Talib Kweli – Scratch Off lyrics

Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Just to show that I inherited your gambling ways
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Please, buy me a lucky 7 so we both can get paid
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
When I put in all your numbers at the store for the day
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Grandma can I get a scratch off?

It's all or nothing, quit with all the bluffing
Soon as one of my cards decline, I'm in my wallet shuffling
Not so lucky, I guess that's how it's looking
I'm a pro and not a rookie, I school you all and I play hookie
These were my times with Sookie
Tea kettle whistling if she ever left the stove on
Old age had kicked in and she sent me for a store run
Gambling is in your blood, ain't superstitious but you're definitely knocking on one
If I win we all won
Behaving, imagine the good grandson that I've been
Grandma give me the missing numbers, the cash that I need
Used to love the bodegas, now they ask for I.D
Had my own two dollars just to get some scratchers for me
Around that time things were drastic, worrying 'bout our finances
Didn't no one give them to me, I was the one who finance us
Said fuck whoever doubted, that's when I took my chances
Feel strongly about whatever I believe in cause I'm a Cancer
Ain't an auction but they gave my mans a bid
Damn the CC8 just filled another bed
I guess we got some time to kill
And you gotta play the hands you're dealt
Fly

Just to show that I inherited your gambling ways
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Please, buy me a lucky 7 so we both can get paid
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
When I put in all your numbers at the store for the day
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Grandma can I get a scratch off?

Voice of the unheard, louder than the bomb
Grandma's boy couldn't be prouder of my mom
For this historical perspective, a political education
I hardly ever gamble, my risk was too calculated
Caught up in the traps, to be highly and discrete
Red dollar and rented dream and get you followed by the feds
Cause this life is like a lottery, a loser then you'll probably be
Living with the ghost, like Debbie Moore with the pottery
Testing our morality when facing our mortality
Betting on a fallacy, handing over our salaries
Natural born killer, they call us Mickey and Mallory
'Til our men become warriors and our women become Valkyries
Cussing like some sailors in the open seas
Mama got the silk for the apartment smelling like potpourri
Shopping for the groceries
Got her a pepsi cola and some coke for me
Making a quick stop out the OTB

Scratch off?
Just to show that I inherited your gambling ways
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Please, buy me a lucky 7 so we both can get paid
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
When I put in all your numbers at the store for the day
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Grandma can I get a scratch off?

Grandma, uh, and you knew that's all we needed, that's why you plant a seed and feed it
Repeat it and treat it and we playing against the odds
If we can only defeat it
We'd see it, but we standing weeping whenever we read it
And then we feeling cheated, we deserve better
Cause she done earned cheddar and I know she took her turn
Being Tina Turner, let her be returned from her ghetto
You'd know all she want is world peace if you let her
And one day we may travel, if you bought that scratch off
Like Payola at a DJ battle
And it paid off, then we made off like Madoff
And ate off that plate, constantly concentrated like Adolf
Came all the way, four hours in your heart though
Showing up in my school, saying we hit the lotto
Popped a bottle then saw that we misread it at second glance
That's when I learned life isn't up to chance

Scratch off?
Just to show that I inherited your gambling ways
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Please, buy me a lucky 7 so we both can get paid
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
When I put in all your numbers at the store for the day
Said grandma, can I get a scratch off?
Grandma can I get a scratch off?