[Intro]

But you are more than a descendant of a slave

Tonna, I hate that I have to talk to you about this

You just a boy

When does a boy become a man? How do you know?

I think it's when you can honor the cloud of witnesses who came before you

And respond to hatred with love that transforms

[Verse 1]

Uh, black boy, black boy, did you know that the world is yours?

Your Father built it, presented it to you without a blemish

Your Father's gifted, your Father's gift is a sinless existence

No cause for tears when your eye lid is dripping

Wild up with liquid as your soul cries, water falls from those eyes

Cheek rivers roll by, dropping to the concrete, making a rose rise

Black boy, black boy, did you know that the world is yours?

Your Father built it, and he made it with His hands alone

And then He left you with Emmanuel

How to produce fruit

Engage your culture that can't elope

Let 'em know that the antidote ain't the Pope

How to produce truth

Call 'em like you see 'em like a camera phone

Facetime as a luxury and a loan

You got it but you can't have it, what an anecdote

Black boy, black boy

You can waste it, you can kill it, you can use it, uh

You can spend it on the worthy or the useless

But you'll never get it back like that old thing

Or the Love from that song that En Vogue sings

So what you finna do with these seconds, it's thanksgiving

To the one that's serving blessings

Or you wastin' all this time you got to invest in your stuff and how you dressin', haha

What, you tryna get the yams on the first date?

For your plans 'cause you slammed on your first plate

You ain't notice was a gift in the first place

Why you think he gave grace for you first, ayy

It's all yours, but it's all in time

Some stuff you gotta wait for, so fall in line, uh huh

[Verse 2]

Uh, black boy, black boy, did you know that the world is yours?

And don't let 'em tell you different

Yeah, I know that your father made you different

But not less than the rest 'cause of your shade of pigment

You better light, remember that when the shade is given

You wasn't made to fit in, small expectations given

By the thoughts of baby homo sapiens with jaded memories

Clouded by decades of a racist system

To a child of the Savior risen

Yeah, that's all I got

Uh, black boy, black boy, it's yours

[Interlude]

When you can see the wickedness of the land that you live in and still stand for truth and righteousness, your ancestors, son, they lived and they died, prayin' for you, that you would be free, that you would love, that you would fight, that you would protect, that you would strive, that you would grow. Black man, don't you know the world is yours?

[Verse 3]

Black man, black man, you know it's still yours, right?

Life came, death left, so your birthright

You never really outgrow it but could easily forget it if you're not knowin' history has tried to dumb you down

With whips and chains to keep you from the underground

Give you the runaround

Have you thinkin' what's under your crown

It's not a kings mind and your worth is what you pick up from the ground, it's false

Black man, black man, you forgot you was a king, huh?

And your kingship, it's from the Kinged One

You was a slave, smart, so son, please don't let that change what your free dumb (freedom)

Emancipation was gifted, so each man pay son attention

So he can raise younger generation racin' for image

Imagine a masses of masses making the killing

Then Abraham Lincoln, a modern Moses for most us slaves leaving Egypt, let us go

We dipped, then we meet Jim

Re-lynched on tree limb that belonged to the Crow

From the Crow to ghetto, we still hear the echoes

Of "We Shall Overcome" in Mahalia's strong falsetto

Black man, black man, you know that the world is yours?

Your Father built it with all of these cards against ya

One thing you cannot forget is, you was made in your Father's image: king