My anniversary date at little sister comes to mind
i heard it was the bomb so as i hit rewind
and bring to mind the first time i sat down for some duck
a tribe called quest was playing loud, what the fuck?
did they change the channel cause i just walked in?
i could barely hear myself think over the din.
I think it was wrong on a fundamental level,
like the restauranteur had made a deal with the devil.
I couldn't understand why the beats were so loud,
NFL on the tube for the upscale crowd.
Eating forty dollar plates, not forty ounce brews
I was kind of expecting to be hearing the blues
or some jazz in the joint in an elegant style
with the edison lights and the antique profile
but this was not to be an intimate retreat
so i put it out my grumpy mind and started to eat.
what a treat, the meal was for real. true perfection
i had to congratulate myself for the selection
my election wasn't luck so fuck my disaffection
i steered my mind clear of the subtle imperfection
the next time i dropped by it was fly
i ordered up a rye for my throat was dry
once again old school was the flavor of the day
black sheep, janet jackson, ll cool j
i didn't mind, in fact it was right on the money
as i think about it now, it seems kinda funny
that my expectations were clearly out of whack
its not like america doesn't own black
culture, ha i gotcha but nobody does see
from your mouth to my ear on the air means free
free black souls and free black arts
it flows through time as it flows through hearts
if your mind can't hush the political distraction
you can't expect enlightenment from dissatisfaction
so an action of racializing music like this
like any crab rap it ends up as a diss
but i dismiss as james baldwin said i have to mention
such a journey's an invention to avoid the clash and tension
of an inward adventure on a face that doesn't show
a poor benighted soul seeking solace below
running wild like a street child it figures
sixty years later it's still about the niggers.
niggers that you run with, niggers in your mind
mythical niggers, human beings you never find
convinced they are the real niggers so they wear the mask
the mask of a skintone so you never ask
who's the actual nigger who's the actual slave
to the racialized artifice from cradle to grave
who cannot escape the matrix of these tricks of race
pray to god your soul to keep
and hope for god's grace
on tape, on wax, on color dvd
the call and its response, well it wasn't for me
it wasn't for the woman, it wasn't for the man
it wasn't for the righteous, it made a jillion and
all the niggers in the house say ho
all the bitches in the house say ho
all the niggers in the house say ho
all the bitches in the house say ho
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