Kae Tempest - 13 Commandments lyrics

1 listen to those who you respect and
Appreciate, know your own
Heart never deviate
 whether raps or books just listen to
The words and figure
Out the wisdom hidden into every verse

2 understand skunk is a powerful herb
That taunts and temps and warps
Your sense and tortures
Strength until it’s like ‘ah
Are these my thoughts
Or do they belong to my spliff’
Too much weed turns your dreams into myths

3 true love asks nothing of either person
It just exists timelessly between them
A satisfied soul, body, whole of your
Mind, it don’t control or confine
It don’t cripple
Or crush, it just ripples and
Rushes it shivers, it gushes
It ain’t bitter and it doesn’t hold grudges
It colours your cheeks
And it fills you with blushes
And you will know it when you feel it

4 love that ain’t true, love that’s forced
Will run you down before
It’s run it’s course, it eats up
Time and ability, inspires resentment
Encourages panic and pain and
Not contentment and
Lusts really only seeks to satisfy it'self
But that true stuff it satisfies both
That’s why
Whenever you’re close I know that I’m safe
But still I hold my own weight
Cause love means each control their own fate

5 learn, always learn, till your time
Is through, always, every single day
Comprehend something new, it’s up to you to
Achieve everything you want to
I know my stuff but I'll never
Tell myself I’ve learned enough

6 in every single person I believe
There exists a possible perfection, but
To understand this we have to be
Engaged with our inner selves
And brave and well behaved and on a
Mission to escape from this maze
7 words spoken without consideration
Or truth are
Words spoken in darkness and they are
Spoken to doom the speaker to gloom and
If you’re not truthful with yourself
Your lies will consume
You, till' you can’t separate
The lies from the
Real, you can’t discern how you feel, man
It’s difficult to move without
Truth to propel
You, and if nobody can trust you
Then nobody can help you

8 extent deepest love for those
That care for you
And never, ever disrespect someone
Who’s there for you
True friends are those with your
Interests at heart
And whose interests they are
Yours whether you are
Close or apart a true friendship
Will endure, will remain, friends
Are willing to dismiss you until
You’ve learned from your pain

9 take care of yourself and your brain
Stay clear of what fucks you up
And refrain from temptation
And don’t fall into darkness when
You’ve lost your contemplation
And don’t let yourself accelerate
Your mental deprivation
Ah they say that good
Intentions pave the pathway to hell, I say
What points to evil leads to evil
And evil will ransack the bones
If you were born to do good and live well, if
You have sworn to do good and live well
Only time will tell

10 measure prosperity not
By financial success or by any other vanity
Not by power, your power or
The power of your family, not by politics
Sex or barbarity, measure your prosperity by
Your proximity to true love, true
Friends, by your ability to live
In personal and collective truth
If you join up all these points
You can connect my truth

11 simply inappropriately put point
Eleven is this, study
Hard and always be on your guard
Cause when you seem to
Be in charge of your shit you will get hated
Jealous ones will try and take
Away what you’ve reated, study hard
And do the same, stay committed, be prolific
Cut down
On the drinking so your thinking is specific
I keep my head in my books
Because I believe that books will enhance the
Mind, fuck that, just look up at the stars
The way they dance in the sky

12 the greatest rewards are
Those that you can’t
See, touch smell or taste, you might say
The greatest reward is the feeling
That grows inside you
When you act in the right way

13 telling yourself you don’t know what the
Truth is, is PLAIN FUCKING COWARDICE
In the heart of your heart, in
The depth of your solitude, you
Know that you need to fight hard
Until you have devoured this, the
Truth it lays way in there, cold
Right now in your guts, it wait's
For you to gather up the courage
Enough to just confront your mistakes, we
Live to reciprocate, strength is a commodity
It is a common place, don’t
Need the consent of another to be
Strong, only to be weak, you
Know how weakness seeks approval in company
Strangers in front of me
Flashy sharp eyes cut hungrily
(not you, different strangers) , see we
Want to aim to eradicate
All strains of weakness from our
Hearts and from our minds
If we could ever complete this
Then we could live in
Truth and in love, and then
Our minds can prevail
And then on the skies we could sail