The Artistic Integrity Songtext
von Wale

Okay, uh, look. If you wanna just keep doing the same old thing, maybe this idea is not for you.
I for one am not going to compromise my artistic integrity.
And I′ll tell you something else, this is the show. And we're NOT gonna change it
Never will I ever utter never to myself
Fall in love with defeat, throw my endeavors on the shelf
I never back up like Cleo Lemon on myself
Lemonade connoisseur life′s lemons coming out
When life gets sour know I still devour
I remember Peabody mice crawling up the shower
Now it's motorbikes, warm nights out in Maui
And white bitches and light skinned women be smilin'
DC star, a PG legend
MoCo phenomenon holmes I′m all of it
Yeah, they all love it though critique Jon Lovitz
And whack hoes hatin′ on key out in public
See, welcome to fame where most of us is gon' change
If you never do, still niggas look at you strange
Niggas mostly assume, niggas make up they news
Once you made it you cool, they label you brand new
Really in subconscious


They see a star no longer the underdog
So nobody wanna walk with ya
They all talk like you think you was a god n′shit
But you the same that you always is
Yeah, they all convinced but all for shit
This all be different if you had an office key, yeah
And I'm the same, on e′erything I love, or everything I love
Please pardon my integrity
What were you thinking? What was going on in your mind? "Artistic Integrity"?
Wh-where did you come up with that? You're not artistic, and have no integrity
You know you really need some help, a regular psychiatrist couldn′t even help you
Check it, so, my chin's high like a Japanese pilot
They frontin', they Charles S. Dutton movin′ garbage
And what you callin′ that so-called hard shit?
one like me, like I, founded a convent
To contend my content I'm on ends meet like a vegetable omelette, see?
So the more you see,
it′s few niggas speakin' like me
So they put me in the box with he, and he
And them which is more of a circus than a fair
They work to get there so to work to get theirs
I′ll be nothin' but a replica lookin′ in the mirror
Respect still there but ya boy's right here
We apples and oranges but everybody pears
They say I'm Lupe, they say I′m Lil′ Wayne
They say I'm too Jay to portray new-lay
They say I′m too nice to be a rapper
The prerequisite is gun clappin' so what happened?
They label me a backpackin′ nigga on fag shit
I laugh at 'em, though Mr. West I ain′t mad at ya
See, he in his soul mode
I'm in my go go
Only thing in common is these fuckin' Matsumotos
Yeah live from the SoHo
and hov told me I′d blow Joe
See I rap like a lifetime blown nose
All I know is I′m merely
Meaning I'm lesser than a god
but higher up than ya′ll
Matt Leinart when firing the ball
Maya Angelou spawn, abandoned and raised by Nas
Raised by the sharks but I'm swimming with the prawns
I found my own lane,
meet Mr. Folarin