Kool On

"Kool On"
(feat. P.O.R.N.)

[Hook]

Come get your kool on

Stars are made to shine

[x4]

Stars are made to shine

[Verse 1: Greg Porn]

I’m in the double G, three-piece tux

Screaming dressed to kill

Hope somebody call my bluff

It’s a full house sipping on a royal flush

Two queens is on my cuffs

Good times is in the cards

Living on borrowed time

I’m paying the extra charge

To feel like something small is worth a hundred large

Swag is on retard, charm is on massage

Wit is on guard, I challenge you to a duel

Who needs a chain when every thought's a jewel

God bless the weirdo when everyone’s a fool

Fuck a genie and three wishes

I just want a bottle, a place to write my novel

I am like heroin to those that hear a rhyme and think

How do you find this upper echelon this time

Let’s toast to better days, a beautiful mind, and a flow that never age

[Hook]

Come get your kool on

Stars are made to shine

[x4]

Stars are made to shine

[Verse 2: Black Thought]

Yo, I’m never sleeping like I’m on meth-amphtamines

Move like my enemy ten steps ahead of me

Say my reputation precedes me like a pedigree

Gentlemanly gangsta steez beyond the seventies

Holdin fast money without running out of patience

Move in silence without running up in places

Cake by the layers, rich but never famous

Hustle anonymous still remain nameless

In hindsight gold come in bars like a klondike

The minute before the storm hit is what I’m calm like

Suited and booted for a shooting like it’s prom night

It’s suicide right pursuers tried like

To no avail and a hero’s what they died like

I’ve got em waiting on the news like I’m Cronkite

Not in the lime light or needed for the crime right

No boasts, just bodied, chalked close to the line tight

[Hook]

Come get your kool on

Stars are made to shine

[x4]

Stars are made to shine

[Verse 3: Truck North]

Yeah outside where the killers and the dealers swarm

And inside they dressed up like it’s a telethon

Black tie affair but they holding heavy arms

Straight cash with a stash in the cummerbund

More Bacardi and the bouncers of the party hum

Riots erupting around and still we party on

Made the quantum leap to a king from a pawn

But it was destined the conclusion was foregone

Serenade of the former slave promenade

Cause them long days in the sun

Have now become shade

So we doing high speeds in a narrow lane

Say cheese, free falling from the aeroplane

Another feather in the cap for all the years

That we spent in luxuries lap without looking back

Cause memories could sting like hornet

Damn it felt good to see people up on it

[Hook]

Come get your kool on

Stars are made to shine

[x4]

Stars are made to shine

Above are the lyrics for Kool On by The Roots from the album Undun.  Go ahead and take a listen here.  This album is a reverse narrative about a boy trying to find his way through a troubled inner city society, it begins with the boy's death and works through how he got to be there within the rest of the album.  This album is meant to be listened to all the way through to get the artist's full effect.  Amir "?uestlove" Thompson refers to the boy is "neither a victim of a hero.  Just some kid who begins to order his world in a way that makes the most sense to him at a given moment... At the end of the day... isn't that what we all do?"  To read more about undun and what Thompson has to say about it click here.

This song reflects the attitude of live it up now because you never know how long life is going to last or in simpler more common terms YOLO. Right now the persona has what he wants in life, reaching to the upper levels in the hierarchy of drug dealing. "I am like heroin to those that hear a rhyme and think How do you find this upper echelon this time Let’s toast to better days, a beautiful mind, and a flow that never age"  This shows that he has become a comfort to those that are beneath him because he shows that someone can successfully work their way up into the "upper echelon".  He later talks of how he "Made the quantum leap to a king from a pawn".  These jumps in their hierarchy are probably rather common because of how many people die within the drug business.  The persona talks of how he is "Living on borrowed time" because it is only a matter of time before he is killed or hauled away to prison.  This is because the average urban African American male doesn't expect to live past the age of 25 years old.  And as the beginning of this album starts this persona does die.  This social climbing that is described in this song shows that instead of being an impoverished proletariat the persona decided to climb the ranks of drug dealing to become an inner city bourgeoise, that has wealth and power.  Now that he has reached the top he is living in the moment because he doesn't know how much life he's got left. 

This song of him being one of the wealthy and powerful in the inner city, shows how he has been able to work his way up through the drug-dealing hierarchy, but it has cost him his peace of mind and will eventually cost him his life.  This song shows that wealth and power can come at a very high price.  Many Marxists would argue that these situations of drug lords ruling cities would be less prevalent if people from the suburbs shared their wealth with all the common impoverished proletariats of the inner city.  If people were willing to pay higher taxes to make the school systems better than there could be many improvements.  This song illuminates the text to show that the persona felt like this was his only viable option and he will pay for it "Cause memories could sting like hornet", because he know he can't stay on the top forever.