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Respiration
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Mos Def
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1
"What'd you do last night?"
2
"We did umm, two whole cars
3
It was me, these, and Main Three right?
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And on the first car in small letters it said
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"All you see is" and then you know
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Big, big, you know some block silver letters
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That said "crime in the city' right?"
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"It just took up the whole car?"
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"Yeah yeah, it was a whole car and shit..."
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[Repeat: x3]
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Escuchela, la ciudad respirando
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[Listen to it, the city breathing]
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Escuchela
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[Mos Def]
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The new moon rode high in the crown of the metropolis
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Shining, like who on top of this?
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People was hustling, arguing and bustling
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Gangsters of Gotham hardcore hustling
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I'm wrestling with words and ideas
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My ears is picky, seeking what will transmit
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The scribes can apply to transcript, yo
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This ain't no time where the usual is suitable
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Tonight alive, let's describe the inscrutable
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The indisputable, we New York the narcotic
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Strength in metal and fiber optics
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Where mercenaries is paid to trade hot stock tips
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For profits, thirsty criminals take pockets
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Hard knuckles on the second hands of working class watches
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Skyscrapers is colossus, the cost of living
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Is preposterous, stay alive, you play or die, no options
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No Batman and Robin, can't tell between
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The cops and the robbers, they both partners, they all heartless
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With no conscience, back streets stay darkened
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Where unbeliever hearts stay hardened
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My eagle talons stay sharpened, like city lights stay throbbing
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You either make a way or stay sobbing, the Shiny Apple
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Is bruised but sweet and if you choose to eat
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You could lose your teeth, many crews retreat
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Nightly news repeat, who got shot down and locked down
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Spotlight to savages, NASDAQ averages
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My narrative, rose to explain this existence
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Amidst the harbor lights which remain in the distance
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So much on my mind that it can't recline
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Blasting holes in the night til she bled sunshine
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Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
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Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline
47
Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
48
I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathing
49
Chest heaving, against the flesh of the evening
50
Sigh before we die like the last train leaving
51
[Talib Kweli]
52
Breathing in deep city breaths, sitting on shitty steps
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We stoop to new lows, hell froze the night the city slept
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The beast crept through concrete jungles
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Communicating with one another
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And ghetto birds where waters fall
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From the hydrants to the gutters
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The beast walk the beats, but the beats we be making
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You on the wrong side of the track, looking visibly shaken
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Taken them plungers, plunging to death that's painted by the numbers
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With crime unapplied pressure, cats is playing God
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But having children by a lesser baby mother but fuck it
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We played against each other like puppets, swearing you got pull
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When the only pull you got is the wool over your eyes
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Getting knowledge in jail like a blessing in disguise
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Look in the skies for God, what you see besides the smog
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Is broken dreams flying away on the wings of the obscene
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Thoughts that people put in the air
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Places where you could get murdered over a glare
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But everything is fair
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It's a paradox we call reality
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So keeping it real will make you casualty of abnormal normality
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Killers Born Naturally like, Micky and Mallory
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Not knowing the ways'll get you capped like an NBA salary
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Some cats be emceeing to illustrate what we be seeing
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Hard to be a spiritual being when shit is shakin what you believe in
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For trees to grow in Brooklyn, seeds need to be planted
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I'm asking if y'all feel me AND THE CROWD LEFT ME STRANDED
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My blood pressure boiled and rose, cause New York niggaz
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Actin spoiled at shows, to the winners the spoils go
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I take the L, transfer to the 2, head to the gates
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New York life type trife the Roman Empire state
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[Mos Def]
84
So much on my mind I just can't recline
85
Blasting holes in the night til she bled sunshine
86
Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
87
Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline
88
Yo don't the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
89
I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathin
90
Chest heaving, against the flesh of the evening
91
Sigh before we die like the last train leaving
92
Escuchela, respirando ?
93
[Common]
94
Yo, on The Amen, Corner I stood looking at my former hood
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Felt the spirit in the wind, knew my friend was gone for good
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Threw dirt on the casket, the hurt, I couldn't mask it
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Mixing down emotions, struggle I hadn't mastered
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I choreograph seven steps to heaven
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And hell, waiting to exhale and make the bread leavened
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Veteran of a cold war It's Chica-I-go for
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What I know or, what's known
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So some days I take the bus home, just to touch home
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From the crib I spend months gone
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Sat by the window with a clutched dome listening to shorties cuss long
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Young girls with weak minds, but they butt strong
106
Tried to call, or at least beep the Lord, but didn't have a touch-tone
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It's a dog-eat-dog world, you gotta mush on
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Some of this land I must own
109
Outta the city, they want us gone
110
Tearing down the 'jects creating plush homes
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My circumstance is between Cabrini and Love Jones
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Surrounded by hate, yet I love home
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Ask my God how he thought traveling the world sound
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Found it hard to imagine he hadn't been past downtown
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It's deep, I heard the city breathe in its sleep
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Of reality I touch, but for me it's hard to keep
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Deep, I heard my man breathe in his sleep
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Of reality I touch, but for me it's hard to keep
119
[Mos Def]
120
So much on my mind I just can't recline
121
Blasting holes in the night til she bled sunshine
122
Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
123
Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline
124
Yo how the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
125
I can't take it y'all, I can feel the city breathing
126
Chest heaving, against the flesh of the evening
127
Kiss the Ide's goodbye, I'm on the last train leaving
Black Star - Respiration ft. Common
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