Roots - Somithng In The Way Of Things (In Town) lyrics

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The Roots f/ Amiri Baraka<br />

Phrenology<br />

Something in the Way of Things (In Town)<br />

<br />

In town x3<br />

<br />

Something in the way of things<br />

Something that will quit and won't start<br />

Something you know but can't stand<br />

Can't know get along with<br />

Like death<br />

Riding on top of the car peering through the windshield for his cue<br />

Something entirely fictitious and true<br />

That creeps across your path hallowing your evil ways<br />

Like they were yourself passing yourself not smiling<br />

The dead guy you saw me talking to is your boss<br />

I tried to put a spell on him but his spirit is illiterate<br />

<br />

I know things you know and nothing you don't know<br />

'cept I saw something in the way of things<br />

Something grinning at me and I wanted to know, was it funny?<br />

Was it so funny it followed me down the street<br />

Greeting everybody like the good humor man<br />

But an they got the taste of good humor but no ice cream<br />

It was like dat<br />

Me talking across people into the houses<br />

And not seeing the beings crowding around me with ice picks<br />

You could see them<br />

But they looked like important Negroes on the way to your funeral<br />

Looked like important jiggaboos on the way to your auction<br />

And let them chant the number and use an ivory pointer to count your teeth<br />

Remember Steppen Fetchit<br />

Remember Steppen Fetchit how we laughed<br />

An all your Sunday school images giving flesh and giggling<br />

With the ice pick high off his head<br />

Made ya laugh anyway<br />

<br />

I can see something in the way of our selves<br />

I can see something in the way of our selves<br />

That's why I say the things I do, you know it<br />

But it's something else to you<br />

Like that job<br />

This morning when you got there and it was quiet<br />

And the machines were yearning soft behind you<br />

Yearning for that nigga to come and give up his life<br />

Standin' there bein' dissed and broke and troubled<br />

<br />

My mistake is I kept sayin' "that was proof that God didn't exist"<br />

And you told me, "nah, it was proof that the devil do"<br />

But still, it's like I see something I hear things<br />

I saw words in the white boy's lying rag<br />

Said he was gonna die poor and frustrated<br />

That them dreams walk which you 'cross town<br />

S'gonna die from over work<br />

There's garbage on the street that's tellin' you you ain't shit<br />

And you almost believe it<br />

Broke and mistaken all the time<br />

You know some of the words but they ain't the right ones<br />

Your cable back on but ain't nothin' you can see<br />

But I see something in the way of things<br />

Something to make us stumble<br />

Something get us drunk from noise and addicted to sadness<br />

I see something and feel something stalking us<br />

Like and ugly thing floating at our back calling us names<br />

You see it and hear it too<br />

But you say it got a right to exist just like you and if God made it<br />

But then we got to argue<br />

And the light gon' come down around us<br />

Even though we remember where the (light or mic??) is<br />

Remember the Negro squinting at us through the cage<br />

You seen what I see too?<br />

The smile that ain't a smile but teeth flying against our necks<br />

You see something too but can't call it's name<br />

<br />

Ain't it too bad y'all said<br />

Ain't it too bad, such a nice boy always kind to his motha<br />

Always say good morning to everybody on his way to work<br />

But that last time before he got locked up and hurt, real bad<br />

I seen him walkin' toward his house and he wasn't smiling<br />

And he didn't even say hello<br />

But I knew he'd seen something<br />

Something in the way of things that it worked on him like it do in will<br />

And he kept marching faster and faster away from us<br />

And never even muttered a word<br />

Then the next day he was gone<br />

You wanna know what<br />

You wanna know what I'm talkin' about<br />

Sayin' "I seen something in the way of things"<br />

And how the boys face looked that day just before they took him away<br />

The is? in that face and remember now, remember all them other faces<br />

And all the many places you've seen him or the sister with his child<br />

Wandering up the street<br />

Remember what you seen in your own mirror and didn't for a second recognize<br />

The face, your own face<br />

Straining to get out from behind the glass<br />

Open your mouth like you was gon' say somethin'<br />

Close your eyes and remember what you saw and what it made you feel like<br />

Now, don't you see something else<br />

Something cold and ugly<br />

Not invisible but blended with the shadow criss-crossing the old man<br />

Squatting by the drug store at the corner<br />

With is head resting uneasily on his folded arms<br />

And the boy that smiled and the girl he went with<br />

<br />

And in my eyes too<br />

A waving craziness splitting them into the jet stream of a black bird<br />

Wit his ass on fire<br />

Or the solomNOTness of where we go to know we gonna be happy<br />

<br />

I seen something<br />

I SEEN something<br />

And you seen it too<br />

You seen it too<br />

You just can't call it's name name name name name name name