[Intro: Gravediggaz sample]
Thoughts was possesed since the first day of birth
[Verse 1: Cavalier]
I hold my breath if I walk past on a visit
They replastered the last crooked paths of the lizards
My uncle is the ghost of Thanksgiving past
First floor, front room, Mom's was the last
To get the message
Now it's just tenants
Y'all wasn't here when the bandos was brick skeletons, moss gathered like migrational change
Miguel pigeon coop feathers kept breaking the drains
These ain't pains, these the regular aches
My mom slaved cause she said ownership was breaking the chains
Me and my father's main bond was that day we cursed out pigs at our gate
Every Black life a thriller
Even an infant if the Enfamil don't kill her
Pages turn Ezra Jack Keats to iller fates, Arthur Miller
Home was base to beatin' the chase from toes tagged in the chiller
Now walk past my own door, no welcome homes from the shivers
Forgiveness like the cold wind, old men remember
[Interlude: Cannibal Ox & Beloved sample]
Life's ill
Let the children come
Let your mother hear you laugh
Life might kill
Life's ill
[Verse 2: billy woods]
Half-crushed by the car, dragged herself back and caterwauled
Father put her out her misery on the kitchen floor
Mom said, "Be proud of her, she made it home"
If these walls could talk, they might not, after all, we don't
One door been locked since when, why is never said, but we know, we know
I left that house for two rooms, but it got a peephole
I ain't been back since then, but kids still see ghosts
I'm not my ancestors' dreams
They in the room wishing they could smoke and eat
Lean shadows, dust swirling in sunbeams
Shadows reach for my son in dreams
Some shadows that deep, shadowing me
Crossing that threshold again, they gon' part like the sea
Silently pointed to that room, but I swear to the Lord I never had the key
Somehow, it's in my hand now, that brass turned green
Grass dead in the yard, Philistines chop down the avocado tree
I put my ear to the door, but all I could hear was my heartbeat
[Refrain]
God bless this sweet home, my beloved haunt
124 Bluestone crouched on thin haunch
God bless this sweet home, my beloved haunt
124 Bluestone crouched on thin haunch
[Verse 3: Moor Mother]
We all got our home on the rock here
Won't be long
Sisters hold on
Grandma still singing that freedom song
When I close my eyes I can hear Amon
We made our own language
Black woman blues technology
Improvise with the lessons
Participate in our own resurrection
You can't kill us
We built like ghosts coming out of dust
Always returning
Built like the star of the morning
Sharpening swords to strike through the heart of the mourning
Star go through hell like a morning run
Blues blood like the Love Supreme
I'm the dream of my sisters
Oh happy day
When Jesus washed the blood away
On the concrete that day the devil had to pay him
Crazy to write this
Am I crazy?
They trust like me
And I'm here from around the way
Avengers and innovations
Watching the park projects
We engineer Black woman with reparations
And all y'all gon pay
For all the years we had to wait on hands and knees
Washing blood off the display
Shoveling all the death and decay
My people screaming 'stay in my corner'
I'm like, let the referee say fight
It's fight night bitch
My mama used to play The Dells
See you in, see you in hell
READ MORE ABOUT BILLY WOODS
