Manilla - Lupe Fiasco

We are a people who have historically been on the verge on extinction

Freeway

We have been at many times, under much stress

Since being brought into this country

On many, many slave ships

Preparations, reparations from segregation

Genius at Genesis, master system SEGAs

Punjabi mommy, dissecting Vedas on Sepulveda

Anointed players who coin phrases, that’s metal paper

Level layers, several shades of grey, submission for it

MILF lover under silk covers who kiss her horses

Pilates central to preservin' the body temple

Jazz classics combatin' the fattest ass, status

Quotient;

my potions soakin' like boats in oceans

Motion sickness, I overdid all my finesse pack

Multidecker, new refreshment, lesson from jet snacks

My momma wisdom, my competition is setbacks

Jetlaggin', very swaggered and my Jordans dirty

AMG performance, my foreign don’t show no mercy

Mere products, objects, meaningless to the over-standards

Contemplatin' with industralists and social planners

Manillas!

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us God said

Life’s work, overseeing the Five Classics

You can accomplish anything if you survive blackness

Sober living, Kosher kitchen, and co-defendants

Soda sippin', the soca rhythms, and global vision

Fear no verdict, but I feel allergic to local prisons

My new resurgence, a due return into socialism

Youth moves pay dividends as an old man

Snake-headed Mayan goddess body with gold hands

Father sins, send his twins into the underworld

Though legendary, I weapon carry for same goals

My February’s is necessary to save souls

Epilepsy diamonds flicker foolish on the cuff wrist

Do my duty to be useless to the fuck shit

Manufacture finished goods to service local needs

Dashboards lack the means to show my total speeds

Fast forward floors forge orchids to golden me

Construct the future with thirty bars

Long tenures, I’m returning home to thirty cars

Jasmine necklace from a poor woman on Hindu streets

I gave her Rupees, she gave me beauty, I temple creep

Manillas

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us God said

Roman logic, Greek prophets, and add tutors

Be more young’ns, they 12 o’clock, and then jump the scooters

Through entertainment, I end the training to run the future

In time check off my checkouts, too much for your computers

Chakra waves, singin' boats, stirring up Dalai Lama

Creation, step in my mental selection Bobby Konders

Nightmare women, dream girls, and body monsters

Don’t confuse my tempation battles for batty mantras

Sole pilot til' my reputation is bodhisattva

Worked the Boticelli saw Venus in this topless opera

Lost the combination need security to come and pop-a-lock'a

Still no drinkin', just bought this champagne here to wash this vodka

Punk band merchandise patches on leather coats

Tell you tales of illegal sales by fedded boats

Swallowed by waves, the hollow graves, they’ll never float

Sunken ships carried slaves, tokens to western coasts

Manillas

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us

Don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us, don’t ruin us God said

Copper alloy bracelet forms were recognized and used as currency

For transactions in the 15th century to the mid 20th century

Their metal content varied from copper to brass

Most manilla were manufactured in England or France

And like trade beads, were used for trade with Africa

The local chiefs on the slave coast of West Africa traded their human cargo

For many different commodities and manilla was one of them

This manilla was manufactured in Birmingham between 1830 and 1850

Being shipped to Africa to be bartered for one slave, each manilla

These slaves were then packed into hulls of ships

And taken to the West Indies and the Americas

To be sold for vast profits if they did not die from the journey

The Duoro was one of the slave ships

Would trade goods on their way to Africa to pick up their human cargo

When she hit a rock and sank in 1843