[Intro: Che Noir]

Yeah

[Verse 1: Che Noir]

My thoughts is paralyzed by poor Black mothers

It starts with a family tree from a poor Black couple

My heart is like a gravesite, niggas can't take the stench

Full of dead bodies, just one look at it make 'em flinch

My brain is my bank, but they say it don't make no sense

But my tongue is a different story, it paints visions for me

'Cause my eyes been blind from the blind eyes I've turned

Became a bride to crime, I write to rhyme my words

But my ears is what I use to steer through here

Walk by faith, what I feel is what I fear

Visionary thoughts, witness killers on my peers

All the memories I lost puttin' ribbons in my hair

We all strugglin', but to them, it's just a puppet trick

We want the cars and cribs, but our people was taught to covet it

The goals I used to call a bucket list, but somehow I lost touch of it

Taste another apple, left me waitin' in the shadows

[Interlude: Abiodun Oyewole]

Shadows

We be the outlines of bodies on a blackboard

Impressions of a being without substance

Invisible to those who don't want to recognize our Lord

We be the chalk outlines on the sidewalks of cities and towns

While death becomes a part of the purpose

[Verse 2: Che Noir]

Yeah, I was like David amongst the giants

But the reward of true success, it comes from tryin'

How we programmed to think as a people, it comes from science

And the only way to accept rebirth, it comes from dyin'

I fought pain in care from Dexter Street off of Broadway

It's hard days to go from an activist to a car slave

The school of hard knocks, you see, graduation's a long way

'Cause right before, that's when the devil becomes a prom date

I struggled with expressin' myself, I had no sanity

So now I paint pictures with words usin' my hands to speak

For niggas who try stealin' my art, I cut the hands of a thief

And keep it as a house pet like the Addams family, yeah

Uh, can only judge me by a gavel

Blood was shed from Eve, that made us hungry for an apple

Can't learn the art of war until you bloody from the battle

Can't appreciate the Sun until you studied in the shadows

[Outro: Abiodun Oyewole]

Shadow

To exist only by the will of someone else

To plant seeds for others to harvest

We be the crust of the pie that we bake but can't eat

Served to those who have suspenders on our existence

To hold up a world we're excluded from

We be the graffiti on the brick walls of buildings

A shout-out to the world, we are here and brought you the rap

We be the siren sounds screaming through the hood

Stopping traffic, running red lights, searching for green

We be the faces reflected in the puddles left by the rain

Waiting for the sun to evaporate our souls

We be the blood stains on our clothes after being shot by the police

And still, we find a way to survive, ah

This nation is mow in the midst of a serious crime wave