Song information On this page you can read the lyrics of the song Foreward, 1619 , by - Sho Baraka. Song from the album The Narrative Expanded, in the genre Рэп и хип-хопRelease date: 20.10.2016
Record label: Humble Beast
Song language: English
Foreward, 1619 |
| The devil goes to and fro |
| Like a lion seeking someone to devour |
| Resist him |
| Don’t close the book, I got more to write |
| You can change the story, that is my advice |
| I read in color, they see black and white |
| You just saw the cover, but there’s more to life |
| Don’t close the book, I got more to write |
| You can change the story, that is my advice |
| I read in color, they see black and white |
| You just saw the cover, but there’s more to life |
| Yeah, hello |
| Quick introduction before I narrate |
| I’m from the west, between Cornel and Kanye |
| I grew up between section eight and cloud nine |
| During my youth I lost my sense of being colorblind |
| In between white supremacy and black nihilism |
| AME churches, corner stores and the prison systems |
| Hoteps and preachers on the block, they was dropping wisdom |
| I would pick it up and just give it a little rhythm |
| They said my lineage had a couple of kings |
| A couple queens, a couple thieves, a couple fiends |
| Despite the struggle, I would teach that we are equal |
| I fall short like a midget but I’m down for the people |
| The people, argue I died with integration |
| Their false liberation is really assimilation |
| The youth view my history with some suspicion |
| They wanna progress past religion and tradition |
| I say |
| Don’t close the book, I got more to write |
| You can change the story, that is my advice |
| I read in color, they see black and white |
| You just saw the cover, but there’s more to life |
| Don’t close the book, I got more to write |
| You can change the story, that is my advice |
| I read in color, they see black and white |
| You just saw the cover, but there’s more to life |
| Hello average, let me introduce you to awesome |
| That Harlem renaissance age had some excellent artists |
| That miseducation, that midnight marauding |
| That life before Eve ate that fruit in the garden |
| They say 'You might be on the wrong side of history' |
| Well, that depends on who’s writing |
| Who’s reciting, who’s typing and who likes it |
| If we want peace somebody has to do the fighting |
| We exit Egypt, happy to speak resistance |
| Then turn around, and ask pharaoh for his assistance |
| Huh, what is logic to the ignorant? |
| What’s forgiveness to people who think they’re sinless? |
| We are those, fully exposed, Adam and Eve hiding our weakness |
| Folks who wanna be close but the devil stands between us |
| Who knows the dirty souls with an urgent need to be cleaned up |
| They oppose my solution, everybody hates Jesus |
| Don’t close the book, I got more to write |
| You can change the story, that is my advice |
| I read in color, they see black and white |
| You just saw the cover, but there’s more to life |
| Don’t close the book, I got more to write |
| You can change the story, that is my advice |
| I read in color, they see black and white |
| You just saw the cover, but there’s more to life |
| Yeah, what’s protest to the law? |
| Should I pray or should I riot? |
| Do I want peace, or do I want power so I can try it? |
| Who’s gonna give the truth when these church moms retire? |
| When censorship gets you fired and nobody gets inspired |
| I don’t care what you look like, black, white or magenta |
| I don’t care where you come from, Africa or placenta |
| We all desperate and broken, given the same dilemma |
| Do I serve God, or do I make off in my agenda? |
| I remember thinking I was Daniel with the lions |
| I’m like Israel in hiding when it’s time to fight Goliath |
| I’ve been broken, I’ve seen death working |
| I’ve fought doubt, I’ve been knocked out, I know what hurt is |
| I run from the truth, but I know where the church is |
| I failed doing my job but yet I know my purpose |
| Praise Jesus I was blind but now I see |
| But my problem is I think I see too many things |
| Let us chiropractic crack open the spine of this book |
| Turn a few pages and take a deep look |
| This is not the Catcher in the Rye |
| This is the African who caught the slave catcher’s eye |
| An invisible man who has the whole world watching |
| Shall we meet the protagonist? |
| For I am the colored cog in the capitalist wheel |
| With baby faced bronze skin and melanin appeal snatched from the cradle of |
| civilization |
| My name is Louis Portier |
| Arrived on these shores but I’ve got more to say |
| From Bali to Barbados to Beaufort, South Carolina |
| Sierra Leone to Sapelo, with |
| Sugar cane on my fingertips and shackles on my feet |
| There were limitations to emancipating me until I sunk my tooth into Juneteenth |
| Freedom tastes like grandma’s sweet potato pie |
| But it goes from master’s plantation to mass incarceration |
| As the Jim Crow flies, all of this happened, more or less |
| This is Up From Slavery, meets Porgy and Bess |
| August Wilson, and Kenya Barris |
| James Brown and James Burr |
| Kehinde Wiley, and Kara Walker |
| George Carrothers, Clinton and Washington |
| Carver, the great migration and reconstruction |
| From black wall streets, to Harlem Artilliers |
| This is black survival and success, put on full display |
| Whether it’s the Little Rock, or the Charleston Nine |
| Trying to integrate, or praying to stay alive |
| Thinking that if my work was good somehow y’all would recognize my personhood |
| But nah, instead I had to hustle this chocolate charm |
| This black brilliance, this ebony ingenuity |
| I know what this nation has done, can do, and is doing to me |
| Also what it could be and therefore still, I rise |
| From 1619 and beyond here I stand |
| From being three-fifths of a compromised plan |
| Using the breath in my black lungs |
| Shouting words from a place of black love |
| 'I am a man' |