Intro:
Pick it up, flip it open (2x)
Verse 1 (Bambu):
A by-product of that LAUSD education, miseducated
While my peers graduated I's waitin' on my arraignment
In a day room I'm shiftin through torn books in a room
Ironically in better condition than at my school, now
I couldn't quite finish a whole book
And until I discovered my notebook
I found that I wasn't accustomed to processing nothing I read in a school book
Then I started building, dialoging with all my elders
Sharing shit that these authors would piece together with letters and
Now as an adult I see the error in my schooling
And why the shit in syllabus readings made me feel stupid
Cause the relevance to me
Was irrelevant in my teens
The fuck did half this shit have to do with me being me huh?
And later as I grew up
I found more connection in a book than in the hood I grew up
Girls I used to fuck with used to bug
When I request that we skip the DVDs and grab Assata off the shelf
Let's try and flip through every page
Your voice reciting wisdom that's gonn' get your ass laid
Then we use that book to break bud
Break it down chop it up
Break it down let's chop it up
Break it down chop it up
Break it down let's chop it up
And grab another book (smoke!)
Grab another book
Hook:
Yeah I know it sound corny but
We should read some books (3x)
If I'm lying then I'm dying, straight up
We should read some books (3x)
Yeah I know it sound corny baby
We should read some books (3x)
If I'm lying, then I'm dying, straight up
Pick it up, flip it open (2x)
Verse 2 (Prometheus Brown):
I was light weight college educated but I never graduated
Professors on that bullshit, I ain't have the patience
Find myself sleeping through academic proceedings
Staying up most evenings, writing, fucking or reading
Seeing lectures while weeded
And staring at some cleavage
Learning big words having very little meaning
Jesus even in the meetings I was seeking
A reason to explain this game without the twenty page thesis
A view without class that's a class without a teacher
Or a struggle rapper takes but without the thousand features
Scholar not collegiate but intelectually seasoned
Having drunk conversations over very sober readings
Maybe sober contemplations over very loaded readings
Where bookmarks mark where we (Oof!) and we (Ah!)
Here we are, 2012, they're like "What the fuck's a book?"
I'm like "Look, It's the quickest way to get up out your hood!"
Not from knowledge but the knowledge with practical application
Not reading for escaping, but knowing where you came from
Burning through those papers when I'm burning through the pages now
Break it down, chop it up
Break it down and smoke it up
Break it down, smoke it up
Break it, then chop it up
Grab another book, grab another book
Repeat hook
Outro (2x):
Paper back, hardcovers
Langston Hughes, ask your mama
Show love to them bookworm brothers
Mind buff, language tough
I like a dude that knows what's up
