Mr. Lif, El-P, Aesop Rock - Take, Hold, Fire! lyrics

Take my check, take my intellect
Take my self-respect
Ban my dialect, hang me from a tree
Slice my neck take my head as a monument
Of the hatred of opposites
Take the time to sell my culture
Count how you profited
Take a break, take two
What's it gonna take to make you
Understand the man I equate to
I create crews one thousand, two thousand
Fuck it, bring the whole central housing
Take a trip to free
Brothers from penitentiares
Judges steady handing out centuries
That nigga got life for growing weed
Ah! See the plan? He could never be a man
Never get to help his fam
Just like Apartheid that didn't
Die back in '91
Parents were subject to interference


If they caught you late trying to
Raise a son or daughter
They'd use a gun or a
Knife as they summoned slaughter
And I wish I could wring the
Blood out of your clothes
Give you back your afros and
Your strong black nose
But what's done is done who's gone is gone
Once again
The sun illuminates bodies at dawn
And I yawn and grow weary
Succumbed to old theory
That strips my wit's of thoughts
I used to hold dearly
So clearly the gold nearly ended existence
A young brother who hungers
Laying there listless
A rich brother who hovers
Hoarding his riches a fatal divide
Acts of the colonized
It's a worldwide unwise data that
Leaks when we speak
Repeats 'till decency depletes
Then leaks through our moral
Fabric forming havoc
We're left reminiscing what was
Written on a tablet
It's a path we've forgotten -
Lost in our heads
And I know they're listening -
So PS: fuck the feds!

(And I know they're listening -
So PS fuck the feds)
Hold weight, hold water
Hold your head above the latter
While I'm at it, hope your story holds a
Little when it matters
The mold inside his holding cell
Became proof of the leak
Now he holds his tongue behind his
Teeth in a room with police
One call alloted
Tried to holler at his cousin
Who couldn't hold his liquor
Let alone hold the discussion
Twenty seconds in
He passed out on the hold button
'Til his quarter ran out
With the dreams of ever holding something
No, it isn't folklore Yes, it's morbid
If he hold heat, he'd probably hold grudges
Not horses
We grew up in the hold it, now hit it
When hold it down meant it was
Better to hold the crown, not the image
You bow to a gimmick
You bound to hold back the incentive
Which your friends will hold against you
When you haul back to the village
Fall back, crawl back to the killers
Who couldn't hold a candle to
The actual definition of "illest"

Little man said I was fired
Under artificial fire up in the sky
Florescent tungsten hovered under
Cubicle design
Interrupted just before final synaptic
Nerve could fire
And I lost count right as I got
Up to the last digit in Pi
What a fiery piece of trash (bastard)
Why, I ought to fire the
Boomstick in your face
And tell the tribe that it was "magic"
You tried to take my soul but
Now it's "fire in the hole!"
And I'm fired up
Walking through the office firing automatics
You didn't start the fire
You simply sparked it
Next time you light a fire under my ass
Better hope that you're flame retardant
Arson is in my bent hear
You're begging to see the billow
Of the smokes of the fires of Odin
Enter the fire starter
See, every little monotonous moment that
I punched the clock
Was equivalent to furnace fuel
In the form of a "fiery rock!"
Welcome to trial by fire measured in Celsius
You can fire me from the job but I
Promise I'm walking out the office healthiest