With undun still looking at a December 6th release date, OKP will be revealing the lyrics to two songs each day from here on out. Hit the jump for the written-vision of the album’s first two tracks. But first, check out some words from ?uestlove..
we want to get better at what we do. to get closer to realizing some ideas we’ve had for some time. to simply embrace the process of putting one foot in front of the other. I’m over 40 now and am no longer haunted by a young man’s hoop dreams but, I’m anything but resigned, just comfortable in my skin. We are fans of the work and attitude of today’s “winner-take all” rappers: Em, Wayne, Kanye, Hov, Drake, Nikki Minaj (as well as the given hip hop bench of the moment). They do what they do really well. They’re charismatic, have this outsize pop sensibility and smell like vacation but, let’s face it… the Roots don’t ball that hard, you know where to find us (30 Rock M-F) and when niggas are in Paris we spend our down time in our rooms checking emails. So no, shit ain’t cray…there will be no “President Bush don’t like Black people” moment, or fabled rides in an old Rolls Royce Corniche. We understand sweat equity, the bottom line, the importance of being present and being on time. we’ve also been lucky, we’ve never had a high swag quotient and couldn’t write a pop song if our life depended on it but, we’ve been on a major for 18 years and have been able to develop our live performances to some degree of noteworthiness and found ourselves untethered from the machinations of Black popular culture. what this has afforded us (and more specifically myself) is the luxury of doing the different drummer thing. So we find the world to be full of possibility. The music we can create–the stories we can tell–it’s fairly wide open.
Make My
Verse 1 (Big K.R.I.T.)
I did it all for the money Lord
It’s what it seems
But in the world of night terrors-it’s
Hard to dream
They hollering cash rules everything
Let’s call it cream
Cause when it rises to the top you get…
The finer things
Ocean fronts, rolling blunts
With model chick and saying grace over lobster and steak
Like please forgive us for riding Benzes with camera plates
Too busy looking backwards for jackers to pump my brakes
For help sign to symbolize the live that hunger takes
Addicted to the green if I don’t ball I get the shakes
I’d give it all for a peace of mind for heaven sakes
My heart so heavy that the ropes that hold my casket break
Cause everything that wasn’t for me I had to chase
I had to takeThey told me that the ends would justify the means
they told me at the end, it would justify the dreams
That I’ve had since a child, maybe I’ll throw in the towel
And make my, make my, make my, make my
Departure from the worldVerse 2 (Black Thought)
Tryna control the fits of panic
Unwritten and unraveled
It’s the dead man’s pedantic
Whatever..
See it’s really just a matter of semantics
When everybody’s fresh out of collateral to damage and…
My splayin got me prayin like a mantis
I begin to vanish feel the pull of the blank canvas
I’m contemplating that special dedication
To whoever it concern…My letter of resignation
Fading back to black… my dark coronation
The heat of the day …the long robe of Muerte
That soul is in the atmosphere like airplay
If there’s a heaven I cant find the stairwayChorus
Oohs
Sleep
Verse 1 (Aaron Livingston)
Like when autumn leaves fall
Down from the trees
There goes, my honey bee
I’ve lost a lot of sleep to dreams
And I do not miss them yet
I wouldn’t wish them on than worst of enemies
Let them burn, go from here
Like when autumn leavesVerse 2 (Black Thought)
To catch a thief
Who stole the soul I prayed to keep
Insomniac
Bad dreams/Got me losing
Sleep
I’m dead tired
My mind playing tricks
Deceit
A face in the glass /Unable to admit defeat
All that I am all that I was is history
The past unraveled adding insult to this injury
I’m fighting the battle for the soul of the century
Destiny is everything that I pretend to be
Look, and what I did came back to me eventually
The music played on and…
Told me I was meant to be awake
It’s unresolved
Like everything I had at stake
Illegal activity controls
My black symphony
Orchestrated like it happened
Incidentally
Oh… there I go
From a man to memory
Damn
I wonder if my fam will remember meVerse 3 (Aaron Livingston)
I’ve lost a lot of sleep to dreams
And I do not miss them yet
I wouldn’t wish them on the worst of enemies
Let them burn, go from here
Like when autumn leaves
PREVIOUS: The Roots – To Life, Love & Loot (rmx)
>Giving us the lyrics
Most retarded shit I’ve seen all day and I saw 3 niggas walk into the same damn wall at the same time.
This is why The Roots are so unrespected and their albums sell so poorly.
I don’t know about this being the reason The Roots don’t sell as well. Not a great tactic, giving out lyrics, I agree. They just don’t make mainstream music like other artists, and they make enough off their work that they don’t need to. The Roots are ill! This album is gonna be nuts. Click my name to check out my blog if you are looking for another source for new music. Thanks.
agree that this is a terrible idea. but hey, questlove is the guy that is keeping blu off the album and probably using weaker MCs instead, so i’m not surprised. still gonna buy the album though.
when do we get that sleep track? seems like fire
http://www.datpiff.com/3D-The-Iron-Giant-mixtape.275511.html <—THIS is what needs to be on this site!!!!!raw hip hop lyricism
It’s so sad that most Americans are so ignorant. He’s giving you dummies the lyrics so you can get a better understanding of the songs! Just shows that 3/4ths of you faggots are just checking for the beat anyways. To say that this idea is dumb shows that your intellectual self is in need of work. Besides, real Roots fans appreciate it. Just like them numbering their songs a different way than the simpletons that control the airwaves today. The Roots are just different. If you don’t appreciate it, then why comment? Just go on to the next ass shaking, drug dealing, down-low anthem you’re used to checking for. Quest, keep doing your thing. This is Hip Hop for the true fans…
this is their way of showcasing the poetry of the new album, for better and/or for worse.
while so many rappers today are fond of describing their music/behaviors as cinematic, “i’m making a movie”…”my life is a movie,” the roots have OUTDONE them with UNDUN (or however it’s spelled).
the songs form a single narrative, and prior to the lp dropping, they want to sell you on the idea of buying a ticket to their new ‘movie.’
i applaud this. unless it’s a hand-to-hand sale, me supporting an artist I just saw live, nowadays I have ALREADY listened to the cd/lp I’m buying-our way of voting, with money, that the music we enjoy matters.
i’m skeptical of any album that attempts to adhere to a solid narrative. usually the songs, as singular works of art, suffer in an attempt to keep the plot moving. and stupidly, the most common misstep of ‘concept’ albums is that the ‘story’ itself is boring to begin with. when I read that the roots’ ‘story’ is about a young black man winding up dead because of the drug game, i worried. ‘Make My’ is a good song, and the last record they released was surprisingly dope.
Questlove keeping blu off the album? why’s that?