Black

[00:22.64] Look, black is beautiful, black is excellent
[00:26.23] Black is pain, black is joy, black is evident
[00:28.79] It's working twice as hard
[00:29.89] As the people you know you're better than
[00:31.59] 'Cause you need to do double what they do
[00:33.26] So you can level them
[00:34.36] Black is so much deeper than just African-American
[00:37.13] Our heritage been severed, you never got to experiment
[00:39.94] With family trees
[00:41.24] 'Cause they teach you 'bout famine and greed
[00:43.12] And show you pictures of our fam' on their knees
[00:45.47] Tell us we used to be barbaric
[00:47.28] We had actual queens
[00:48.50] Black is watchin' child soldiers gettin' killed by other children
[00:51.34] Feelin' sick, like, oh shit, this could have happened to me
[00:53.90] Your mummy watchin' tellin' stories about your dad and your niece
[00:57.67] The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice
[00:59.76] A kid dies, the blacker the killer, the sweeter the news
[01:02.87] And if he's white you give him a chance
[01:04.47] He's ill and confused
[01:05.73] If he's black he's probably armed
[01:07.20] You see him and shoot
[01:08.34] Look, black is growin' up around the barbershop
[01:11.51] Mummy sayin', stay away from trouble, you're in yard a lot
[01:14.42] Studying for ages, appreciating the chance you got
[01:17.33] 'Cause black is in your blood
[01:18.45] And you ain't even got the heart to stop
[01:20.14] Black is steppin' in for your mother
[01:22.01] Because your father's gone
[01:22.96] And standin' by your children
[01:24.18] When you haven't proven karma wrong
[01:26.06] Black is doin' all of the above then goin' corner shoppin'
[01:28.79] Tryna help a lady cross the road to have her walkin' off
[01:31.57] Black is growin' up around your family and makin' it
[01:34.45] Then being forced to leave the place you love
[01:36.18] Because there's hate in it
[01:37.34] People say you fake the shit
[01:38.62] Never stayed to change the shit
[01:40.12] But black is being jealous, you'd be dead if you had stayed in it
[01:43.18] Black is strugglin' to find your history or trace the shit
[01:45.77] You don't know the truth about your race
[01:47.54] 'Cause they're erasing it
[01:48.86] Black has got a sour fuckin' flavour, here's a taste of it
[01:51.45] But black is all I know
[01:52.54] There ain't a thing that I would change in it
[01:55.57]
[02:05.50] Look, black ain't just a single fuckin' colour
[02:07.76] Man there's shades to it
[02:08.81] Her hair's straight and thick but mine's got waves in it
[02:11.47] Black is not divisive, they been lyin' and I hate the shit
[02:14.33] Black has never been a competition
[02:16.28] We don't make this shit
[02:17.51] Black is deadly
[02:18.74] Black is when you're freezin' in your home
[02:20.42] And you can't get sleep but never feelin' empty
[02:22.81] 'Cause you got 20 cousins in your country living stress-free
[02:25.76] Walkin' for their water, daughter wrapped inside a bed sheet
[02:28.76] Black is distant, it's representin' countries
[02:31.55] That never even existed while your grandmother was livin'
[02:34.31] Black is my Ghanaian brother readin' into scriptures
[02:37.17] Doing research on his lineage
[02:38.52] Finding out that he's Egyptian
[02:40.29] Black is people namin' your countries on what they trade most
[02:43.13] Coast of Ivory, Gold Coast, and the Grain Coast
[02:45.92] But most importantly to show how deep all this pain goes
[02:48.57] West Africa, Benin, they called it slave coast
[02:51.59] Black is so confusing, 'cause the culture?
[02:53.10] They're in love with it
[02:54.31] They take our features when they want and have their fun with it
[02:57.42] Never seem to help with all the things we know would come with it
[03:00.12] Loud in our laughter, silent in our suffering
[03:02.80] Black is bein' strong inside and facing defeat
[03:05.39] Poverty made me a beast, I battled the law in the streets
[03:08.36] We all struggled
[03:09.16] But your struggle ain't a struggle like me
[03:10.94] Well how could it be when your people gave us the odds that we beat?
[03:13.81] I mean, fuckin' hell
[03:15.07] What about our brothers that are stuck in jail?
[03:17.21] That couldn't bust a bell, they held a bird and gotta live with it
[03:20.02] Black is being guilty until proven that you're innocent
[03:22.94] Black is sayin'
[03:23.64] Free my fuckin' niggas stuck inside in prison cells
[03:26.21] They think it's funny, we ain't got nothin' to say to them
[03:28.75] Unconditional love is strange to them, it's amazing 'em
[03:31.58] Black is like the sweetest fuckin' flavour
[03:33.43] Here's a taste of it
[03:34.46] But black is all I know
[03:35.65] There ain't a thing that I would change in it
[03:36.57]