Dreamer – English Lyrics

• By: K'naan

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Yeah, believe it or not

What kept me alive is my dreams

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

We alive man, it's okay to feel good

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

Lock me up now, it's okay to feel good

I got a friend named Flow

Who got a friend named Blow

With a finger named Clap

That'll leave you on the side like a Kangol hat

He ain't have no choice, he was born this way

These streets pull your number like a phone display

And you gotta be defensive with your life

You gotta be like Bush and take pre-emptive strikes

And the boys from the hood are always hard

Let alone in Mogadishu it's a mastered art

If you bring the world hoods to a seminar

We from the only place worse then Kandahar

Well, that's kinda hard

But we still like to party and hardy hard

Something good happens we say, 'Mashallah'

Something bad happens, 'Que Sera Sera'

I close my eyes and all I can see is you dancing with me

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

We alive man, it's okay to feel good

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

Lock me up now, it's okay to feel good

I'm a dreamer

It's okay to feel good, yeah, it's the truth

Ay, yo' check it out

What would it take for a boy about my age

To hear cheers in his head upon that stage

And the cheers that would drown out

The tears from my brown eyes?

Come on back stage, you see the screams

Ain't the screams from gunshot streams

In my dreams, these screams are from hot teens

And I'm barely thirteen, I pack dirty

Old Russian firearm that shoots thirty

Just then I hear the bus engine

I'm transcending, I'm crowd surfing

I can't see the time burning

I'm not hurting with my mahogany pen

I'm on a world tour with Mohammad and them

And we'd be overseas and not in these trees

Where my peeps stay alive like the Bee Gees

And the likes of JZ would save my steeze

Singing handily brought Hip Hop peace

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

We alive man, it's okay to feel good

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

Lock me up now, it's okay to feel good, I'm a dreamer

Sometimes we just like to have fun

Man, we like to forget all the fighting

All the guns and the tires burning

Back on the verse, imagine crack was in birth

Imagine the earth wasn't hurt, imagine no homeland alerts

Imagine no record locater

So I wouldn't have to get a criminal waiver

Imagine the peace wasn't in my briefs

Instead peace could stretch across the seas

So finally we could just rest and ease, no refugees

And you, well, you could dress in a book

And I can read your body with less then a look

I got a dream girl in my mind that's the hook

An intellectual, sexual and still can cook

Yeah, and I feel good right now

I feel good right here, you feel good right now?

You feel good?

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

We alive man, it's okay to feel good

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

Lock me up now, it's okay to feel good

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

We alive man, it's okay to feel good

I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

But we love to have fun

This is our world, from here to your hood

Lock me up now, it's okay to feel good

Yeah, we not down and out just because the times are hard

...

Yeah, shout out to the struggler's in my country

The hardest place on earth right now but still

I still know how to get down, I still know how to vibe out

I still know how to talk to a pretty girl, take it easy now, yeah

...

Key Grammar Structures

• What kept me alive is my dreams

  ➔ Noun Clause as Subject

  ➔ The entire noun clause "What kept me alive" acts as the sentence's subject. "is my dreams" complements it.

• I'm a dreamer but I ain't the only one got problems

  ➔ Auxiliary Verb Contraction + Reduced Relative Clause

  ➔ "ain't" = informal contraction for "am not/is not/are not." "got problems" = reduced relative clause (who has got problems).

• If you bring the world hoods to a seminar

  ➔ Second Conditional Structure

  ➔ Hypothetical situation ("if you bring") + modal consequence. Structure: If + [past simple], [would] + verb.

• And you could dress in a book

  ➔ Modal Verb for Hypothetical Ability

  ➔ "could" expresses imaginative/possible ability in a hypothetical scenario.

• He ain't have no choice

  ➔ Double Negative (Informal)

  ➔ Informal grammar where "ain't" and "no" form a double negative (emphasizing lack of choice).

• You gotta be like Bush and take pre-emptive strikes

  ➔ Semi-Modal "Gotta" + Parallel Structure

  ➔ "gotta" = informal for "have to." Parallel verbs: "be" and "take" share the same subject.

• Imagine the earth wasn't hurt

  ➔ Past Subjunctive for Hypotheticals

  ➔ Uses past subjunctive "wasn't" (not "isn't") after "imagine" for hypothetical situations contrary to fact.

• We not down and out just because the times are hard

  ➔ Ellipsis of Copula "Are" + Conjunction "Just Because"

  ➔ Omits "are" informally (We are not → We not). "Just because" introduces a concessive clause.

• We'd be overseas and not in these trees

  ➔ Contraction of "Would" + Counterfactual Conditional

  ➔ "We'd" = "we would." Describes imaginary scenario contrasting reality (trees → conflict zones).