What Would You Do?
Dr. Dre & Ice Cube Lyrics

If you’re feeling heroic and you want
To do something for the world
And you want to expand what you understand
You poke your head through what you know
And you take a look at the
At whatever structure is out there
And to me this is a re-creation
Of the Daoist Yin-Yang symbol you know With the white paisley here and that’s what
You know the dark paisley serpent’s there
And the right place to be is
Right on the line between them
Put one foot where you understand
That gives you security
But it’s kinda dull because hey
You know everything that’s going on there and
That isn’t what people are like
They don’t want just security
Dostoyevsky said, I love this, if you
Gave people everything they wanted
They had nothing to eat but cake
And nothing to do but sit
In warm pools and busy themselves with
The continuation of the species
The first thing they would do, well
Maybe after the first week
Was go kind of half insane
And smash everything up just
So that something that they
Didn’t expect would happen
So that they’d have something
Interesting to do
And it’s so right because the
Utopian notion that if you
Just had all the material stuff
You wanted that you you’d be

What would you be? What would you do?
Well what would you be? What would you do?

You’d just sit on the couch and watch TV
I mean you’d be, I don’t know what
You’d be cutting yourself just for
Entertainment in no time flat you know
And that’s the sort of thing that people do
So we’re not adapted for security and utopia
We’re adapted for a certain
Amount of security
Because you know we are vulnerable
But mostly we want to have one foot out where
We don’t know what the hell is going on
Because that’s where you’re alert and alive
And tense and with it
I believe this and I believe it
Actually has something to do
With the hemispheric structure of the
Physiology of your brain
The right hemisphere looks roughly adapted to
What you don’t know and the
Left hemisphere is adapted to the
World that you do know
And the right place for you to
Be is halfway between them
You can tell that, that’s what’s so cool
What would you be? What would you do?
We’re not adapted for security and utopia
Well what would you be? What would you do?
Mostly we want to have one foot out where we
Don’t know what the hell is going on
What would you be?
And you want to be out there in the
Unknown enough so that you
Keep updating yourself
Well what would you be? What would you do?
That’s where you’re alert and alive

This tells you that this is actually
Reality that’s manifesting it'self to you
You know that sense of active
Engagement you have in
The world when things are
Working well for you you know
Where you’re where you should be
At the right time
You’re alert and on top of things and engaged
And you don’t have much of a
Sense of time and the sense of the
Tragedy of life sort of recedes
That’s when you’ve got one
Foot where it’s secure
And one foot out in the unknown
And your brain signals to you
That you’re in the
Right place by making what
You’re doing meaningful
That sense of meaning is actually a
Neurophysiological signal that you’ve got the
Forces of the cosmos properly balanced in
Your being at that moment
And that’s why it feels so good
What else could it possibly be?

What would you be? What would you do?
We’re not adapted for security and utopia
Well what would you be? What would you do?
Mostly we want to have one foot out where we
Don’t know what the hell is going on
What would you be?
And you want to be out there in the
Unknown enough so that you
Keep updating yourself
Well what would you be? What would you do?
That’s where you’re alert and alive
You know that because that’s
Where you are when
You’re having a really interesting
Conversation with someone
Or you’re gripped by a book
Or you’re really into a movie
Or maybe something that you do
As a, you know apart from your work
Or maybe even in your work
You’re into it and that’s because you are
In the right place at the
Right time and your whole nervous system
Is signalling that to you
And I would say that’s the sort of place
That you should be all the time
That’s the recreation of paradise on earth
It’s something like it




Because you are in the right place at
The right time when that is happening