Listen while you read
Crowns & Shackles
0:000:00
Chapter I
Crowns & Shackles
The messages from the prophet
The reverence for the doctrine
Written deep inside our DNA
Behind my eyes, beneath my face
Trust in me, your secrets safe
I lead with grace
Even as the streets decay
'Cause our kids repeat what we display
I seek a peaceful space
The world is chaotic
Watching faith demolished
Make the saints astonished
Numb and can't snap out it
The school of hard knocks became a college
The game I salvage to retain a frame of knowledge
Things I can't acknowledge
Chew the pain and swallow
Such a fatal silencemore truth∧
Escaping the chains that block us while breathing the raining toxins
A concrete rose who blossomed through poison soils
My sister put a cross on my head with anointed oils
I needed every prayer, it made my view more hopeful
The pain behind my smile turned me to a soldier
I had to build a life with the tools at my disposal
This the proof of my existence
This is a full disclosure
The walls seem they moving closer
I can't trust no human's motives
Got too much to lose to slow up
Memories in useless folders
I used to refuse to grow up
She gave me her youth to mold her
I always tried to be the player one
Forgot it's two controllers
To control us
And recruit the soldiers
They gon' use the socials
Those who use the truth exposure
To move and influence culture
They gon' refute your proposals or either shoot and smoke you
Heavy price to pay, there's no refunds when you view the total
The gruesome get viewed as
Cute and cordial
By the news reporters
In other news
I would still show up just to support you
I wanted to see you branch out when you leave 'cause I was rooting for you
South Georgia southern border, huge storm drew more turmoil
Flooding, sudden roof got tore through
Powerful, the power too — cut power to and the food had spoiled
Sink or swim, we had to pool resources
Somehow we resume with moving forward
We assume it's normal
Life is short but the music immortal, I live through my vocals
To win it all you can't lose composure
Loyal, true and noble
But to who? The people who used to know you? Those who ignore you
Everyone I know is mostly gone but I'm still holding on
Unspoken poems, devoted songs, in my chromosome
Lonely stone, rolling along, the path less traveled
This the home I found, my holy ground here on this gravel
Since the ultrasound, golden crowns, broken shackles
Now it's going down, bae hold me down when I go to battle
This a holy war
Holy water
We jump overboard
To avoid the torture as we shipped across the ocean shores
No one know no more
How this smorgasbord of joyless overlords led to boarded doors and disorder in ghetto corridors
From slave catchers to cops, our color
Was never shown remorse
Culture tore
We spoke native tongue
They cut our
Vocal chords
We still invoke the Lord 'til our voice is hoarse
'Til our
Soul restored
Going in for those who kept going forward and got
No reward
As the waves crash slowly and soften the sand
As the sun's light growing, defrosted the land
I hope that one day too my heart can unthaw and expand
I'm proving my dreams were more than illogical plans
Modern day man
Crawled, walked, then I ran
Was mocked and copied and banned
Hostile in stance
I can't stand to sit and watch from the stands
Stand alone, I cannot hold your hand
The plot will advance
This could be my last possible chance
Chapter I · Folio 1 of 3