Fight for Change

I remember a time when you were part of a hidden crowd,
The ones hard up, making show, the ones who talk loud.
You didn’t have the place to grow, to learn, to be, to love.
All there was was your own strength and pride to rise above –
Above the hands that held you back and kept you hangin’ ‘round,
The hands that cut your skin, who worked so hard to shut you down.
You didn’t know love from one who shoulda given first.
You couldn’t see what the fuck was on ya ‘bout to burst.
You found blood in your hands and darkness deep upon your soul.
You found yourself at the bottom of someone else’s hole.
To save the one you saw, in you, you found the will somehow,
Was all your doin’, babe, don’t let the past stop you now.

Baby baby – look up and see the sunlight
See what’s right here before you, who can help to make things right
Life ain’t all ‘bout the shit the others say you should do
Life and living’s ‘bout you findin’ ‘n bein’ – YOU!

The knives, the 9s – they were your partners to some end,
You felt like few in between could be for you a real friend.
Growin’ green was the way you could give yourself a life –
Your boys and you runnin’ from the ever cuttin’ scythe.
The hood your start, I wouldn’t ever want to change that fact.
But it ain’t the only place to learn “hey, man, you know I got your back!”
You been disowned, you been beaten to the earthly ground
But that don’t mean compassion’s just a fashion to be found
Storms be calmin’ if you quell out all the fuckin’ rage
That digs inside of you like you’re caught up in your own cage.
You are the world to an essence that walks this place
Goin’ back in time won’t do nuthin’ now but make you lose pace.

Baby baby – look up and see the sunlight
See what’s right here before you, who can help to make things right
Life ain’t all ‘bout the shit the others say you should do
Life and living is ‘bout you findin’ ‘n bein’ – YOU!

So listen here, I’m not dissen where you been at
Shit’s what makes us tough, becoming somethin’ this or that.
I know my words are small and simple when compared to yours
I’ll neva claim some rhyme that makes ‘em come tear down the doors.
But this I promise you, your life I’ll always defend,
With blade or ball or board, it’s you and me until the end.
Hear me now and get it through your skull and living heart,
You and me, our new direction, this is where it starts!
In your past you stated tough that you were never gonna change,
Yet now you findin’ life has nicely come to rearrange
And give you light to step through all the shit that’s in your past.
Here we are now, being strong and baby it’s gonna last!!

Baby baby – look up and see the sunlight
See what’s right here before you, who can help to make things right
Life ain’t all ‘bout the shit the others say you should do
Life and living is ‘bout you findin’ ‘n bein’ – YOU!

written May 21st, 2009