Black Star

Songwriter: Talib Kweli Yasiin Bey

(Talib Kweli)
We lyrically rich, listed, spiritually fit
Eating healthy, coming clean never filthy
In God's eyes I'm wealthy
Felt the power as I entered the palace of 7 lights
Time traveled with dissipating on battles my brethren fight
For birth rights they already got, and shouldn't have to get
Break down the steady plot that's accurate
Bust the shots that's immaculate
Take it to your nugget cause my beloveds covet they freedom
Believe it put nothing above it loving to leave it
We blessed with free will so we choose to be ill
Like sharks keep it grooving we could never be still
Swimming in the channel of life
The orators of rhymes handling mics
Tiptoeing through the corridors of your mind with candlelights
Everlasting in your hood like liquor stores and check cash
Flashing passes for classes of the third past then blast it
Makaveli 4, I'm betting on brothers who have nothing to live for
To give more to the struggle, they already at war
So much on my mind I just can't recline
Blastin holes til the night bled sunshine
Breathe in, Breathe out
Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
I can't take it, I can feel the city breathing
(Mos Def)
I push my pen and wrote this scribe
Like the morning wouldn't find me alive
I'm surrounded on all sides
By the kind in the pool, wise men and the fool
Young guns in tennis school get no glasses and glue
Get yours, get it right
Get down, get paid, get ass, get around
Get on, get fly, get jig and get high
Live to get and you'll only end up getting by
When the nighttime covers the city like a coat
I approach and assemble my host
Enter nosed? caught asleep in the city that don't
Cause I won't that you rest noises on your doorstep
Dump the stress
Police the park, mam, raise the park bench on nonsense
Cause they fail to see the brothers' conference
Regardless we bond tight and we rumble all day to break night
Daylight why we living to death, you ain't right
The same fight about my nighttime habits is mad static
But the city's just so alive that I just got to have it
The planet of Brook-LAWN is what I look on
Ghetto chef rock your vest while you getting your cook on
Dedicating this song to Scott LaRock, Big and Pac
Kwame Ture, Betty Carter and John Henrik Clark
Ron Brown and freedom fights going down
You set the pace, now we finish the race
It's on now
So much on my mind I just can't recline
Blasting holes til the night bled sunshine
Breathe in, Breathe out
Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
I can't take it, I can feel the city breathing

(Bridge)
Don't get too close because you might get shot (2X)
(Black Thought)
One's for the treble, two's for the bass
Up in your face, just taking up space
On the case like Blodrack?, drugs like Prozac
Flavor and you know dat kid that shit's so fat
Downlo devious, previous mischevious
Looking like a feeling, here to make a killing
Appealing to the hiphop crowd rowdy loud
RahRahRah and harrass pay me cash
A late night excursion looking and listening
To scenes I be fitting in the rhyme that I'm getting in
Finishing the job I'm total asset pass it
My eyes so red that broke bread I pack nuff lead
This is how I want it part of the storm
So when I 8 for the dome then blow the spot is blown
Do you understand it the mic, yo, I demanded
Riffing, it doesn't make a difference
Don't get too close because you might get shot (4X)
Is it real, huh? Is it really is that buddha
In the philly, I let the smoke influenced me to laught at jokes
When I'm writing down the hot on paper
So I create beats to trigger up my flamer
Then I commence to set it off with a sentence
"Whack emcees keep your distance"
Instantly just like a bomb of the mic is in my palm
I do harm but coolly calm with the firearms
Dangerous flavorous
Lyrically miracle street life material
Kept up in the stereo so here we go for niggas know what's up
Oh yeah, the hardcore shit
Making chumps forfeit
Walking on you, stepping on you just like a doormat
Check the format, definitely all that
The extreme dopest getting focus
Now I'm gonna spark this, now I'm gonna smoke this
Don't get too close because you might get shot (4X)

Black Star consists of Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli and they arose from the underground movement of the late 1990s. They released one self-titled album. Though the record achieved little commercial success, they (and other members of the Native Tongues Posse) helped shape underground alternative rap and helped bring it further into the mainstream eye. Both have gone on to greater commercial and critical success in separate solo careers.

Black Star’s emergence into the hip-hop scene came at a crucial point in music history. Following the deaths of both Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, hip-hop was consumed in a world of chaos. Black Star attempted to bring reconciliation in the wake of these violent deaths.

In a talk with Rap Genius' SameOldShawn, Talib Kweli explains the influence Yasiin Bey had on him as a young hip-hop artist.

Black Star popular songs

Respiration (Remix)Black Star

Black Star