LyricMeaning

Rare Portraits
Talib Kweli

Gravitas, light it up

Lighten it up, brighten it up, yea

You want the grown step your bars up

You brag about the scrilla them killas lighten your cars up

Welcome to the complete history of the one known as Talib Kweli

Such a blessing, I'm making the bread leven

Descendant of Terra Firma

I'm from the era of legend

The blind to my eyesight

Too scared of the world ending

My men of spiritual essence be walking right into heaven

Ascending without the stairs, expressing without the fears

We diamonds but our minds are corrupted just like De Beers

Unravelling minds, travelling through time like langoliers

Standing with the flow like the man in the gondolier

In the park of Washington Square, locks in my hair

Louder than the bull horns we was locking 'em there

Cops would prepare to lock us up

They was scared like tales from the dark side

Summer of the Central Park five

1989 was the number, the year that I started rhyming

From Brooklyn to Staten Island them Decepticons was wildin'

Music soothing but the imagery violent as bomb threats

Therapy for the prison industrial complex

Provided the context for the crime with the Tec nine

At Brooklyn Tech I spit it the best so they had to respect mine

I did it to death on my grind on a quest to get signed

Sorta like the tribe would always suggest we check the rhyme

An internal with Puff Daddy, in front of the buffed patio

Rolling with Hi Tek in the MPV through the streets of the 'Nati

Before graduating to Caddies was carrying crates

Shoutout to Flex all day doing records with John Forte

We was standing outside of Tower devouring prey

Powerful display of bullet points that we shower and spray the block with

Back in them salad days these rappers was appetizers

I played it like I was David, I was tackling that Goliath

Attacking the open mics to the victory was decisive

This life it was so enticing, my surgery so precise

I would chop it like thin slices at parties we politic

At the country club, lighting up dutches with Pac and Big

At the crib of supernatural battling back and forth

Back before Jean was in the unsigned hype in the back of The Source

Rest in peace to Allah's sons

Shabba was liking to call you son

'Cause you mine I call you son 'cause you shine

What's up Alyasha, this is OG Brooklyn shit

Not for impostors, pour out a shot of vodka for them

Big L, Big Poppa, Big Pun, 2Pac

The jungle is too savage, rap true master producing the new classic

This shit is too classic it's blow to vacate to spinal tap

I started with the Rawkus Recording we work the vinyl backwards

From DEF JUX to Loaded Lux

I'm the underground king like I'm rolling with Bun, the vets know what's up

The flow is nuts it's solid I got the golden touch

Plus my Iron Sheek and I got the game and the cobra clutch

This the highest calibre do the algebra

From Yasiin Bey to Jean Grey to Pharoahe Monch

Black Thought to Common

Almost 20 years after the release of Soundbombing

And it still sounds timeless

I'm out and on tour with the greatest, A Tribe Called Quest

And the De La's, opened for Jay Z and Nas, who else could say this?

In Vegas with Tech 9 getting faded before the gig

Only later to hit the RIO and hop on the stage with Prince

True story, I always knew the importance of great shows

Since 1992 I seen Ice Cube play Toads, way cold

Continue to pave the road for the Kendricks and J Coles

Continue to stake gold

From making the way for Kanye to meetings with Mr. Harry Belafonte

All started on park benches with Dante

Predicting the future, so observant I'm clairvoyant

The frame can't contain it, I'm painting a rare portrait


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Lyrics by Talib Kweli

  \   2000 Seasons   A Game   A Game   Abra Cadabra   Africa Dream   After The Rain   Ain\u2019t Waiting   Around My Way   Around My Way   Art Imitates Life   Astronomy (8th Light)   Back Again   Back It Up   Back Up Offa Me   Back Up Offa Me   Ballad Of The Black Gold   Beast   Beautiful Struggle   Before He Walked   Big Nel from Da Natti   Black Girl Pain   Bridge To Bama(HI Tek Remix)   Brown Skin Lady   Celebration Flow   Chaos   Children's Story   City Playgrounds   Cold Rain   Colors Of You   Come Here   Come Here feat. Miguel   Country Cousins   Definition   Delicate Flowers   Demonology   Distractions   Down For The Count   Drugs, Basketball & Rap   Due Process [Instrumental]   Eat to Live   Eternalists   Everything Man   Everywhere I Go   Expansion Dedication   Favela Love   Favela Love feat. Seu Jorge   Fly That Knot   Friends & Family   Fuck The Money   Funny Money   Game   Get Back Pt. II   Get By   Ghetto Afterlife   Ghetto Show   Ghetto Show - Anthony Hamilton   Go With Us   Going Hard   Good Mourning   Good to You   Got Work   Great Expectations   Guerilla Monsoon Rap   Guerrilla Monsoon Rap   Gun Music   Gutter Rainbows   Hamster Wheel   Hater Players   Hell   High Life feat. Rubix Cube & Bajah   Hold It Now   Holy Moly   Hostile Gospel Pt. 1 (Deliver Us)   Hostile Gospel, Pt. 1 (Deliver Us)   Hostile Gospel, Pt1 (Deliver Us)   Hostile Gospel, Pt2 (Deliver Me)   Hot Thing   How You Love Me   I Try   I Try   I Try   I Try - Mary Jblige   I Try [Instrumental]   I\u2019m On One   In the Mood   In The Red   In This World   Inner Monologue   Intro   It Only Gets Better   It's Like That   Joy   Just Begun (Ft. Jay Electronica, J Cole & Mos Def)   K.o.s. (determination)   Keynote Speaker   Kindness for Weakness   Let Me See (Remix)   Lifting Off   Listen   Listen!!!   Lonely People   Long Hot Summer   Lord Of The Light   Love Language   Lover's Peak   Make It Classy   Memories Live   Midnight Hour   Mood Swing   More or Less   Move Somethin'   Move Something   Ms Hill   Ms. Hill   My Life   Name Of The Game   Nature   Never Been In Love   New Leaders   Niggas Lie Alot   NY Weather Report   Old School   On My Way   Outstanding   Palookas   Perfect Beat   Purest Hearts   Push Thru   Put It In The Air   Raise the Bar   Ready Set Go   Ready Set Go feat. Melanie Fiona   Real Women   Respiration   Right About Now   Rocket Ships   Rocket Ships feat. Busta Rhymes   Rush   Say Something   Self Savior   Sharp Shooters   Sharp Shooters   Shock Body   So Good   So Low   Some Kind Of Wonderful   Soon A New Day   Soon the New Day   Soul Music   Space Fruit   Space Fruit (Interlude)   Stand to the Side   State of Grace   Stay Around   Strangers   Supreme, Supreme   Talib Kweli Come Here feat. Miguel. Off of Talib ...   Talk To You (lil' Darlin')   Tater Tot   Testify   The Beast   The Blast   The Nature   The Nature (Feat. Justin Timberlake)   The Nature [*]   The Perfect Beat   The Proud   The Show   The Wormhole   Theives In The Night   This Means You   This Means You (Ft. Mos Def)   Too Late   Twice Inna Lifetime   Two & Two   Uh Oh   Upper Echelon   Violations   Wait For You   Waitin' For The Dj   We Got the Beat   We Got the Beat   We Know   We Know - Faith Evans   What I Feel   What's Real   Where Do We Go   Work It Out   Work It Out

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