[Album version]
I was one of five born to my mother
An older sister and three young brothers
We seen it hard
We seen it kinda rough
But always with a smile
She was sure to try to hide
The fact from us that life was really tough
I can hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
And at night I hear her call
All the night I hear her call
She says "Father, Father it's for the kids
Any and everything I did.
Please, please don't judge me too strong
Lord knows I meant no wrong...
Lord knows I meant no wrong."

Then the devil sang:
Would you like to dance with me?
We're doing the cosmic slop.
Would you like to dance with me?
We're doing the cosmic slop.
Would you like to dance with me?
We're doing the cosmic slop.

She was well known through the ghettos
Tricks would come and then they go
The neighbors would talk and call her Jezebel
But always with a smile
She was sure to try to hide
The fact from us that she was catching hell

Hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
Late at night I hear her call
To the lord I hear her call
She says "Father, Father it's for the kids
Any and everything I did.
Please please don't judge me too strong.
Lord knows I meant no wrong..."
Lord

She said "Father, Father it's for the kids
Any and everything I did.
Please don't judge me too strong"
Hear my mother call
Hear my mother call
Hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
Hey, alright yeah I hear her man
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Hear my mother call
I can hear my mother
Mother, mother, mother
Hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
Late at night, late at night
I hear her call on the Lord
Mother, I can hear my mother call
Hear that brother calling me
Mother, mama, mama, mother
I hear my mother
Hear my mother call
Hear my mother call
Hear my mother call
I can hear my mother call
I hear my mother call
Funkadelic – Cosmic Slop (Live)

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Annotations for this section of the song can be found on the album version of “Cosmic Slop”, from the LP of the same name.

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“Free your mind, your ass will follow” is a play on Funkadelic’s album of the same name and its title track. The “Indonesia”, or marijuana to keep it simple, will free your mind, which will make the rest of you get free too.

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Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow is the name of the Funkadelic album this song is on (and of course the title of this song). In the liner notes on the reissue of the album Clinton said it was an attempt to “see if we can cut a whole album while we’re all tripping on acid.” Which means that the mind was most-likely freed while recording this album on acid, and that the ass that will follow is the way Funkadelic acted when on acid. Aside from the literal notion that the ass will be freed once your mind is set to dancing, of course.

George Clinton and his crew have many interesting stories about drugs, the most-famously probably being Clinton’s state while recording “Maggot Brain”.

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The following is from an interview Complex Magazine did with Pete Rock:

When I’m making beats, I’m [constructing them using] whatever ideas I have in my head and whatever good records I have around me. I was playing with this one record, and I heard the sample and I liked what he was saying, but we wanted to flip it and talk about bootlegging, because that was really strong around that time. Bootlegging cassettes of albums and selling them on 125th Street.

We filmed the video in Essex County Jail, in a real jail, and then from there we went down to 125th Street and did a reenactment of the bootleggers, and us destroying their stand selling our music and taking food out of our mouth. The people weren’t getting the quality sound, and [the bootleggers] were just making a quick dollar.

‘Straighten it out,’ you can take that [phrase] and apply it to any situation you may be dealing with. If it’s between you and a friend and you guys have friction, ‘Straighten it out.’ Whatever business deal you got or beefs you got with people, ‘Straighten it out.’

We watched other people get sued [for not clearing samples], but we were on a major label so we were clearing them. We had to get permission and clear the samples.

- Source

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Shut ‘Em Down” is a Public Enemy song which gained notoriety once Pete Rock remixed it. Pete said the following about it in an interview with Complex:

I made that beat in like fifteen minutes, that’s what’s ill about it. Immediately when I got the opportunity to do it, I got so excited that I just started working on the beat. I got everything I needed, did it real quick fast [at home before the session] and got the sounds down, then I got in the studio and tweaked it. I chopped it, lined it up better, and perfected it in the big house.

I [rapped on it] on my own. I just did one version with [my verse] and one without it. They picked the one with it. They loved it.

- Source

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The World Is Yours” is the Pete Rock-produced Nas song from the classic Illmatic album, which Sha Stimuli indirectly referenced two lines earlier.

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Down with the King is the 6th album by rock-rap crossover group Run-D.M.C.. The album featured their second-biggest hit, a title song with features by the Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth duo and production by Pete. Other songs from the album that were produced by Pete are “In the House” and “Wreck Shop”.

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“Jump around” plays on the immensely huge single of the same name by House Of Pain, which Pete produced the remix of. You can find Muggs, the producer of the main beat, talk about his version here.

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Illmatic is the classic debut album by MC Nas, and is often considered to hold the status of being the best hip-hop album ever recorded. Pete Rock produced and provided vocals for the single “The World Is Yours”, which featured quite jazzy production compared to the rest of the vibe-heavy beats.

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