Atrocious how the notion of race wrote in the Constitution 3/5 a human being no matter how its phrased we losin Thomas Jefferson, a slave rapin abomination Wrote all men are created equal but not the women he laid with Blacks and women property, they thought of we as stock Afraid of us in every way, they had us under lock Cuz women were the wisdom keepers, blacks the line of kings Couldn’t lose control of us, we’d topple their regime So they wrote us out of history pretend we never existed But here we are in front of them pumpin double fisted And because we wont be silenced, or resign to being slaves Their method is to kill us or keep us in a cage Black-Lives-Mat-ter That’s a fact, not up for debate If it pisses you off, that I recognize this; great I’ma keep sayin it, till this system change 5% the world, 25% the inmates 12 million Disenfranchised Can’t vote in any race Daren Wilson not anomalous that’s the way they train And the way the laws are written to keep us blacks in place Tagets in a post-racial society Where Black and Brown lack our notoriety Social Darwinism, Eugenics, in the mix But the public loves deny that any of this exists Far too long, have we permitted these attrocities To rip through our people destroying our cmmunities Working through the system with Respectability While Black males now listed as endangered species The People, have had enough, this is it Come hell or high water, bout to get what we’re comin to get Liberty, dignity, release from these chains It is our duty and our right to fight for and win change The D.O.C a mockery, Supreme Court Hypocrisy A system built on racist thought can never function properly Dimantle the structure, no piecemeal reforms BlackLivesMatter takes America by storm

Lyrics: Verse #1 Hate to feel change Hate to rearrange Hate that the truth is pouring on you like the rain not so innocent not so absent from the pain not so far removed and not so free from the blame hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt not while you still profit from the system that he built white guilt is spilt milk that's mopped up by my mother still leavin all your messes to be mopped up by another haven't yet learned your responsibility this shit is getting old my heart is turning cold my crew is growing bold and I don't hate to say, that, yo ass has been told and it's time to pay the piper, cuz the rooster has crowed on the new Jim Crow and the School-to-Prison Pipeline yo, the fantasy's gone the veil has been lifted the charade, a facade, that bandaged the system the fallacy intrinsic you thought that you could hide it and you thought that we would miss it but a band aid to a gushing wound always breaks through ended segregation the signs so blatant racist water fountains had children wishin was tradin places no voter registration face the kkk invasion burnin crosses, strange fruit hung throughout the nation Schwerner, Goodman, Chaney, Evars, Malcom X, and King The 60s nothin nice For the people seeking change Then the Civil Rights Act Johnson did not write that JFK put pen to page And had his life snatched But it ended Jim Crow In July of '64 Or so they thought The plot was thicker, harder to spot, the lot Your fathers trot, tied a new knot Mass incarceration Apartheid segregation Genocide by definition 1948 convention Relentless enslavement Under the guise of the most perfect justification Crime The 13th Amendment Edmond Burke sublime A wolf in sheep's clothing Should you read it line by line Convict leasing, keeps our markets subsidized And your wallets undefined But your fathers openly, rejected, war on poverty Focusing on individual ideology While privately acknowledging Destitutions role, filling penal colonies So the goal to sustain ghettos, to retain monopolies On wealth, controlling labor plantations, Black Belt Now behind walls in 3X9 cells, & it's hell as you know And this is what is called, the New Jim Crow Chorus Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built Hate to feel change, hate to rearrange Hate that the truth is pouring on you like the rain Not so innocent, not so absent from the pain Not so far removed and not so free from the blame Hate to feel change, hate to rearrange Hate that the truth is pouring on you like the rain Not so innocent, not so absent from the pain Not so far removed and not so free from the blame Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built Verse #2 It's not my fault I am not racist I have black friends I love black faces Hip hop's my shit I took some classes Know what the facts is Slavery was backwards Thank god it's over I pay my taxes Affirmative Action so awesome for black kids Who couldn't have made it Without their white saviors Forget that we made it Too dangerous to make it That black kid they killed, it tragic, I hate it But should have just taken that hood off then maybe He wouldn't have looked like a thug goin crazy Drugs are the problem If we could just solve it Interrupt commerce Prevent alcoholics And addicts from filling our streets with their nonsense I voted Obama The racisms gone, so why all the drama The noise and the clamor Justice is blind Respect the judge hammer And follow the law Or meet with the slammer The choices are your The response is of course We have to protect Our schools, neighborhoods From the gangs and the thieves And the people with needs Who don't have a home And are stealing to eat And can't get a job cuz then cannot compete No address to show Cuz they live in the streets So we need the police In force to keep order Keep people in place The bricks and the mortar Yet, it's not my fault, if, the data, is splattered With all of this blackness And empty semantics If it's in black and white Then it's got to be right Cuz the facts only show What has come to the light If they're 3X more likely to be kicked out of school Then they do not belong, this has got to be true The 50% chance to be locked in juvinile This has to be evidence of their lifestyle 70% more chance for them to go to prison & 85% will suffer recidivism But the systems not racist The case is just tasteless But face this as rhetoric traces, displaces Blaming victims in places we can't get The poverty, your fathers, they made it, sustain it Attempt to contain it, with social estrangement Cuz they meant as justification, To prove that what they did For sake of the nation, legit The logic they spit, you have imbibed it Subscribed it, deny it to wit That you and this system are racist, Concealing your thoughts in colorblind language Is still to put sugar on shit And the truth is much harsher than that Exploiting labor by funneling children Through a system that's public and called education Into the prisons, forced participation With reasons to blame all who don't make it Flagrant in nature is this And it's all done for the sake of profit Not to keep people safe But as long as you mock it Nothing will stop it Guilt will keep knocking Till you let it in The School-to-Prison Pipeline Was made by your fathers But so long as you profit Then there will be blood on your hands Chorus Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built Hate to feel change, hate to rearrange Hate that the truth is pouring on you like the rain Not so innocent, not so absent from the pain Not so far removed and not so free from the blame Hate to feel change, hate to rearrange Hate that the truth is pouring on you like the rain Not so innocent, not so absent from the pain Not so far removed and not so free from the blame Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built Hands won't wash clean of the blood your fathers spilt Not while you still profit from the system that he built

Troublin Horizon, who wants to see it comin Like, if we don’t perceive them, the problems mount to nothing Cops killing Brown and Black folx, sending us to prison, Ignoring is complicit, and it’s giving them permission to continue on their mission, to break us to submission, Using legislation, erasing the gains, been made, changing this racist system, but hate to listen to facts 22 states, have shredded, the Voters’ Rights Act Slippery and conniving, the laws begin to stack Like they did in Alabama where first they made a pact that all voters, had to have a driver’s license then closed the DMV’s, in the districts, mostly Black In 20-15, please don’t think I going back to the days of Assata, Rustin, and Malcom X Yes, the problem is complex, and it’s really goona mess With our comforts, and our stress and we may be bouncing checks but this racist, capitalist system hates our con-test So it’s vital, to our survival, to manifest more than apathetic resistance to their conquest yet, I must confess, I don’t really know how to beat them. I remember a time, when I thought ignorance was bliss A time when I thought staying out of it, was best I thought I could avoid some of the pitfalls ahead If I just kept my head down, and stayed focused on my tasks But then I got stopped, for driving while black And I was beaten, by two cops, nearly to death My brother received a double-maximum sentence And he was suffering from a horrendous addiction to meth And many of the friends I had while I was growing up Were behind bars and had children they couldn’t caress My mother’d gone to college and learned a machine press But couldn’t get hired in the field and she was the top of her class When I tried to get a job having a high school diploma a degree from Job Corps and some college enrollment I found the pavement a cold, desolate place of solace cuz the places I put in applications never called back Yeah, there was a time when I thought ignorance was bliss but that was before, I came to see, the interconnectedness of all our distresses, and the link between capitalism and the racist ideology that oppressed us Ignorance, isn’t bliss nothing missed will ever get fixed, while it’s in that abyss just permissed to exist expand to the cliffs precipitate rifts, till we’re lost in the mist, of defeat no retreat, from the streets where apathy meets, tunnel vision, something eats all ambition seeks, halted-incomplete justify the streak, wit, “It don’t affect me” Lies in the cheeks chippin at the teeth Knockin out the truth till it’s bleedin at my feet cuz I didn’t wanna see, and I, wouldn’t believe That, I had the power and compulsion to achieve, relief from the system, and its mission, imposition of conditions, beat resistance to submission in collision with how I perceive, myself and the position of my wealth, of heart I have, a part to play cuz the problems, don’t fade and they, don’t go away they don’t trail off, and become better days like rays of sunlight, cuz they never see the light of day

The system is a bitch That’s just the way it is Well, that’s what they tell me When they want me reticent Quite, docile, a drone That’s mindless Oblivious, inactive, and lost in innocence But implicit in the message is something hideous Something quick to miss But so insidious Like a cancer to my soul And a plague upon my spirit But their point is screaming loud if I have the heart to hear it I’m a threat to their way of life To cold butter, the hottest knife A free spirit, an open mind Not blinded by the media, why I’m seeing through my third eye It’s My submission they require for me to turn a blind eye To the minarets, obelisks, and spires in the sky Symbols meant to inspire dominance and power But they just conceal the deepest lie Without me they have nothing Are nothing, Achieve nothing Because it’s from me Which their power derives Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin I’m a teacher to the people, sortin out all the confusion Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin My voice is a weapon, let this be a message to them What they want is me to stay in school Go to college, get a job, rack up debt, become a slave, to the money system pyramid, get married, have some kids, drive a car, dependent on their fossil fuels and buy a house falling victim to the money pit. What I thought was the “American Dream” turns out, to be just a scheme The consequence of seeing What’s between the lines I’m reading Cuz if I’m focused every minute on how to stay afloat This Detracts attention from the rope I weaving and tying around my throat Hence, the mindless drone Too busy to be concerned with the fact I’m disillusioned, uninspired, and being burned By a system, spiraling, out of control One that I never consigned, endorsed, or voted for And all that is required for the system to remain Just the way it is, because that’s the way it is Is to do the same & remain reticent Silence my objection To the system and its aim Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin I’m a teacher to the people, sortin out all the confusion Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin My voice is a weapon, let this be a message to them Cuz they’re placed above women Men remain silent Cuz they’re placed above blacks Whites remain silent Cuz they’re placed above the poor The Rich remain silent Cuz they’re placed above indigenous Industries remain silent Fabricated divisions and social constructions Designed to justify and motivate fallacious deductions But reverse the situation and realign the circumstances With memory of former privileges and find that it enhances My scope of what is just, equitable, and fair; this the Original Position behind the Veil of Ignorance If I wouldn’t accept the life of one I consider lesser Because it is lesser, then how can that life be right? When that life is constrained to be at its level of plight By the system, I, remain silent against them Protecting my position Like it’s given Then I deserve blame Like the author of this imposition Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin I’m a teacher to the people, sortin out all the confusion Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin My voice is a weapon, let this be a message to them If the system stays unchecked, Unquestioned, and erect Then what I know to be wrong Will persist in effect The 1%, express will continue to oppress And dominate the politics that got us so repressed Under this Panopticon The N.S.A. they got us on Watch, we the enemy To suffocate the energy who challenge them the effigy The FEDs’ll be, declaring me, a threat to peace, for speakin FREE On issues like the New Jim Crow and Climate Change The Glass Steagall Act Repealed, the credit runs away The IPCC warning bout 2° of change C’0’2 from Fossil Fuel to environment the bane Infringements on social justice Killing tribes for land Supplanting rulers in countries Nicaragua to Iran No they don’t want me to speak Or to have an open mind But I won’t be reticent because I was born to rhyme Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin I’m a teacher to the people, sortin out all the confusion Have a voice use it, if I don’t I will lose it Ain’t no stoppin me puttin message to the music I’m an emcee and a griot beyond what is I am choosin My voice is a weapon, let this be a message to them

Had to make it PHAT, had to take it back Had to rep for a culture that the roots are reaching Black Beautiful, Powerful, Indisputably Immutable The history a crucible, the music is a tool to use Cathartic when it needs to be, hard to beat society At times, the rhymes, plant the seeds we need to breathe Through police brutality, fatalities, impunity the root of e-vil, our people see the enemy An internal colony, Fanon saw the tragedy Overseer to officer, KRS, a prodigy His progeny, are challenging, violence’s monopoly By the state, the fate of which, attempt to claim us property Hip Hop is the voice/ and the weapon of choice! Since Grand Master Flash and DMC were making noise Cuz with the “Message,” hood pov-erty, was being challenged & “Fuck the Police,” expounded on that knowledge My roots are reaching Black to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob To Lauren Hill and them all My roots are reaching Black To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown that’s the tip that I’m on My roots are reaching Black to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation Cuz our history’s bomb My roots are reaching Black Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul Yo! The revolution’s on! Not to say it’s not a party music, wouldn’t be true It’s the part of the genre, we be celebrating to Get ya club on, ya dance on, or smoke a blunt to Or, however you hang, when you’re chillin wit your crew Don’t be fooled, “Walk Ruff and Stuff with yo Afro Puffs” Was Black Power, to the core, filled with Black Love challenging pat-riarchy, white standards of beauty And Internalized Oppression with con-tinuity Queen Latifa, a master emcee Blessed us with her presence in the 1980s scene & Helped to make the music what it is to you and me So Lauren Hill could call out “Politrixions” with the Fugees While Bill Clinton, prison warden, playin the sax Signed into law, the 1994, Crime Act No more education in the prison labor system & 3 Strikes was made law by those Politrixions My roots are reaching Black to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob To Lauren Hill and them all My roots are reaching Black To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown that’s the tip that I’m on My roots are reaching Black to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation Cuz our history’s bomb My roots are reaching Black Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul Yo! The revolution’s on! What is problematic, was the corporate takeover of a cultural art form, meant to restore the pride of our people, integrity the needle The One’s and Two’s, the Wheels of Steel, spinnin through to freedom When they moved in and sup-planted, their business model & Threw down the throttle on producin gangsta bauble to make a Modern-Day-Minstrel, Black Face, metropolis but a Dangerous Black, outta control, was all you got from this While the War on Drugs, was being waged, out on our Streets The Reagans and the Clintons, were pulling back their sheets Stereotypes, that fed the hype, of the white supremist blight and the P.I.C. was being formed right in plain sight, With these images that the corporations spun about us The public in Amerika, had no doubt, about us Thank god the Underground rose to challenge all this B.S. Where people like Mos Def and Immortal Technique flourished My roots are reaching Black to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob To Lauren Hill and them all My roots are reaching Black To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown that’s the tip that I’m on My roots are reaching Black to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation Cuz our history’s bomb My roots are reaching Black Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul Yo! The revolution’s on! The sound of resistance, the people and the message Answering the questions, most pressing to the masses Ripping through the truth, conflicting our community Familiar and sad, like, this is nothing new to me Jobs are always fleeting degrading our sense of worth Our schools so deplorable it’s education that hurts Drugs on the streets, but don’t own a poppy field The youth are packing heat for safety, can we be real Red Lining, White Flight, Welfare, Ghettos Out-sourcing, Globalization, yup and there goes The neighborhood, with the manufacturing work To other countries, into prisons, where they’re getting paid dirt 150 years from slavery, but ain’t much changed Time to claim the economic means and shatter these chains Hip Hop, the voice of the oppressed and the poor So, I’m wit LL Cool J, “It’s time for war!” My roots are reaching Black to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob To Lauren Hill and them all My roots are reaching Black To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown that’s the tip that I’m on My roots are reaching Black to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation Cuz our history’s bomb My roots are reaching Black Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul Yo! The revolution’s on!

Lyrics Verse #1 I understand why you might have felt like this did not concern you before, They had us tricked, they had us believing climate change only effected polar bears, And environmental issues were something only rich yuppies were to be concerned with, But they were wrong, this effects you, this effects us all, But it's effecting the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest, and it's happening now, And we are all responsible, some of us more than others, And since it took all of us to create this problem, it will take all of us to solve it, It will take collective action to change our culture From consumerism to community driven From fossil fuel to fossil free We can create this green economy Verse #2 The climate is broken, 2 degrees of change CO2 and fossil fuel, now come to be the bane Of human existence, acid falling with the rain Lakes are drying up, tides are rising in the bays Sea walls are failing, Katrina, hurricane And islands disappearing, underneath the waves As the temperature rises, still dealing with disguises For the truth, not peeping all the facts of the science Economic spendin, needin power for the mendin The government relentless in its aim to defend it But we're over using carbon sinks, push us to the brink Yet what will we think, when half the Tropics, go extinct Can't convert the air we breathe, dealing with the enemy Droughts become a common thing, stopping folks from growing wheat Now we're starving, can't compete Global markets, looking bleak Farmlands turn to deserts only the rich can take the heat The problem is unfortunate, the ones most responsible The ones least impacted, nominal, demonstrable Carbon foot print, we're using four earths worth Of our resources, we're made consumers from birth For the heat, the lights, the tv nights Fast food, cheap gas, precooked rice Cell phones, new clothes, boxing fights Seahawks, loan sharks, all our lives But over consumin the people that's doin the work we need to grow our food We quicken to ruin while steady pursuin not payin no heed to slow the crude Oil from spillin, gases, hit the ceilin Atmosphere, limits revealing Tragedy, the Commons appealing, dilemma the heart of the villain It's killin the drive, the motive desire To make a change, when people free-ride Acting in their self-interest while discounting the public's The government must assert its influence Limit production, laden with taxes, Research, develop, along renewable's axis Revealing the truth of the cost of our actions It's only a burden so long as we lack it But reeling the slack in, unveiling the package We're killin ourselves while practicing frackin How can we fight against a problem so embedded in our system When the victories we win are barely treating all the symptoms And why are politicians able to deny with conviction While climate champions in congress be playing the victims The divisions a sick one, and points to one solution With citizen's initiative, we can limit our pollution And every single person chipping in their contribution We can begin to take our power back and build the revolution Through protests and petitions, we'll hit the streets with a mission Use our passions to convey not just a crisis, but vision Of a future where the people make the final decision About the health and equity of the world we want to live in https://youtu.be/Gx3AFpNhojI

Verse #1 Hope, is the energy, that enables us to see, & to believe, that, something, better than this can be Is more fragile, than the glimmer of a whisper on the wind But a hint, a bit fragrant, of a day that could begin Yet, could also portend, that the good is at its end A trend not unlike the rend of the climate changing bend So it has to be protected, guarded at all costs Because without its, motivation, we are all lost The strange dichotomy, is that it also causes anger To erupt from our beings as a volcanic estrangement Yo, without the belief that things could be different We would never think that things should be different When men rape women it wouldn't infuriate us so When cops execute the innocent, be just the way it go Not the outrage expressed by the women in Brazil After a woman was gang raped by 30 men ill & when the police beat Freddy Gray shatterin skeleton Baltimore woult not have erupted into open rebellion But because we know it's possible, demonstrable The lot of you, will hope it's true and that it's more than probable For a world to exist, without the patriarchal lineage Misogyny, oppression, domination, privilege Denial of humanity to half of our species Traumatizing, victim blaming, or glass ceiling pieces Rather, a world without male entitlement to body Where women have complete autonomy and equality Free to move through city and home without a threat 1 in 3 women world wide abused is quite a debt The structure of a system, male written and inhabited Police to protect the masculine ego sensitive phallic 100 years only been 235 Congress Women But over 11,000 men have led this country to ruin It's hope that compels us, tells us, what can be That pushes us beyond what is now and impossibility Fills our veins and our minds with a vigor and a drive To survive two stars colliding and to remain alive Chorus Needing something to believe in Nothing better than our FREEDOM Needing something to believe in Nothing better than our FREEDOM Nothing better than our FREEDOM Than our FREEDOM, our FREEDOM Verse #2 When all the lights go out, I'm filled with doubt What's it about, I just don't know, afraid to count On anything in any route, cuz it seems like no amount Will overcome the circumstances, and their ain't no 2nd chances I'm not findin no answers, in their books or in their schools The rules, they write they just confuse, conflate the matter and abuse The issue is a finite ruse, but just consume and choose to Lose the home I'm claiming whose, lands are these Anyway, wars and bombs, guns and arms, crooked deals that Sound alarms, but no one cares to listen When the children come up missin, on a mission into prison, or trafficking In human beings, the reason is it seems, even people Have a value, when equated with mere things So devastation, genocide, enslavement, atom bombs Nagasaki, deforestation, climate change, it's on Depleting water sources, GMOs and Viet Nam Zika virus, sinking islands, Global South, the burden strong Anti-Blackness is a fascist, the fastest, tragic of the masses Data flaccid, lacking intersectionality How oppressions stack upon our backs till we can barely breathe And when the imes are at their hardest, Colloquially the darkest When money is it's shortest and bills are at their largest That's the moment we need to harvest, the deepest hope to harness But with the faith of a mustard seed, mountains, raised to the sea Moved or transformed to belief And will spread with the veracity of scottsbroom weed Impossible to kill, the resistance in the people The conviction of us lethal, regal, dealin with the realest appeal To the trill of the mill, turnin wheel, spinnin fate, it's time to eat we're after the meal The scent of the scrill, the tangible in our fingers will When all is lost, all that's left, is hope, and it explodes From the most unexpected locations, cascading Into a positive feedback of revolution Chorus Needing something to believe in Nothing better than our FREEDOM Needing something to believe in Nothing better than our FREEDOM Nothing better than our FREEDOM Than our FREEDOM, our FREEDOM

Lyrics: Answering the call of war we ran into the streets Blood had spilled, the cops had killed, revenge was looking sweet Didn’t matter who you were, or what neighborhood you from All that mattered, was that, with this system, you were done! The horns and the drums, fire poundin in our hearts Raging through our veins, was an anger off the charts Black, White, Asian, Native, Mexican, we all Knew this racist, white supremist system had to fall Downtown to Westlake, where all of us converged Hands Up! Don’t Shoot! Was the war-cry that emerged As we took over the streets, people steady flooding in Bringing traffic to a halt, the movement had began A fight for Human Rights, for Dignity and Life A fight for Respect, Liberty the Right To go to the store and to make it home alive Cuz it’s nearly, impossible, to be Black, and to survive The gauntlet of the school system not going to jail a prisoner, a slave, told we can do naught but to fail While a system of laws, written to, protect, us all We wanted to know that cops were not above the law Due Process, that precious 5th Amendment clause They are neither judge nor jury, but they’re acting without pause And while none of this is new to a people who’ve seen the worst Daren Wilson’s, non-indictment, is what pushed us to subverse! We will have struggle Won’t be defeated We will have justice Won’t be defeated We will have freedom Won’t be defeated Working Together we will have our Victory We will have struggle Won’t be defeated We will have justice Won’t be defeated We will have freedom Won’t be defeated Working Together we will have our Victory Marching through the streets, was simply not enough Police came gassed up, turtle suits, and billy clubs Seattle Mayor Murray, Chief O’Toole, and Bruce Harrell, Our supposed ‘Civil Rights, City Hall Official’ failed To recognize and respect, our Right, to assemble To petition our government, for grievances, rendered And instead authorized paramilitary troops To stifle Free Speech, and Suppress the People whose Intent was to acquire equal unbiased treatment Guaranteed, in the 14th, Amendment achievement In 1868, and over a hundred years later Still waiting, hence my reason for being an Agitator The people grew complacent, felt comfort in their ignorance So, there was nothing left but Civil Disobedience They disregarded us at city hall and public meetings Labeled hooligans thugs, with anarchist leanings Negotiation failed, and out gunned and out strategized We recognized, to mobilize, we had to organize ourselves If we meant to win against a system generations fixed & that, is why, we created OA206 We will have struggle Won’t be defeated We will have justice Won’t be defeated We will have freedom Won’t be defeated Working Together we will have our Victory We will have struggle Won’t be defeated We will have justice Won’t be defeated We will have freedom Won’t be defeated Working Together we will have our Victory We hit the streets, we had to, people were dying All were upset, the government was conspiring State Sanctioned Violence, was claiming our people’s lives Impunity ubiquitous, getting off left and right Martin, Brown, Garner, Rice, and Boyd Their killers walked free, everyone was annoyed Darren Wilson made half a mil with network ABC Adding insult to injury, we just couldn’t believe Being Black, was not, a precondition, for anger But in the protracted struggle, color became a hang-up First there was a split between the Brown and the White Which, made perfect sense given the White Supremist plight Then Black only spaces formed, to lead the struggle Cuz One, should, rumble for their freedom, un-muzzled But to deny, the vital intellect and the skills Of a person, based on race, is a practice that kills Black people suffering from internalized oppression A festering pestilence, ushered death from within & From the depths of deception, character assassination Followed the path of this nation, down to the heart of black hatred; This is where O.A. Split, and though, now it is clear that the spiritual harms we came with left us unprepared to truly unify against this Totalitarian Regime We’re healing wounds and righting wrongs, that go back centuries We will have struggle Won’t be defeated We will have justice Won’t be defeated We will have freedom Won’t be defeated Working Together we will have our Victory We will have struggle Won’t be defeated We will have justice Won’t be defeated We will have freedom Won’t be defeated Working Together we will have our Victory

Lyrics: Bet, we matter! Verse 1: Imagine if you will Our folx in their offices people in their prisons & students at their colleges Chose not to show up, for work, one day Not forever, but just, for the same day Cuz the sectors we occupy The whole system disarray It’ll makes the Status Quo: hit the breaks! this is some of the power, we have, in the game, today We have immense power in this world today/ Black Power! In the Fray Douglass said we will only suffer the level of tyranny that we accept cuz complicitly going along with a system designed to break us, is in effect the removal of our values and self-respect/ It’s clear from the protests, We’re not happy with conditions Killer police, broken schools Or Our brothers and sisters in prisons/ But if we disagree, why participate And If our lives don’t matter to them, then why should we stay Why not stray and drop our roles, let them fend for their own goals Let the Traffic technicians, Walk away from controls & let their traffic, come down to a screeching holt Don’t sabotage it, Merely fail to comply with the system we know Think about what would happen if we just—let—go / Verse 2: Let Black Marines, stop shooting global P.O.C. Leaving blockades, discarding, weapons in the heat Thinning ranks, Dank Not sacrificing lives for those who don’t thank Or spread value after tanks, stop firing Drop, tools at gates Leave, mops in bins Stop constructing, cleaning buildings That we’re never meant to live/ Quit buying into gimmicks Cuz national wellbeing Measured, by economics not how we do within it/ Maybe money’s all they hear Lack thereof is what they fear Love the banks that hold it dear Could be time to interfere Pull our cash (that) they’re investing Fractal, interesting Gambling, our nest eggs On things we’ll never see/ But they cannot spend, what they do not have When their coffers empty because we grab, our money Think it’s funny, till there is no milk and honey/ The financial system’s delicate We have the power to stall it merely, By not complying Though a bank run’s what they’ll call it/ But recall red lines, restrictive covenants, been played for puppets, Like the Muppets Since the 13th Amendment heard trumpets/ Fingers in markets, Augmenting profits, for generations, Divestment of Property, Grand Larceny, Properly, Probably costing, the nation’s chance to make it rapin the system// skatin permission Awaitin division, derision isn’t just revolutionary But a responsibility, to the children we’re raisin/ We have the power, to stop gentrification, to unhinge racialized degradation & State sanctioned violence By refraining our participation Verse 3: Now imagine if you will, That some of this is done, Or that, all of it is done, and it’s, all done at once/ We stop participating, Reciprocating, victim blaming/ Patient waiting & instead we move to vindicating Retracting from a system, That hates our being, By neglecting, to comply with, The status quo regime/ Cuz, that’s been a routine that leads to our demise One filled with (endless) crimes Impunity, tears, and lies/ A system that fails to educate, and liberate But consummates prisons, kills our children clean slate One that Rapes, emasculates, and otherwise derogates men and women, changing fates, weaving gates to hold in place But depends upon us To perform roles honest will come to a, crashing halt Like; “who is John Galt?”/ That’s the power we have, and it’s a power we’ve used those in the Civil Rights Movement Knew it through and through brought the system to its knees by not complying to please Or seeking negative peace For small measure release But after Martin Luther King started stating these things And people began seeing How, it’s true and it rings he was shot dead, in the head, at Loraine Motel, Now, only time will tell, if a new J. Edgar Hoover will decide to spell, COINTELPRO, at the top of a file because they fear the rise of a “Black Messiah” Verse 4: They claim through their behaviors that our lives do not matter But all of that is chatter, & the static of denial reality is that We matter, more than they can fathom Back to Atom, through the stratum, through (their) historical datum Jesus was a Black man, and we’d have no mathematics Astronomy, architecture, religion, acrobatics Without our blackness, fact is, every factor good here Would smash to backwards/ Neanderthal stomping cave dancers for those of us alive today, our presence holds a weight (that) they cannot escape, their fate is sealed with ours, but they love to fabricate a trace of dominance while the truth is that they are nothing more than cowards Respect the truth, inform the youth, and choose We’ll only suffer, the tyranny We allow to get through By participating, we’re insinuating consent To a system that none of us agrees to You see; We are powerful! Black is Beautiful! Black Power is Immutable! You see; We are powerful! Black is Beautiful! Black Power is Immutable! Just Imagine what will happen when we use it…

Chorus We Rise, can't hold us down We Rise, We Rise We Rise Hate crimes, land mines, long lines, steep fines Police, Jim Crow, vote rights, jail time We Rise, and over come We Rise, We Rise, We Rise Scholars, ballers, mothers, fathers Teachers, griots, sheroes, gods Verse #1 Living in a racist state Trump denyin climate change Poised to take our rights away Going after Roe v. Wade Closin down the border Stop & Frisk to maintain order The KKK parade And hate crime sweeps like ebola Red spreads across the map Strain a die has been cast The House, the Senate lost Ya'll how long can it last Feels the sun will never raise Reminiscing better days The sountry set ablaze Greatness goin down in flames On twitter in a haze The pres elect dazed Shit, even Bush abstained From voting in this race Republic has been stained Rapist at the head of state Copy cats groping women Culprits lacking any shame Police arresting victims Merely trying to escape The racist xenophobic bigots Aim to beat and rape Keep thinking to myself Yo, when was it great When was it white How then gone make How many will they hurt Guiliani & Arpio Racial profiling Made legal nation wild Deportation garrisons Not safe to be brown These Trumps working hard to Turn our world upside down Chorus We Rise, can't hold us down We Rise, We Rise We Rise Hate crimes, land mines, long lines, steep fines Police, Jim Crow, vote rights, jail time We Rise, and over come We Rise, We Rise, We Rise Scholars, ballers, mothers, fathers Teachers, griots, sheroes, gods Verse #2 Friends afraid to leave home Scared it could be lethal To be caught alone Cuz the white lash is real, yo Emboldened by a Wallace Trash talkin polis A novice to the office That doesn't rep the people Promotes rape culture Not reproductive rights The spike in I.U.D. requests A preemptive strike The racism denied By a public color-blind Disgorges from its camouflage But there's nothing new about this entourage Bridge Never stop, never not been struggle Always fight, for the folx we're lovin Been through, hell as a people and come up Against all odds, cuz our faith be stronger We have hope, cuz our vision is longer We rise, en masse, power in number Pincer, flank, leave no escape open Protest, politics, economics, Snowden Filabuster everything, till docket be swollen Boycott, strike, hit'em where it hurts chok'em Take up arms, if it goes there, Panthers Flood with art, poet, hip hop, dancers It's our duty, to win our, FREEDOM By any means necessary, we will, beat'em We been through worse And overcome hard And now it's time To play our Trump card Verse #3 For us to ever make This america great Which it's never really been for all, here is what's at stake the colonizer's offspring expatriation enormous debts repaid enforced through reparations the Buffalo, free to roam The #DAPL gone, a cap put on emissions Muslims have the freedom of religion We achieve, and, then we keep Black and Brown liberation Bring an end to LGBTQ Discrimination Displacin men, deflatin Patriarchy's foundation Restoring Matriarchal; Leadership's concentration Abolish deportation & the U.S. Constitution's crime clauses In the 13th & 14th Amendments Chorus We Rise, can't hold us down We Rise, We Rise We Rise Hate crimes, land mines, long lines, steep fines Police, Jim Crow, vote rights, jail time We Rise, and over come We Rise, We Rise, We Rise Scholars, ballers, mothers, fathers Teachers, griots, sheroes, gods