Valleys

## Song by Lupe Fiasco

"**Valleys**" is a song by Lupe Fiasco, released as the second track from his 2015 free mixtape, *Pharaoh Height 2/30*. It samples the 2012 song "J Dilla Interlude #2" by Robert Glasper.

*HipHopDX* remarked that the second verse "finds Lupe waxing free-form on everything from the Charleston shooting to Bernie Sanders' sardonic need for a Nike deal." They concluded, "It's scattered yet somehow sound simultaneously, the type of train-of-thought rap that forces the cypher's next emcee to dig deep into the rhyme book."

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

Pharaoh, pharaoh?

Pharaoh

[Verse 1]

Dollar mission, Mississippi Masala getting

Guava Casaba melons, getting a spot at competition

Titties and teeth, so silly of me, no really, it's free

Aye you can use the phone like a new computer wand

That's an Ethernet pun, 'cause dial-up's all done

When it took twenty minutes just to download one

Aye, you got a fine face, also a dime in your behind

Please can I find some time space to find base

Kinds of rhymes to describe how you're designed great

And maybe remove the mind freight

Like it's overhead cranes at the train yard

That Tom Cruise used in the War of the World's

Before the aliens came part

Remember that? Oh, not a fan of the sci-fi?

Like dial-up's not a fan of the wi-fi

I'm in your eyes like little reflective little pools of tie-dye

And it's 1972 and I'm some long-haired high guy

Driving a Volkswagen Beetle off into the California twilight

I usually got top 'cause I'm a guy right

But if you're gay that's straight too

Hey, I don't hate, I got a couple of friends who went bi twice

Did that arrive right?

Do you like whole stories or just the highlights

'Cause I like to write your life story on the sky

Made of Lite Brites, remember those?

Ten years old, let me guess your age

You were a ten, ten years ago

Am I right, who you calling?

Maybe New Orleans where your mother lives

With your brother's kids

'Cause he locked up 'cause

Of what some other motherfucker did

Love to fib 'bout the Fibonacci sequence

Do you flicker like Liberace Sequins

Or maybe twinkle like little stars

And tingle like little scars

I run a wrinkle with you like a car hood

And crash test and beat-box while we rewrite

Saul Williams doing the slam set

Then wrap like saran over the pan

Keep the yams fresh, sweet

Five different songs, over five different beats

And this one's called Valley

I wrote it on the plane in the chair by the galley

On the way to Cali, chicken in the salad

Sounds like a ballad

You loyal, so I'm Khaled

Buy your momma a palace

Scratch that, buy your momma what matters

Data says dollars hotter than two Nevadas

Burning hole in the pockets

And in the wallets of all the rappers

Trappers attracting all the yellowbone Instagrammers

But what about us?

[Interlude]

Pharaoh, Pharaoh, Pharaoh

[Verse 2]

It burns inside like lactic acid

Exorcise demons, turn them into gods

Turning in the rods for the bags of the catfish

I don't believe that God is a black man

Spoiled child getting robbed for his black mans

Mars and other stars in the CAT scans

Back when I listened to Killah Priest

Had my mind thicker and bigger than Philip Heath

Walking round in kufis with sunnis with dhikr beads

Remembering the movies my duty was killing beats

Social villain unwilling to live in peace

I told you children I'm wielding a living beast

Streets, this is where Helen and Ellen meet

So you can get lost like Gilligan on the beach

The players getting mad they not kicking it with the freaks

'Cause they took away they pussy and giving it to the geeks

Like us, paradigm shifter, South Carolina Nine shrine shine giver

But not enough dimes to be a crime line tipper

The difference between "n\*\*\*a", and "n\*\*\*er"

Uh, Bernie Sanders need a Nike deal

Then I might consider that he might be real

If Phil Knight knight him, then I might like him

Until then children, enjoy the white icing on the cake

Cake, cake, cake, cake

On the cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

On the cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

On the cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

Yeah, yeah, pharaoh, height, yeah

[Verse 3]

What you need a little more? Okay, I'll give-I'll give you a little more, I'll give you a little more.. maybe like, like, yeah, yeah

Freestyle off the top, sitting on the stool on the block

Watching for the cops, watching for the thots, watching for the shots

I'm watching for a lot, I gotta use my eyes cause they use me

Cause to them I'm like a price, so I say surprises

And they don't deprive us, I just demise us

And nothing ever lies yes, on my premisises

Watched for my demises

Maybe might like them, until then just enjoy the white icing on the cake

Cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake,cake

[Outro]

Ameri-cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

Ameri- the cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

The cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

Ameri-cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

## References

1. ↑ Hunte, Justin (September 3, 2015). "Lupe Fiasco - Pharaoh Height 2/30". *HipHopDX*.