Released: October 2, 2007

Featuring: Q-Tip Talib Kweli

Songwriter: Q-Tip Talib Kweli J Dilla

Producer: J Dilla

[Intro: sample & Talib Kweli]
This is Bendix, the tomorrow people (Today)
What is the magic that makes one’s eyes
Sparkle and gleam, light up the skies
The name of the game is lightworks
(J Dilla, Kweli, Q-Tip, ayo, ayo, ayo, ayo, ayo)

[Verse 1: Talib Kweli]
Blast from the past, yo, I’m back from the get go
Let’s go, let’s go, rap is special
Ya’ll dudes gas like snaps on the petro
Flashy, like the gun blast in the ghetto
Sparkling like fireworks when we light up the sky
We independent like the 4th of July. Why?
We ask a question that you forced to reply to
Shine through the night, through the orange, sky blue
Rhyme for survival, [?]
Like Big Jay or Skyzoo, fly with the haikus
A pro with the pro’s, still worse with the verse
Dispersin’ the hurt to rappers gotta work with the nurse
Made it through first thank Q-Tip for taking a verse
See how they all up in my mug like they takin’ a purse
Now that’s hard, like the population of Rikers
This here easy, it’s lightwork

[Chorus: sample]
The shine effect sparkle and gleam
Light up the skies
The name of the game is lightworks
Light up the spliffs
The name of the game is lightworks

[Verse 2: Q-Tip]
Dilla still in here, Kweli he still in here
Abstract on the track for filming fulfillment’s here
Watch ya back, boys, there’s culture vultures everywhere
Walking the calm streets thinking that theirs peace in there
Draow, they blind sided up in they creepin’ in
After the rush I’m drinking ice quarter waters to sustain
For the long haul advice is a order
My vertical up that no way on the way back
Competition, I eat that I’ll get sneaker contract
I’ll mary a vixon, she’ll come with the tricks and
She’ll take all my mansions and all of my riches
And leave me with the flatscreen and my new game device
And my little black book, my boys and my brand new life
Now I’m playing on my TV screen
Beating niggas down looking Bruce Banner green
Lookin’ at the high score, do you want more?

[Chorus: sample]
The shine effect sparkle and gleam
Light up the skies
The name of the game is lightworks
Light up the spliffs
The name of the game is lightworks

J Dilla

James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 – February 10, 2006), better known as J Dilla and Jay Dee, was a producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip-hop scene in Detroit, Michigan.

According to his obituary at NPR.org, he “was one of the music industry’s most influential hip-hop artists, working for big-name acts like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes and Common.”

Renowned producer Pete Rock placed J Dilla on his list of the top five producers of all time; Andy Kellman of Allmusic stated that—by 2004, after being active for well over a decade as a producer—J Dilla had accomplished enough to be considered “an all-time great.”