I gotta free my mind (4X) 
I gotta free my mind.. free my mind 
Yeah, I gotta free my mind.. free my mind 
I gotta free my mind.. free my mind 
Yeah? I gotta free my mind.. free my mind 
From sand docks to auction blocks to R&B 
from hip-hop, how many rappers flip-flop to get props? 
Signed the dotted line but didn't read through the costs 
(When your album sits on the desk) "That's when ya lost!" 
Followed your label's notion no promotion now you're audi 
And that's the type of moves that make an artist act rowdy 
Emcees fallin victim to financial, seduction 
Then watchin creative weight extracted, like liposuction 
Your A&R like C'n'R got many styles to suit ya 
But if it's false to me I've never been an ass smoocher 
Since I don't brainwash minds, with talkin nines and 
how I shoot ya, it seems no multi-million dollar contract's 
in my future, I could swallow the bait and get gassed 
like petroleum, but contracts break like Rock Steady 
on linoleum, no wack'n in my format, no Grammy awards 
Rap over break loops and samples, no R&B chords 
On a mission from God, to make the concious souls nod 
when I'm rhymin, I take tracks of coal and then 
compress em to a diamond, I'm in the mindstate 
to escalate, when all rappers participate 
it's fate for rap to elevate.. 
Chorus: repeat 2X 
I gotta free my mind (yo as a matter of fact) 
I gotta free my mind (we're not goin out like that) 
I gotta free my mind (we got the power to stay) 
"Other rappers, they went slip slidin away" 
You're goin, downtown to leave your mark on the biz 
You reminisce, you and your A&R was first friends 
You got talent and you ain't afraid to splurge hip-hop 
Better thrills than Jordan alley-oops the pill but still 
got verbals like murder, so call on Perry Mason 
Twenty-five to life, is what I'm facin, for this fate's in 
the element of fine print I've read it and overseen 
by judgmental pompous ass phonetics, the critic 
I'm still the rapper for the rhymes that he expresses 
or manifestes, no frontin, I wrote the shit while blunted 
Take control, don't be a fuckin fish on a pole 
Label'sll leave you murdered in a river with no soul 
it's true, for what you say is what you do with the flow 
For labels MC's come and they go, but B.U.M.S. 
we leave our mark for hip-hop's devestation 
In our strive to stay alive for my record's elevation 
Chorus 
I gotta free my mind.. free my mind 
Yeah, I gotta free my mind.. free my mind 
I gotta free my mind.. free my mind 
Yeah? I gotta free my mind.. free my mind