Mama (Mother)

[Intro] Together, we're gonna make it Lord, trouble, we sure can take it But we're almost home We're almost home Yeah [Chorus] Mama, yeah Mother Africa, yeah (Mother Africa) May I never forget the beat of your drum, you own a piece of my heart (Piece of my heart) Your illegitimate son wants to come home, don't you keep me in the dark (Mama, uh, check it) [Verse 1] Ayo, my grandpa's darkskinned, my grandma's darkskinned My other gramp's lightskinned, I wondеr what bites him Pro-afro pick, pro-Black mix And it's a whole lot of soul that sold that shit That soul glows from shore to shorе I used to stare back at Africa, not really sure If we gon' make it aboard the Black Star Line Lookin' back at those who actually got to cross that line Left America for Africa, Jamaica to Ethiopia Jamaica changed London and you think something's holdin' us? That's funny, you could picture every Black man outta Africa lost Lookin' at every man like this is the cost? We paid, not the slaves we played Not the roads we paved, not the goals we made But the gold we bathed in, died in and stayed in Now we almost made it back to bein' butt-naked (Yeah) Man, I can't take it [Verse 2] They be like, "Go back to Africa, you porch monkey coon-coon" Sing another tune, lazy loon, entertain us with your moves Yeah, we like the things you do, but you're nothing but baboons We're the sun, you're the gloom, we're the joy, you're the doom Got a lack of go-getters, see, you're just another nigga Just a thug with a trigger, plus a slug in that thug You's a Blood, you's a cuz, you's the mud, you's the dust You's the rug that we brush our dirty feet on The rock that we lean on, the labor that we feed on Without you, we would be gone, stronger than some King Kong Your knowledge, we can't speak on, your land is what we leech on You're jealous 'cause you be on, indigenous for eons The type of stuff I think on, they tell me that I think wrong I tell 'em that I think right, all my life, we had to fight Not a piece of this land that ain't been touched by a Black hand Tryna dodge a ghost face like we Pac-Man, screamin' (Yeah) [Verse 3] People talkin' 'bout Wakanda, but what about Rwanda? Your relatives are probably there skinnin' anacondas (Woo) Ancestors' bloodstream flowin' through my mantra Nappy hair, strong body, we ain't smokin' on that ganja Look what I told a novice Just because Obama was up in the Oval Office don't mean we all accomplished I swear I almost lost it Colonizers, modernizers, we a global market Queens wearin' weaves tryna look like Pocahontas Rather like it natural Like your great-great-great-great-granny in the past, boo (Yeah) Let me ask you, is Cape Verde such a bad stay? (Yeah) I'm tryna find out where I'm from in this rat race (Yeah) They lookin' at me like a bum with a black fade (Yeah) But little do they know that I'm past great Castrate every whack thought 'bout this vast place (Yeah) And make it a mandate that everyone can stay (Yo, Factz) [Verse 4] So much lineage this brother's yet to discover Born to a Nigerian pops and Black-American mother Got me wonderin' what tribe from my mom's side Was brought to America to build it for free with their freedom denied? One side came in planes, the other shackled to the bottom of boats Yeah, we survived the oppression through a legacy of hope One step, foot on the soil, transported through the Transatlantic West Africans in America fightin' for basic human rights Enduring embarrassment from Angela to Harriet Burdens of this country, all my forefathers carried it Deprived of wealth through various generations Sharecropping and Jim Crow and redlining Visions of returning to the motherland, I seek to find 'em This redefining of refinement, revolution incitin' Protest for rights, travelin' to face dedication at the climate [Verse 5] Ayo, my great-grandma was darker than the queen of Mali Darker than Louis Arm' singin' "Hello Dolly" Probably the perfect example of a motherland, man Even though she lived on another man's land And my fam been Black since my mom had me We the two whitest Blacks in my family, you can see My grandpa would be T'd, he light as the master far Now I'm not light as him, but I mean, we came far Grandpa's name is our scar, when he say our star He mean Central African Republic 'cause he that hard-rooted He went deeper than Alex Haley and Roots went To realign this family with this movement Even though we still ain't change our slave names yet And the Blackest man I never met was Malcolm X and Nat Turner, uh Brought it back like the stamps on the backs of Blacks hung and burnt up and that was that No justice, reparations, or apologies (Uh) And they still tryna build freeways over our properties I wonder what, what it was before we was in colonies That made us kings and queens of our dynasties, ayo [Chorus] Mama, yeah Mother Africa, yeah (Mother Africa) May I never forget the beat of your drum, you own a piece of my heart (Piece of my heart) Your illegitimate son wants to come home, don't you keep me in the dark (Mama) Mama, yeah Mother Africa, yeah (Mother Africa) May I never forget the beat of your drum, you own a piece of my heart (Piece of my heart) Your illegitimate son wants to come home, don't you keep me in the dark (Mama)