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Optimist's Cookbook

by Akil Nadir

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1.
I got a car with chrome on the wheels Wood on the dash and leather upholstery My playlist is jam after jam after jam She understands who I am That's how it's supposed to be Redefining hustle, more brain less muscle More heat, less sleep, fewer friends, less trouble The ends gone meet, the dividends gone double In the end less gas for the bandwagon to guzzle If I lose some cargo, I might make it to Largo So fair-weather friend, this is about as far as I go Try not to slam my car door said Roderigo to Iago Chucked up the deuce and peeled off full throttle I don't play the lotto, don't coddle to supermodels Carpe Diem is the motto, more Malcolm than Aristotle I don't expect for you to be impressed by my bravado This is who I am naturally, knowledge papa passed to me Wisdom mama had for me, understanding the path for me The moon reflect the light of the sun, the earth attracted to its gravity From here you see the stars in the galaxy That's 360 degrees of fact actually I had a dream, like Martin Luther King Chocolate and cream in a jam packed arena Singing along to a song I wrote about love Well is the black man God or a goddamn fraud? A demagogue pointing fingers at the synagogue? A pseudo revolutionary looking for Leningrad? I'd rather eat my dinner where the stars and the winners are My slim physique was not built for the prison yard Isn't it odd? A black man professing he isn't hard But yet my heart don't pump no Kool-Aid, my dues paid Still you half-stepping on my blue suedes That's why I got two shades, turn the other shoe on em Like the revolutionary Jew on em Come back 3 days later fresh and brand new on em Stuntin like Tom Cruise on em, I got em, you want em I'm headed to the promise land, are you coming? Pied Piper to the dead beat daddy and loose woman Who trying to do something? You and your crew fronting? I'm in the coupe sunk in the seat with The Roots bumping I shall proceed and continue To the next venue despite all that I been through When I ascend to the height that I was meant to It's as if the Voltron lions assembled And I'm a symbol of what you can achieve When you believe in the dreams you were destined to conceive I got a girl with chocolate thighs Natty dreadlocks, purple lips, white teeth and pretty Victoria Secret draws I got a crib with windows for walls 12 foot ceilings and mahogany floors And a fountain that reads The World Is Yours! Scarface Dreaming in my Northeast apartment On the balcony overlooking Brookland (Repeat 4X)
2.
Lost in Love 02:37
I got a love jones burning in my soul All consuming taking control of me I'm out of control, somebody help me I'm out of control, Lord have mercy Natural mystic, black radical misfit Fraternize with rabble and I dabble in mischief Google me if you missed it, Wikipedia, Ixquick Dogpile my raw style, all files and Twitpics Triple explicit, lyrically Jake Steed The way I make the beat break bleed, please take heed I do not make music to make cheese I still love hip hop but hate these fake Gs If you flip or play keys, keep it one hundred Not a coke chef but I shepherd the unwanted Imhotep to the blunted and disgruntled If the truth is what you wanted, son, I brung it by the bundle But keep it on the humble, it's funneled under the tunnels A secret that's only mumbled in the streets of the jungle Where the dreams and the herb get crumbled in the same jay Lames say its hopeless, I don't see it the same way Chorus From dawn to dusk it's a must i hustle Tussle with love and lust, it only toughens the muscle But I'm befuddled by the puzzle, I struggle Like I'm smuggling a drug in the lining of the duffle Maybe I need a muzzle I never been accused of being subtle Find trouble like hog hunting for truffle I tighten my belt buckle, ready for bare knuckle Brawling with my calling, it is frightening and hard Like I'm fighting with God, and I ain't liking them odds So I'm writing them bars to enlighten them brauds I'm invite em abroad, I'm a lightening rod On the mic I'm a God, I decipher the cards Damn right I'm in charge like I got life on the yard Yeah I'm out to get mine but I still fight for the cause Can't be happy with mine if you still fighting for yours We get victory together like Mike and them boys It's all love! Chorus
3.
We gone crawl, and we gone walk And we gone fly far away from here And if we fall, well then we fall But we gone try until the day we die, my dear We got nothing to lose but our fear And all we got to give is blood, sweat, tears The end is near and this is clear Crawl, walk, fly, blood, sweat, tears Remarkable Aston Martin flow Pockets are Hyundai but growing like fungi In a petri dish until I dig a deeper ditch Then dig myself out with a scheme, slightly evil-ish Somewhat diva-ish, my rider says escovitch And Glenfiddich scotch whiskey, one fifth in either fist Pace is feverish, I lost a lot of time Daydreaming instead of getting on my grind You know the feeling The limit is the ceiling, that's if you in the building What if you outdoors or in a house without doors? Without walls, without floors? If you about yours how could they doubt yours? Who is here without flaws? Chorus Shh. My life is calling… "Claude, I'm waiting for you Saved a plate for you, ice cream and cake for you." I'm coming, life! Last night I dreamed about you. The real world is hard enough to kick the semen out you But they don't hate you, they just caught up in the cycle Chasing paper and more prestigious titles You gotta listen Father forgive him, don't mind my brother, he ignorant He simple-minded, he don't mean no harm, he limited All he sees is what money buys, he short-sighted But he still empty on the inside, he can't hide it So he buy something shiny, a little vroom vroom Nobody love him, he be paying for the poom poom And she's a beautiful circus sideshow Hot-to-trot Hottentot with a wide-load They both searching for something that doesn't exist But in a way they both innocent as second cousin kiss But what would life be if it wasn't this? What kind of hunter want a gun that doesn't miss? The purpose is the journey, not the destination And we are all running late for supper with Satan Chorus Christian, Muslim or Jew, Buddhist or Hindu Who doesn't reap the benefits of evil men do? The diamond in your wife's ring cost a hundred lives Nothing compared to the look of love in her eyes Sweatshops full of teenage seamstresses So your kids can have 200 dollar jeans for Christmas Posters of Barack Obama on the wall He kill 1000 Pakistanis with a phone call Your son got a partial scholarship to Catholic school The headmaster want some head in collateral He got a bad attitude, they keep him after school And that's what happens when you cannot pay the balance due Whose hands ain't bloody? Let's conduct a study Pour me another shot of Cutty while I rap to my buddy Buddy! Remember me, from Alice Deal At recess we exchanged words on the field You and your mans tried to jump me at the bus stop I gave you a black eye before I finally dropped We was just a few blocks from my mom's house Getting mollywhopped, on the ground, and stomped out Certain memories you can never forget Seems like the harder you try then the harder it gets Like the pain and the shame of a beat down You can chose to retaliate or either leave town Or you can stand your ground like Nadir did Squared off at the bottom like a pyramid Left foot forward, knees bent, guards up And no friends got called up to squad up No shots fired, no charges brought up Just me scared to death with both fists balled up Chorus
4.
Jimmy Superfly Snuka off the top rope Regular rappers trying to wrestle what I wrote I never wrote what I wrote, memorized by rote I'm not fly, I'm high, why smoke? Walking on water while they travel by boat How is life about money when we all die broke Some flirt with it, some try to work with it Some go to church with it in the 61st minute I guess that's why the hearse tinted Life is short but its deep, I'm immersed in it And I call see, and I can see is the rest of my life (Repeat 3X) And I can see is the bright white light Hard like O'Shea, Lorenzo and Eric Or pushing out a baby while you laid up in the stirrups A long line of coke and a tall cup of syrup On the ledge of Pimp C's hotel suite terrace If the meek shall inherit the earth, what do the wicked get? When and if this is the big one, Elizabeth? And is the incentive commensurate With all the pain and suffering we visited Upon our fellow idiots, all infatuated with The meaning of success within a 10-block radius? If that's the case, I'm the leader of the pack then Especially if the pack is packed with passive black men My aggression's a lesson to teach em how to act then Counter-act pervasive apathy with action I'm positive my passion will positively impact them Like a powerful Mac 10 Power to empower the powerless Devour the cowardice, our power trip's Analogous to drowning in the shallowest puddle of sour piss Now how's my analysis Measure up to palaces, callouses, fallaces, dialysis? Blow it out your chalices, go ask your Alices For directions out of this wonderland of childishness Yet we are challenged with insurmountable challenges It all amounts to this: love and life in the balances Chorus

credits

released January 1, 2014

Tracks #1-3 produced by Tony C for Maseed Productions; Track #4 produced by Suroc

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Akil Nadir Washington, D.C.

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