Take It In Blood

Avatar the Articulate - “Take It In Blood”
[Emcee(s): Avatar the Articulate (AKA Avie Fresh)]
[Producer(s): Live Squad, Lo Ground, and Top General Sounds (Original Instrumental from Nas - “Take It In Blood”)]

[Verse 1: Avatar the Articulate (AKA Avie Fresh)]
Yo, I never
Brag how real I keep it because it’s no secret
Been on the beaches since Freaknik, wilding in
The St. Regis, on point like an Egypt
Obelisk, never topple it. Chicks? They wobble with
Telekinesis shit that ain’t head the way they swallow it
Psychologist, she marvelous, she tell me what my problems is
Avatar holds the whole of the metropolis
Fuck popping Chris. I’ll pop lock for the populous
On stage, I got haze to brave the apocalypse
Wasn’t on the map, so I clapped the cartographer
Was apocrypha, but now I’ll buzz the photographers
My frees ain’t free, but it’s cheap what I got ‘em for
Weed connoisseurs and alkies with the alchemy
James Earl Ray sprayed MLK on the balcony
The news wanna say terror’s new, and that’s a fallacy
Ooh, they lynched niggas on the tree just for y’all to see
And Tim McVeigh was a dope, fucking bomb MC
Church bombings? Who could think of a more fouler thing
Some of the things that make me plink ice in drinks
And sink back, then my think cap might go blank
And my crew is strapped, click-clack ‘cause psychos link
Mentally in a mink, living leisurel
Leave a legacy, watch the green increase steadily
No Soul Feet Deep, LLC up on Beverley Road
So now it’s on. Never wasted a slug
Time is money—when it comes to mine, take it in blood

[Hook: Sample from Kool Keith on Ultramagnetic MC’s - “Ease Back”] (x4)
I made it like that, I bought it like that, I’m living like that
For you wack emcees

[Verse 2: Avatar the Articulate (AKA Avie Fresh)]
From the urban curbs, I’m serving herbs and thugs alike, this sudden fright
I’ll hug the mic and narrate, I’ll clutch it for my life
Sealed indictments had a nigga trife when I was younger
Cell 2 was worse than Bellevue, although it made me wonder
Why the world’s paved with crime and enslavement
It’s sick to accept it, even sicker to change it
The danger’s ill though, so I’ll rely on lie pillows
We’re fucked like dildos, I’ll watch my people weep like willows
Scrubbed out like Brillo. Still, we carry on the legacy
I hope we never see digits start falling off like leprosy
My man was shot in a night club, doing the pepper seed
Hennessey and tight dubs my reminisce recipe
Every day’s like the last, full gas and no throttle
My domiciles filled with Dutch guts and empty bottles
My city’s hostile, two in the chest, cops will pop you
We fit the mold like Play-Doh, though I’m like Aristotle
Brooklyn apostle, not the average story. I’ll wrap
Chicks like falafel, dreams flushed down the lavatory
Stories are sordid, make me feel like bruising, morbid
Solutions retribution to vindicate your fake illusions
Never choosing to follow plans—that’s when you’re losing
See through the system like a hologram, but keep it moving

[Hook: Sample from Kool Keith on Ultramagnetic MC’s - “Ease Back”] (x4)
I made it like that, I bought it like that, I’m living like that
For you wack emcees

[Verse 3: Avatar the Articulate (AKA Avie Fresh)]
Yo, my heart’s content with being bent, future’s a myth, so
I Kuma Sutra chicks when I’m in a fix. I’ll
Switch like Ellen from a pharaoh to a felon
My crimes of the mind navigate Straits like Magellan, I’ll find
Tunnels of time through .45’s revolving
Saw these lives dissolving in a hedonistic type trauma
I’ll play the rhythm quite calm through the night storm
My ex set me up and tried to make my life gone
Through the years, I lost my place like Musical Chairs
I’ll cruise through peers like a worm or chicks hungry for sperm, I dare
Friends or foes to test it—get the message?
The righteous might just be Hippocratic—don’t act so blessed
Everyone wants to be better, whether cheddar or done good
I ain’t the average young hood. I’m changing habits like
A nun would, integrate styles, stimulate minds
Varieties, child, I’ll demonstrate while featherweights shine
I’ll penetrate benign tumors, remove ‘em before they spoil
Uncoil turmoil, vaporize and steam like royals. Between
The soil’s where my people go, illegal dough-chasers, you bet
Your life’s trife. With my life, I can’t wager

[Hook: Sample from Kool Keith on Ultramagnetic MC’s - “Ease Back”] (x4)
I made it like that, I bought it like that, I’m living like that
For you wack emcees