Burniss Earl Travis II - We Are Young, Gifted & Black lyrics

[Chorus: Lalah Hathaway] Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black [Verse 1: Common] To be young, gifted and black and own it It's more than a moment It's like the sun rose to condone it Before we was trapping we was trapped in Sun and the whips kissing our black skin Strange fruit hanging, smell the jasmine Rock to Coltrane, listen to jazz then, back then We came with names like James, Fatima Nina, King, dreamer Redeemer of the people Songs for the heaple Original, spiritual content You can smell it when it's God-sent We keep it moving everyday, we the target The young, gifted and black on the market Cause of that we pay with our lives Or either catching charges But yo, the goddess is in God's ears Young, gifted and black [Chorus: Lalah Hathaway] Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black [Verse 2: Common] Mississippi goddam, Ferguson goddam Staten Island goddam, Baltimore goddam America damn I tell you who I am, but you don't understand Across the waters I swam, son and daughters of the land Yeah we the black sheep but you slaughtering the lamb You try to silence with your sirens Sounds of violence do nothing but divide us Evolution of revolution retribution, it's due us The old ways of the US, it ain't the new us Tell em we the stars, they can't shoot us Through prisons and wars, you could no longer recruit us Salvation is due us Even before we came, God knew us God knew us Yeah, God know us [Chorus: Lalah Hathaway] Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black Young, gifted and black To be young, gifted and black [Skat: Lalah Hathaway]