Pen To Paper-Brother Ali

[ti:Pen To Paper] [ar:Brother Ali] [al:Pen To Paper] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]Pen To Paper (动笔写) - Brother Ali [00:28.39]Put pen to paper the first time when I was barely eight or [00:31.64]Maybe nine that was the late eighties Reagan time [00:34.69]Put in the freshest tape rewind wait let me take my time [00:38.39]The entire landscape of that blank page was mine [00:41.76]Created space to climb inside escape the crazy times [00:45.19]Reshape the climate break it down that was my frame of mind [00:49.24]Thank the divine great designing [00:50.63]This as my sacred shrine [00:52.19]I made myself a place to shine [00:53.99]Wait let me spray this rhyme [00:55.60]When I was thirteen I met Krs [00:57.80]He put me on the stage [00:58.97]Suggested I read up on Malcolm X [01:01.21]Y'all know the rest [01:02.22]So much pushing down on my chest [01:04.16]Both my folks got laid to rest [01:05.62]Loved ones wishing me all the best [01:07.31]I'm a ball of stress yet I digress [01:09.26]I've spent my every hopeless dream [01:11.12]And my unspoken secret [01:12.91]You hear it floating through your speakers [01:14.72]In my old releases [01:15.87]My fanbase began to grow beneath and crowd around me [01:19.58]I never tiptoed 'round here shy [01:21.47]I spit it loud and proudly [01:23.30]The u s government profiled me [01:24.89]And the sponsors dropped me [01:26.51]Some of my listeners felt away so they no longer got me [01:29.88]I knew that telling that truth is costly [01:32.05]No one alive can stop me [01:33.43]I rolled that flag out on the ground [01:35.26]And prostrated my body [01:36.58]This is more than music to me this is ancestors [01:39.80]Speaking through me at the tomb of rumi [01:42.32]My Mic's a rifle [01:43.82]I'm honor bound to fire my weapon truly [01:45.73]Whether they jeer me cheer me [01:47.31]Boo salute me or just shoot me [01:48.89]Let it be known my whole life [01:51.02]I break that cycle set it in stone [01:52.65]I'd still rather be known as a man that stand on my own [01:55.47]Rather than beg at a throne cold [01:56.87]You know I honor my own code that go down to the bone [02:00.55]We just want to get it on shooting at the devil [02:02.15]With a megaphone till we dead and gone