Lightwork

## Song by Lupe Fiasco

"**Lightwork**" is the seventh track from American rapper Lupe Fiasco's mixtape, *Friend of the People: I Fight Evil* (2011). It was released on October 21, 2011, and samples the song "Light (Bassnectar Remix)" by Ellie Goulding.

## Cultural references

* Noah is recognized in Islam as a prophet and messenger of God. His mission was to warn people of their idolatry, and to worship God alone. When the people refused to listen and change their ways, he was told a Great flood would arrive, and was instructed to build an ark that would hold his household, two of every animal, and believers of God.
* G.I. Joe is an American media franchise. COBRA is a fictional terrorist organization and primary antagonist.
* The Black Panther Party was a Black power political organization with aims of liberation, defense against police brutality, and freedom. Fiasco's own father was a former member of the party.
* Sankofa loosely translates to "go back and get it", deriving from the Akan proverb, "Se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenkyiri". It means highlights the importance of learning from the past.
* Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter (October 12, 1942 – January 17, 1969) was an American activist. He is credited as a founding member of the Southern California chapter of the Black Panther Party.
* Nino Brown was a drug kingpin in the 1991 film *New Jack City*.
* In the animated television series, *The Boondocks*, the episode "Return of the King" depicts Martin Luther King Jr. in an alternate reality, where he survived his assassination. It caused great controversy, where the character used the N-word during his speech.
* Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor, known for his interest in Stoic philosophy.
* Fiasco refers to himself and Pharrell Williams purchasing the Honda NSX, a luxury sports car.
* The 2006 film *300* contains the line "This is Sparta!", which the protagonist Leonidas cries at the Persian messenger before kicking him into a large well.

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Hook: Ellie Goulding]

I had a way then

Losing it all on my own

I had a heart then

But the queen has been overthrown

And I'm not sleeping now

The dark is too hard to beat

And I'm not keeping up

The strength I need to push me

You show the lights that stop me, turn to stone

You shine it when I'm alone

And so I tell myself that I'll be strong

And dreaming when they're gone

'Cause they're calling, calling, calling me home

Calling, calling, calling home

You show the lights that stop me, turn to stone

You shine it when I'm alone

[Verse: Lupe Fiasco]

So, what are you going to stand for?

Dreads in the sky, I and I, 2 new Vans on a land four

Take that back, make that 2 new shoes on the van floor

Me and my band out on that road

On a never-back-down-from-my-stance tour

Yeah, touch more souls than a dance floor

While they touch less floors than a hand or

Ceiling fan or - wait, let me tell ya slower

Lift my fans up to the ceiling and you'll never touch the floor

Woah, now if Noah need a rower

I'll be there with my oar till we get back to the shore

Dad made me a soldier, GI Joe to these Cobras

Tryna FBI my Panther, CIA my Sankofa

Infiltrate my Carter, illuminate my culture

While they watching through that buckle, but I stay up on my hustle

Turn that belt back on they self, now I watch them scream for help

Like Africa need aid, or black women as maids

Uncover undercovers turn those maids to Bubba's mothers

Take the hero out the Nino, keep it real as trouble-trouble, huh?

Or maybe cartoon Martin on The Boondocks

Flip the script on chicks who think their shit smells like perfume shops

Help them girls find beauty without a magazine or movie

She Delilah with them .45s or Keisha with that Uzi

Now I know that's contradiction, wants and needs in competition

But it's hard to stay on point with such extremes in opposition

While we waiting on that compromise, proceed with that conscious eye

New gang alert: hashtag occupies

Repper 'til the death of me, FnF, what's left of me

All my hate is for the fake recipes for wrestling

Only time I wrestle's when I'm wrestling with settling

Only way I settle if we wrestle over everything

I know that that don't mix like ecstasy and ketamine

Funny how I'm only sick if you never catch a thing

Argue with your friends over what really the record means

Back and forth about its course, with professors refereeing

Why he so rebellious? Up-front with his realness?

They wanna be fiascoes, reproduce his failures

Emperor is his alias, but not Marcus Aurelius

This is more like Sparta: kick you down a well, kid

And on my last check, I copped the NSX, just like Pharrell did

Well did, better doings to come

My only promise is I'll never ruin the young

I'll never human the sung lyrics in a spirit that's

Superhuman to some, keep you pursuing the sum of

Slums, plus, get up out of them, plus, never forget

Just where you from, plus, make sure that you're ballin'

When you come back up in them, plus, we don't die, multiply

Every single come-up, parum-pa-pum-pum, yup

## References

1. ↑ "Remember That Time 'The Boondocks' Brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Back to Life?". *Complex*. January 15, 2018.