Talib Kweli, Abby Dobson, Nelly - Before He Walked lyrics

It's a brand new day
If you passionate about what you do
Like I'm passionate about this music
This song is for you
It's like I can't breathe
When I wake up in the morning I can't breathe
Until I listen feed my family
I affect the world
And y'all along for the ride
Like a medicine in times of war
Helps me get over
The sweetest sounds I ever heard
My joy, my heart, my music
Like a medicine in times of war
Helps me get over
The sweetest sounds I ever heard
My joy, my life, my music

I'm from a small city, but I have big dreams
Had some good ideas, but I had better schemes
I thought the hustle way for
Me was etched in stone
Until my partner died and
Name etched in stone
My daughter's growing up, my son on the way
They closing in on me, it feel like any day
Music saves me, swooped in like the navy
Put a lifetime of scars all in sixteen bars
So I took the vow and made music my life
Yep, I proposed and made music my wife
And if ever need to cut
A nigga music's my knife
And if I need to bring the
Girls together music's my dyke
So if I degrade it and I hate it
Even cried through it
I watch brothers prophesize about
Dying through it
Music gave me knowledge of self
And I'm a knowledge-ous self
Then gave me knowledge of wealth

Like a medicine in times of war
Helps me get over
The sweetest sounds I ever heard
My joy, my heart, my music
Like a medicine in times of war
Helps me get over
The sweetest sounds I ever heard
My joy, my life, my music

Music a part of me, I'm a bully
Beating up the track with brutal honesty
The truth inside of me
Rappers hit the booth and they lie to me
I'm using the inspiration guru provided me
The redefining of space
You can call me the new geometry
A picture of you pop up
When I google monotony
Now all the people who
Rule and spend responsibly
Think your album is trash and
It's not the voodoo economy
So you expecting the conscious
And introspective views
Eat your lyrical vegetables
Let me tell you what’s best for you
My music give you a message
True and respect is due
But music is emotion that’s
Lost on the intellectuals
A tree fall in the forest is never heard
Amongst the sparrows and the robins
And even the ghetto birds
You download it for free but
What I create is sacred
It cost you nothing but I pay to make it
Trust me

Like a medicine in times of war
Helps me get over
The sweetest sounds I ever heard
My joy, my heart, my music
Like a medicine in times of war
Helps me get over
The sweetest sounds I ever heard
My joy, my life, my music

I was born on the afterbeat
I'm like Robert Johnson
When you reach the crossroads
Me and the devil have to meet
I saw the same thing as Clef and Lauryn
When they saw it lauryn went looking for God
And 'Clef kept tourin'
We listen to the same songs
But we hear them different
Serenade of death like we got
A fear of living having a seance on stage
Cause the spirit risen
Stop the devilish ways with
Clever displays of lyricism
These songs are a natural resources
Of actual street stories
Attract the police forces
Slaves to the rhythm the masters
They eat off us