Talib Kweli - Knockturnal Lyrics

The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life

The city get restless when the sun goes down
The words get heated and the guns go
I used to joke and smile, now everyone's so foul
I grab the heat before I leave, go out the front door now
Check the weather, what is the forecast
Tryna make it rain, lookin' for more cash
Little man, ain't got no parents, who you gonna follow
When your role models send you to the store for a cold bottle
And you come back and em in cuffs that be enough to hate police
And define manhood as being tough
Sneakers scuffed and toes turned up
The shit is aggravating, its hard to put holes in denim
This ain't a fashion statement, yelling out "thats my car"
So fascinated by material gain, its already ours in our imagination
The maturation of supremacy is masturbation
The master race should make you want to mask your face
Right up in somebody gates but where the fuck is safe
Small, quiet dude in the back like " I know just the place"
Flash toothy grin the jakes love to hate
And then he flashed the gun he had tucked in his waist
The conversations, son, overhearing are overbearing
Ain't no preparing for how much the hood be oversharing (word)
The night time, always the right time
When your blood is what's flowing through the school to prison pipeline

The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life

When you ain't got a pot to piss
Everybody on the block is your competition
Police all up in your pocket, you're forced to forfeit
When your espionage is corporate, that means you got an office
Instead arrested for the petty theft
Expected to apologize for every breath
A warrior stood in the face of many deaths
But since the colonizers are there any left
He in the streets like he ain't got a home
Writing a poem to the beat of the sobs and moans
Ran into Joe again skin chocolate as a Toblerone
Clickety-clack of stilettos on wet cobblestones
Streetlights illuminate how truly dark it is
The block is a college, she got a degree in marketing
A doctorate in swallowing, this pimping paid her scholarships
She poppin' out her tits 'cause they pay her to be provocative
Broke niggas tryin' to holla though
But they ain't got no dollars though
Sound like I'm a here to lick any day
Fuck you bitch she don't look that good anyway (you don't even look good anyway)
Since when is pettiness a virtue?
Cops circling the block, they went from stop ad frisk to stop and murk you
Smoking dark purple in a crop circle
Fast life these entourages ain't got turfs

The vampires make you fear the night
That kind of talk give them evil spirits life
She on the track like she waiting for her tears to dry
Listen real close you can hear the city cry
You hear it right?
It's like every night the city die
We the blood, we give the city life
Living the city life