So I'm from a stock that pitch co*ktail bombs and hand grenades. We pour Cayenne Pepper around the perimeter of a building to keep the police dogs at bay. I'm the panther party in the Desire Housing Projects in New Orleans. I'm a n***a turning a gun on the National Guard. Take a long, long look. I'm a cook in the kitchen asking the Mrs. to taste the dinner. Take a long, long sip 'Cuz d**h ain't always this good. It's eyes poppin' out they sockets. It's a lifeless body rockin' backwards and forwards. It's a boy stabbed forty-seven times in front the church house. It's a man forty- three stuffing his penis in a nine year- old girls mouth. Naw. d**h ain't always taste good. Just don't sound like something I wanna eat when I hear them say "It was like a train came through the room." Left mamma so depressed she was unable to move until one day. Like a few months after the hurricane. Husband and child found the trinity bloody in bed. His wife, his son, his other daughter was dead. And on the end table, there was a message that read "I couldn't stay here, not for one minute longer, and it made no sense for me to leave alone 'cause who would take of my babies with they mamma gone?" I'm telling you, d**h ain't always this good. It'll leave you fending for water and food. It'll riddle up your body in an Audubon Ballroom. They'll El Haj-Malik El-Shabazz you. Crown you King then dethrone in a Lorraine Hotel. Disfigure your body to where folks can't tell if your Emmett Till or not. Tell that mamma "Keep that casket open, let the world see, it ain't just hot in Mississippi. Hell, it's hot wherever you be." From the rooftop to the cellblock. Step on up to the auction block. Bend over, touch your toes, son show your teeth. Lift her titties, examine his balls,now it damn near sound like a Hip- Hop song, but that's slavery at it's peak. A circus for all the "freaks" they'll warn you caution when you speak. Can't afford the truth to leak but will say "blessed are the meek. And are the ones who make peace. And are the ones persecuted for the sake of righteousness." For we say theirs is the kingdom. Earth is their inheritance so no matter how treacherous, they'll try to trap up us in them trenches, they'll dig deeper ditches, But all that matters is this: Which side will we pick? Which path will we choose. Either win or lose 'cuz d**h don't come in vain. Not for us to remain enslaved or our spirits to remain in cages. It comes so we might be courageous. To fulfill our obligation, to God and all creation, and stand in determination, able to look d**h in the face and say: "We made it. We made it. We made it."