Letra de 'Mortal Man' de Kendrick Lamar

The ghost of mandela, hope my flows they propel it
Let these words be your earth and moon you consume every message
As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
And with that being said my nigga, let me ask this question:

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan (one two, one two, one two)
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

The ghost of mandela, hope my flows they propel it
Let these words be your earth and moon you consume every message
As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
And with that being said my nigga, let me ask this question:

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask your friends
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?

Do you believe in me? Are you deceiving me?
Could I let you down easily, is your heart where it need to be?
Is your smile on permanent? Is your vow on lifetime?
Would you know where the sermon is if I died in this next line?
If I’m tried in a court of law, if the industry cut me off
If the government want me dead, plant cocaine in my car
Would you judge me a drug kid or see me as k. Lamar
Or question my character and degrade me on every blog
Want you to love me like nelson, want you to hug me like nelson
I freed you from being a slave in your mind, you’re very welcome
You tell me my song is more than a song, it’s surely a blessing
But a prophet ain’t a prophet til they ask you this question:

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
Want you look to your left and right, make sure you ask you friends
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
The ghost of mandela, hope my flows they propel it
Let these words be your earth and
Moon you consume every message
As I lead this army make room
For mistakes and depression
And if you riding with me

Do you believe in me? How much you believe in her?
You think she gon’ stick around if them 25 years occur?
You think he can hold you down when you down behind bars hurt?
You think y’all on common ground if you promise to be the first?
Can you be immortalised without your life being expired?
Even though you share the same blood is it worth the time?
Like who got your best interest? Like how much are you dependent?

How clutch are the people that say they love you and who pretending?
How tough is your skin when they turn you in, do you show forgiveness?
What brush do you bend when dusting your shoulders from being offended
What kind of den did they put you in when the lions start hissing
What kind of bridge did they burn, revenge or your mind when it’s mentioned?
You wanna love like nelson, you wanna be like nelson
You wanna walk in in his shoes but you peace-making seldom
You wanna be remembered that delivered the message
That considered the blessing of everyone, this your lesson for everyone, say

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
Want you look to your left and right
Make sure you ask you friends
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
The ghost of mandela, hope my flows they propel it
Let these words be your earth and moon you consume every message
As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
And if you riding with me

I been wrote off before, I got abandonment issues
I hold grudges like bad judges, don’t let me resent you
That’s not nelson-like, want you to love me like nelson
I went to robben’s island analysing, that’s where his cell is
So I could find clarity, like how much you cherish me
Is this relationship a fake or real as the heavens be?
See I got to question it all, family, friends, fans, cats, dogs

Trees, plants, grass, how the wind blow
Murphy’s law, generation x, will I ever be your ex?
Floss off a baby step, mobbed by the mouth a bit
Pause, put me under stress
Crawled under rocks, ducking y’all, it’s respect
But then tomorrow, put my back against the wall
How many leaders you said you needed then left ‘em for dead?
Is it moses, is it huey newton or detroit red?
Is it martin luther, jfk, shooter you assassin
Is it jackie, is it jesse, oh I know, it’s michael jackson, oh

When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
That nigga gave us billie jean, you say he touched those kids?
When shit hit the fan, is you still a fan?
The ghost of mandela, hope my flows they propel it
Let my word be your earth and moon you consume every message
As I lead this army make room for mistakes and depression
And if you riding with me nigga, let me ask this question nigga

"I remember you was conflicted
Misusing your influence
Sometimes I did the same
Abusing my power, full of resentment
Resentment that turned into a deep depression
Found myself screaming in the hotel room
I didn’t wanna self destruct
The evils of lucy was all around me
So I went running for answers
Until I came home

But that didn’t stop survivor’s guilt
Going back and forth trying to convince myself the stripes I earned
Or maybe how a-1 my foundation was
But while my loved ones was fighting
The continuous war back in the city, I was entering a new one
A war that was based on apartheid and discrimination
Made me wanna go back to the city
And tell the homies what I learned
The word was respect

Just because you wore a different gang colour than mines
Doesn’t mean I can’t respect you as a black man
Forgetting all the pain and hurt we caused each other in these streets
If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us
But I don’t know, I’m no mortal man, maybe I’m just another nigga”
Shit and that’s all I wrote
I was gonna call another nigga but, it ain’t really a poem
I just felt like it’s something you probably could relate to

Other than that, now that I finally got a chance to holla at you
I always wanted to ask you about a certain situa
About a metaphor actually, you spoke on the ground
What you mean ‘bout that, what the ground represent?
The ground is gonna open up and swallow the evil
That’s how I see it, my word is bon
I see and the ground is the symbol for the poor people
The poor people is gonna open up this whole world
And swallow up the rich people

Cause the rich people gonna be so fat
They gonna be so appetising, you know what I’m saying
Wealthy, appetising. The poor gonna be so poor and hungry
You know what I’m saying it’s gonna be like
There might be some cannibalism out this mutha, they might eat the rich

Aight so let me ask you this then, do you see yourself
As somebody that’s rich or somebody that made
The best of their own opportunities?
I see myself as a natural born hustler, a true hustler
In every sense of the word. I took nothin’, I took the opportunities
I worked at the most menial and degrading job
And built myself up so I could get it to where

I owned it. I went from having somebody
Manage me to me hiring the person that works
My management company. I changed everything I realised my destiny in a matter of five years you know what I’m saying I made myself a millionaire. I made millions for a lot of people now it’s time to make millions for myself, you know what I’m saying. I made millions for the record companies, I made millions for these movie companies, now I make millions for us
And through your different avenues of success, how would you say you managed to keep a level of sanity?

By my faith in God, by my faith in the game, and by my faith in all good things come to those that stay true. You know what I’m saying, and it was happening to me for a reason, you know what I’m saying, I was noticing, I was punching the right buttons and it was happening. So it’s no problem, you know I mean it’s a problem but I’m not finna let them know. I’m finna go straight through
Would you consider yourself a fighter at heart or somebody that only reacts when they back is against the wall?

I like to think that at every opportunity I’ve ever been threatened with resistance it’s been met with resistance. And not only me but it goes down my family tree. You know what I’m saying, it’s in my veins to fight back
Aight well, how long you think it take before niggas be like, we fighting a war, I’m fighting a war I can’t win and I wanna lay it all down

In this country a black man only have like 5 years we can exhibit maximum strength, and that’s right now while you a teenager, while you still strong or while you still wanna lift weights, while you still wanna shoot back. Cause once you turn 30 it’s like they take the heart and soul out of a man, out of a black man in this country. And you don’t wanna fight no more. And if you don’t believe me you can look around, you don’t see no loud mouth 30-year old muthafuckas
That’s crazy, because me being one of your offspring of the legacy you left behind I can truly tell you that there’s nothing but turmoil goin’ on so I wanted to ask you what you think is the future for me and my generation today?

Shit, I think that niggas is tired-a grabbin' shit out the stores and next time it’s a riot there’s gonna be bloodshed for real. I don’t think america can know that. I think american think we was just playing and it’s gonna be some more playing but it ain’t gonna be no playing. It’s gonna be murder, you know what I’m saying, it’s gonna be like nat turner, 1831, up in this muthafucka. You know what I’m saying, it’s gonna happen

That’s crazy man. In my opinion, only hope that we kinda have left is music and vibrations, lotta people don’t understand how important it is. Sometimes I be like, get behind a mic and I don’t know what type of energy I’mma push out, or where it comes from. Trip me out sometimes
Because the spirits, we ain’t really rappin’,
We just letting our dead homies tell stories for us
Damn
I wanted to read one last thing to you
It’s actually something a good friend
Had wrote describing my world. It says
“The caterpillar is a prisoner to the streets that conceived it
Its only job is to eat or consume everything around it
In order to protect itself from this mad city
While consuming its environment the caterpillar begins to notice ways to survive
One thing it noticed is how much the world shuns him, but praises the butterfly
The butterfly represents the talent, the thoughtfulness, and the beauty within the caterpillar
But having a harsh outlook on life the caterpillar
Sees the butterfly as weak and figures out a way to pimp it to his own benefits
Already surrounded by this mad city the caterpillar
Goes to work on the cocoon which institutionalizes him
He can no longer see past his own thoughts
He’s trapped
When trapped inside these walls certain ideas
Start to take roots, such as going home
And bringing back new concepts to this mad city

The result?
Wings begin to emerge, breaking
The cycle of feeling stagnant
Finally free, the butterfly sheds light on situations
That the caterpillar never considered, ending the eternal struggle
Although the butterfly and caterpillar are completely
Different, they are one and the same."
What’s your perspective on that?
Pac, pac, pac