Tuskegee - Intellectual

I just wanted her in the sheets and, send a little blood to my artery

But a night in the arms of Venus leads to a lifetime on mercury

This the last thing I needed, stack it on living life in poverty

Well they said I got bad blood, volunteered for a treatment study

They the Public Health Service, I know they got my best interest - well

I’m illiterate, I can't read the form but I heard free healthcare , well yeah, yeah

Yeah, I’ll sign right up, put me in the queue, need something new, this was past due

It kinda felt sketch, shake the white man’s hand, see ya Monday next

Oppression comes in many forms

Some don’t know that they living in it

Distracted by the skin and the gore

Let them see what we want, keep em living in it

The Devil’s living right next door

He’s got a list of names, and he’s drooling on it

Ya never know, he might pick yours

When things are looking up he’s gettin down on it

I been seeing you for years doc, but I see no improvements, what do I got, God

I got a rash spreading under there, what happened to the health care, I’m getting scared, yeah

You told me back in 32 that I would get cured, feel like I got lured now, now

Now a couple men have died, what’s up with that? and what the fuck’s with the spinal taps? Huh?

Now it’s 72, I just saw the news, we been getting screwed

You diagnosed us with sphyilis and never even told us that we had it?

We’ve been human fucking guinea pigs for 40 years, how much you learn our tears? huh?

You had a treatment since the early 40s, penicillin? How fucked is this? What’s the ceiling? Oh, oh

I see the devil in you - used my desperation - to get ahead the group, right? Right

This was rooted in prejudice, add power, push a person to the precipice

It affected my wife, I’ma pray for my son, in hopes for a better life, yea

Man it’s shit like this, institutions doing wrong make us raise a fist