Dreams

[Spoken intro: Kendrick Lamar] Nah, what you get outta, outta not writing your stuff down on paper, you get the more-you know the...expression, the feeling yourself. You know what you want to say; instead of reading a paper that sounds read, it sounds narrated. Unless you wanna do it narrated... [Hook: Kendrick Lamar] What if a dream was reality and reality was a dream? And as complicated as it seems, if things we imagined actually happened? And real life situations was artificial They say we only living to, die Imagine if we're already dead, waiting to live, living in hell Trying to cross over to heaven we're confusing ourselves Planet earth's like Oceans 11, we're plottin' for the getaway [Verse 1: Kendrick Lamar] When my childhood friends get sent away to prison on their first offense It's fucked up but listen, we study God but don't know him Criticize people that work on Sundays, two jobs just to feed their kids Well, momma's scratching lottery tickets knowing that it's just a fairy tale Cus' we ain't gonna win Every time that she's bubblin' in, it feels like the devil's holding a pen (shit) Don't mind me I'm just thinking again Thinking out loud, thinking the opposite of proud Cus' I'm disappointed at my self sometimes Self-esteem gets lower than night strippers Hard to motivate the right rhymes, inspired by true crimes It's not a game, it's nothing to play with Turn it off then come back the next day, it's here to stay Struggle that is I'm so infatuated with knowing something that's waiting after this life That means what I'm thinking is right Punch, loop the beat for a minute Moment of silence for J. Dilla, he on his way home Know he see me spillin' my heart, hope for it soon Wait a minute K. Dot! you said turn it back on, bring it back If dreams was reality If it was cool for you to be a casualty The only way that you can escape poverty Say that I'm weird but obviously you didn't get it when I said it the first time You're listening too far if you hear this part I suggest you go back and press rewind I fast forward to common thoughts of a human Deep in my thoughts like Patrick Ewing in the paint Look what I brought to my state that they can't bring - the industry need a fix Stick heroin needles inside politics, this is crack music O-pi-um, inside the veins of them, I don't abuse it Capture each moment like film, photo-shooting all my enemies moving Direct them to a casket Give it to 'em only if they ask for it, if they want... If they wanna see reality [haha] I'm losing you again ain't I? Ain't I, the perfect candidate to represent the fifty states? Black President, they don't wanna see that It's evident...pain is pain We only love to hate each other that's striving for great-ness I swear to God that we live in a Matrix Take that blue pill then we start seeing spaceships Kanye, west-coast niggas do it the best Bring each other down, crab in a bucket of fit We learn to live with it I guess I mean dive with it, since we're already dead Trying to cross over to heaven, that's what I said the first time Get it? Now little boy I gotta sit you down Teach you about the things that we live around Materialistic things that we buyin' now means nothing later when the dream kick in Fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out... [Verse 2: Punch] When the dreams was reality and money was love What would we do for a buzz to maintain our sanity Chasing the wind, striving after this vanity Traveling, no direction, the aimless casualty American dream or Scarface fantasy Kilos of coke and the arms of black families We use to it, our hearts draped in stone A mother's dreams for her baby boy to come back home Cus' he out pushin' that chrome, pursuing that cash End another niggas dreams when the fo-fifth blast Now another mother screams picking out his casket Harsh reality, it seems like it's simple mathematics, it's not It's trigonometry (trigganometry) divided by some real life And he'll do it again just to get a mill' twice The streets mowed him, can't make past that It's not a dream it's reality, look where it's at [ugh] What happened in Manhattan happens all the time In the hood, conspiracy to cover up crime No nickel and dime, one shot pettiness I wrote it in my mind as a letter to the president World trade happened on the world stage Same stage look at us as some educated apes On video stations women gyrating Parading around, mind-raping the youth Fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out, fade me out... [Hook] [Outro: Denzel Washington] I'm the man up in this piece! You'll never see the light of da.. Who the fuck d'ya think you fuckin' with? I'm the police! I run shit here, you just live here!