Expansion Outro

Reflection... (x6)

[Talib Kweli]

Yeah... so we got this tune called "Four Women" right

Originally it was by Nina Simone, and uh

She said it was inspired by, uh, you know, down South

Down South they used to call her Mother Auntie

You know, she said no "Mrs.", you know, just Auntie, y'know what I'm sayin'

And uh, she said if anybody ever called her Auntie she'd burn

The whole God damned place down, y'know what I'm sayin'

But you know, we're moving past that, y'know what I'm sayin'

Coming into a new millenium, can't forget our elders

I got off the Two train in Brooklyn, on my way to a session

Said "Let me help this woman up the stairs" before I get to steppin'

We got in a conversation, she said she a hundred and seven

Just her presence was a blessing, and her essence was a lesson

She had her head wrapped and long dreads that peeked out the back

Like antenna to help her to get a sense of where she was at

Imagine that, living a century, the strength of her memories

Felt like an angel Heaven sent to me

She lived from nigga to colored to negro to black to afro

Then African-American then right back to nigga

You'd figure she'd be bitter in a twilight, be she aight

Cause she done seen the circle of life

Yo, my skin is black like it's packed with melanin

Back in the days of slaves she'd be packin' like Harriet Tubman

And, my arms are long like she moves like a song

Feet with corns, hands with calluses but the heart is warm

And, my hair is wooly and attract a lot of energy

Even negative she gotta dead that the head wrap is a remedy (and)

My back is strong she far from a vagabond

This is the back the master's whip used to crack upon

Strong enough to take all the pain that's been inflicted

Again and again and again and again and then flip it

To the love for her children, nothing else matters

What do they call her, they call her Aunt Sarah

[Hook: Nina Simone]

*Harmonizing*

[Talib Kweli]

I know a girl with a name as beautiful as the rain

Her face is the same but she suffers in unusual pain

Seems she only deal with losers who be using them games

Chasing the real brothers away like she confused in the brain

She try to get in where she fit in on that American Dream mission

Paid tuition for that receipt to find out her history was missing

And started flippin', seeing the world through very different eyes

People asking her what she'll do when it come time to choose sides

Yo, my skin is yellow it's like the face is blonde

Word is bond, and my hair long and straight, it's like Sleeping Beauty

See she truly feel like she belong in two worlds

And now she can't relate to other girls

Her father is rich and white, still living with his wife

But he forced himself on her mother late one night

They call it rape, that's right

And now she take flight from life with hate and spite inside her mind

To keep her up to the break of light a lot of times

I gotta find myself, I gotta find myself

I gotta find myself, she had to remind herself

They call her Siffronia, the unwanted seed

Blood still blue in her veins, and still red when she bleeds

[Young Woman]

Don't, don't, don't hurt me again (x8)

[Talib Kweli]

Teenage lovers sit on the stoops of a Harlem

Holdin' hands under the Apollo marquee dreamin' of stardom

Cause they were born the streets is watching and schemin'

And now they got them generations facing diseases

That don't kill you they just got problems and complications

To get you first, yo it's getting worse

When children hide the fact that they pregnant

Cause they scared of givin' birth

How will I feed this baby, how will I survive, how will this baby shine

Daddy dead from crack in '85, mommy dead from AIDS in '89

At 14 the baby hit the same streets they became a master

The children of the enslaved, they grow a little faster

They bodies become adult while they keep the thoughts of a child

Her arrival into womanhood was hemmed up for her survival

Now she 25, barely grown, now on her own

Doing whatever it takes, strippin', working out on the block

Up on the phone talkin' about

"My skin is tan like the front of your hand

And my hair, well my hair is alright, whatever I wear when I fix it

It's alright, it's fine, but my hips these sway hips of mine

Invite you daddy when I fix my lips my mouth is like wine

Take a sip, don't be shy, tonight I wanna be your lady

I ain't too good for your Mercedes, but first you gotta pay me

Quit with all them questions, sugar, whose little girl am I

Why, I'm yours if you got enough money to buy

You better stop with them compliments, we running out of time

You wanna talk, whatever, we can do that it's your dime

From Harlem is where I came, don't worry about my name

Up on 125 they call me Sweet Thing"

[Hook: Nina Simone]

*Harmonizing*

Say what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what

What, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what

Say what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what

What, what, what, what... oooo~

[Talib Kweli]

A daughter come up in Georgia ripe and ready to plant seed

Left her plantation when she saw a sign even though she can't read

It came from God (praise him!), when life get hard she always speak to Him

She'd rather kill her babies than let the master get to him

She on the run up North to get across to Mason-Dixon

In church she learned how to be patient and keep wishin'

The promise of eternal life after death for those who God bless

She swear the next baby she have will breathe a free breath

And get milk from a free breast and love being alive

Otherwise they'll have to give up being themself to survive

Being maids, cleanin' ladies, maybe teachers, and college graduates

Nurses and housewives, prostitutes and drug addicts

Some will grow to be old women, some will die before they're born

There'll be mothers and lovers who inspire and make songs

But me, my skin is brown and my manner is tough

Like the love I give my babies when the rainbow's enough

I'll kill the first muhfucker to mess with me, I never bluff

I ain't got time to lie, my life's been much too rough

Still runnin' with bare feet, I ain't got nothin' but my sole

Freedom is the ultimate goal

Life and death is small in a hole in many ways

I'm awfully bitter these days

Cause the only parents God gave me; they were slaves

And they crippled me, I got the destiny of a casualty

But I'll live through my babies and I'll change my reality

Maybe one day I'll ride back to Georgia on a train

Folks 'round there call me Peaches; guess that's my name