Reply #14: From Then Till Now (campaign version) (by Killah Priest, another song from Ghost Dog)

[Leopolds Ghost]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqpEXI5C3Ck

Peace Obamah Priest
Peace, wassup man?
Chillin baby
I'm with you
Yo.. I wanna know what's goin on
Ever since that Basic Instruction, Before Leavin Earth
I wanna know what you gonna do for us right now
It's been a while baby, we waitin!
I've just been chillin, been chillin
I been in the lab writin and stuff y'know?

I just been on my, y'know, knowhatI'msayin, on some
Philadelphia guns, shootouts and crack sales
Black males who pack jails, trapped in hell
No peace, cold streets, surrounded by po-lice
this whole week, buildings with no heats
No lights, the gas pipes the snow leaks
Dog fights and lowlife throw dice the whole night

Thieves, creepin
in the midnight evenings, saw through the misty regions
Go to your house, take a vial for the demons
Moon in, the lunar eclipse
Prophets stand in the midst of the seven candlesticks
I can't take it, beauty that was once sacred
is now gettin facelifts, fake tits, and fake lips
Cold embraces
Memory erases, from the slave ships

My princess, I used to spot her from a distance
Holdin my infant, burnin incense
The moment intent, for her to step into my wife tents
Now we step in pre-sents, for your ebony prince
The small of frankencense; once treated like a pharoah
With royal apparel, annointed with myrrh and aloe
We used to wallow, amongst the mallows

We had herd sheep and cattle, now we battle
Used to pass over Brooks of Qe'ron
Towers of Lebanon, the pool of Gechron
We used to sing songs, upon Mount Hebron
How was gold turned to bronze, and shhh....
How was gold turned to bronze?

We was the wisest and the richest, now we turn to snitches
Women turn to b---hes, in the time of harvest
We was the smartest, worshipped Wisdom like the Goddess
Now we act retarded, forsook the Wisdom of the Fathers

We use to have a thousand flagons of wine (of wine)
In Palestine

there would drink Ballentine
And raise up in the violent mind
We used to have a hundred measures of oil, eighty measures
of wheat and barley, we live Godly
Listening to Bob Marley, before the devils robbed me

Chasin us through the African safaris
From Then Till Now
What goes up must come down
What goes down comes back around again
Where it all began, began, began, began
From Then Till Now, From Then Till Now, From Then Till Now

Singin holy anthems, lampin with all
my handsome grandsons, hair long as Sampson
Inside my gold mansion, they used to wear purple Pampers
But now we Black Panthers, some are actors and dancers

It's funny how the dollar bill have my seeds holler for meals
Mother swallow a pill, roads seem hollow but still
grab a bottle to heal, it's like a noose
of seventh seal over Brownsville

What's the difference between the ghetto and death row?
I'm trapped up with kleptos, the tec blow
I'm left in seft low, where the cries echo
and echo and echo and echo and echoes

From the Crystal City, near Getti
Children used to grow on lillies, now they roll up Phillies

But the pyramids of Cheops, is my weed spot
Sometimes I eavesdrop in the books of Enoch

We went from studying epistles of Paul
beneath a waterfall, rubbin crystal balls
But now we spray paint initials on the wall
On the wall... spray paint initials on the wall

From Then Till Now
What goes up must come down
What goes down comes back around again
Where it all began, began, began, began
From Then Till Now, From Then Till Now, From Then Till Now