Tag Archives: lyrics

Invisible Walls

Poetry, , , , ,

Stuck in transition

Lacking position

Latitude, Longitude

Complicates Mission

Glossed over vision

The world, no it isn’t

A visit, Cuz this myth

Is bigger than Wizards

My head in orbits

Round phantoms so gorgeous

Dreams in remission

Yo God has been missin

From my prayers

Through night terrors

And Flashes of RAGE

Blank stares, at my wares

I’m locked in a cage

I’m put on display

Just to shock and amaze

Gawked at through windows

I’ve been here for days

There is no escape

From a place that can’t be

I’m telling you now

You bark up the wrong tree

I’m just out of phase

Between your world and mine

Hear but cant see

Smell but cant find

I’m just trying to live

I hope you don’t mind

Crossing the barriers

Encroaching lines

 

 

Stay in your place

Respect your race

You don’t belong, man,

Just look at your face

Been turned all around

Feeling things just like this

Every time I walk

In to their office

My degree don’t mean shit

When I’m caught in the grips

Of whips, chains, and ships

Hist the scars on my wrists

Blind fold my eyes

But there’s still no surprise

America filled

To the brim with its lies

Got their roles and the jobs

All neatly comprised

Prison bed counts

Done from third graders’ eyes

How well they read

Forget what they need

They work or they bleed

Jim Crow concedes

Some walls we see

Others we don’t

Some will believe

Others just won’t

Cuz they’ve not had to cross

Deal with the loss

Traverse the gauntlet

Risk paying the costs

Roots are Reaching Black

Poetry, Rapolitic, , , , , , , , ,

Had to make it PHAT, had to take it back

Had to rep for a culture that the roots are reaching Black

Beautiful, Powerful, Indisputably Immutable

The history a crucible, the music is a tool to use

Cathartic when it needs to be, hard to beat society

At times, the rhymes, plant the seeds we need to breathe

Through police brutality, fatalities, impunity

the root of e-vil, our people see the enemy

An internal colony, Fanon saw the tragedy

Overseer to officer, KRS, a prodigy

His progeny, are challenging, violence’s monopoly

By the state, the fate of which, attempt to claim us property

Hip Hop is the voice/ and the weapon of choice!

Since Grand Master Flash and DMC were making noise

Cuz with the “Message,” hood pov-erty, was being challenged

& “Fuck the Police,” expounded on that knowledge

 

My roots are reaching Black

to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob

To Lauren Hill and them all

My roots are reaching Black

To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown

that’s the tip that I’m on

My roots are reaching Black

to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation

Cuz our history’s bomb

My roots are reaching Black

Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul

Yo! The revolution’s on!

 

 

Not to say it’s not a party music, wouldn’t be true

It’s the part of the genre, we be celebrating to

Get ya club on, ya dance on, or smoke a blunt to

Or, however you hang, when you’re chillin wit your crew

Don’t be fooled, “Walk Ruff and Stuff with yo Afro Puffs”

Was Black Power, to the core, filled with Black Love

challenging pat-riarchy, white standards of beauty

And Internalized Oppression with con-tinuity

Queen Latifa, a master emcee

Blessed us with her presence in the 1980s scene

& Helped to make the music what it is to you and me

So Lauren Hill could call out “Politrixions” with the Fugees

While Bill Clinton, prison warden, playin the sax

Signed into law, the 1994, Crime Act

No more education in the prison labor system

& 3 Strikes was made law by those Politrixions

 

My roots are reaching Black

to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob

To Lauren Hill and them all

My roots are reaching Black

To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown

that’s the tip that I’m on

My roots are reaching Black

to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation

Cuz our history’s bomb

My roots are reaching Black

Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul

Yo! The revolution’s on!

 

 

What is problematic, was the corporate takeover

of a cultural art form, meant to restore the

pride of our people, integrity the needle

The One’s and Two’s, the Wheels of Steel, spinnin through to freedom

When they moved in and sup-planted, their business model

& Threw down the throttle on producin gangsta bauble

to make a Modern-Day-Minstrel, Black Face, metropolis

but a Dangerous Black, outta control, was all you got from this

While the War on Drugs, was being waged, out on our Streets

The Reagans and the Clintons, were pulling back their sheets

Stereotypes, that fed the hype, of the white supremist blight

and the P.I.C. was being formed right in plain sight,

With these images that the corporations spun about us

The public in Amerika, had no doubt, about us

Thank god the Underground rose to challenge all this B.S.

Where people like Mos Def and Immortal Technique flourished

 

My roots are reaching Black

to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob

To Lauren Hill and them all

My roots are reaching Black

To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown

that’s the tip that I’m on

My roots are reaching Black

to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation

Cuz our history’s bomb

My roots are reaching Black

Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul

Yo! The revolution’s on!

 

The sound of resistance, the people and the message

Answering the questions, most pressing to the masses

Ripping through the truth, conflicting our community

Familiar and sad, like, this is nothing new to me

Jobs are always fleeting degrading our sense of worth

Our schools so deplorable it’s education that hurts

Drugs on the streets, but don’t own a poppy field

The youth are packing heat for safety, can we be real

Red Lining, White Flight, Welfare, Ghettos

Out-sourcing, Globalization, yup and there goes

The neighborhood, with the manufacturing work

To other countries, into prisons, where they’re getting paid dirt

150 years from slavery, but ain’t much changed

Time to claim the economic means and shatter these chains

Hip Hop, the voice of the oppressed and the poor

So, I’m wit LL Cool J, “It’s time for war!”

 

My roots are reaching Black

to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob

To Lauren Hill and them all

My roots are reaching Black

To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown

that’s the tip that I’m on

My roots are reaching Black

to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation

Cuz our history’s bomb

My roots are reaching Black

Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul

Yo! The revolution’s on!

Collegiate Rapper ((Rappers = Nerds))

https://soundcloud.com/renaissance-the-poet/collegiate-rapper

New track from the “Rappers = Nerds” project, ‘Collegiate Rapper’ byRenaissance The Poet a student at the University of Washington and prior co-creator and co-host of The Cornerstone Open Mic & Artist Showcase.

This project is about building the community, and empowering ourselves through education and this song is about the struggle a young minority faces while dealing with the system of higher education.

Project Info:

https://renaissancethepoet.wordpress.com/music-and-poetry/
For some background on the song check out:

https://renaissancethepoet.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/reflections-of-my-first-quarter-at-the-university-of-washington/

Song Lyrics

 Verse #1

Started on this track, way back, but never thought I’d make it

Pain is over-rated, fated, to be illustrated

So to demonstrate it, the facts originated,

Inside the heart of a mind, addicted to rhyme, that’ll never be faded

See, seein ain’t believing, but reason the season needed

Feed it, like a stomach and read it until defeated

Would ya believe it, I succeeded?

 Beat it, and now it’s more that I’m needin?

Feanin for readin like treasures or women, shit, I’m a heathen!  I’m breathin

Dreamin, while feadin off demons

gleamin  the realist of feelins

As They, surface to meanings,

I mean I’m seein the end

as I be turnin the bend

Of desire, fires of love

burn inside of this man

 Passion’s more than enough, to accomplish my plan

My Intellect sure helps, as I seek to expand

the limits, and the boarders, of all that I am

As a Rapper and a Poet with a Bachelor’s in Hand

Verse #2

Who’d have thought, who not, that I would go to college

Go to get that knowledge, polished, rivalin scholars

Spendin all them dollars, to rise up out the garbage

The steep end of the heap, deep, leaping from the trenches of Martyrs

Me, never thought I’d see it, sobeit that I’m not dreamin

See it, I’m in these classes, & I, still hardly believe it

But must concede it, In to the Realist

Chapter of my life, and into the illist, challenges, so fearless,

But Humility the dearest

Because, when it comes to the task,

alone is a mask, that’s worn in a dash,

the rash are reluctant to ask, for help in a smash

but how are they goona pass their classes

When they’re movin so fast, they can’t, hold onto their asses

the masses drownin , assignments are mountain

& he with the skill surpasses

Expectations, foresight insufficient to displace this

Boils down to relations, and who we orbit in these space ships

Cause this is a foreign land, for a man, who should be in prison

Not at the UW, doing the best that he can, to earn degrees,

Can you feel this?

 Verse #3

I walked into school, cool, with one goal to find

Earn a Law Degree, complete, with an opened mind

Shatter the glass ceiling, pealing, the feelings denied

Breaking the cycle, inventing the Michael, and vetting out all of the lies

Free, or so I thought, the plot, coined me enemy

I’m black, and I rap, that there, the center piece

Of their argument, I must be ignorant, try’n to be

& try’n to see, more than was destined to me, more than being a thug in the streets

But why, supply the American Dream

If the plan was to hold it from me

But they don’t understand that I walk with a team

Composed of friends and family

Who will never see me fail

cuz  I fight for them like they fight for me

and together, we trudge this hell

So, no I won’t be giving up

Renaissance ain’t had enough

Graduating Valedictorian, just the beginning of

My struggle to become a lawyer

at the UW

A dream once impossible

A crude bluff

Chorus:

Dreams, are how it all begins

Dreams, are what define the ends

Dreams, are not just latent plans

Dreams, are what define the man

“Live Free or Die Free” by Renaissance the Poet

Education, Music, Politics, Rapolitic, USA, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Intro:

 

the land of the free

the home of the brave

The land of milk and honey

The home that God made

where anything is possible

Americans  Dream

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

You find that it means

Honor in the Governing

The system is pristine

Equal Opportunity

To Life and Liberty

The Pursuit of Happiness

Just as good as it could be

Guaranteed by the Constitution,

You and me are FREE!

 

Wanna go to College

Wanna have a Family

Wanna start a Business

Wanna tan upon a beach

Wanna teach a math class

Wanna a car that drives fast

Wanna date a pretty girl

Wanna smoke a little grass

Wanna go to outer-space

Wanna surgery your face

Wanna dance through the night

Wanna dress yourself in lace

Wanna practice your religion

 

this… is… the United States: Man!!!

 

 

Verse #1

 

It’s not the way it seems

The system, hyper-stratified

Be a different class of people

and the rules are not applied

In the same distribution

Those Politicians lied

& it’s claimed to be inherent

But Equality’s Denied

 

Have to work twice as hard

to get  half as far

Passed over, looked over

for color less than dark

wanna person with a white face

to fill up all their jobs

the deck is stacked against us

As we try to beat the odds

 

Schools Different/ Rules Different

Damned if we can read

Cues Different/ Whose getting

the teachin that we need

Pipelined into Prison

With a Surgical Precision

Minority; Commodity

Synonymous to Business

 

Slavery never ended

Check the laws and how they bend them

Twisted the amendments

and defend it stupendous

Horrendous, how the Constitution’s

Used to justify

the reduction of a human

to components of supply

 

The prisons privatized

means they’re run by corporations

whose interests are in profits, not

in Rehabilitations

job or social skills,

or how to pay our bills,

But in keeping prisons full

to maximize their Deals

 

With the Congress drafting laws

targeted in clause

at the colored population

to keep us bound in bars

 

And that’s not freedom

Not the Dream that I believed in

Nor Equal Opportunity, even

Though they guaranteed it

 

It’s like Life and Liberty

have conditional properties

of being White and Wealthy

Thus, Defining who is Free

Racist, classist, take your pick

Sexist, homophobic it

Subordinates our citizens

Our Liberty is stripped

How much more so

for immigrants and Refugees within

a system built on fear

that propagates  the hate of men

an image based on lies

to distinguish us from them

So, we don’t stand together

‘cause that, they can’t defend

 

Chorus

Live Free or Die free, but None Will Confine Me

Live Free or Die Free, to Be Free is My Dream

 

 

Verse #2

 

Stripped of our Choice

Somehow we learned to get through

Denied our voice

So then we learned to make do

Robbed of what we valued

& we had to learn to stay true

to our families and our friends

‘cause they needed us to

 

And yet even amidst this hell

we tried to make a home

to work and to build a life

within the boundaries shown

but resources were limited

so, we had to make our own

Although they were not all legit

We had the kids to feed at home

 

see, not only was I black

and hated just for that

But I was subjugated, stratified

and pushed unto the back

I was ripped from my family

like they did to Malcom X

but I had to get them dollars

and I wasn’t earnin checks

 

 

‘cause, you have to be a citizen

to get any respect

but for a Refugee

there’s continuous neglect

my family fled from Africa

when I was only two

I was forced into foster care

and I barely made it through

 

…was never granted status

‘for they put me to the streets

and I had to find a way

So could make those ends meet

 

So, I turned to dealing drugs

Just like many of us was

Who was livin in disgust

‘cause options not robust

But alas we had need

and we thought we had been freed

We were Victims of the system

Being chased by I.C.E.

Deportation from this nation

What they threatened in our faces

And attempted to displace us

From our families’ loving graces

Immigrant or Citizen

it makes no difference

Liberty’s been stripped

of all its eloquence

the Constitution’s shredded

Every time it comes to race

ain’t no equal opportunity

in this God forsaken place

 

But we’ve got to bind together

take a stand, it’s now or never

I know we can do better,

than to bow to this oppressor

Alone we may be weak and silenced

Inside our hearts are scorned to violence

But as our voices rise in non-compliance

We will find our heart’s desires

 

Chorus

Live Free or Die free, but None Will Confine Me

Live Free or Die Free, to Be Free is My Dream