(1st Verse – Audyo)
Everything that I could watch when I was young was educational
It taught me how my people were perceived up in this nation yo
All black men were punch lines, or always acting lazy
And every woman out here, was loud or acting crazy
Oh you're not too good at playing ball?
Then you clearly ain't got no worth
Yeah they never said it directly, but that's the message they sent since birth
With Ebonics the main language, or its obvious you're the token
You can't fit into this description?
You're not black, man are you broken?
This is a system that exists just with a goal to bring us down
And by us I mean intelligent, articulate and brown
They wanna ask if all this happens, what's different about me?
Well I had mentors all around me, not just actors on a screen
But lets say that somebody didn't
And lets say this kid's name is Robert
And he never saw a role model
With a goal to help push him farther
And his mom, you know, she's always working
And his dad won't even bother
And lets just this kid's living poor
Yeah lets make this kid's life harder
So he falls behind in school, but won't worry about his grades because
All around him, what's important's getting paid
And he clicks on his TV
Oh surprise, what does he see?
Some fool acting showing Robert that he needs to be a G
Then he looks outside his window and its all the same thing
So he lets that be his life, or at least what's remaining
With a dream to be the most successful dealer on his block
Plus the glory that connects when he finesses his mom's Glock
Made an equation to truly station a generation at the bottom
But penetration is what mattered when his mentor went and shot him
(2nd Verse – Tawanda)
Young black brother from the motherland
Who plays stereotypes for Ariel Heights
Folk as they touch my hair and treat me like a no-man
A nomad, who ventured to America through flights
(Leggo)
I spit all these bars 'hind systematic bars
And I spar with the fates of my stars as they spin
They spun years ago as they span ‘cross the skies
Navigating slaves ships with *Breath* no oxygen
The blades cut yesterday, the wounds bleeds today
Historical precedence don't simply fly away
When the winds of time sway only one way
To the moment when only through a song we can say
That all the paper stacked by the rappers and all the ballers
Is all blown away by the wind at the end of every autumn
I'm still recalling when the floods of Katrina had strange fruit falling
From tops of houses to escape the waters-
Then broke and drowning in their surroundings
Yet still can't breathe when there ain't no mountain-
High enough that we can't climb
High enough that we can't climb
All year I been on my grind
All year I been on my grind
They be lookin' at me crazy
Like my mind is hazy
'ginning of the year they called me Black Slim Shady
Never in the heads did they ever understand that who I wanna be is a young Jay-Z
But rapping's what's expected of someone as dark as me
Truth be told no respect from y'all 'til Harvard called me
But complaining's what's expected of someone as self aware as me
Truth be told half of y'all have eyes but can't see
That I've got a dream but I struggle to fulfill it
That I've been to the mountaintop and found that they still k**ing us
That to be judged by the content of my character
Only brings about laugher of a judge holding a gavel
That is clearly labeled 'master' so I been running faster
To k** slavery of thought so that I break apart this vault
(End)
Well they asked us for a lesson
But we gon give them more
Cause these people need to understand
Just what I'm fighting for
Well they asked us for a lesson, but we give them a course
Cause you need to see the ocean instead of only the shore
And here's just one suggestion
It's about just living poor
Equality's not equity
And people just ignore
Remember all of the suggestions and lesson that we be teaching
Cause when the guns go blah it's all red that we bleeding