What are the lyrics to Duality Duel by Daniel Beaty?

Answer 1

There's a battle going on inside of me

Between my well-crafted external persona

and an internal force trying to break free.

It's a battle you see, between the nerd,

and the n****r in me.

Can the nerd and the n***a coexist?

They 'gon have to nerd

But Ni***!-

It doesn't make sense.

I didn't spend four years in the Ivy League,

learning how to think, talk, and feel,

in order to jump into a rage every time they try and kill me.

But the truth is Nerd, I've always been around: When that Poison Ivy bullsh*t was beating your a** down, these strong n***a arms, they held you: told you not to feel it.

Gave you time enough to heal it and become a Nerd again.

But N***a!

All you seem to feel is rage and that will keep me out of their circles and off the front page of the New York Times and the Daily News.

Not if you shoot a mothaf**ka.

And that's my point. You are more than that cold stony glare, those weighty Timberlands and that nappy hair.

Aw hold up now!

No N***a! That rage is like a cage that keeps love out and you in jail.

Burning a N***a, Thug N***a Hell.

Aww shut up Nerd! You ain't heard a word I said. I gotta smack you upside yo well-brushed head? Without me there is no you.

No wait a minute N***a, let's talk this through.

Naw Nerd! Journey to the N***a in you. I've been inside long enough, I got ya ass through school, gave you time enough to learn their rules. Now the time has come to pay your dues.

Cuz these little N****s in the street, they need you.

But they think they can't relate cuz you act all removed. When the truth is Nerd; what they are is you.

Cuz no matter how hard you try to deny the way you think, talk, and feel, yo Daddy still smoke heroin,

your brother still on crack,

ghetto nightmares still haunt your dreams, and your Mamma is still black.

I ain't saying you gotta become me, but this one thing it true;

inside you is a hard a** N***a, you gotta let him come through.

Cuz this assimilating bullsh*t will surely beat you down.

You choke me long enough, I will not stick around.

Put the strut back in your walk. Say what you really feel.

Be all of you, so all of us can heal.

The time for lying and denying is through.

It's time Nerd,

journey to the N***a in you.