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OutKast & T-Mo & Khujo Goodie
OutKast & Big Gipp & Cool Breeze
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“Mainstream” features two members of the Goodie Mob: T-Mo and Khujo. The song touches on the struggle to survive in the hood, and how some try to live honestly but are brought down by those seeking money and power through crime.
The song also likens hustling and dealing to mainstream culture, as bo...
[Intro]
(Water splash)
Uh, y'all know what it is
Uh, y'all know what it is
Uh, y'all know what it is
[Verse 1: T-Mo Goodie]
Revolutionary, scary
Thought provoking, spoken
Words of a change I don't feel but I see
Visions from me at 23
Making it free in my community
One day is what I live for
Ain't thinking about no hope no more
I got my boots I kick it 'til I get with
Adapt and overcome, oh hum hum
Go get my gun, load up for fun, and put down with the frown
What goes round comes round from M.L.K. to Cascade
I know it's through them plenty figures
Cocaine dealers walk the wrong side
Up in they rides
Looking cleaner then I seen them the last time
Then selling dimes, now its quarter ki's, stacking G's
In the South Indies
My nigga them folks riding bicycles among vehicles
Off in the hood
Knowing each and every nigga selling, but can you blame
The fact the only way a brother can survive the game
The block hard to get by the dope dealing
Fatal killings, and fed time, to writing rhymes
It ain't just the police
We kill each other just lost another brother
Fast living will get you took
Thinking it can't happen to you and then it do
Off crooked schemes it's just a dream
Floating face down in the mainstream
[Hook: Khujo Goodie]
Think it is when it ain't all peaches and cream
That's why some are found floating face down in the mainstream
[Verse 2: André 3000]
They swan diving
As if they name be Gretchen von Ivan
Volkoff rushin' to finish their album then you find them
Lost dog paddling, backstroking, what done happened?
Be rhyming "catch of the day" when the recipe calls for "blackened"
Wrong ingredients
Maybe too much herbs and spices
Maybe you got hungry for the wrong dish
Of them greens and it's enticing how them Jones's sing
So I'm gonna sing just like them to get where they at
I'll even break my by back to touch their rim, if I gotta
My alta mater be that I follow
I bite whatever that's looking tasty, water it down and then swallow
I hope you vomit, won't call no names cause that's not my job
It just applies to whom it may concern, you know who you are
But if you don't you never will, you just receive the steel
But then it might get ugly 'cause trust me niggas do feel
The way that I felt when I wrote this, but we must stay in focus
We kings and queens up in this thing, get rid of all them jokers
Face down, face down, face down
[Hook: Khujo Goodie]
Think it is when it ain't all peaches and cream
That's why some are found floating face down in the mainstream
[Verse 3: Khujo Goodie]
I let you stay in my crib
Now you know where I live
When you was hungry, fed you a hot meal
Look at the hand you deal
Me crudball business, niggas giving inches, so here, take a foot
Luck only counts in rabbit's feet and horseshoes
Experience is sometimes the best teacher until we get our own plate
I hope you don't mind me eating off of yours
Process sm-m-moking like Jerry
Meanwhile, fairies up the street sprinkling pixie dust over greenery
Never to attain another level of conscience
Only to test, the potency
Why laying here, they scheme over one another mouth to feed
Deceased with a decision to make, now words shake your destiny
But one miss will take it all the way, just as quick as you can say
"I wish I never did what I did," now face this bid
It was the company you kept, the many places you slept
When you shouldn't have, geeking like a rat, jumping like a trap
Contributing to sin and your nigga bitch in the club showing pink for 10
They got you niggas where they want you again
Floating face down in the mainstream
That's why, that's why, that's why
[Hook: Khujo Goodie]
Think it is when it ain't all peaches and cream
That's why some are found floating face down in the mainstream
[Verse 4: Big Boi]
Everybody's a player, wearing them Kangols on their head
Thinking it's all about your clothes, nigga, it's all about your self
The way you feel about your life, the times that you done shared with
Your friends and family, up and down like hoes give head
To dicks, oh, six, serving them in the mix, but ain't no mystery
You know the history about this clique, bitch
Oh, what, you want me to call you slut?
Then why you fucking all them niggas letting them all up in your guts
But see that AIDS I'm afraid that's why I play the quiet role
I lay in the cut, every month thinking I'll let that fire roll
Like chimneys, and smoke signals, maybe peace pipes even
My partners call me Big Boi and my first name is not Steven
In the mainstream, home team banging them with these hits
In the mix, flowing like some motherfucking swordfish
[Hook: Khujo Goodie]
Think it is when it ain't all peaches and cream
That's why some are found floating face down in the mainstream
Think it is when it ain't all peaches and cream
That's why some are found floating face down in the mainstream
Think it is when it ain't all peaches and cream
That's why some are found floating face down in the mainstream
Think it is when it ain't all peaches and cream
That's why some are found floating face down in the mainstream
Mainstream was written by André 3000 & Big Boi & Khujo Goodie & T-Mo & Organized Noize & Sleepy Brown & Rico Wade & Ray Murray.
Mainstream was produced by Organized Noize.
OutKast released Mainstream on Tue Aug 27 1996.