Silver Lining

So much more than a rapper They only write rhymes While I'm a writer that Use rap to capture the times My songwriting's so exciting Like riding a bike But speed, never exceed What you can catch in a line On rainy days You never see me fightin' a vibe My brainstorm can write Before the light of the strike, blow Lost for days, moms taught me 'bout honest ways I saw that crime don't pay at the youngest age Just a southside kid from around the way Most of my friends did bids and extended stays You just an animal, once you get inside that cage That's why I fuck with basketball I'm out there workin' on my J Got some letters from some schools askin' me to play It seemed to be the way to escape the inner city maze A brave scholar, that loved art and praised knowledge But got shot at, the summer 'fore he went to college I never told my moms that, she had enough to bear She sacrificed everything just to get me there To see her baby boy graduate and shed a tear Computer science major, the math added an extra year Found a sampler and put it on layaway Spent my Christmas break makin' beats everyday Things I saw at high school told me stay away But my love for the music never gon' fade away High price to pay for degrees even then Five years of school the debt add an extra ten But came home makin' more dough than all my friends So when my fam needed my help, I could finally give Moved to Cincinnati, couldn't be stationary Fell out of love with the girl I moved there to marry Programmer first, local rapper secondary Battle anybody, wanted to be legendary Try hard to get promoted but I wasn't able Havin' better luck with mic and the turntables All we wanted was attention from a little label Kept pushin' even though my family wasn't stable Lost my big sis hardest year of my life Pops got sick and told me not to stop by Makin' papers, still didn't have a decent car Paying two mortgages cause mom got hurt on the job Had to slow my roll from out there gettin' mine To understanding how the family is intertwined They all sacrificed so we could live a better life So you gotta step up to the plate, when it's your time Remember this when you're racin' towards the finish line Credit towards your fam should never be minimized Lotta people lean on them when they on the rise See some success, then they wanna break the ties Flippin' through the channels landed on Charlie Rose Interviewin' Sting 'bout all the songs he wrote Charlie asked how a songwriter keep his hope What Sting answered I never dare forget to quote He said the music get dark whenever things gets bad But artists gotta understand it's easier to paint with black If you feel it coming on you gotta reel it back Cause people turn to us to hopefully escape from that I try to think of that, time to time when I'm writing Responsibility that come along with the rhyming Don't be the guy always talkin' 'bout the sky falling Don't paint the dark cloud unless you paint the silver lining That's why I'm rhyming To be that silver lining Hah To be the silver lining