Monday, February 28, 2011

balm and talismans...

 
 

Sent to you by moya via Google Reader:

 
 

via Liquor&Spice on 2/28/11

"Black Girl Pain" Talib Kweli ft. Jean Gray

    [Hook]
    My mama said life would be so hard
    Growing up days as a black girl scarred
    In so many ways though we've come so far
    They just know the name they don't know the pain
    So please hold your heads up high
    Don't be ashamed of yourself know I
    Will carry it forth til the day I die
    They just know the name they don't know the pain black girl

    [Talib Kweli]
    I do it for the people, I do it for the love
    I do it for the poet, I do it for the thug
    This is for victory, and this is for the slaughter
    I do it for my mother, I do it for my daughter
    Promise I'll always love ya, I love to kiss and hug ya
    You and your brother should be looking out for one another
    I'm so blessed, man, y'all the reason I got up
    Somebody put his hands on you I'm getting locked up
    I'm not playing, that's the prayer I'm saying for Diani
    And if I die then she'll be protected by Amani
    That's her bigger brother and I love the way he love her
    She a girly-girl, she love to imitate her mother
    But she a Gemini, so stay on her friendly side
    She'll put that look on you, it's like somebody' friend just died
    My pretty black princess smell sweet like that incense
    That you buy at the bookstore supporting black business
    Teach her what black is; the fact is her parents are thorough
    She four reading Cornrows by Camille Yarborough
    I keep her hair braided, bought her a black Barbie
    I keep her mind free; she ain't no black zombie
    This is for Aisha, this is for Kashera
    This is for Khadijah scared to look up in the mirror
    I see the picture clearer through the stain on the frame
    She got a black girl name, she living black girl pain
    This is for Makeba, and for my Mamacita
    What's really good, ma? I'll be your promise-keeper
    I see the picture clearer thru the stain on the frame
    She got a black girl name, she livin black girl pain

    [Hook]

    [Jean Grae]
    This is for Beatrice Bertha Benjamin who gave birth to
    Tsidi Azeeda for Lavender Hill for Kyalisha
    (ALTHLONE) Mitchells Plain, Swazi girls I'm repping for thee
    Mannesburg, Guguletu where you'd just be blessed to get through
    For beauty shining through like the sun at the highest noon
    From the top of the cable car at Table Mountain; I am you
    Girls with the skyest blue of eyes and the darkest skin
    For Cape Colored for realizing we're African
    For all my cousins back home, the strength of Mommy's backbone
    The length of which she went for raising, sacrificing her own
    The pain of not reflecting the range of our complexions
    For rubber pellet scars on Auntie Elna's back I march
    Fist raised caramel shining in all our glory
    For Mauritius, St, Helena; my blood is a million stories
    Winnie for Joan and for Eadie, for Norma, Leslie, Ndidi
    For Auntie Betty, for Melanie; all the same family
    Fiona, Jo Burg, complex of mixed girls
    For surviving through every lie they put into us now
    The world is yours and I swear I will stand focused
    Black girls, raise up your hands; the world should clap for us

    [Hook]


     
     

    Things you can do from here:

     
     

    No comments: