[ Featuring Tim'm West ]
What's the T
Born Timothy remedy was a stutter
Add an apostrophe, a 9th wonder
Bullied as a kid in the 513 and 501
And my journey had just begun
I am the epitome .... of dexterity
The nemesis of imparity... I be
The hot shit the Lipton you wanna sip
When you want something that's sugary on your bottom lip see
My daddy made me box to protect myself
Sports to ensure I was my crushes would stay stealth
Never wanted to be one of ones they call sissy and faggot
Respect I gotta have it
Fueled my excellence overachievement
Lonely and misunderstood
Public appeasement
Private shame but a brother survived it
Community Tea is me
And many Admire it
The T is what never brakes me
Always makes me stronger
I pimpslap fearmongers
The T is the most revolutionary Blacks
Be LGBT
Just ask Huey
What they're doing
And what they're sayin'
Has been done
But it's never been done like us
That's the T!
What they're doing
And what they're sayin'
Has been done
But it's never been done like us
That's the T!
At age twelve, I just stewed in my rage
And if given a chance, I'd choke a dude
Until he's blue in the face
You see, the world aint such a beautiful place
When you're confined to a room
Mommy, all I wanna do is just hang out with the other boys
She said, 'them fools are unstable
As long as I'm able to put food on the table,
You're gonna do as I say so, don't get rude and ungrateful
I do it to save you"
Who knew my escape route
Would come in the form of music
Days later in the Bronx
When my cousin brought her
T-Tape player to the park
And it created a spark
With rhymes and a dope beat
When some were sniffing White Lines
I was a Microphone Fiend
Now I'm wanting all the smoke, every day, I get a whiff of it
Catching rays from the Sun God and Kane's penmanship
That soothed all the trauma without the ganja or
Hard liquor
Yea, hip-hop became a father figure
What they're doing
And what they're sayin'
Has been done
But it's never been done like us
That's the T! What they're doing
And what they're sayin'
Has been done
But it's never been done like us
That's the T!
It's my turn to spill
You know it's a treat
My days of a youth
Right here
In D.C.
We had Horace & Dickie's
Nat's Records & Tapes
Being Black, young and gay
It was my only escape
I was never into girls
I was only into music
U Street, alley ciphers
Kept my dreams looking lucid
I had a crew
We were in there
Like an oven
Yet they talked about me
Behind my back
Because I'm same gender loving
They learned
Not everything this is faced
Can change
But nothing changes until it's
Faced
Y'all say wit me!
But nothing changes until it's
Faced
I am Black
I am proud
And gay
Not your gay bestie or
Access-or-ray
I am not your Negro
Not your fragile ego
Magnetic like poles
So stay close!
What they're doing
And what they're sayin'
Has been done
But it's never been done like us
That's the T! What they're doing
And what they're sayin'
Has been done
But it's never been done like us
That's the T!
Well, I don't know if I wanted get it on the record
But I wanted to confront it
I'm very glad that, you know, that was done
Because it also simplified my life in another way
Because it meant
That I had no secrets, nobody could blackmail me
You didn't tell me, I told you
