[Verse 1]
I just had a dream of a sold out show
But I'm back in my room, back to what I know
Writing rhymes on my own, every time I'm alone
I don't use my phone, I enter the unknown
No one can comprehend, what the fuck this pen
Has wrote, every quote could sell out a whole show
And it should and it would, but I'm not from the hood
So I'm not taken serious, I doubt that you're curious
On anything I say, I'm the young Billy Mays;
Talk until you pay me, I'm back like I'm Brady
I've looked at what I spit, realized it's all shit
That I'm talking, often, I just end up lost in
A place I embrace but I do not want to be
If you look me in my face you can see that I'm weak
There is something I seek, there is something I need
It's not females and I know its not weed
So what exactly is it, a part of me is missing
If I end up in prison, will people still listen?
Be looking at me different? Not giving me a minute?
Or some time of the day? Will anybody listen?
Will anybody stay? You all will look away
And never come again, don't tell me you're a friend
You're just part of the trend, I want this all to end
And say what's on my mind but these thoughts won't send
Now, I'm back in this jail, my own brain cell
Don't know who has the key, does anybody see
It's a fucked up scene, everybody's sipping lean
And we don't do shit like we all approve it
Put an end to it, we can, Like what happened to Yamz
Was preventable, inevitable? Hell fucking no
Somebody should of said, somebody should of told
To put the cup down but I really don't know
Who the hell am I to say? Either way it's not okay
All the youth think the truth is too smoke weed everyday
You all want to get paid but don't want to read a book
Selling drugs don't do nothing but make your ass a crook
Now look, this is it, the message you need
If you do want to succeed and be someone who leads
Try to something that nobody else could be
We all have been imprisoned, it's easy to be free
[Bridge: J. Cole]
"Of course they only want to be rappers or basketball players
That's all they really get exposed to in these situations
I want to show them like no, there's a ton of other things
You can be, just as success - you can be the biggest painter of all time
You can be Basquiat or whoever, know what I mean?
I just want to show them that there's so many other paths you can be
Besides a rapper"
[Verse 2]
This is more than a track, I'm gaining what I lack
Getting rid of my act, a voice for the black
For the white, for the brown, put the barriers down
Take a good look around, is this what you want to see?
Whole generation and no one has a dream, or wants to be a queen
Or wants to be a king, unless you play ball, or rap, or sing
Then no one in the world gives a fuck what you think
So I shouldn't even try right? None of this is my fight
I don't see no trouble looking at my life in hindsight
The news don't affect me, at least not directly
The city that I live in isn't even that deadly
Nah, that ain't right, this whole life is a fight
And I'm gonna put my hands up if nobody's gonna man up
Do what I gotta do, to make sure we all improve
To make sure we listen, and get up out this prison
[Outro: J. Cole]
"Everytime I speak to these kids, I want to show them that there's a -
The only reason they want to be rappers is cause' that's all they know
That's all they see is; J. Cole, Jay-Z, Drake, all they see is that
Or, they either want to be rappers or basketball players
Because that's the only real role models we have when we watch television
I want to try to find a way to show them that no, we - you could be a journalist
You ever thought about writing the stories that, that you - or you could, you could be an author"
