Kendrick Lamar - Mortal Man lyrics

Oh, oh, woah uh, yeah
Uh, yeah uh
Yeah, uh

The ghost of Mandela
Hope my flows stay propellin'
Let these words be your Earth and moon
You consume every message
As I lead this army
Make room for mistakes and depression
And with that being said, my nigga
Let me ask this question:

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan
(One two, one two, one two)
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

The ghost of Mandela
Hope my flows stay propellin'
Let these words be your Earth and moon
You consume every message
As I lead this army
Make room for mistakes and depression
And with that being said, my nigga
Let me ask this question:
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
Won't you look to your left and right?
Make sure you ask your friends
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

Do you believe in me? Are you deceiving me?
Could I let you down easily
Is your heart where it need to be?
Is your smile on permanent? Is
Your vow on lifetime?
Would you know where the sermon is if
I died in this next line?
If I'm tried in a court of law
If the industry cut me off
If the government want me dead
Plant cocaine in my car
Would you judge me a drug head
Or see me as K lamar?
Or question my character and degrade
Me on every blog?
Want you to love me like Nelson
Want you to hug me like Nelson
I freed you from being a slave in your mind
You're very welcome
You tell me my song is more than a song
It's surely a blessing
But a prophet ain't a prophet 'til
They ask you this question:

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
Won't you look to your left and right?
Make sure you ask your friends
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

The ghost of Mandela
Hope my flows stay propellin'
Let my words be your Earth and moon
You consume every message
As I lead this army
Make room for mistakes and depression
And with that

Do you believe in me? How
Much you believe in her?
You think she gon' stick around
If them 25 years occur?
You think he can hold you down
When you down behind bars, hurt?
You think y'all on common ground if
You promise to be the
First? Can you be immortalized without
Your life being expired?
Even though you share the same blood
Is it worth the time?
Like, who got your best interest?
Like, how much are you dependent?
How clutch are the people that
Say they love you? And who pretending?
How tough is your skin when they turn you in?
Do you show forgiveness?
What brush do you bend when dusting
Your shoulders from being offended?
What kind of den did they put you
In when the lions start hissing?
What kind of bridge did they burn?
Revenge on your mind when it's mentioned
You wanna love like Nelson
You wanna be like Nelson
You wanna walk in his shoes
But your peacemaking seldom
You wanna be remembered that
Delivered the message
That considered the blessing of everyone
This your lesson for everyone, say
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
Won't you look to your left and right?
Make sure you ask your friends
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

The voice of Mandela
Hope this flow stay propellin'
Let my word be your Earth and moon
You consume every message
As I lead this army
Make room for mistakes and depression
And if you riding with me, nigga

I been wrote off before
I got abandonment issues
I hold grudges like bad judges
Don't let me resent you
That's not Nelson-like want you to
Love me like Nelson
I went to Robben's Island analysing
That's where his cell is
So I could find clarity like
How much you cherish me?
Is this relationship a fake
Or real as the heavens be?
See I got to question it
All family, friends, fans, cats, dogs
Trees, plants, grass, how the wind blow
Murphy's Law
Generation X will I ever be your ex?
Flaws of a baby step'
Mauled by the mouth of Pit bulls
Put me under stress, crawled under rocks
Duckin' y'all
It's respect but then tomorrow
Put my back against the wall
How many leaders you said you needed
Then left 'em for dead?
Is it Moses? Is it Huey
Newton or Detroit Red?
Is it Martin Luther? JFK?
Shooter you assassin
Is it Jackie? Is it Jesse? Oh
I know it's Michael Jackson oh

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
That nigga gave us "Billie Jean
" you say he touched those kids?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

The ghost of Mandela
Hope my flows stay propelling
Let my word be your Earth and moon
You consume every message
As I lead this army
Make room for mistakes and depression
And if you riding with me, nigga
Let me ask this question, nigga

"I remember you was conflicted
Misusing your influence
Sometimes I did the same
Abusing my power, full of resentment
Resentment that turned into a deep depression
Found myself screaming in the hotel room
I didn't wanna self destruct
The evils of Lucy was all around me
So I went running for answers
Until I came home
But that didn't stop survivor's guilt
Going back and forth trying to convince
Myself the stripes I earned
Or maybe how A-1 my foundation was
But while my loved ones was fighting the
Continuous war back in the city
I was entering a new one
A war that was based
On apartheid and discrimination
Made me wanna go back to the city
And tell the homies what I learned
The word was respect
Just because you wore a different
Gang color than mine's
Doesn't mean I can't respect you
As a black man
Forgetting all the pain and hurt we
Caused each other in these streets
If I respect you
We unify and stop the enemy from killing us
But I don't know, I'm no mortal man
Maybe I'm just another nigga"
Shit and that's all I wrote
I was gonna call it "Another Nigga" but
It ain't really a poem
I just felt like it's something
You probably could relate to
Other than that, now that I finally got a
Chance to holla at you
I always wanted to ask you
About a certain situa-
About a metaphor actually, uh
You spoke on the ground
What you mean by that
What the ground represent?

The ground is gonna open up
And swallow the evil right
That's how I see it, my word is bond
I see and the ground is the
Symbol for the poor people right
The poor people is gonna open
Up this whole world
And swallow up the rich people
'Cause the rich people gonna be so fat
And they gonna be so appetizing, you
Know what I'm saying Wealthy, appetizing
The poor gonna be so poor, and hungry right
You know what I'm saying, it's gonna be like
You know what I'm saying, it's gonna be
There might, there might be some cannibalism
Out this muh-fu- they might eat the rich
You know what I'm saying?

Aight so let me ask you this then
Do you see yourself as somebody that's rich
Or somebody that made the best
Of they own opportunities?

I see myself as a natural born hustler
A true hustler in every sense of the word
I took nothin', I took the opportunities
I worked at the most menial and degrading job
And built myself up so I could get
It to where I owned it
I went from having somebody managing me
To me hiring the person that
Works my management company
I changed everything, I realized my destiny
In a matter of five years
You know what I'm saying?
I made myself a millionaire
I made millions for a lot of people
Now it's time to make millions for myself
You know what I'm saying?
I made millions for the record companies
I made millions for these movie companies
Now I make millions for, for us

And through your different avenues of success
How would you say you managed to
Keep a level of sanity?

By my faith in God, by my faith in the game
And by my faith in "all good things
Come to those that stay true" right
You know what I'm saying?
And it was happening to me for a reason
You know what I'm saying, I was noticing
Shit i was punching the right buttons
And it was happening
So it's no problem, you know i mean
It's a problem but I'm not
Finna let them know
I'm finna go straight through

Would you consider yourself a fighter
At heart or somebody that
Somebody that only reacts when they
Back is against the wall?

Shit, I like to think
That at every opportunity i've ever been, uh
Threatened with resistance
It's been met with resistance
And not only me but
It goes down my family tree
You know what I'm saying
It's in my veins to fight back

Aight well, how long will you think it
Take before niggas be like
"We fighting a war
I'm fighting a war I can't win
And I wanna lay it all down"

In this country, a black man only have like
5 years we can exhibit maximum strength
And that's right now while you a teenager
While you still strong
While you still wanna lift weights
While you still wanna shoot back
'Cause once you turn 30 it's like
They take the heart and soul out of a man
Out of a black man, in this country
And you don't wanna fight no more
And if you don't believe me
You can look around you don't see no loud
Mouth 30-year old motherfuckers

That's crazy
Because me being one of your offsprings
Of the legacy you left behind
I can truly tell you that
There's nothing but turmoil goin' on so
I wanted to ask you
What you think is the future for
Me and my generation today?

I think that niggas is tired of
Grabbin' shit out the stores
And next time it's a riot
It's gonna be like, uh, bloodshed
For real, I don't think America know that
I think America think we was just playing
And it's gonna be some more playing but
It ain't gonna be no playing
It's gonna be murder
You know what I'm saying?
It's gonna be like Nat Turner, 1831
Up in this motherfucker
You know what I'm saying, it's gonna happen

That's crazy, man, in my opinion
Only hope that we kinda have
Left is music and vibrations
Lot a people don't understand
How important it is, you know
Sometimes I can like, get behind a mic
And I don't know what type
Of energy I'ma push out
Or where it comes from, trip me out sometimes

Because it's spirit's
We ain't even really rappin'
We just letting our dead homies
Tell stories for us damn

I wanted to read one last thing to you
It's actually something a good
Friend had wrote
Describing my world, it says:
"The caterpillar is a prisoner to
The streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat
Or consume everything around it
In order to protect it'self
From this mad city
While consuming it's environment
The caterpillar begins to notice
Ways to survive one thing it noticed is how
Much the world shuns him
But praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent
The thoughtfulness
And the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life
The caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak
And figures out a way to pimp
It to his own benefit's
Already surrounded by this mad city
The caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon
Which institutionalizes him
He can no longer see past his own thoughts
He's trapped when trapped inside these walls
Certain ideas take root, such as
Going home, and bringing back new concepts
To this mad city the result?
Wings begin to emerge
Breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant
Finally free
The butterfly sheds light on situations
That the caterpillar never considered
Ending the internal struggle
Although the butterfly and caterpillar
Are completely different
They are one and the same"
What's your perspective on that?
Pac? Pac? Pac?!