Hurricane
Pistol shots ring out in the barroom night
Enter Patty Valentine from the upper hall.
She sees the bartender in a pool of blood,
Cries out, "My God, they killed them all!"
Here comes the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Three bodies lyin' there does Patty see
And another man named Bello, movin' around mysteriously.
"I didn't do it," he says, and he throws up his hands
"I was only robbin' the register, I hope you understand.
I saw them leavin'," he says, and he stops
"One of us had better call up the cops."
And so Patty calls the cops
And they arrive on the scene with their red lights flashin'
In the hot New Jersey night.
Meanwhile, far away in another part of town
Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are drivin' around.
Number one contender for the middleweight crown
Had no idea what kinda shit was about to go down
When a cop pulled him over to the side of the road
Just like the time before and the time before that.
In Paterson that's just the way things go.
If you're black you might as well not show up on the street
'Less you wanna draw the heat.
Alfred Bello had a partner and he had a rap for the cops.
Him and Arthur Dexter Bradley were just out prowlin' around
He said, "I saw two men runnin' out, they looked like middleweights
They jumped into a white car with out-of-state plates."
And Miss Patty Valentine just nodded her head.
Cop said, "Wait a minute, boys, this one's not dead"
So they took him to the infirmary
And though this man could hardly see
They told him that he could identify the guilty men.
Four in the mornin' and they haul Rubin in,
Take him to the hospital and they bring him upstairs.
The wounded man looks up through his one dyin' eye
Says, "Wha'd you bring him in here for? He ain't the guy!"
Yes, here's the story of the Hurricane,
The man the authorities came to blame
For somethin' that he never done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.
Four months later, the ghettos are in flame,
Rubin's in South America, fightin' for his name
While Arthur Dexter Bradley's still in the robbery game
And the cops are puttin' the screws to him, lookin' for somebody to blame.
"Remember that murder that happened in a bar?"
"Remember you said you saw the getaway car?"
"You think you'd like to play ball with the law?"
"Think it might-a been that fighter that you saw runnin' that night?"
"Don't forget that you are white."
Arthur Dexter Bradley said, "I'm really not sure."
Cops said, "A poor boy like you could use a break
We got you for the motel job and we're talkin' to your friend Bello
Now you don't wanta have to go back to jail, be a nice fellow.
You'll be doin' society a favor.
That sonofabitch is brave and gettin' braver.
We want to put his ass in stir
We want to pin this triple murder on him
He ain't no Gentleman Jim."
Rubin could take a man out with just one punch
But he never did like to talk about it all that much.
It's my work, he'd say, and I do it for pay
And when it's over I'd just as soon go on my way
Up to some paradise
Where the trout streams flow and the air is nice
And ride a horse along a trail.
But then they took him to the jailhouse
Where they try to turn a man into a mouse.
All of Rubin's cards were marked in advance
The trial was a pig-circus, he never had a chance.
The judge made Rubin's witnesses drunkards from the slums
To the white folks who watched he was a revolutionary bum
And to the black folks he was just a crazy nigger.
No one doubted that he pulled the trigger.
And though they could not produce the gun,
The D.A. said he was the one who did the deed
And the all-white jury agreed.
Rubin Carter was falsely tried.
The crime was murder "one," guess who testified?
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers, they all went along for the ride.
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed to live in a land
Where justice is a game.
Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell.
That's the story of the Hurricane,
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done.
Put in a prison cell, but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.I am a genius
I am a diamond
My pretty tongue gives you a freezer burn
I think above you in three dimensions
Come in here, you can never return
(chorus)
Like a hurricane
in the face of the wind and the rain
like a hurricane
When you open you open a vein
I see your headlights across my ceiling
you are a puppet of a wish I made
They never touch me, they say I'm crazy
I was born from my mother's brain, my mother's brain
(chorus)
Like a hurricane
in the face of the wind and the rain
like a hurricane
When you open you open a vein
You plant a seed in my mind
I walk around and I speak your message
For myself I don't know what to say
I walk around and I speak your message
(chorus)
Like a hurricane
in the face of the wind and the rain
like a hurricane
When you open you open a vein
Give me more give me more NovocainSkeleton boy by the side of the road.
He warned me, he told me;
he said, "There's this woman, she's a hurricane,
she will heal your heart up, and she is hurrying."
She said, "Don't look for holidays.
Don't look, just run away.
Go suffocate, and choke your own cry.
Go where the water,
where the water, seeps from the pink sky.
But behead this woman, she's a hurricane,
she will heal your heart up, and she is hurrying.
Remember your reflection in a pool, in a puddle-"
And the leaves sped top-speed towards me,
and my image was muddled.
"I'm a lightheaded wonder," she said,
"Don't you see my mind slow down?
I'm a lightheaded wonder
don't you see my mind slow down?
Slow down.
I've compassion for strangers,
an affinity for danger-
won't you be my sacrifice?
I'm a lightheaded wonder
don't you see my mind slow down for you?
For you?"
No-
You're a headless woman, you're a hurricane.
You will heal my heart up?
No, I will heal my own heart up, you are hurting.
I'm a sunburn slap upon your arm,
I'll twist you 'til you break,
and you're a hurricane.Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the bilnd
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind
Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the blind
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind
[black thought]
Yo, talk about paying the ultimate price
Hurricane been incarcerated all of his life
Started out at like twelve
Trapped in a belly of hell
Grew into a man inside of a cell
Yo, anger just swell up
At a early age that develop
Hot head and now it ain't shit y'all could tell him
They said he's on a road to become a felon
But instead he swung blows that'll spilt your melon
He did his thing and was the king of the ring, undisputed
Started making noise but they tried to mute it
They put him through it
For him to make the system look stupid, [yo]
They rather look you in the face and shoot it
And leave your spot looted [or what]
Or leave your whole life blank futured and caught
When you scream at it and do it
With sweat leaking from the outline of your soluid
Don't understand the point that you at
Or how the hell you came to it?
Flashback to images of that night, out in patterson
They pulled him over heading home from a gathering
And when they told him the charge it kind of baffled him
Murder in the first for the champ, we on that again?
Chorus
Hurricane
Accuse a hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for hurricane, hurricane
[black thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Forever, imagine your locked down forever
Could y'all stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
You tell me that you know the pain
Yo, imagine if your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever, imagine your locked down forever
Could ya'll stand the weather?
You built for that weather?
Yo, know what'm saying?
Know what'm saying?
[common]
You gotta fight for what you believe in
Nobody knows the troubles seen
This flick left me wondering
'what can become of kings and young kids?'
Summer dream deferred, incident occured, freedom blurred
A freedom that would only be retrieved again in words, later on
The cops, y'all know what they be on
A nigga's life is like a field that they play upon, away and gone from
Natural lifer, a soul he had to fight,
Learn it himself, sleep days, stay up half the night
Amongst dead man walking, he got afterlife exercising,
Developing his knack to write
Never leaving his cell, in this world he trapped himself
What he loved on the outside world, detached himself
You know the cards blacks get dealt by the system
He drew a picture of freedom with many dimensions
This picture proved to be bigger than black and white
A young soul named lesra brought him back to life
It's amazing to a man what a book could do
And how certain books seem to look for you
This is the story of a champion's fall and rise
The story left me wiping my eyes
Peace ru
Chorus
Hurricane
Accuse a hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for hurricane, hurricane
[black thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Yo, yo, forever, imagine your locked down forever
Could y'all stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
You tell me that you know the pain
Yo, imagine if your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever and ever yo, locked down forever
Could you stand the weather?
Yo, yo i can't even explain the pain
Just imagine if your life was like a hurricane
[mos def]
Yes, i am the inescapable, the irresistable,
The unnegotiable, the unchallenged [who dat?]
I am time
I scroll in measurements, control the elements,
I hold the evidence, i tell the story [say what?]
I am time
I know no prejudice, i bare no sentiments
For wealth or settlement, i move forward [who you?]
I am time
You can't recover me, conceal or smuggle me,
Retreat or run from me, crawl up or under me,
You can't do much for me besides serve
Me well and have good dividends returned to you
Or attempt to kill me off and have me murder you
Many have wasted me but now they are facing me,
Treated me unfaithfully and now endure me painfully
Plaintively, i wait to see what history will shape to be,
Who's hearts will never die inside the sake of me
Angel's scribe the page for me,
Keep a full account of all the names for me
And make a special mark for hurricane who (?) patiently
Chorus
Hurricane
Accuse a hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for hurricane, hurricane
[black thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Yo, yo, a hurricane forever,
Imagine your locked down forever
Could you stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
I can't even explain the pain
Imagine if your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever, imagine your locked down forever and ever, ever
Could you hold it together?
Yo, can't explain the pain with words, know'm saying?
Just imagine if your life was like a hurricane
[verse 4]
The clouds clashed and the heaven's gave birth to star
God placed it in a man on the day he was born
Convicted minutes after, a true natural disaster
Framed for manslaughter, the hurricane carter rising
From out the south water, like torrential rains
In the ring no opponent escaped unscathed
You can't believe the world we live in's injust
All i see is more proof, there's no place for us
They had my man carter locked in a cage, like an animal
Drive him to the point where the mind work mechanical
Or works by remote control
It was done to all of us, they tapped directly into our soul
Either it's sing-sing, or it's bars around your mind
There's no where to run, no where to hide
In a six-by-six a guilty man cries
For repentance and lost is what innocence is
Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the bilnd
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind
Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the blind
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind
Chorus
Hurricane
Accuse a hurricane
Ain't change a damned shame
It's life for hurricane, hurricane
[black thought]
*overtop of sung chorus*
Your locked down forever
Could you stand the weather?
Could you hold it together?
I can't even explain the pain, know'm saying?
Your life was like a hurricane, a hurricane
Forever, imagine behind bars forever
Could you stand the weather?
You built for that? is you cut for that?
Don't be telling me that you know the pain
Your life was like a hurricane, yo
Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the bilnd
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bind
Same story, same target, different time
Cyclical reaction from the prisoners of the blind
Trying to fight time, it's a battle of the mind
Waiting for redemption, surviving in a bindIt came on like a hurricane
And I don't understand
And it moved me
Like a slow dance
Still I don't understand
It pushed me like a tailwind
And I don't understand
And it came in
Through the back door
And I don't understand
Still I don't understand
You're all that I could need
And I'm falling on my knees
Hurricane
You pulled me out of the past
And landed me in today
Hurricane
You pulled me out of the past
And walked me into tomorrow
Hurricane
It picked me like a cherry
And I don't understand
And it killed me with the craving
Still I don't understand
It thrilled me to starvation
And I don't understand
And it stripped me ugly naked
And I don't understand
Still I don't understand
You're all that I could be
And I'm falling on my knees
