Whatcha Gonna Do
One night lying awake in my bed
I heard a sound ringing out so clear
But no matter what I tried
I couldn't find the source of the sounds in my mind
Move with me
What are you waiting for?
Do what you feel
And before I knew I was dancing
Felt so free
(chorus)
Whatcha gonna do when the music's calling you
Whatcha gonna do got no choice gotta move
So there I was, just little me by myself
Dancing away like there was nothing else
Unaware of the stares from passers by
I had totally lost myself
Excuse me please
Tell me just what you're looking at?
Get on your feet
Once you start you'll never wanna go back
(chorus)
It's that hip-swinging, lip-singing thing
That just happens when it hits you
It gets you, completely unawares
Lose all your cares, it'll be alright
Dance away the night and day
Step up step in give in
No matter what you say
It's gonna get you some place
So won't you move with me
What are you waiting for?
Do what you feel
And before I knew I was dancing, felt so free
Get It Together
(chorus)
Get it together
Get it together
Gotta get it together
Get it together
Gotta get it together
Gotta get it together
Wake up in the morning, get my head on straight
It's gonna take a minute so I guess you'll have to wait
For this story-telling, city-dwelling sister to prepare
Need to fix my face, gotta comb my hair
Back-packed, head-wrapped
'Cos it's a cold cold world out there
If shit ain't together ain't nobody gonna care
Know your mama told you that this life ain't fair
But it's in your hands, your destiny is your plan
Get it together
'Cos in the city life is faster
Master your own destiny or meet disaster
You gotta have your head on straight, brothers are slicker
Influenced by bright lights, drugs, women and liquor
(chorus)
'Cos these streets ain't easy
And the shit that we see
Makes it hard to have faith and be strong and hold on
Keep hope and one day
Change is gonna come
There's so much so bad, so many that never had
Survival of the fittest
Keeping up with the quickest is the name of the game
You're a winner or a loser
A giver or a user and ain't it a shame
We got to be all we can be
And it's in our hands our destiny is our plan
Get it together
'Cos in the city life is faster
Master your own destiny or meet disaster
You gotta have your head on straight, brothers are slicker
Influenced by bright lights, drugs, women and liquor
(chorus)
People people can't you see
It's got to stop with you and me
It's hard enough, it's got to stop
So much more I gotta reach for
It's in our hands, make it our plans
Get it together
What Does That Mean?
To the Gods and the Earth I say peace
Positive people of the universe say peace
Wifey wanted to argue and have beef, I said peace
Got me at the club about to draft a new dime piece
Bullets fly from the glock of the beast, there's no peace
From Cincinatti to Israel and Palestine we need peace
I study a psalm, now when I was reading it gave me peace of mind
The time when a nigga's taking a piece of mine
The time when I want to grab my piece but I find inner peace
He only wanted a piece of the pie of which you and I strive to get a piece
When the physical dies we pray the soul rests in peace
We live in turbulence
Peace
Grandpa always said peace be still
If it's Allah's will let there be peace on earth
Peace to the Star, peace to the Sun
Peace to the womb that we all came from
War is always sandwiched by peace
I don't know, I guess it's just the mark of the beast
Summertime temperatures they rise like yeast
I got beef, WAR, walking down a war torn street
I don't need a charge I've got to act and make beats
Can't you see you're GOD?
War is strangling the peace
War consumes my peeps as the trigger's released
Got guns cocked, stray shot, from military police
A body drops, life's stopped, for her child a mama weeps
Twice a week war's a wake, too much to say the least
A war of the mind, a chalk line
How do we define a war crime?
Just another youth left behind?
Peace
Believe In Yourself
(chorus)
Any place you feel you wanna be, you'll reach it
Believe
And anything your mind wants to achieve, you'll achieve it
Believe in yourself
People often think
There's nothing but to sit and watch the world go by
Sometimes when you feel it's
Spinning just too fast to hop on board
Try to keep up, try not to stop
Believe that there's more
More to live for
(chorus)
Please believe
Nothing beats a fail but a try
Words from my mom Jettery, as she stares in my eye
Reg Wyns packs his things, "now really don't cry"
El Hajj pilgrimage
I'm on tour, this ain't goodbye
Please believe self, L-O-V-E
Do what you do because you love it positively
You keep that numerator over negativity
See divine denominators, you alpha, omega
The first shall be last, the last shall be first
You're major, know thyself
The temples archways had it written on top
What your mind conceives your ass will achieve
Your spirit will proceed if in your heart you believe
It seems mystical, me with the mic is like a ritual
My words pivotal whether analogue or digital, written or visual
I feed your spiritual and physical
It's true, keep your head to the sky,
Please believe
(chorus)
And you'll find when you have a little faith
Everything you could want or need will just fall into place
Make it happen
Just believe you can make it happen
Stay with it my friend, just give it a chance
Stay with it my friend, 'cos your will is the way
Cantaloop 2004: soul mix
Groovy groovy jazzy funky
Bounce bounce dance
As we take you on a ride to '93 (come on), '94 Stateside
Right now I MC
Now rap's pop, chart determines what gets hot
Over the years I still love when this beat drops
I show and prove, I stick and move
Bout a poem's recital, a Herbie Hancock groove
Hancock's my block (true)
Brooklyn, London, Asia, through African trade routes
Us3 usher me through
Brace yourself Us3 takes ya...
Fantasia
Feel the be-bop, jazz and hip-hop
Now we got black rock, neo-soul, it don't stop
If you don't know the roots of the tree
You don't know the branch, where the fruit will be
And if I speak from my soul my lawn shows potholes
On Cantaloupe Island got my speech on parole
Can't arrest my development, Reg is in control
Mr Wyns if you're nasty, flash me girl, Oh!
Back to the fact my habitat is in the wax
Embedded needle in the groove, call me a poet
Poem's steady growin', flowin' showin' sights and sounds
Soothe in the groove in fantasia I found
Hip-hop has toured, globally has soared
To an infinite height
Beyond the realm of the hardcore
Here we go Us3 takes ya...
Fantasia
From jumpin' in the jam
On US walls you stand
Culture intersects
In England they still dance
Cuba and Japan where they love the mic master
Of the ceremonies speaking words like a pastor
Capitalism stuck
Still rockin' Nike, Diesel and Evisu
A star I might be
Scribble words like scrabble on the mic I never babble
My life is like the words (fit it) into my puzzle
Yes yes yes, Reggiment's next
Get with the flow
Us3, we're blessed
Resist this vibe from here to Asia...
Fantasia
Can U Feel It?
The feeling gets the blessing
The truth sets you free
The feeling is the truth that the answer lies in me
The feeling of the everyday struggles of me and mine
The feeling's got my nigga's on corners risking their lives
It's feeling time flatline
The feeling of sight to the blind
It's liberation when you choose to free your mind
The feeling of a slave underground heading north
I feel the guilty verdicts passed down in the courts
Feel the shackles, cattle, enslaved up north
The feeling as you're watching love run its full course
The feeling of a child in the midst of divorce
God's the source, life force, it's death feeling the loss
The feeling of a hungry man watching a player floss
I feel like Allen in the playoffs stepping on the floor
I crossed him over, foul line jumper with my arms stretched forth
The feeling of victory, no one remembers who lost
Can you feel it?
I feel like a kid having a kid sister (trapped)
I feel like a cooking pot of grits sister (splat)
I feel you, work and feed your seeds mister (ha)
I feel I'm reppin' you I feel you out there
Now I feel the jealousy, he feels like hating me
The feelings of he, his G just bought my cd
The feelings of me, his G just bought my cd
The feeling of she, show, front row, Us3
Ooooooh weeeee!
Feel me seize the tree
Feeling like busting shots till we're free
Or feeling shots of JD
He feels crates, gates, masks, 'n' robbery
I'm feeling like, fuck it son, we all gotta eat
Ashcroft feels he needs me detained in camps
For me terrorists words through the cells and the amps
I feel like I rhyme like I got nothing to lose, know why?
Because I've got nothing to lose
Do or die!
Can you feel it?
It's the feeling of every bullet passing through Tupac
Volletta Wallace's feelings when BIG got shot
Feeling the fire like Chaka, touch all seven chakras
Snakes infiltrated now I felt the imposter
The feeling of you feeling me feeling the track
The feeling of you running to the deck rewinding it back
The feeling of your check after they take out the tax
You're feeling everything the god spit on the wax
You feel me bomb the track, you feel me attack the wack
I feel my habitat
He feels the needle in the wax
The feeling of a chiropractor walking on my back
The feeling of braille
I feel like feeling the third rail
Suicide, middle passage trade ships set sail
Feel like a dead man walking, monsters ball in jail
I'm feeling like Christ on the cross, the hammered last nail
Father have you forsaken me, I'm feeling like I failed
When She's Dancing
It starts with a tap of the feet and moves up to the knees
Like a breeze through the trees it completely takes over
Body and the music become one
Expression of sensuality
There's really nothing sweeter than to see mama shake down
Sister spin round raising dust from the ground
It's as if she has found a treasure within
(chorus)
Nothing like the body of a woman when she's dancing
It's alright yeah
When she's dancing
When she's dancing
When she's dancing
It's free and easy
Lightness in her feet won't miss a beat
Solid stepping seventh heaven
Swing those arms, those thighs, those hips
The way she dips her back, swing low
The stepping's just getting better and better
Mama shake down
(chorus)
It's her body that gives birth to rhythm
When she's dancing she's got that feeling
It's all she's needing, it's alright
When she's dancing
When she's dancing
Why Not?
My mind grinds the sands of time
Deaf, dumb and blind, I blow your mind with lines divine
Now prior to my last event
I meditated, graduated from the floss for lent
Stopped rhyming for the ice, the twenties, that whip
Started rhyming for got the love, my god, and my gift
Immaculate
I'm December 25th, 26th,
I'm kwanzaa, Kunjufu Kuwanzaa
I meander through the stanzas for answers
A rhyme chancellor
You die by the gun, now add it up dun
What's the sum 360
We hot like Mojave
Lyrically, we the trinity
That's Us3, Reg Wyns, L-I-B
Lo's flows are strong prose tight as your corn rows
Why not?
Why not unlock mine eyes to see the glory like Denzel or Dr. King
Freedom will never ring no matter how we sing if the liberty bell is broke
Why not revolt if you can't cope with the feigned truth
On this tight rope I avoid the noose as a black male youth
I produce high flyings act over the wack
I'm overproof
Few despise me
Why not recognise me
I'm jamming for the culture like Stevie and Bill Cosby
I wonder
We defensive when we say the kids wild out
We're teaching them, so we should take the time out, to
Use the vizniz and get the red out
In an instant, conference to brew out
Downsize
Foldgers thoughts crystallised
I open third eyes, free jail cells
Spreadsheets, I excel
Duracell, we energise
I pass right through your lies
Keep my eyes on the prize
Why not?
I'm a rhyme antagonist
I'm writing my story and I'm the protagonist
If not for the beat I might be an evangelist
Still free the masses
Teachers teach classes
Aristocracy getting put right on their asses by the proletariat
I chide mc's out of their pride, they're fictitious
Whether stage, screen, or jazz shit you're still with us
I stay young black and prodigious
The things I've seen'll make a Christian sacrilegious
I'm indigenous as the Cherokee
I'm hip-hop, you're a hip-hop hypocrisy
Pause for the cause
We brawl and break down laws
Oxcutta to glass jaws
To eat we break laws
Eliminate the wars for I'm reppin for the cause
Eliminate the wars, see I'm reppin for the cause
Why not?
The Truth
Tell me have you seen our friend
I know she was here in the beginning
Somehow she was lost
Somehow we forgot to speak her name
And now she's changed
Her beautiful face now bitter and twisted
From deep in our hearts she was lifted by a thief in the night
While we slept, our eyes shut tight
Wake up, it's almost summer morning
Rub the sleep from your eyes
Wake up from your slumber deep
Gather those around together we'll seek
(chorus)
The truth the truth
We search for the truth
In hearts and minds we search in our lives
Take steps make time, one day we will find
The truth the truth
Here we sit on rush hour trains
I know you feel the stress of the day
Go ahead and hide behind those tales in black and white
When you finally get home they'll be waiting for you
Other people's lives, in full view
Indulge in your own distraction
To know your reactions to
(chorus)
Turn around and face it (truth the truth)
In our hearts embrace it (truth the truth)
'Cos if we are blind to the (truth the truth)
Close our minds to the (truth the truth)
Can we be free
There are those who for the (truth the truth)
Would die
'Cos they truly believe in
Goodbye
I met my queen at fifteen years old
Before I ressurected goals of studios and shows
Before I'd stare at screens in theatres watching my dreams roll
Before Diesel and open toes we wore Timbos and Girbauds
Back when my hightop fade was flat
Shorties with plaits and cowries, two finger rings, no head wraps
Her natural tresses were pulled back tucked in Negro League caps
She said, " I prefer some soca, but I've got love for rap"
In fact her favourite rappers were "Nas, Pac, Rick, and Common"
Back when he was booming in your jeep
"I was visiting some peeps at your school during the week
You were sleepin' when I saw you on the street you wouldn't speak"
Walk on by, passing me by
On the pharcyde of the lunchroom, damn
We glanced eyes, hi and bye
"I had a man, his girl and I were best friends"
Years go by, graduated, went to Harvard
I and I said goodbye
Flash to the backyard parties where I'd dance with my boo
Salute the fam, build with my crew and grab a number or two
From a piece of my love in 9-2, can you stand the rain?
Love is pain, you know what, I'm through
With my popcorn love, act 2, scene 2
"My best friend's his ex-girl"
And now she's to my rescue
The late phone convo's
"I see his vision with my eyes closed"
I'm hearing her pitch and hearing thoughts of stories untold
Not for public readership, this is a private issue, tears and tissue
"Mamas not here"
Aunt Jo we miss you
I taste fear, the phone calls turn to prayer vigils
I smell love
"I feel support"
I got your back, I'm with you
I touched love, she wasn't ready but said "Damn I miss you"
Like shots, meals, and attention when we were little
Could we have known
From campus visits now we're grown
"We got degrees, I'm flying home to see him rock microphones"
Goodbye
She was my La femme Nikita
"We'd dance merengue and the salsa"
Laid back, trees wrapped in a joya de Nicaragua
Wine or lime in a corona while I down a German lager
Had me open mama
"Now we need to end this saga"
With tour schedules can love grow mature like escrow
We're playing games with our feelings and what you reap is what you sow
She said, "a tangled web you weave when you practice to deceive"
I found it hard to believe I wore my heart on my sleeve
Claiming she the one like Billy Jean
Now what the deally?
She want my name, so what's your aim
Said for the fame "you act silly"
Said colour me purple like seally,
"Until you do right by me, it all comes back to you really"
She said " breathe me, feed me, are we on the same page"
Nuff said believe me, "not your shoe size, act your age"
Until the end of time I'll adore you
"You know I'm here for you"
I need trust, communication, commitment and much more too
Goodbye
Give Thanks
I'm just a liberation scribe writing these bars of freedom
The god's got kids and uncle g'wan help feed 'em
My words free the mind whether you hear 'em or read 'em
The duty of a civilised man is to teach 'em
Wave your guns at the system and unify the prisons
I save a ghetto child from getting drawn out at Princeton
Still a million man march even though some are limping
Like Kunta caught up in big pimping and linen
Karma sutra, I sooth ya
Nah I ain't bitchin'
I armoured through ya, moved ya and seized your kitchen
Was my steez with ease to blitzkrieg the women
Now my hymns hem her heart's stitching
See I'm reppin for my fam that's the joy of living
See I reps for my fam that's the joy of living
I see you reppin for your fam and that's the joy of living
Was thanks taking, there was no thanksgiving
I keep my eyes on the sparrow
Americas always gotta full barrel of stress
So strap on your vest
Since the manger avoid the one left in the chamber
Divide and rule kills the knowledge of self
Now this remainder remains to be the last born
The first scorned
The one you made the scapegoat
The god building like Joseph
In technicolour peep my dreamcoat
Y'all keep it real
I'm a keep the real estate on the block
I don't fiend for the cream
I fiend for the gold it's backed by
Y'all use the physical two
All seeing third eye
Pierces holes through your spleen
Scores goals on your team
Choke, holes on your neck
Bill, fold all your cream
Blaow!, holes through your dreams
Unbalanced is the beam
The sun rises in the east in Bruknaam
I come clean
I see you reppin for your fam that's the joy of living
Was thanks taking, there was no thanks giving
I be wise as a serpent, peaceful as a dove
Flow be perfection, the attribute's love
From Brixton to Brooklyn, topsoil, I recoil to Medina
Ascend thrones in brownstone
Blaze pastures, mines greener
In backwoods trees get nestles
With the beast within I wrestle, for anointed be this vessel
To rebuke the devil
No progress without the struggle got to hustle before you bubble
God's words (are) no hustle though
See brother Bains, like Malcolm, think long range
Sincere
My life's dedicated to change
Locked up in the belly (of) America's gut
If I'm sleeping with the enemy, my eyes wide shut
You see I reps for my fam for the joy of living
You see I'm reppin' for my fam, that's the joy of living
I see you reppin for your fam and that's the joy of living
Was thanks taking, there was no thanksgiving
Happiness
It's a cold world that we're living in baby
Wish I could change it but I can't
It's your life you can change it
Go ahead now make it what you make it, it'll be alright
Look around there's enough
Happiness
Happiness
Is where you'll find it
Taking time to notice the trees
Don't it make you feel happy
Just to know that you started the seeds
Giving us the air that we breathe
(chorus)
Clear days, sunshine, blue skies
Gonna make me happy
What gets you?
What takes you?
To that place
It could be the simplest of things like
Waking up in the morning to hear a bird sing
It's enough to make me feel
Happiness
Or a good tune playing on the radio
Happiness
Or some good food cooked by my mama at home
Happiness
Is it
A little loving in the morning?
A little tipple in the evening?
Or getting high on some leaves?
Sit back, relax, just feeling free
(chorus)
Happiness
It's all around
Happiness
From the sky to the ground
Happiness
Take it in your hand and
Happiness
Spread it to the next woman, child or man
