Underground For Dummies-Sage Francis

[ti:Underground For Dummies] [ar:Sage Francis] [al:Human The Death Dance] [by:] [offset:0] [00:00.00]Underground For Dummies - Sage Francis [00:10.67]And you'll know it was me by the trail of demos [00:13.35]Spare me the details e-mails memos [00:15.48]Dookie-gold chain letter to whom it may concern [00:18.70]Put this around your neck until your hangin' on my every word [00:21.43]Stalkin' walkin' in my big black boots [00:23.61]I'm the DIY artist with thick grass roots [00:25.92]Had a couple managers as a youth [00:28.29]I was too young to know better but I was like [00:30.83]"What does a manager do " [00:31.81]Now one of them he saw dollar signs in my skin color [00:34.35]The other he said to keep it undercover [00:36.08]Post-VIP posse pre-Internet Nazi era [00:38.36]Powers of suggestion suggested [00:39.65]I be what I'm not and that's not me ever [00:43.05]From Lasienega to Meadowbrook Drive [00:44.62]Never looked surprised [00:45.80]Cut to the chase with metal hooks and knives [00:48.03]Now it's battle time I stepped in the arena [00:50.12]Thirteen-year-old gladiator freak with [00:52.25]A fever for the flavor of a fight on the mic [00:54.76]+Follow the Leader+ [00:55.35]Mr Chuck was the surrogate father [00:56.72]KRS-One the teacher [00:57.73] [00:58.45]There I was sneakin' into clubs [01:00.64]Beat an emcee to the punch over instrumentals dubbed [01:03.10]From tape deck to tape deck [01:04.69]Pause tape mix at breakneck speed [01:06.11]The only whitey in sight [01:07.76]That doesn't make me realer than you or faker than you [01:10.91]But I'm authentic forget it [01:12.74]Started breakin' rules [01:13.71]Ten years later still hadn't stopped [01:15.46]Won the biggest battle in a Metallica shirt before the album dropped [01:17.80]A week later smashed the trophy at a show [01:21.80]It was takin' up the space that I needed to grow [01:24.54]Pop pop goes the weasel (the weasel) [01:27.59]Drop drop goes the easel (the easel) [01:29.54]This is hip-hop for the people [01:31.62]Stop callin' it Emo (waah) [01:34.12]I know a kid who thinks he's hip-hop 'cause he buys it [01:37.66]I know a kid who thinks he's hip-hop 'cause he never buys sh*t [01:40.16]Underground or mainstream [01:41.34]Some are bound to change teams [01:42.74]Y'all weren't doin' this dirt [01:44.46]When Jeru +Came Clean+ [01:45.32]Before the Freddie Foxxx conflict with DMX [01:47.51]Around the time when Jay-Z and Nas' girl had sex [01:50.55]I used to wake up every morning on a hard wooden floor [01:53.24]Livin' in Brooklyn with a car I couldn't afford [01:55.78]And if I wasn't hangin' out in front of Fat Beats records [01:58.04]I was in the factory mailing out my 12-inches [02:00.96]Nowadays the DJs don't even spin wax [02:03.42]So f**k a promo copy buddy you can download the track [02:05.38]Seratooo promo-sexual laptop [02:08.46]A hollow existence in a bottle [02:10.59]Ya sip-sip then swallow [02:11.58]I tripped quick then followed a path that made sense [02:14.18]Started out with a live band then worked with turn-tablists [02:17.15]Now I strike a match with the back of my front teeth [02:19.86]And light up the stage with just speech [02:21.86] [02:27.32]I remember the days Ken and Dave let me crash on their couch [02:30.35]And I saved what I could and put the cash in my mouth [02:32.88]When I played in my hood I had a fraction of outs [02:34.86]'Til Atmosphere put me on and now I'm packin' the house [02:37.35]Since the mid-80s this has been a game of cat and mouse [02:40.63]It's funny hearin' all the sh*t these rappers brag about [02:43.38]Knowin' all of them are walkin' around with massive doubts [02:45.81]Talkin' bout it's only status and platinum plaques that count [02:48.62]Pop pop goes the weasel (the weasel) [02:51.55]Drop drop goes the easel (the easel) [02:54.17]This is hip-hop for the people (the people) [02:56.42]Stop calling it Emo (wah) [02:58.84] [02:59.73]Irony is dead it's so motherf**king dead I was there by its deathbed [03:04.82]And the last words that it said (Was what ) [03:07.25]Was "Whiiiiite booyyyy" [03:08.95] [03:10.02]I'm +Still Sick+ with an independent record label [03:12.91]I built quick just when I got +Sick of Waiting Tables+ [03:15.90]Then in the blink of an eye I +Waged War+ [03:17.95]+As a Known Unsoldier+ with a soul you can't pay for [03:20.79]I ran a business on my own two legs [03:22.91]Known to beg if I needed to with Home Grown bootlegs [03:25.66]Cut and paste images of my face and then sloppily placed 'em in a case [03:31.14]Strange Famous I stayed +True when School was in Session + [03:34.39]Went to college to buy time—that sh*t was expensive [03:36.40]So I shamelessly self-promoted [03:37.69]The radio station would open doors and opportunities [03:39.88] [03:40.54]Eventually made it to Oakland [03:42.04]Where anticon accepted me with open hands [03:44.05]+Journals got Personal+ on a one dollar advance [03:45.69]Non-Prophets We had a hope that a UK label smashed [03:49.41]So I crossed out my eyes and signed to Epitaph [03:51.77]This is the hustle of an emcee [03:53.09]The +Distrust is Healthy+ [03:54.45]In a dirty industry where the promises are empty [03:56.49]I'm more honest than friendly [03:57.51] [03:58.06]More handsome than sexy [03:59.58]Let me bring you up to speed +Humans do a Dance that's Deadly+