[Interlude: Malcolm X]

I don't worry, I tell you

I am a man who believed that I died 20 years ago

And I live like a man who is dead already

I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything

[Verse 1]

Southern trees, fallen leaves

Strange fruit, bitter seeds

Sewn into the scorched earth

Witnesses at my birth

Said I should’ve been aborted, propaganda they reported

Taught that I was prone to violence so they liked to draw me wild’n

Eating watermelon in a cage on monkey island

The self-portrait is of suffering and smiling

Raised on table scraps

White cotton, bent blacks

Overseer riding by

Whip in hand horseback

Read between the lines and see the centuries of blood

Dripping to the soil making Alabama mud

And California love can’t erase these thoughts

So I’m sitting here writing out my pain in a park

Feeling like I just passed through the darkest of darks

The humble mockingbird awaiting now the song of the lark

Been wading in the water and praying for dawn’s light

Baptized in the fire so my eyes shine bright

[Interlude: Malcolm X]

I don't worry, I tell you

I am a man who believed that I died 20 years ago

And I live like a man who is dead already

I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything

Singing a song called bruised in the key of blues

Dark berries, bittersweet, rocking dirty shoes

Worn out souls

From marching towards freedom

Feet blistered for the

Victory of sitting & eatin

Complex now

The struggle can’t explain how

It’s black face on television

Selling dope with a smile

The blood of former slaves around my way

Pitching powder to the flock that followed MLK

And hey, we still cattle getting herded by the gentry

Looking for the promised land at best you get deferred entry

Last poet

My mouth is an African drum

Find the rhythm in the silence

Beat it out with my tongue

And my cast iron, got the heart of a lion

The blood of the lamb, the scriptures in the palm of my hand

You can read it when I lay my Ms across your chest

I be the final revelation of that gospel text

[Interlude]

Run, nigga, run

The pater's gonna get you

Run, nigga, run

You gotta get away

That nigga run, that nigga flew

Nigga lost his Sunday shoes

Run, nigga, run

The pater's gonna get you

Run, nigga, run

You gotta get way