Samo

“I’ll be 60 next year. And I’m not here to impress anyone. I’ve been the champion. I’ve been the villain. I’ve had gold around my waist and nothing in my soul. Now? I just want peace. Everything else is noise.”

I grew up where love was tough and fists were currency.

I didn’t learn kindness — I learned survival.

By 13, I was arrested 38 times.

By 20, I was the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

They called me “Iron Mike” — like I wasn’t supposed to bleed.

I had money, fame, mansions, tigers, private jets…

But I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t breathe.

The world saw knockouts.

I saw ghosts.

At 40, I started asking better questions.

Not “how do I win?”

But “why was I always fighting in the first place?”

And the truth?

I wasn’t fighting the other guy.

I was fighting myself. My fear. My father’s silence. My mother’s pain. My own shame.

Now, at 70, I’m not chasing anything.

I grow mushrooms.

I hug my pigeons.

I walk barefoot on grass and cry sometimes for no reason at all.

I talk more about forgiveness than uppercuts.

I don’t need the belt. I don’t need the roar of a crowd.

I just want to eat good fruit, tell the truth, and die knowing I broke the cycle.

If you want to know what greatness is — it’s not dominance. It’s healing.

It’s walking away from the thing that used to destroy you — and choosing not to destroy others with it.

Kendrick Lamar - Reincarnated (Lyrics Video)

[Verse 1]

I got this fire burnin' in me from within

Concentrated thoughts on who I used to be, I'm sheddin' skin

Every day, a new version of me, a third of me demented, cemented in pain

Juggling opposing kinds of fame

I don't know how to make friends, I'm a lonely soul

I recollect this isolation, I was four years old

Truth be told, I've been battling my soul

Tryna navigate the real and fake

Cynical about the judgement day

I did bad, slight progression last year and it fucked me up

Reincarnated on this earth for a hundred plus

Body after body, lesson after lesson, let's take it back to Michigan in 1947

My father kicked me out the house 'cause I wouldn't listen to him

I didn't care about his influence, only loved what I was doing

Gifted as a musician, I played guitar on the grand level

The most talented where I'm from, but I had to rebel

And so I'm off in the sunset, searchin' for my place in the world

With my guitar up on my hip, that's the story unfurled

I found myself with a pocket full of money and a whole lot of respect

While the record business loved me

I was head of rhythm and blues

The women that fell to they feet, so many to choose

But I manipulated power as I lied to the masses

Died with my money, gluttony was too attractive, reincarnated

[Verse 2]

Another life had placed me as a Black woman in the Chitlin' Circuit

Seductive vocalist as the promoter hit the curtains

My voice was angelic, straight from heaven, the crowd sobbed

A musical genius what the articles emphasized

Had everything I wanted, but I couldn't escape addiction

Heroin needles had me in fetal position, restricted

Turned on my family, I went wherever cameras be

Cocaine, no private planes for my insanity

Self-indulged, discipline never been my sentiments

I needed drugs, to me, an 8-ball was like penicillin

Fuck love, my happiness was in that brown sugar

Sex and melodies gave me hope when nobody's lookin'

My first assistant was a small town scholar

Never did a Quaalude 'til I got myself around her

My daddy looked the other way, he saw sin in me

I died with syringes pinched in me, reincarnated

[Verse 3]

My present life is Kendrick Lamar

A rapper looking at the lyrics to keep you in awe

The only factor I respected was raisin' the bar

My instincts sent material straight to the charts, huh

My father kicked me out the house, I finally forgive him

I'm old enough to understand the way I was livin'

Ego and pride had me looking at him with resentment

I close my eyes, hoping that I don't come off contentious

I'm yelling, "Father, did I finally get it right?" Everything I did was selfless

I spoke freely, when the people needed me, I helped them

I didn't gloat, even told 'em, "No," when the vultures came

Took control of my fleshly body when the money changed

Son, you do well, but your heart is closed

I can tell residue that linger from your past creates a cell

Father, I'm not perfect, I got urges, but I hold them down

But your pride has to die," okay, Father, show me how

Tell me every deed that you done and what you do it for

I kept one hundred institutions paid

Okay, tell me more

I put one hundred hoods on one stage

Okay, tell me more

I'm tryna push peace in L.A.

But you love war

No, I don't

Oh, yes, you do

Okay, then tell me the truth

Every individual is only a version of you

How can they forgive when there's no forgiveness in your heart?

I could tell you where I'm going

I could tell you who you are

You fell out of Heaven 'cause you was anxious

Didn't like authority, only searched to be heinous

Isaiah fourteen was the only thing that was prevalent

My greatest music director was you

It was colors, it was pinks, it was reds, it was blues

It was harmony and motion

I sent you down to earth 'cause you was broken

Rehabilitation, not psychosis

But now we here now

Centuries you manipulated man with music

Embodied you as superstars to see how you moving

You came a long way from garnishing evilish views

And all I ever wanted from you was love and approval