This is Chicago, nigga

Surprise, it's the boy who lived
It's the West Chatham Santa with some toys to give
A. 38 Special I call Noisy Cricket
I got a chain on now, call Roy G. Biv
It's the new New Edition like Poison, Bibb, Bell, DeVoe
It's time to make that noise again
Lauryn Hill said she'd see me on The Voice again
But this the end of the road like Boyz II Men

You better use your pen, baby, use your heart, child
Where's your viewpoint? Where's your art style?
Sometimes a teardrop can make your heart smile
Looking for a sign and He sends a star shower

Fresh out surviving the coup d'état
The music stopped, you just might lose your spot
No fairytale endings if you lose the plot
It's written in the notebook if you forgot

It's a love letter
I used to hate math, used to love letters
They had me in the class with the dumb niggas
This na come to class with an umbrella

This cool, day walk, I'm a Sun dweller
Until I met a brother Mike, he said: Young fella
Everybody dies, some write poems
So I raised my right arm and I said: Right on

Put my name on that don't-give-no-fuck list
America's own, niggas you can't trust list
I got a SIG Sauer called MC Hammer
I got a chain on now called You Can't Touch This

I said I gotta figure out a–huh?
Gotta figure out a way to get this money by tomorrow
If you know me, it ain't funny anymore
If you owe me, ain't no running anymore

Oh, life will be just you believe if you
Put on that full armor
Learned that from my mama, she said

Life will be
Life will be
Just you believe

If you believe
Separate the waters and so lead
An ocean liner, star shine

Check it for Starline
Working for Starline
Check it for Starline
Working for Starline
Check it for Starline
Working for Starline
Working for Starline

And we back, look, Mama, I seen a star
Yeah, gettin' pretty and it ain't that far
Bright and bold and Black like me
And it's right in the mirror, I'm shining hard

The last time that my check got commas
My whips got horses, my chains got blinders
Teachers got laptops, the kids got binders
Celebrity barber, but my stars all lined up

The three went platinum, the one went diamond
I had a F-minus, but that's behind us
My pen on paper worth millions of dollars
Shout out to the fact that they still ain't signed us

No contract, no fine print, no lease, no co-sign-ment
I emptied the safe for a case
I ain't never been broken
But you don't know how broke I been

Tell me, how can you now afford the file divorce
The child support, the back door, take the trial to court?
Either I'm the best or these times is good
There's only two reasons this shit could rhyme this good

Heavy is the crown, I'm ahead my time
I left breadcrumbs when I read my rhymes
So if I catch a red dot to the dome
They'll find me with a note on my head saying: You read my mind

The pen gon' flow, God, I'm your vessel
Now bless my soul, God, we gon' wrestle
The writing's on the wall, baby, it's a fresco
It's a Death Note, it's a manifesto

Oh, life will be just you believe if you

Put on that full armor
Learned that from my mama, she said

Life will be
Life will be
Just you believe

If you believe
Separate the waters and so lead
An ocean liner, star shine

All of us have something to say, but some are never heard
Over seven years ago, the people who watched stood together
And demanded to be heard
For over six hours, the audience heard, felt, sang, danced
And shouted the living word, in a soulful expression of the Black experience