Verse 1
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times/When regret collides with a burst or triumph/Freedom or constraint, a clip is inserted/Degrees won and obtained the same time another man murders/Wes is flipping though pages of The Baltimore Sun/Reading praises and applauding for the things he has done/Rhodes Scholars are rarely raised in the Baltimore slums/But on occasions dogs will graze what fall on the floor rugs/There he was, reading the pages under his thumb/What Wesley read stopped him therein at once/He was reading reports of a petty larceny, but the more he was reading became increasingly hard the see/The moment once he saw whom police were targeting/The very thought began to unsettle his heartbeat/The two had the same name, were about the same age/Grew up in the same place, they didn’t have the same fate
Hook
Life or death, freedom or jail a clip’s inserted/A baby’s born the same time another man murders/That what Nas told, it sounds awful for certain/But it’s the way of the world, it’s the way the earth spins/Freedom or jail life or death, a clip’s inserted/A baby’s born the same time another man murders/But this is more than a tale the befell news clippings/It’s the beginning and end, a tale of two cities
Verse 2
We had everything before us, we had nothing before us/The past was homely, the future was gorgeous/So Raisuddin thought managing a mini-mart storefront/All of that would change the day a stranger would storm up/”Where are you from!” Yelled the pale tattooed man waving the barrel of a gun/”Where are you from!” he restated with a terrible grunt, and Raisuddin emptied register therein at once/But as he handed folded and wrinkled bills of Washingtons/He realized that the man, he was there for a scrum/See, this is more than a tale of petty larceny/This is a tale about the evil the stranger was harboring/The moment once he saw whom the stranger was targeting/The very thought began to unsteady his heartbeat/”Where are you from!” was more than a terrible grunt/”Where are you from!” was the phrase from which the terror/And the terror would come from the barrel of a gun—run/
Bridge (Modesty Lycan)
Life or death, the beginning and the end/It doesn’t matter (repeat)
Verse 3
Raisuddin’s head is throbbing as he commences to sobbing/Reciting scripture wondering what lesson would God bring /What does it all mean/As he cups the hole in his face, the stranger exits the lobby/Wes peered into the eyes of Wes/And in so doing, saw himself more or less/But he did not gaze through the looking glass of mirror/But through the bulletproof pane that restrained him from drawing nearer/And he saw it clearer, but thought his heart will burst/If the guilt of his thoughts did not kill him first/And he conveyed as much as he clutched the phone/And both me knew the other’s story could have been his own/Raisuddin did not die/He lost his eye and his bride and a measure of his pride/But he still called out to the God on high/Hoping to piece together fragments of his life/Because this is more than a tell that befell news clippings/It is the beginning and end; it is life and death, a tale of two cities/
Bridge (Modesty Lycan)
Life or death, the beginning and the end/It doesn’t matter (repeat)
Hook
Life or death, freedom or jail a clip’s inserted/A baby’s born the same time another man murders/That what Nas told, it sounds awful for certain/But it’s the way of the world, it’s the way the earth spins/Freedom or jail life or death, a clip’s inserted/A baby’s born the same time another man murders/But this is more than a tale the befell news clippings/It’s the beginning and end, a tale of two cities
