[Intro:]

To my dearest baby Joshua

Are you infatuated with the color of your skin?

Are you obsessed with the intensity of your complexion?

Black meaning

Presence of strength

Presence of soul

Presence of confidence

Or black meaning

Absence of color

Absence of father

Absence of morals

What stereotype do you blast to tune out static to?

[Verse 1:]

I can never watch the sunset from the noose

Every cloud a rich man hides inside

Holds a rope that a poor man can bear as a noose

I can never view a waterfall from a pool

A paradise lost in a paradise tossed

If I gamble all my life by a slice of the fruit

Adam and Eve want to preach to the youth

Preach to the youth

Preach to the youth

Adam and Eve want to preach to the youth

Stumbled in my asics cause I never knew balance

Or four legged snakes was strictly biblical truth

Troubled since a youth

I remember bathroom mirror spelling blood with my fingers

Trying to properly pronounce suwoop

Young black boy with a target on his noggin

Nodding to the gospel of a carpentering Jew

Ocean boulevard I make a left and down harbor

Moses going hard part waves like a barber

I'mma' ask a wave its opinion on a slave

Waves say that they sink a lot faster when they're darker

Hate illustrate black face like an author

Hate illustrate black face gone be dead

A black boy want to be a book when he grows up

Eyes or a bullet either way he'll be read

Ten years old and want to hit the tenth chapter

Every page that came after had been torn into shreds

I don't think I like my skin anymore

Nah cocoa puff

Mr. Fresh Cauliflower

One is artificial and the other one is pure

One'll need a tissue if the other grabs a missile

Double dribble

Double sentence

That's the penalty in court

The constitution giving handjobs to every crooked cop

The way they get off receive and a small reward

Like every black boy with a gun need a sword

Every store clerk needs to cancel EBT cards

If they find a shard of broken glass on the floor

Don't be a victim if your skins burnt sienna

The sun will still have a lot of light left to absorb

Great white shark vs crabs in a bucket

If we all come together we can push him of the shore

Sally shore did move them seashells stand up and stand

When she seen that these crabs meant war like

Nigga I just want my mind back

Nigga I just want my times back

Like nigga I just want my kind back

The tortoise and the hare reached the finish line at the same time

I just want my race back

I just want pride in my face back

I just want pride in us men back

I just want pride in my skin back

And to remember

You are a person before you are a black person

Baby Joshua

[Outro:]

Oh the itches in my ears to change stations when news broadcast another black male dead I-i grip you tighter with a country so out of shape how can I not be alarmed by the wake up call for you to stretch your legs exercise your right and run for your race of you must run for the little black boys at heart who his pupils were not dilated to the significance of god’s rainbow so they stick to what they know

Black and white

Wrong and right