The Roots — Something in the Way of Things In Town

[Verse: Amiri Baraka] In town In town In town Something in the way of things Something that will quit and won't start Something you know but can't stand Can't know get along with, like death Riding on top of the car Peering through the windshield for his cue Something entirely fictitious and true That creeps across your path hallowing your evil ways Like they were yourself passing yourself not smiling The dead guy you saw me talking to is your boss I tried to put a spell on him but his spirit is illiterate I know things you know and nothing you don't know 'Cept I saw something in the way of things Something grinning at me and I wanted to know, was it funny? Was it so funny it followed me down the street? Greeting everybody like the good humor man And they got the taste of good humor But no ice cream It was like that, me talking across people into the houses And not seeing the beings crowding around me with ice picks You could see them But they looked like important Negroes on the way to your funeral Looked like important jiggaboos on the way to your auction And let them chant the numbers And use an ivory pointer to count your teeth Remember Steppen Fetchit? Remember Steppen Fetchit, how we laughed? And all your Sunday school images giving flesh and jiggling With the ice pick high off his head Made ya laugh, anyway I can see something in the way of ourselves I can see something in the way of ourselves That's why I say the things I do You know it, but it's something else to you Like that job This morning, when you got there and it was quiet And the machines were yearning, soft, behind you Yearning for their nigga to come and give up his life Standin' there bein' dissed and broke and troubled My mistake is I kept sayin' "that was proof God didn't exist" And you told me, "nah..." Well, it's proof that the devil do But still, it's like I see something I hear things I saw words in the white boy's lying rag Said he was gonna die poor and frustrated That them dreams walk witch you 'cross town S'gonna die from over work There's garbage on the street that's tellin' you you ain't shit And you almost believe it Broke and mistaken all the time You know some of the words, but they ain't the right ones Your cable back on but ain't nothin' you can see But I see something in the way of things Something to make us stumble Something to get us drunk from noise and addicted to sadness I see something and feel something, stalking us like an ugly thing floating at our back, calling us names You see it and hear it too But you say, "It got a right to exist just like you And if God made it..." But then we got to arguin' And the light gon' come down around us Even though we remember where the mic is Remember the Negro squinting at us through the cage You seen what I see too? The smile that ain't a smile but teeth flying against our necks You see something too, but can't call its name "Ain't it too bad?" y'all said "Ain't it too bad? Such a nice boy, always kind to his mother Always said good morning to everybody on his way to work" But that last time before he got locked up and hurt, real bad I seen him walkin' toward his house and he wasn't smiling And he didn't even say hello But I knew he'd seen something Something in the way of things That it worked on him like it do in will And he kept marching faster and faster away from us And never even muttered a word Then the next day he was gone You wanna know what? You wanna know what I'm talkin' about? Sayin' "I seen something in the way of things" And how the boy's face looked that day Just before they took him away The is in that face and remember now Remember all them other faces And all the many places you've seen 'em Or the sister with his child Wandering up the street Remember what you seen in your own mirror And didn't for a second recognize The face, your own face Straining to get out from behind the glass Open your mouth like you was gon' say somethin' Close your eyes and remember what you saw And what it made you feel like Now, don't you see something else? Something cold and ugly Not invisible but blended with the shadow Criss-crossing the old man Squatting by the drug store at the corner With his head resting uneasily on his folded arms And the boy that smiled and the girl he went with And in my eyes too A waving craziness splitting them Into the jet stream of a black bird With his ass on fire Or the solemn not-ness of where we go To know we gon' be happy I seen something—I seen something! And you seen it too! You seen it too You just can't call its name [Outro: Sample] "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name" "—name"