[Intro:]
To my dearest baby Joshua
Are you infatuated with the color of your skin?
Are you obsessed with the intensity of your complexion?
Black meaning
Presence of strength
Presence of soul
Presence of confidence
Or black meaning
Absence of color
Absence of father
Absence of morals
What stereotype do you blast to tune out static to?
[Verse 1:]
I can never watch the sunset from the noose
Every cloud a rich man hides inside
Holds a rope that a poor man can bear as a noose
I can never view a waterfall from a pool
A paradise lost in a paradise tossed
If I gamble all my life by a slice of the fruit
Adam and Eve want to preach to the youth
Preach to the youth
Preach to the youth
Adam and Eve want to preach to the youth
Stumbled in my asics cause I never knew balance
Or four legged snakes was strictly biblical truth
Troubled since a youth
I remember bathroom mirror spelling blood with my fingers
Trying to properly pronounce suwoop
Young black boy with a target on his noggin
Nodding to the gospel of a carpentering Jew
Ocean boulevard I make a left and down harbor
Moses going hard part waves like a barber
I'mma' ask a wave its opinion on a slave
Waves say that they sink a lot faster when they're darker
Hate illustrate black face like an author
Hate illustrate black face gone be dead
A black boy want to be a book when he grows up
Eyes or a bullet either way he'll be read
Ten years old and want to hit the tenth chapter
Every page that came after had been torn into shreds
I don't think I like my skin anymore
Nah cocoa puff
Mr. Fresh Cauliflower
One is artificial and the other one is pure
One'll need a tissue if the other grabs a missile
Double dribble
Double sentence
That's the penalty in court
The constitution giving handjobs to every crooked cop
The way they get off receive and a small reward
Like every black boy with a gun need a sword
Every store clerk needs to cancel EBT cards
If they find a shard of broken gla** on the floor
Don't be a victim if your skins burnt sienna
The sun will still have a lot of light left to absorb
Great white shark vs crabs in a bucket
If we all come together we can push him of the shore
Sally shore did move them seashells stand up and stand
When she seen that these crabs meant war like
n***a I just want my mind back
n***a I just want my times back
Like n***a I just want my kind back
The tortoise and the hare reached the finish line at the same time
I just want my race back
I just want pride in my face back
I just want pride in us men back
I just want pride in my skin back
And to remember
You are a person before you are a black person
Baby Joshua
[Outro:]
Oh the itches in my ears to change stations when news broadcast another black male dead I-i grip you tighter with a country so out of shape how can I not be alarmed by the wake up call for you to stretch your legs exercise your right and run for your race of you must run for the little black boys at heart who his pupils were not dilated to the significance of god's rainbow so they stick to what they know
Black and white
Wrong and right