Mortal Man Lyrics - Kendrick Lamar

1 Uh, yeah

2 Uh, yeah

3 Uh

4 Yeah, uh

5 The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it

6 Let these words be your earth and moon you consume every message

7 As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression

8 And with that being said my nigga, let me ask this question

9 '''Kendrick Lamar and Prince Paul:'''

10 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

11 When shit hit the fan (One two, one two), uh

12 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

13 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

14 '''Kendrick Lamar:'''

15 The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it

16 Let these words be your earth and moon you consume every message

17 As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression

18 And with that being said my nigga, let me ask this question

19 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

20 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

21 Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask your friends

22 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

23 Do you believe in me? Are you deceiving me?

24 Could I let you down easily? Is your heart where it need to be?

25 Is your smile on permanent? Is your vow on lifetime?

26 Would you know where the sermon is if I died in this next line?

27 If I'm tried in a court of law, if the industry cut me off

28 If the government want me dead, plant cocaine in my car

29 Would you judge me a drughead or see me as K. Lamar

30 Or question my character and degrade me on every blog?

31 Want you to love me like Nelson, want you to hug me like Nelson

32 I freed you from being a slave in your mind, you're very welcome

33 You tell me my song is more than a song, it's surely a blessing

34 But a prophet ain't a prophet till they ask you this question

35 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

36 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

37 Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask your friends

38 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

39 The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it

40 Let my word be your earth and moon you consume every message

41 As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression

42 And with that

43 Do you believe in me? How much you believe in her?

44 You think she gon' stick around if them twenty-five years occur?

45 You think he can hold you down when you down behind bars hurt?

46 You think y'all on common ground if you promise to be the first?

47 Can you be immortalised without your life being expired?

48 Even though you share the same blood, is it worth the time?

49 Like who got your best interest? Like how much are you dependent?

50 How clutch are the people that say they love you and who pretending?

51 How tough is your skin when they turn you in, do you show forgiveness?

52 What brush do you bend when dusting your shoulders from being offended?

53 What kind of den did they put you in when the lions start hissing?

54 What kind of bridge did they burn, revenge or your mind when it's mentioned?

55 You wanna love like Nelson, you wanna be like Nelson

56 You wanna walk in in his shoes but you peace-making seldom

57 You wanna be remembered that delivered the message

58 That considered the blessing of everyone, this your lesson for everyone, say

59 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

60 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

61 Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask your friends

62 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

63 The voice of Mandela, hope this flows they propel it

64 Let my word be your earth and moon you consume every message

65 As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression

66 And if you riding with me nigga

67 I been wrote off before, I got abandonment issues

68 I hold grudges like bad judges, don't let me resent you

69 That's not Nelson-like, want you to love me like Nelson

70 I went to Robben's Island analyzing, that's where his cell is

71 So I could find clarity, like how much you cherish me

72 Is this relationship a fake or real as the heavens be?

73 See I got to question it all, family, friends, fans, cats, dogs

74 Trees, plants, grass, how the wind blow, Murphy's Law

75 Generation X, will I ever be your X?

76 Floss off a baby step, mauled by the mouth of pitbulls, put me under stress

77 Crawled under rocks, ducking y'all, it's respect

78 But then tomorrow, put my back against the wall

79 How many leaders you said you needed then left 'em for dead?

80 Is it Moses, is it Huey Newton or Detroit Red?

81 Is it Martin Luther, JFK, shoot or you assassin?

82 Is it Jackie, is it Jesse? Oh I know, it's Michael Jackson, oh

83 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

84 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

85 That nigga gave us Billie Jean, you say he touched those kids?

86 When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

87 The ghost of Mandela, hope my flows they propel it

88 Let my word be your earth and moon you consume every message

89 As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression

90 And if you riding with me nigga, let me ask this question nigga

91 I remember you was conflicted

92 Misusing your influence

93 Sometimes I did the same

94 Abusing my power, full of resentment

95 Resentment that turned into a deep depression

96 Found myself screaming in the hotel room

97 I didn't wanna self destruct

98 The evils of Lucy was all around me

99 So I went running for answers

100 Until I came home

101 But that didn't stop survivor's guilt

102 Going back and forth trying to convince myself the stripes I earned

103 Or maybe how A-1 my foundation was

104 But while my loved ones was fighting the continuous war back in the city, I was entering a new one

105 A war that was based on apartheid and discrimination

106 Made me wanna go back to the city and tell the homies what I learned

107 The word was respect

108 Just because you wore a different gang color than mine's

109 Doesn't mean I can't respect you as a black man

110 Forgetting all the pain and hurt we caused each other in these streets

111 If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us

112 But I don't know

113 I'm no mortal man

114 Maybe I'm just another nigga

115 Shit and that's all I wrote

116 I was gonna call it "Another Nigga" but it ain't really a poem, I just felt like it's something you probably could relate to

117 Other than that, now that I finally got a chance to holler at you, I always wanted to ask you about a certain situa-

118 About a metaphor actually, uh you spoke on the ground

119 What you mean 'bout that, what the ground represent?

120 '''Tupac Shakur and Kendrick Lamar:'''

121 The ground is gonna open up and swallow the evil (Right)

122 That's how I see it, my word is bond

123 I see and the ground is the symbol for the poor people (Right), the poor people is gonna open up this whole world and swallow up the rich people

124 'Cause the rich people gonna be so fat, they gonna be so appetizing, you know what I'm saying?

125 Wealthy, appetizing, the poor gonna be so poor and hungry, you know what I'm saying?

126 It's gonna be like, you know what I'm saying?

127 It's gonna be like, there might be some cannibalism out this mother, they might eat the rich

128 (Aight so let me ask you this then

129 Do you see yourself as somebody that's rich or somebody that made the best of they own opportunities?)

130 I see myself as a natural born hustler, a true hustler in every sense of the word

131 I took nothin', I took the opportunities, I worked at the most menial and degrading job and built myself up so I could get it to where I owned it

132 I went from having somebody manage me to me hiring the person that works my management company

133 I changed everything, I realised my destiny in a matter of five years you know what I'm saying?

134 I made myself a millionaire

135 I made millions for a lot of people now it's time to make millions for myself, you know what I'm saying?

136 I made millions for the record companies, I made millions for these movie companies, now I make millions for, for us

137 (And through your different avenues of success, how would you say you managed to keep a level of sanity?)

138 By my faith in God, by my faith in the game, and by my faith in all good, all good things come to those that stay true, you know what I'm saying?

139 And it was happening to me for a reason, you know what I'm saying?

140 I was noticing, shit, I was punching the right buttons and it was happening

141 So it's no problem, you know I mean it's a problem but I'm not finna let them know, I'm finna go straight through

142 (Would you consider yourself a fighter at heart or somebody that, heh, somebody that only reacts when they back is against the wall?)

143 Shit, I like to think that at every opportunity I've ever been uh threatened with resistance it's been met with resistance

144 And not only me but it goes down my family tree, you know what I'm saying?

145 It's in my veins to fight back

146 (Aight well, how long you think it take before niggas be like, "We fighting a war, I'm fighting a war I can't win and I wanna lay it all down")

147 In this country a black man only have like five years we can exhibit maximum strength, and that's right now while you a teenager, while you still strong or while you still wanna lift weights, while you still wanna shoot back

148 'Cause once you turn thirty it's like they take the heart and soul out of a man, out of a black man in this country and you don't wanna fight no more

149 And if you don't believe me you can look around, you don't see no loud mouth thirty-year old motherfuckers

150 (That's crazy, because me being one of your offspring of the legacy you left behind, I can truly tell you that there's nothing but turmoil goin' on so I wanted to ask you what you think is the future for me and my generation today?)

151 I think that niggas is tired of grabbin' shit out the stores and next time it's a riot there's gonna be, like, uh, bloodshed for real

152 I don't think America know that

153 I think American think we was just playing and it's gonna be some more playing but it ain't gonna be no playing

154 It's gonna be murder, you know what I'm saying?

155 It's gonna be like Nat Turner 1831 up in this motherfucker

156 You know what I'm saying? It's gonna happen

157 '''Kendrick Lamar and Tupac Shakur:'''

158 That's crazy man

159 In my opinion, only hope that we kinda have left is music and vibrations, lotta people don’t understand how important it is

160 Sometimes I be like, get behind a mic and I don't know what type of energy I'mma push out, or where it comes from

161 Trip me out sometimes

162 (Because the spirits, we ain't even really rappin', we just letting our dead homies tell stories for us)

163 '''Kendrick Lamar:'''

164 Damn

165 I wanted to read one last thing to you

166 It's actually something a good friend had wrote describing my world

167 It says

168 "The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it

169 Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it, in order to protect itself from this mad city

170 While consuming its environment, the caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive

171 One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him, but praises the butterfly

172 The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar

173 But having a harsh outlook on life, the caterpillar sees the butterfly as weak and figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits

174 Already surrounded by this mad city the caterpillar goes to work on the cocoon which institutionalizes him

175 He can no longer see past his own thoughts, he's trapped

176 When trapped inside these walls certain ideas start to take roots, such as going home and bringing back new concepts to this mad city

177 The result?

178 Wings begin to emerge, breaking the cycle of feeling stagnant

179 Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations that the caterpillar never considered, ending the internal struggle

180 Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely different, they are one and the same"

181 What's your perspective on that?

182 Pac? Pac? Pac