1. |
Spooks
01:20
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Spirits are low and just getting by
Bereft and unsettled and a little bit high
Injustice of death - forgotten or worse
Blamed for abuses, neglected since birth
What’s it matter anyway?
These streets are filled with ghosts
But all you see are spooks
Sickle to prison - a life among cells
Derision for victims “unfit and unwell”
Ignored by physicians - reviled by the state
Dying in labor from a life filled with hate
This is one way that racism kills
Biased doctors pushing sugar pills
Assume we’re addicts and we’re just seeking meds
Or supernatural - no pain till we’re dead
Black women giving us life
Are more likely to die under the knife
Our ghosts are lingering demanding the truth
But you ain’t listening - you hear nothing but spooks
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2. |
Whistlin' Dogs
01:55
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You got a new agenda
Gonna take it all away
Don’t even try to mysterious
Your ass is out here on display
Just a whistling dog peddling hate
Doesn’t matter to you who you denigrate
You’re gonna bring back the good times
When my people hung from trees
Peace was no reality
And you’re not pushing fantasies
Proclamations made by torchlight
Murders committed in the sun
It’s all a Southern Strategy
To keep us all at odds and dumb
I’m ashamed to admit
I thought we’d gotten past this shit
I had the fucking nerve to hope
Will my dreams die at the end of a rope?
So now I’m bitter inside while real lives are being threatened
You flaunt white nationalist pride just to get elected
You weaponize lies while you line your pockets
Create a lethal divide while you fucking rob us
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3. |
White World
01:23
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Bodies are not our own
and this is not our home
We’ve built a legacy that we won’t own
Red lined to ghettos
and prison cellblocks
Ignored minority “best left alone”
Ooh, baby, it’s a white world
Robbed of our history
Blamed for our misery
We’re told that we are free
but whips still crack
Given no destiny
They want the best of me
you think that you’re exempt but Black’s still Black
Ooh, baby, it’s a white world
I’ve never seen this world this dark before
The faces and the rage are Black
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4. |
Young Pac
01:56
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Can’t you tell you’ve got a ticket to sell?
They seen you mumbling along with the tapes
and you’ve got something that they wanna take
You look so dangerous to the whites in their eyes
They want your Soul and that’s no surprise
You represent the very things that they crave
They’ll represent you right into your grave
They know the thing that takes a hit to the top
is a rapper lying dead in a box
Can’t you tell you’ve got ticket to sell?
All these money making record execs
selling gangsters to whites in Midwest
They watch the videos and practice the flow
but to them it’s just a minstrel show
They don’t see the heart you put in your craft
They wanna see your fucking heart on a slab
When you die they’ll sigh and say it’s a shame
and take a selfie while they crouch on your grave
There ain’t no way to win
You know the fix is in
Been fighting since inside the womb
but they fight behind doors in board rooms
They sell the guns, the drugs
but they call you a thug
GET OUT
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5. |
Pass Me The Dossier
02:31
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Been getting waisted for generations
on 911 Lead Reserve
The overseers and the officers
became the agents of slash and burn
But white fragility can’t watch brutality
so they changed the tactics of their war
They built a system and filled their prisons
so they can kill us behind closed doors
I’ve got records in my jacket
I know my name is in a file
I won’t be taken with distractions
I know that my life is on the line
So fuck the Courvoisier and pass me the dossier
100 to 1: Odds are stacked from the gun
How’s a Brother supposed to live on the run
They’ve got intelligence on half my relatives
in a dossier as thick as my thumb
I’ve got records in my jacket
I know my name is in a file
I won’t be taken with distractions
I know that my life is on the line
So fuck the Courvoisier and pass me the dossier
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6. |
Shuck & Jive
01:45
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I’ve learned to shuck and jive
Been told “keep hope alive”
Jazz hands obstruct and hide
this fraud that is my life
Grew up in welfare lines
Got told to bide my time
Someday this life will shine
Ignore the pistol in your spine
Don’t you give me affirmations
Don’t you give me no “hold your station”
Always hearing about self control
Well I’m the king of dodge ’n’ roll
I’ve switched my codes correct
but I’m still hooked by the neck
I’ve dodged the prison death
Too early to party yet
This system’s got my scent
Changed my name - they don’t forget
Don’t you give me no affirmations
Don’t you give me no “hold your station”
Don’t you give me no “keep your voice down”
Don’t you give me no “it’s alright now”
Don’t try to tell me
it’s getting better
Don’t try to tell me “have hope”
I’ve got no hope
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7. |
Till The End
01:49
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Those sure were the good old times
Your enemy was always mine
I swore I’d give my life for you
I enlisted in the heard
And sang along with every word
Naive enough to think that they were true
Deep in the cut but fucking forgot
When push came to shove and it went there a lot
Outnumbered and pummeled and beat to the ground
When push came to shove you were never around
We talked big about unity
But that never included me
When our differences were laid out on the line
You fixed your vision right on yourself
And couldn’t see anyone else
Turned out my enemies were just mine
I was out there all alone
With my fight deemed to be my own
Just because you couldn’t relate
I fought through decades of this hate
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8. |
Liberation
02:14
|
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I’m living for liberation
I’m living with my fist in the sky
I’m dying for liberation
I’m dying for the right to survive
Land, bread, and education
Housing, clothing, justice and peace
End mass incarceration,
and murder at the hand of police
I won’t be complicit
I won’t tow the line
I won’t believe in humanity
until you recognize mine
I’m living for liberation
I’m living with my fist in the sky
I’m dying for liberation
I’m dying for the right to survive
No more intimidation
I’ve given all that I can give
I don’t need reparations
I need a life that I can live
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9. |
Stand My Ground
02:22
|
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You’ve got your laws in state. They keep you safe
You’ve got amendments and a polished slate
You’ve got a license now, no need to run
Time to get out there, boy, get on the hunt
But those laws aren’t there for me
They’re just tools of white supremacy
You hunt us down, you gun us down
But I’m gonna stand my ground
There is no law to save me if I have a gun
or if I’m unarmed and I try to run
Criminalize my rights. Call me a threat
Then put a bullet in my fucking head
But those lies aren’t there for me
They’re just tools of white supremacy
You hunt us down, you gun us down
But I’m gonna stand my ground
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10. |
Black Identity Extremist
02:02
|
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I’ve got an X on my chest
Bullseye for mass arrest
And all the president’s men
Want to see me in chains again
They’re in the streets with swastikas
But I’m the extremist
They want to bring another Holocaust
Somehow I’m the extremist
Get your shit together
That ain’t me
There’s no equivalency
Fuck you I’m not the one
The biggest threat I see
Is racist white men packing guns
They’re shooting churches and synagogues
But, yo, I’m the extremist
They’re writing manifestos - shipping package bombs
Somehow I’m the extremist
Don’t talk about both sides
Don’t tell me we’re as bad as each other
No room for compromise
No fence walking - pick a fucking side
Death toll is on the rise
They’re stacking bodies and their getting away
Don’t act so surprised
They’re issuing threats every fucking day
Get your shit together
That ain’t me.
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11. |
Wait
01:28
|
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Late night, both hands in my pocket
Comm Ave and Allston Street
Cops stop - “Lay down on the sidewalk”
Submit to search or feel the heat
It’s nothing new - nothing incidental
For some of us it’s a way of life
It doesn’t matter if you think it’s anecdotal
I’m done waiting for you to take our side
This is not a conversation
This is not up for debate
We’re tired of your invalidation
We’re dying but you’re still telling us to wait
Jim Crow’s cashing in investments
Bank rolling in a white-washed truck
Heads shake but I know the reality
News Flash: No one gives a fuck
This is not a conversation
This is not up for debate
We’re tired of your invalidation
We’re dying but you’re still telling us to
Wait. Hold
Stop thinking ‘bout the rope that’s tightening around your throat
Wait. Hold
Stop or we’ll shoot
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12. |
Urban Blight
01:38
|
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Never ran the block but always in the cut
Kicking up the sidewalk or post up in the spot
Looking out for neighbors and fending for ourselves
Never thought that someday we’d be something else
These streets we used to get along in
We now just don’t belong in
New money got the streets on lock
And they love to call the fucking cops
This neighborhood changed overnight
And now we’re the urban blight
It wasn’t all that long ago
They called this a ghetto and now it’s their home
Now I live uneasy on the other side of town
Racial isolation - no other Black or brown
Neighbors all ignore me - won’t look me in the eye
Act like I’m a threat but never question why
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13. |
New Town Drag
02:05
|
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Boy, this neighborhood sure has changed
Now it doesn’t feel quite the same
We moved here all together
Brought our friends and now it’s lame
New town drag - it’s lost it’s ghetto feel
New town drag - it’s lost it’s poor appeal
New town drag - new neighbors look like me
but I moved to this side of town to save on rent and prove I’m down
It was cool to have some bragging rights
about the gun shots we heard at night
This place was super cool and sketchy
Now I don’t feel quite as edgy
New town drag - it’s lost it’s ghetto feel
New town drag - it’s lost it’s poor appeal
New town drag - new neighbors look like me
but I moved to this side of town to save on rent and prove I’m down
The old town is gone and it’s not coming back
The landlords and the realtors are done with betting on Black
So who’s betting on Black?
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14. |
White Validation
02:08
|
|||
Been denying that there’s lines to connect
Think we’re lying ‘bout the noose on our necks
Got your finger on the pulse - I can see
But you ain’t listened to a word out of me
You’re afraid that if you hear what i say
you’ll be culpable and you’ll have to pay
So you’re better off to push me aside
to live with skeletons that you try to hide
I don’t need no white validation
You’ve seen the videos. You’ll even retweet
Broken bodies getting cold in the street
Yet you hand us condescending rebuke
if our protests dare disturb your commute
You’ve accepted that the game has been rigged
You thin it’s tragic but "it is what it is”
So the thing that seems to get on your nerves
We ask for justice that we fucking deserve
I don’t need no white validation
I don’t need it ‘cause you’re never gonna give it up
I’m tired of so much pain
Exhausted, accosted everyday
You see our needs but save yourself
I play the race card because it’s the one you’ve dealt
I don’t need no white validation
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