It's a hard pill to swallow
When the laws you follow
Are enforced on land your ancestors were wrongfully mounted on
And the very principles this country is founded on
Can't be counted on in time of crisis and confusion
What an illusion they've pulled off on us
Misused and lost our trust too many times
But ain't too many rhymes been written 'bout this
So I'm pissed
Cause for some odd reason we feel like it's better that less is said
But for God's sake n***as, they left us for dead, dying.
And there's no denying them fathers crying with their family's sidewalk written
What was so cleverly hidden is now in plain vision for all to see
We want ya'll to see how this country does its poor and downtrodden
This is an instance that must not be forgotten, this for keeps
Long after the media sweeps, political name-callin' and lyin'
Cinematography to desensitize the eyes
So we don't cry no more when we see people dying in despair
We don't care, we just change the station
We live in a nation where the poor have nothin' but time to spend so we left waitin'
Tailgatin' floodwaters outside the Superdome
Home no more, show no more love than some of them third world countries we take over
This the real rape over
And this ain't young bull frustrated emotion, this is grown man rationale
Hard to admit my nationale— don't give a f** about its own
But the evidence is clear, we could stack it up
Kanye made a statement, Ice here to back it up
It's true, we live in a beautiful world but ugly souls push the bu*tons,
The gluttons of society
Top priority, makin' sure the rich folk stay rich folk
Pitchfork type thinkin'
New Orleans been sinkin'
This ain't a new issue, the 9th Ward been the tissue that the city wipes its a** with
Like in the past with the first flood,
Way before Bush contracted Halliburton to restore back the order,
They used dead black bodies to try and hold back the water
Such disorder in a country that burns so much money
I'm tellin' you, you learn so much money when you just open up a book and look inside
That's where they hide the evidence
These f**ed up presidents and they constituents pit you against your own mind here
f** up your mind here, yeah
They got opportunities and jobs for the poor
It's called prison life and warfare, n***a
That's your share of the American pie
But you gotta lie, steal and cheat to get it
Step on somebody's feet to get it
And our toes have been swollen for so long, they do us so wrong
But we just stand there and take it
Nature rips the mask off so now they can't fake it
We stand here buck naked n***a, this is your nation's poor
But you still turn around and ask us for our kids for war
And them battalions from the Bayeou that don't know what they over there fightin' for
What the f** can you possibly say to them
When they learn their parents died
Casualties of the war on poverty
Waitin' for help outside a f**in' stadium