[Intro: Kanye West]
Make it up, we can make it better,
Make it up, we can make it better,
Make it up, we can make it better,
Make it up, we can make it better.
[Verse 1: Kanye West]
Somebody told me that Delta's brown skinned, AKA's light skinned,
And they supposed to be bourgeois, so they got white friends.
First day of school, I'ma take you sightseeing,
Show you what we do on weekends for excitement.
She said, “I know what you ‘bout to say, like you're hype man”.
Last year a nigga hit her, and now she only date white men,
And if a nigga even wave at her, it's frightenin' but…
[Chorus: Kanye West]
Make it up, we can make it better,
Better we can.
Make it up, we can make it better,
Better we can make it on up, we can.
Make it up, we can make it better,
Better we can.
Make it up, we can make it…
[Verse 2: Talib Kweli]
The night fallin' over Brooklyn, where they murder for change,
The converter remains faithful to the drug dealer priestess,
He in search of the word of fame, you heard of the name.
Kweli the truth, like I'm comin' out the mouths of babes,
One foot in, one foot out the grave.
Niggas want they reparations. How you calculate the amount to be paid?
You try to imagine America without the slaves.
[Chorus]
[Verse 3: Q-Tip]
Her tenement, yo, is rat infested,
Her heart is like a gold bullion ‘cause she went and protested,
‘Cause her best friend's man got popped,
He was sixteen years old, the cop thought his phone was a Glock.
In the hood it's a everyday happenin'.
In front of the precinct she chews out the captain,
She yelled out, “Why you do this to black men?”
[Chorus]
[Verse 4: Common]
I think of eighty seven ways to make better days,
Whether crime or rhyme, I heard the rebel pays.
On the scene tryin' to get green like Everglades,
Music, ridin' it good like the Escalades.
In the ghetto infested by shade and drama,
And niggas wit' thangs ain't afraid of karma.
I'm thinkin' big like Lil Wayne in ‘Tha Carter'.
[Chorus]
[Verse 5: Rhymefest]
C'mon, tell people the truth, but never give ‘em ya true thoughts,
Terrorism on blacks, they poison our Newports.
Patriot Act in effect, make it hard to breathe now,
Johnnie Cochran dead, who gonna get us free now?
Clinton ain't in office, who gon' give us shit free now?
Who gon' make it better for the thugs and P's now?
Who gon' make it good for old folks that's senile?
Oh, it's good music, yeah, dog, I see now.
[Chorus]