Thought kissin’ ass was in my blood type? Oh, negative.

Phonte, “Raw Life,” from Foreign Exchange’s Connected, 2004. More from Phonte…

Love comes in every color, but the fact is…
I never needed 50 Shades of Grey,
Just turn the lights down low and give me every shade of blackness.

Phonte, “Afro Blue (9th Wonder’s Blue Light Basement Remix)”, from Robert Glasper Experiment’s Black Radio Recovered: The Remix EP, 2012

I made a new lane for myself and said, ‘Fuck it.’
Why Rage Against the Machine when you can just unplug it?

Phonte, “Everything is Falling Down,” Charity Starts at Home, 2011

$5 gas and poverty rates are rising much higher than your hourly rate.
So if you thinkin about quittin, you should probably wait,
Cause everybody has to do a fuckin job that they hate.

Phonte, “The Good Fight,” Charity Starts at Home, 2011

…But when we got a good thing, can’t appreciate it,
Just like the chick I had on my team, was everything on my wish list.
Spendin’ holidays, Valentine’s and Christmas.
Now I’m in the club looking at other broads, like:
“I gave up home-cooked meals for this shit?”
“I gave up all them back rubs for this bitch?”
The whole damn thing is bass ackwards…

Phonte, “Too Late For Us,” Babygrande Presents Beat Down Vol 1, 2010

This treadmill lifestyle ain’t workin for me…
It’s from ya crib to ya lab to ya job to make a profit,
And at the day’s end you still got nothing accomplished.

Phonte, “Speed,” from Little Brother’s The Listening, 2003

Day in and day out we do the same thing,
Tryina find the joy in our repetition.
Always complainin’ about the routine and the mundane.
But let me stop to remind y’all bout one thing:
Come hell or high water you can count on the sun
Always shinin’ in its untamed glory.

Phonte, “Greater Than the Sun,” from Zo!’s SunStorm, 2010