated
By material gain, it's already ours in our imagination
The matri-nations of supremacy is masturbation
The master race should make you want to mash your face
And run right up in somebody gates, like "Where the fuck the safe?"
Small, quiet dude in the back, like "I know just the place"
He flash a toothy grin the jakes love to hate
And then he flashed the gun he had tucked in his waist
The conversations, son, I'm hearing are overbearing
Ain't no preparing for how much the hood be oversharing
(Word) The night time, always the right time
When your blood is what's flowing through the school-to-prison pipeline
The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life
When you ain't got a pot to piss
Everybody on the block is your competition
Police all in your pocket, you're forced to forfeit
When your espionage is corporate, that means you got an office
Instead arrested for the petty theft
Expected to apologise for every breath
A warrior stood in the face of many deaths
But since they colonized us, are there any left?
He in the streets like he ain't got a home
Writing a poem to the beat of the sobs and moans
Ran into Joan, skin chocolate as a Toblerone
Clickety-clack of stilettos on wet cobblestones
Streetlights illuminate how truly dark it is
The block is a college, you got a degree in marketing
A doctorate in swallowing, this pimping paid her scholarships
She popping out her tits 'cause they pay her to be provocative
Broke niggas tryna holler though (holler though)
But they ain't got no dollars though (dollars though)
It sound like, "I'ma hit a lick any day
So fuck you bitch, she don't look that good anyway"
(You don't even look good anyway) Since when is pettiness a virtue?
Cops circle the block, they went from "stop and frisk" to "stop and merc" you
Smoking dark purple in a crop circle
Fast life, this entourage is saying, "Got terfs."
The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life
Writer(s): Talib Kweli, Jason Pounds
