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Lemonade

by J.Kwest

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Exodus Foundation.org
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Exodus Foundation.org Taking rap to its roots! Liberation. This is a bad joint. More like it please. Fill the streets with this and occupy the movement to end mass incarceration and oppression. Favorite track: Whatever Happened (ft. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.).
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1.
It’s no point in waiting, cause I been waiting so long that’s what he said, he was feeling so strong and when he finished, he was knowing he was wrong but he still did it...and J.Kwest came along I’m a Southsider, mouth full of 5 sliders Kirk Franklin, and Ambitionz of a Ridah both in me, like the devil work for God huh flow Simply, the lemonade out of life that I squoze gently, I see you waiting for the drums like the cage empty, I’m free like this album was you ain’t gotta lie Craig, you got it free long as you give it your full attention that’s fine with me long as you Robin Hood and you share it with someone else long as you tell em that #8 man that’s something else specially riding to it, you can tell this something else heard all these rappers, I can tell you, I’m something else that’s how it feel when you make lemonade what-ever to-day has given…you 5-leven headaches, still call it Thanksgiving…true
2.
15 Years Ago 03:32
15 years of glow follow me, 15 years ago me and my younger brother and our single mother we was like the three amigos chevy chasing paper, still martin short and we off in court for our older brother got locked up, and I ain’t even visit sound bad??? I ain’t even miss him history of my system Jim Crow on they program my pops down in Atlanta, my moms told me "don’t get mad, that’s how it is, with chick and man get chick in hand, and you’ll understand yourself trust in God’s plan" God’s plan ain’t our plan Our plans got stars in em, flowers on em, powers in em turn around ink stars on em, turn around throw flowers on em turn around no power in him, no volts so feel my bolts, feel my jolt I’ma be a AC, cool til the coroner don’t feel my pulse man he dead, or he killing it south side and we still in this lot in common with Michael Brown I thank God I’m still in this life can happen so quick and if you black then it’s half that so what the why would I trip I ain’t over it, I’m just past that Long time coming, I ain’t going back… 15 years ago… light skin, curly hair that was all I wanted grandma put that image in my head when I was young and her father was Chinese, in Mississippi she passing so when she had her own babies, she gave em the same classes we swallowed that bs like it was vs that vsop’ll have you on recess My uncle was alcoholic he told me "don’t ever drink when you lonely you make that bottle your homie" True and he died now, 15 years ago still think about him and see him in dreams can’t even listen to Commodores, Zoom I would like to fly, far away from here where my mind can be, fresh and clear and not occupied on my skin color, not yours or mine or the wine, or the shine that destroy the game from Porky Pig, I porcupine lust is more than butts or chains pursuit of fame, destroy the mind and this album, or whatever it is, enjoy the ride (are we there yet?) cause I started rapping 15 years ago 15 years, 15 years… that’s BreevEazie in here, been down for 15 years I had a verse on Baby Food when Kanye first got his chain and me and Ye had our babies 5 weeks apart, we the same! NOPE cause he straight, and he on like album number 8 and I’m on like album number 3 and most ain’t even heard what I made and he deserve the calling him great when he got cheese, but I’m still grate-ing...great things… I swear that I’m ready you hear me and know that I’m ready my flow is too heavy, you need a machete to cut me feeling like starting a gang I’m Jordan on Laney, Langley, how they gon cut me? and I storyboard, my story wars, cause my story ugly but God love me...yall ain't love me
3.
How I Feel 04:00
The cause, I never need no applause We trying to do it different in a world full of SAME Wannabes get thrown over, bored of the culture We trying to add sprinkles to a world full of PLAIN Hmmm, the violence of youngins becoming soldiers Til they shot up, I got up this morning Who you calling LAME? I'm a product of productivity Who you calling STRANGE? I'm on 26th, calling collect, calling for CHANGE? Call His name Foolish as Cupid My music is Kubrick and Kane Kubla Khan on the dome of Xanadu, a poet saying Anything is Possible Oh, they want I should dumb it down? A gram'll get you 15 years, so who the dummy now? (for that?) We all the same, running like running backers Knowing its pointed at us, just praying we ain't Bo Jackson 'less it's Tecmo, I don't see no controller this ain't no game That's why I kick it off with no little cost, im a boss in this city, I seen some things I just need (the space) to explain Sears Tower in my eyes this is drillmatic Tears running down my eyes yo I'm still at it The Resurrection of real rappers who stopped rapping Adrenaline Rush running through me, I feel Magic that’s Southside in my blood, 106 Jamming Dave and Melle Mel and Da Brat was our favorite chick then until our Final Tic we forever be conflicted by God and cold women who(se) stroll expose venom but soul expose wisdom in flows we hold victims, but who are we? if we just ride, in the back like Do or Die Picture This and Funkdafied 106, the birthday line "Who's this?" man it’s all flooding right back to me like react to me man my childhood weigh on me like the weight on me trying to keep it and lose it but picking and choosing what you remember only dismember like New Edition, Tribe, Death Row I’m ALIVE, that mean whatever happened don’t kill me, just help my DRIIVE… so I put that in my rearview now Optimist Prime, that’s just how I feel right now It’s the return of the 3rd verses for rappers who scared of being irrelevant live and die by the hook, you already irrelevant nobody like you, they just see how you easy money you take that as a compliment, you dying with confidence you embarrassing and ain’t nobody showed you, where your friends at? who told you this was heaven, you can spend that or lose it in a second anything worth having, don’t fit in a bag grab it, and it disappears ain’t nobody listening here! Ain’t nobody listening…(man, tell me how you feel right now) madder than Bill O’Reilly, Camron caught me being a racist I’m madder than eating a Now and Later with your braces I’m madder than, internet trolls, get at you faceless you mad cause you wanna be famous and rich but lazy and stiff and angry…and wonder why nobody mess with you maybe it’s YOU baby, and maybe it’s YOU crazy or maybe we ALL haters, ALL HATERS indeed, for real
4.
What happened to King when they got him What happened to Malcolm X his own people shot him Why I’m looking at everybody I meet for the first time with a look of suspicion, black men can’t define most of us was born with it, with rap music I knew the 6 point ‘fore I knew that it was Jewish when momma got married I was happy, I was clueless He was Ren, Eazy, and Bone Thugs, Ruthless still healing, from what he did to us my little brother, only good that come through it but if it’s any good, can you re-gret for anything that happens, if you here, would you re-set? and do it all over… if you thought I’d sound different would you start this song over? or just keep going? What happened to reality shows? Why they always arguing, why they act like hoes? and if you understood, why they ratings so good guilty pleasure I treasure like Boyz in the Hood and little Ricky trying to go college and got him a scholarship I still feel like that red Excel is following I turned around and see a rapper holding bottles a bag full of money, an Instagram model with her body twisted in that same angle with her knee bent laughing cause eretime now you see it in sequence, a man who wants girl and a girl who wants man and an officer who wants us all to disband if you reach in your pants next to Ricky you Ricky you… … wonder if this was all in they plans let em get money, they forget they the same let em have gangs, let em blow they brains give em new cars, give em crack cocaine give em all degrees they forget where they came that’s the same thing happened to King 3 shots at his eyebrows, try to rise NOW The game is foul, and most bow down but it takes real strength to KEEP GOING
5.
I Woke Up 03:46
Respect life, put the guns down Respect night, let the sun down Respect now, put ya phone down wherever you IS in the present is a present And my presence is a BLESSING so COME ON IN you on the guest list…let’s go   Fool we don’t pop champagne we drink lemonaaade, all day Rules, we do not complain, we make lemonaaaaade, out our pain that’s champagne, real pain real pain, sham pain from you and I, (wait, UofI???), naw, that’s Champaign if You was I, would you be off on this campaign, is it suicide? if you know that bringing hope here is how careers die? or do the K stand for Kamizake the J is silent, it’s everywhere you can feel Him probably surely, lately, I been up late with demons in my basement trying to get me to hate this life, thinking I should be further and then I choke up soon as I got silent, then the truth spoke up it said, how you know you ain’t perfect? let that soak up and soak in, you know how you know that you blessed? (I woke up!)   Feeling Oh My God Feeling myself, know why, cause I woke up (I woke up!) that’s all it take to be great y’all (I woke up!) in a special way knew I was in good hands, cause I woke up I woke up, I woke up this morning with my mind…   Mind in a good place, starting in a good space so when they ask if I’m good, say I’m great yall a strong mind I can take into the lion’s den that’s why I gotta wake up throwing weights off I heard the story bout the man who missed 9/11 cause he decided that he finally need a day off and wonder how stress kill, say the best will look to tomorrow, I’m just trying to see today y’all thinking out loud looking at myself need to lose 20 pounds and gain 150 pounds in my bank account like it’s too much going on…live strong I feel like every hour is determined by the minute so 5 minutes complaining is like a death sentence I fell in love with my image cause I saw God in it they be like “why you so arrogant, man nothing even happened” I be like I WOKE UP!   Feeling Oh My God Feeling myself, know why, cause I woke up (I woke up!) that’s all it take to be great y’all (I woke up!) in a special way knew I was in good hands, cause I woke up I woke up, I woke up this morning with my mind…   today’s groove…is brought to you…by the letter J, and the number 2 I woke up this morning (4x) with my mind! stayed on, rocking with the…you are now rocking with the most So Blessed, that’s another one give the summer some I don’t feel worried bout nothing cause…I WOKE UP! with my mind on you…woke up with my mind on you
6.
Who you think came through bringing all them rifles same people came through with all them bibles same people came through in the revival same people running all the jails Now who entitled to spit this ghetto recital was you alive when they tricked, stole, raped, whipped translatlantic space ships brought us here, bought us here, let us out, caught again how we gon play the game we barely have quarters here home broke, family broke, school broke, job broke car broke, money broke, girl called, water broke baby come, next generation, nothing change next baby gon get him a gun, he gon start a gang call him Hoover or David call him a shooter wish he only LOAD up on the computer wish somebody care about us, young rulers I wish they stop staring at us What it’s like to be a BLACK MAN long as you killing yourself, they chilling soon as you talk black power, you a villain long as you stay in church arguing over scripture soon as you touch massa money, we’ll get em yeah they still lynching hell yeah it’s still Emmitt Till they just put him in the system more money in prisons and Jim Crow got a law degree, can you find him? Mr. James Crow, Esq
7.
Walking down the hallway knowing that I'm different from everyone I walk past wonder will they notice us me and all the voices in my head feeling this close to the edge and he said, don't let em get you get into you, but that's a joke when you wear the same pants and you sick of being broke and you can't afford brands and sick of hearing the jokes and pointing, you too fat, not pretty, not dope enough for cool kids, man we some cruel kids but being happy with yourself, that's what real cool is cool, thanks momma, but you don't see the drama in the bathroom, STOP IT!, you defenseless and you can't stop em from hitting you, crying in the mirror, is it real or will I still feel, after these small pills and this little boxcutter I usually carry around and use to come down so won't nobody push me thinking to myself… wishing I could say it out loud… feeling like I’m somebody else being so alone…being so alone… In my head… Feeling like I’m running out of air… dealing but I’m close to the edge… so alone… they say we reckless only a sociopath carry a gun all that we want is to be accepted by, the few the fly the school of who went and made the rules I'm reinventing the cool and inviting all the lames we inviting all the lames in ones with the gap tooth, coke bottle frames in short bus riding home praying that it change cause if ppl never change and tomorrow is the same then its no point to it, better off in the ground what he said when he laid his head down and found a new day when he woke up in the clouds and found a new way, decided to speak it out ain't nobody gon tell me who I am and who I can't be words may hit me but you will never break these made me the hero that I am right now cause when I got down I got found I’m sick of being pushed to the ground so I’m saying… You can never stop me, never ever block me can't no bully, no bully, put your hands up on me NOOOOO put your hands up on me NOOOO I can see where I going OOOOH You can never stop me NOOOOO I'm more than a conqueror I'M MORE THAN A CONQUEROR finally I'm saying out loud FINALLY I'm saying out loud I am not alone...
8.
Liquor 'N Pills That’s all we grew up for was to get liquor and pills grew up in the Hills just when it start turning real that’s when they tore down them buildings but we still had them bills we trying to get us a billion and we voted for Bill? Still broke, so your campaign mean dirt to us I’ll never vote again until a black man win even then, man, he won’t even work for us that’s tough, man that’s tough that’s why I don’t trust cause erebody got they lust and that’s realer than them Hills that I grew up in full of sin beat’r ‘gainst the wall cause he full of gin and juice but I still loved Snoop till my momma took disc, threw it off the roof, man I wanna protect you, they trying to arrest me G’s trying to convert me, church wanna come bless me but these parents feel good cause my cds got edits I read them books and the credits so I got hood sense and good credit I watched cuz while growing up, he kept me out of his biz I couldn’t wait to get big cause they had hardest and drove downtown and had… LIQUOR N PILLS That’s all we grew up for was to get… Why you wanna be so old? Why you wanna be so cold? And you speedin’… that’s what he told me, you speedin’ and you too smart to be now looking up to me he went to jail and said he was a 5 Percenter so I was 5 Percent, but I ain’t know what of I was just trying to get plugged I was just trying to get LOVE and I see that now in these pics that I can’t like not cause of my wife because that’s somebody’s daughter, I’m trying to reorder my life with my daughter in it it’s a race to the finish it’s a race to a mill— man ——— yo bread see ma how it’s still censored but it still enters can’t protect these kids from WINTER just provide that love teach values without buying stuff build standards for em, climb up, be examples for em you just want to be Jordan so they dive in, feet first 3’s on, no heart, where I’m from that’s called breach birth reach down, see Earth, who I’m talking to? Jes… man you can’t be talking bout God while I’m trying to ride you killing my vibe slow up already been spirit already been meals if this too high for you then just come down from the real and have some… and I wish upon a zoltar to be 10 ft. tall and dunk without even having to jump and that's so ball, I'm dying to ball and I wish I had a job and I wish I had a car and I wish that I was more fortunate for what I have so far the reason you never be happy is cause you think happiness come from afar the reason you never got into religion is cause you think GOD live up in the stars AWWWW I'm hoping he everywhere dawg I'm hoping he up in these songs and writing our hooks and righting our wrongs been fighting so long i'm tired and people keep handing me… LIQUOR 'N PILLS
9.
Inhale the night fumes feeling like the black Mark Zuckerberrrrg, tycoons ride around the city of wind, we in the typhoon trying to win, it's something weird about tonight's moon it's not a cloud on it, like I's shone it to remind me in my wiling, God's on it I see it, it remind me what I should but I'm thinking what I could do PM demon, start talking to the good you and have you talking reckless, text message folk you left behind, when you first met Him engine change, new oil with the liquid courage return to old Bart Simpson days deviant smile, hand out the window other hand waiting for the reply to tell your homies goodbye the detour seem smart until you wake up and see more you like Miss Krabapple, you woke up with Seymour bad actions, bad decisions both began with them bad intentions but she was bad and you been so good for so long deserve a little break cause you been so strong that's the evil of the night like we wrote in that song which song? The last song, saying I Want It All and the curves on her frame could shame basketballs now I can be Kobe here or pass to y'all This one is for hood, who try to live strong but break down after trying all night long got our mind on the bump and grind all night long but still be up in the pews on Sunday morning LIVSTRONG (to the ones making plans they ain’t trying to dance) LIVSTRONG To the ones sick of trying, just throw up ya hands and LIVSTRONG and this an album only I coulda made and I made it back in the 8th grade when I started writing and my girlfriend hated and scribbled on every page I dumped her before gym, still dumping em to this day but this the nighttime ain't it, as we ride ironic the sun died, we turn into Mr. Hyde gold butterflies turn back into caterpillars phone by my side might as well be a trigger oh well! said kings who settled on being killas smoke cigars, pretending we all czars so Stalin, so ignorant pretending we all-stars is this a Friday or Vegas at All-Star? Is that a rental or that's really y'all car? young sister want advice? I tell em Love Who You Are Striving to be Better, they hit me at all hours saying I done wrong I tell em live strong To the ones trying hard not to end up lost to the girls on the web trying to get on to the men watching them, trying to get off LIVSTRONG
10.
so tell me what all the fuss is about I want to fly I feel stuck to the ground the gravity of you here weigh me down I try to lift it’s like 8 million pounds check this, and I want to live but ain’t no life with you and we been together, so long we just do take each other for granted, I know what you do I’m your biography, I’m all about you and i know that it’s wrong and I know that this song is only gon make you more stronger I am your protein, prolonging, we both need to move on but we both see that we both need each other just to keep up the front that you are the bomb, and I’m just another you detonated a pawn in your chess game everything that’s wrong with me is you everything I don’t want I do everything I heard about you is true but I still had to learn myself, playing these games a year den came and I’m chilling with you, still how could I possibly be here dealing with you, still and I den felt every low, but still don’t know how you…feel or maybe you don’t feel, and I’m so over I’m so lonely, I’m so sober I’m so sick, when I reach you hit back QUICK…and I’m coming over like magic, how you work on me like that’s it? That’s sin that’s the way that my weak is that’s the way that my week’s end pray that one day the weak ends and start enjoying my weekends I wanna fly again myself, man I miss feeling like myself lost in you and I lost myself, still screaming out I LOVE MY… I really love my life and pray for me, cause at the same time, I really love my vices these dice games, this purple haze, this insecurity feel secure to me you’re the pure to me, you’re the cure for me what you say to me, why you play with me every time I leave THAT leave and I come right back hate when I feel like this, hate even more when I feel like THAT love my personal Jesus you’re my personal Judas you is…
11.
Life come full circle then throw me off of my square I tri harder, my quads burning it’s hard racing in here the Pentagon ain’t no defense for what they made for me here threw that hex on me I’m blessed homie, no doubt, still we in here They too young to be in that octagon but still fighting them lions that’s UFC til they scream out F-U-C the world that I’m writing that’s out of shape, out of race, out of legs, out of shape out of time, out of place, next train, outer space slavery is back, see how they re-nig us, outta spades kilt reality, gave us V-H-1, let’s see y’all make a way and that’s how we got chittlings, turn something from nothing man, that’s how we raise children, if you can’t rap then you nothing if you can’t twerk then you bunk and you better be humping on something you going or not, if you going you hoeing, you not, then you nothing can say what you want but you know it I say what I see, I see what I live, I live what I feel I feel what I care, I care about y’all and y’all with me down here we all just need some... Sometimes I drive to work and get on the bus just to watch people watch them while they watch me, look up and who watch us everybody got tapped phones, in a minute man we’ll have watches just to watch us only look up when the stop come, then hop off keep walking head down, when the last time you saw a man when the last time you saw a girl but din’t see her butt first y’all know the curse, that we trying to stop or don’t even know, I don’t even know which one is worse ignorance, or not being able to be rid of it this test feel impossible like the cinnamon everything here’s legitimate till you get caught, then you just lie and hope you get off I know that I’m losing my flow it’s plenty of rappers, sometimes I just wanna talk and know that I’m with somebody who listening (aight, my bad) riding round the city, make that soundtrack, no self pity you fall down, life ain’t fair, but you bounce back ere-time, good music here need air time and that’s on us, go share this man somebody gon care cause everybody need AIR
12.
I thank God I'm alive now I'm trying to live I wake up, and hi-five like we little kids then we off into the fire, so whatever will let it be, I will be STILL... and that's me, but I ain't saying that it's perfect it's plenty I don't like, complaining ain't worth it I'm strong enough to fight so when you living day to day and say we only trying to eat but all I got is cereal? Gone eat them Fruity Pebbles G hard times need a rebel, B from the Southside, where the bass got us staying where the trouble is trying to throw lemons and salt on my winnings so my business, is selling LEMONADE and pretzels what is half empty? man it's always something if life taught me nothing it's always something and you can cave to it, and be a slave to it but you gon end up OK, so TODAY Got a 100 dollars left and I owe 112 but still STILL DON'T IT FEEL ALRIGHT I got a quarter tank of gas, and I gotta make it last, I'll pass STILL DON'T IT FEEL ALRIGHT I got a gig that feeling it's killing my soul, oh no STILL DON'T IT FEEL ALRIGHT (we gon' work it out) Still don't it feel OOOOH Still don't it feel OOOOH Back on top, and starting to feel like a chef on Chopped and only the hood know me like a black owned shop and talking to them LKs J can get you killed, but still… (don't it feel alright?) with little youngings who don't vote is who I try to kick it we stopped believing in the government, we politicking and getting money, Bad Boys like the 80's Pistons selling the drugs that they gave us is hell, this a hell of a system how we sposed to get along, keep writing them songs that hopefully right wrongs, and hopefully man hoping is only half of the battle, we praying and doing nothing like complaining bout being out of shape but you hate running or my knees messed up!!! ha, it's always something if life taught me nothing, it's always something and you can cave to it, and be a slave to it but you gon end up OK, so today
13.
I woke up early on my born day My next one is Scottie Pippen That mean I'm Magic now Still remember my Ken Griffey Metaphors, I mix em, light and dark in the system When I was Mark Aguirre yall was Anthony Bennett I'm bigger than Kobe That mean I'm bigger than my old me Wiser than a OG sitting drinking on OE Talking old cars, young broads, and Stokely Same conversation...Midwest situation Saw a young man, mid dreds, hole on his grammar With his mouth wide open like he looking for manna Say If God don't feed us then we shoot for bananas trying to build...we don't need hammers Black man or a pro wrestler, born for the slammer Shot from a cannon but I'm born for the camera Took my Emmy to Dennys...3am Grand Slamming And the waitress, "you look like you ain't had no sleep..." Nah...I WOKE UP

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released November 26, 2015

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Verbal Kwest Chicago, Illinois

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