[Intro: John Legend]
Let's play the blame game, I love you, more
Let's play the blame game for sure
Let's call out names, names, I hate you, more
Let's call out names, names, for sure
I'll call you ***** for short
As a last resort, and my first result
You call me ******* for long
At the end of it you know we both were wrong

[Hook: John Legend]
But I love to play the blame game, I love you more
Let's play the blame game for sure
Let's call her names, names, I hate you, more
Let's call her names, names, for sure

[Verse 1: Kanye West]
On a bathroom wall I wrote
"I'd rather argue with you than be with someone else"
I took a **** and dismiss it like "**** it"
And I went and found somebody else
**** arguing and harvesting the feelings
Yo, I'd rather be by my ******* self
Till about two a.m. and I call back
And I hang up and I start to blame myself
Somebody help...

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Kanye West]
You weren't perfect but you made life worth it
Stick around, some real feelings might surface
Been a long time since I spoke to you in a bathroom
Gripping you up, ******* and choking you
What the hell was I supposed to do?
I know you ain't getting this type of **** from that local dude
And if you are I hope you are having a good time
Cause I definitely be having mine
And you ain't finna see a mogul get emotional
Every time I hear bout other ****** is strokin' you
Lying, say I hit you, he sitting there consoling you
Running my name through the mud, who's provoking you?
You should be grateful a ***** like me ever noticed you
Now you noticeable and can't nobody get control of you
One a.m. and can't nobody get a hold of you
I'm calling your brother's phone like what was I supposed to do?
Even though I knew, he never told the truth
He was just gon' say whatever that you told him to
At a certain point I had to stop asking questions
Y'all got dirt on each other like mud wrestlers
I heard he bought some coke with my money
That ain't right girl
You getting blackmailed for that white girl
You always said Yeezy I ain't your right girl
You'll probably find one of them "I like art"-type girls
All of the lights, she-was-caught-in-the-hype girl
And I was satisfied being in love with the lie
Now who to blame, you to blame, me to blame
For the pain and it poured every time when it rained
Lets play the blame game

[Hook]

[Verse 3: Kanye West]
"Things used to be, now they not
Anything but us is who we are
Disguising ourselves as secret lovers
We've become public enemies
We walk away like strangers in the street
Gone for eternity
We erased one another
So far from where we came
With so much of everything, how do we leave with nothing?
Lack of visual empathy equates the meaning of L-O-V-E
Hatred and attitude tear us entirely" - Chloe Mitchell

[Hook x2: Kanye West]
I can't love you this much
No, I can't love you this much

[Verse 4: Kanye West]
And I know that you are somewhere doing your thing
And when the phone called it just ring and ring
You ain't pick up but your phone accidentally called me back
And I heard the whole thing
I heard the whole thing, the whole thing, the whole thing

["The Best Birthday": Chris Rock]
Ohh my God
Baby you done took this **** to another mother ******* level!
Now a neighborhood ***** like me
Ain't supposed to be gettin no ***** like this
*******, *******!
Who taught you how to get **** for a *****?
(Yeezy taught me)
You never used to talk *****, but now you ******* disgusting
My, my God, where'd you learn that?
(Yeezy taught me)
Look at you mother ******* **** *** naked...
With them mother ******* Jimmy Choos on
Who taught you how to put some Jimmy Choos on?
(Yeezy taught me)
Yo you took your ***** game up a whole 'nother level
This is some Cirque du Soleil ***** now! ****!
You done went all ***** on a *****, okay? And I, and I love it...
And I thank you, I thank you, my **** thanks you!
How did you learn, how... how did your ***** game come up?
(Yeezy taught me)
I was ******* parts of your ***** I'd never ****** before
I was in there like oh **** I never been here before
I've never even seen this part of ***** town before
It's like you got this **** re-upholstered or some ****
What the **** happened?
Who, who the **** got your ***** all re-upholstered?
(Yeezy re-upholstered my *****)
You know what, I got to thank Yeezy
And when I see that *****, I'm-a thank him. I'm-a buy his album
I'm-a download that ******* I'm-a shoot a bootlegger!
That's how good I feel about this *****
Oww, I still can't believe you got me this watch
This ******* is the exact ******* I wanted!
Even with the bezel! This is the ******* I wanted
I saw this ****, I saw it, Twista had this **** on in The Source
I remember, Twista had this ******* on in The Source
That's right, that's right! Yo yo babe, yo yo this is the best birthday ever!
Where you learn to treat a ***** like this?
(Yeezy taught me)
Yeezy taught you well, Yeezy taught you well

My mother told me
Stay away
She'd make sure of it
I had to bootleg you
For my personal alcoholism
I couldn't imagine a life
Without you rushing
Spiking my blood
But you took that bottle
And smashed it on the counter
You didn't have to stick it
Through my lungs
For me to stop breathing
I sweat at night
Screaming your name
My hands shaking
The withdrawals kicking in
I chugged down the
Medication they gave me
To stop it from hurting
But it never did
And it became a cycle
Pill
Whiskey
Pill
Whiskey  
Pill
Until the pain was

Gone.

The Fiery Red Head

It is time to pay honor to one who doesn’t know it is do I begin from this point as all of us in a sense we
Are doing the same thing for me it is writing my way out yours is different but before I go I will have my
Say I realize I gave all my attention to her mother and father now it is time to shine the light on her
Reveal her inner and outward glory and beauty to do this and to make sense I have to lay a little ground
Work on how we met and ultimately what it meant as brief as possible I had a Simi normal life until I
Was five and my family left church you need paints from hell to paint the rest of my parents life we
Banged and stumbled along and then at twelve they divorced and all of a sudden my dad and I weren’t
A family in the eyes of those we rented from so they kicked us out and we ended up in a mine shack no
Sheet rock on the walls no ceiling no bathroom no heat after about a month the family had a meeting I
Was delivered from hell to heaven I went from sleeping under ten blankets to a sheet and light blanket at
His sister’s house what luxury then my mother bribed me by buying me a television to live with her folks
That where Judy comes in she lived down the street I already knew her because her brother and I was
Best friends but my move put me into a place ruled by two laws Willie’s law and Judy’s law I learned in
School supposedly the wave came about when you met someone long ago it was showing you had no
Weapon and that you were friendly well with Judy there was a different wave you instinctively put your
Hand behind you back feeling to see if anything would impede your escape put it this way you didn’t
Want to whirl around and run head first in to something and then fall back in her arms you heart could
Stop no problem she would scream and it would start in a hurry when you’re young your naturally stupid
Or one time I was told ignorant that means you just haven’t been taught yet anyway it sounds better but
First to show innocent stupid she and her sister Barb were pretty they sing about California girls Illinois
Isn’t full of woofers this isn’t a kennel well I was in the living room and barb goes back to her bedroom
She is back there about an hour she went back there just like always but as fate would have it I was
Moving across the floor and she walks out God she looked like she stepped out of a glamour magazine I
Didn’t know it but I was doing a Gomer impression not the aw shucks degum but I found out my mouth
Had fallen open barb looked at me and laughed and said what’s the matter I was dumbstruck Max
Factor and Barb hit a homerun that day that was good stupid but I followed my uncle in a sense he left
Home at thirteen and worked and lived with the local bootlegger I was basically on my own at fourteen I
Had to make decisions and find my way not always making the smartest moves that’s where Judy comes
In God made her with a sense of justice and what Washington doesn’t have the guts to take action she
Was never mean just for meanness sake but *****-up don’t worry I don’t know the avenging angel but I
Knew his helper people cry God is distant he is close at hand he puts people in your life so you don’t end
Up like my fiend Melvin we would listen to our dad’s story of the antics they pulled when they were
Younger this farmer the next day would try to top them he stole something from the store when the
Manager was looking at him and then chased him of the store each act of defiance made him more
Reckless worse than that it made him meaner I finally cut him loose I heard about him he walked into a
Liquor store pulled out a gun the store owner shot first he died on the operating table I had many helps
Getting to adult hood gentle souls were positioned along the way and tough ones when needed like Rex
Perry’s mom Roxanna she was a red head to but her rule was quiet and powerful midst storms for sure
But I took notice and I never forgot and there was tom’s mother another red head Elsie pretty and sweet
A true charmer I’m bring these folks up to Judy’s mind a little thrill for her special day Friday one
Last addition her neighbor Sara because of this special memory I don’t think Judy saw this I will share it
Now we were out at the end of Sara’s house snow was already falling but all of a sudden and I truly think
That if Heaven ever did disintegrate this would be the first evidence of it the flakes became big as silver
Dollars the sky filled with them they floated so softly and slow you were pulled skyward and you were
Allowed to float down with them a wonderland was forming before our eyes I said I would never forget
And I never have another precious memory from childhood and a great street just right for Christmas
Greeting and a happy birthday for a special friend thanks Jude making my life great have a great
birthday

If I could draw it -
but I was never an artist.
What a picture that would be -
my family.

And maybe if I could trace the lines
I could better understand
how I came to be--me.

But I can't separate the smells
and sounds
and touch of it,
pencils can only go so far.

And there are the scenes
that I can only imagine.
The ones that happened
decades before me.
I see my grandpa's smiling face.
I don't remember him
as a brawling drunk
terrorizing his family
after world war II.

Granny smelled like powder
and liked men
though she would never admit it.
She talked a lot
but I don't remember ever
hearing any thing worthwhile.

The one I can't name.
He hurt me in the dark.

Mom Glass, the bootlegger,
who took her grandaughters
on Sunday trips up the mountain
to buy moonshine.
She wore red underdrawers
and she didn't care who knew.

Mammaw, who gave me words.
Who didn't know I was a refugee
but always welcomed me warmly.
She taught me the beauty
of being earthy.
No prim or proper uppity
girls fishin in the creek.
That one brought tears.
I miss her smile.

There are so many faces.

Voices.

Memories.

All contributed something
to the poem
I haven't written yet.

Bootlegger
It would have been good advice had you taken it but you didn't
and here you are again, talking **** again about how life has let you down again.

oh!
woe is me
he said miserably
as I sat there quite happily
in my own disordered world,

I lay there
underneath the shadows on the sidewalks of Manhattan
where the bloodstains formed a pattern that made you want to stop and stare,

woe is me, indeed,
as the crows fly in to feed
and John Gotti's mob connections
cannot stop this ****** happening.