You can’t hide
Behind social graces
So don’t try
To be all touchy feely
Cause you lie
In my face of all places
But I’ve got no
Problem with that really

What bugs me
Is that you believe what you’re saying
What bothers me
Is that you don’t know how you feel
What scares me
Is that while you’re telling me stories
You actually
Believe that they are real

And I’ve got
No illusions about you
And guess what?
I never did
And when I said
When I said I’ll take it
I meant,
I meant as is

Just give up
And admit you’re an asshole
You would be
In some good company
I think you’d find
That your friends would forgive you
Or maybe I
Am just speaking for me

Cause when I look around
I think this, this is good enough
And I try to laugh
At whatever life brings
Cause when I look down
I just miss all the good stuff
When I look up
I just trip over things

And I’ve got
No illusions about you…

You can’t hide
Behind social graces
Cause I don’t buy it
Like everyone else
And you can lie
In my face of all places
Just don’t
Lie to yourself

Cause I’ve got
No illusions about you
And guess what?
I never did
And when I say
When I say I’ll take it
I mean,
I mean as is…

…as is…

As Is | Ani Difranco

nohalfsteppinn:

Alicia Keys - You Don’t Know My Name

(via chocolateduress)

“Just Friends”—Amy Winehouse

(Source: helloparlow, via thenandyshow)

thenandyshow:

“The Mis-Education of Lauryn Hill”—Lauryn Hill

The Popcorn Griot Music Challenge is back!! We took a little break but it’s time to begin like we never started.

Day 16- A song that holds a lot of meaning to you..

My world it moves so fast today 
The past it seems so far away, 
And life, squeezes so tight that I can’t breathe

And every time I’ve tried to be
What someone else thought of me 
So caught up, I was unable to achieve

And deep in my heart 
The answer, it was in me 
And I made up my mind 
To define my own destiny

I look at my environment, 
And wonder where the fire went? 
What happened to everything we used to be?

I hear so many cry for help,
Searching outside of themselves
Now I know that His strength is within me

And deep in my heart 
The answer, it was in me 
And I made up my mind 
To define my own destiny

And deep in my heart 
The answer, it was in me 
And I made up my mind 
To define my own destiny…

Happy Birthday Queen Lauryn!

Has it really been 13 years since “The Mis-Education of Lauryn Hill” was released?? My oh my, how the time does flies yet the music still remains… I can still remember when this album dropped in 1998, at the time I didn’t know how influential this work of art would become…Hell, I don’t even think Ms. Lauryn Noelle Hill knew what she was about to unleash on the masses. Since it’s release, I have never gone through a trial or tribulation in my life where I didn’t reach for Hill’s dynamic vocals & wisdom filled lyrics…and I know I am not alone.

Ms. Hill, Do you know that this album is a masterpiece? Every track including the interludes stirs one to delve deep and question our own “educations”.. You spoke for men and women alike. A forward thinking poet, I have never seen a contemporary female artist who has your unflinching gall; you embody a finesse filled aura pummeled with steel strength. You bravely refused to become a “product”… to be spent & discarded; you just wanted to be an artist and so you chose to go against the wind.

Thank You.

I had just broken up with my first “serious” boyfriend when this album dropped and was entering the senior year of high school. These songs were my salvation. I felt like she had written these fable filled melodies just for me. If you can introduce me to a person who’s heard “Ex-Factor”, “I Used to Love Him”, or “When It Hurts So Bad”, didn’t feel goosebumps and has been through a heartbreak, well then I will say I have officially met the walking dead.

A little girl stuck in a big girl’s body, I didn’t realize how much I still needed to learn about myself and life in general… but Lauryn stirred the woman in me. A woman who didn’t know where she was going or why she was on this journey in the first place but knew she had to make it there and quick fast too! In the face of life’s pressures, wondering where to turn and tasting desperate; it has been you Ms. Hill who advised me to be the master of my own fate and go at my own pace. Even when I was (am?) my own worst enemy…scared of success because it was measured by those around me, Ms. Hill let me know that we all fear but only a few of us will truly fight for freedom.

Freedom from my own self imposed standards…gender based piety, economic aggression and just societal pressure as a whole. Ms. Hill pushed me to dig beyond the surface and become conscious of my own “mis-education”. The title track from this epic album will be one of my most cherished songs in life. Words cannot convey what relief and motivation this poetic wisdom has evoked in me.