Audubon Ballroom - Lupe Fiasco

Ghettos, America.

U.S. to the izzay

Killa in the citywide sprizzay

Where there’s sunshine in the shizzade

Judge won’t pull him out the pen like a grenade

For acting out their fears like a charade

Til they blacking out their tears like it’s lights out

Bring em out the black like a lighthouse

And wave to em before they wiped out

Lifesaver, threw em, hope they catch it

But it’s so Titanic to be iced out

That’s just scratching the surface like Triple Axels

Want to roll around that Bentley like Crystal Castles

In addition to the chain

That’s just to take the attention from the pain

Or is it the mission of the man

Audubon Ballroom, Motel Lorraine

Now white people, you can’t say nigga

So I gotta take it back

Now black people, we’re not niggas

Cause God made us better than that

No break, all wake

Little mayhem for your All-State, nay ham, all steak

Get a good ball great like a golf grade

Make the ball break

Just one swing, no putting

That’s how I try 'n does things, always

Especially when your past is

Martin, Baldwin, Audubon Ballroom

Turn the glass ceiling to a glass floor

Make a trampoline out of trapdoor

On that gasoline when I was back poor

Loudly crafted out my dream underneath a tap floor

Backpack battle-cat underground rap lore

Anonymous but dominant -- what’s a Mac to a hacker?

In other words, we lyrical Zuckerbergs

Pimp you may move a mouse, but what’s a rat to a cat store

It’s like a gig to an app store

I rap Black history, you can only see my past if you fast forward

Now white people, you can’t say nigga

So I gotta take it back

Now black people, we’re not niggas

Cause God made us better than that

Black Panthers, black anthems, black blues

With black answers for black stanzas: Langston Hughes

Breaking rules, ain’t it cool?

Took it old, and made it new

Black painters, musical black anger

Black mothers, beautiful black anchors

So lets hear it for 'em!

Let’s hear it for 'em!

Lets hear it for 'em!

Lets hear it for 'em!

Black America!

Trap America!

'80s Babies!

Crack America!

Rap America!

Bad as Erykah!

From the era of family tearing up

But we just won big, can’t be undid

Form a whole culture in just one kid

Miami dope boys, Oakland militants

Harlem Renaissance it’s our deliverance

Now white people, you can’t say nigga

So I gotta take it back

Now black people, we’re not niggas

Cause God made us better than that