You Grew Up

[Verse 1] Let me take it back to my childhood When Six Flags was still called Wild World Where I had every race as a neighbor and We was working class, trying to make it out of our hood My best friend back then was a white kid We was tight, he liked the same things I did Despite us being different colors, man We was tight as Elmer's, and we called each other brothers While I was trying to keep my Nikes clean He was trying to scuff his Chucks up He was grunge, I was fresh, we were young And we'd cuss along to rap and try to sneak up into punk clubs But things changed when his pops got laid off He blamed my father for the loss of his job He said immigrants robbed citizens jobs And I better never set foot again in his yard As we became adults in a cult called America, he got himself a job as an officer of law My thoughts got blacker and his views got cracker There was no way backwards, to the roots at heart Many years apart, I recognized him in the news He shot a black man that was sitting in his car Near the same park where we used to shoot hoops And all I could blame was the cause [Chorus] You grew up No, you didn't change You were made the same As those before you came You grew up All our growing pains Were given like our names You just bought the blame You grew up No, you didn't change You were made the same As those before you came You grew up All our growing pains Were given like our names You just bought the blame You grew up [Verse 2] You ever have a friend that became a fanatic? Most of you all haven't, but if you ever did You'd understand the one thing they all have in common That somebody took advantage of their damage as a kid I knew a guy whose folks were professors Proof in the flesh that Allah was a blesser Grew up in a mid-western town, where there weren't many brown people he could seek reflection Got picked on in school during lectures Graduated hating everybody in his class Picked on because he prayed at five to the East And he didn't eat meat that Allah said was bad One day, a man approached him in a mosque Changed his life when he asked him a question "Do you ever feel your life was a loss? And what if I could teach you that life is a weapon?" Attracted strong to the feeling of acceptance He was soon gone with delusions of a cause People of the present had faces of the past, make it easier to blast them if he feel they did him wrong You can raise a child in a house full of love But can't keep them safe in a world full of hate So, he blew up The only mistake that could hold all the blame [Chorus] You grew up No, you didn't change You were made the same As those before you came You grew up All our growing pains Were given like our names You just bought the blame You grew up No, you didn't change You were made the same As those before you came You grew up All our growing pains Were given like our names You just bought the blame You grew up [Verse 3] My heart's a jug and, when I was born, it was filled with love It ranneth over, life ran me over, I spilled the blood I poured the cups and I left it up to you to say enough Never ending, never quenching, I sealed it up Tried to change my reality, but settled for, real enough Life is better when you're thinking lesser, go on, give it up When I was younger, I was so determined I would change it all Couldn't fly, but wasn't chained to fall So where is it I put the blame and cause Well, I grew up