Hand-Me-Downs

[Hook]

Come on say it loud

Look what we handed down

Don't it make you proud?

Look what we handed down

Come on say it loud

Look what we handed down

Don't it make you proud?

Look what we handed down

[Verse 1: Blueprint]

My momma gave me Donny Hathaway

"Young, Gifted and Black"

I miss the positivity, I wanna bring it back

But Rap nowadays is by a bunch of ignorant cats

No "Young, Gifted and Black"

Just guns, bitches and crack

I react by turning off BET

And Sambos telling me what blackness is supposed to be

Used to give us world news, now it's all videos

Replaced Tavis Smiley with reality shows

If you let the TV define what black is

You think ice and violence is all we think that matters

I guess this is what happens when rappers look up to thugs

And kids look up to rappers

To some of y'all if I don't talk about the gat enough

Or sell crack enough, I ain't black enough

But I rather be a pro at being myself

Than be an idiot trying to be somebody else, what

[Hook]

Come on say it loud

Look what we handed down

Don't it make you proud?

Look what we handed down

Come on say it loud

Look what we handed down

Don't it make you proud?

Look what we handed down

[Verse 2]

I'm at the bus stop with my bike

Been there for a while

Moms taught me how to catch this route when I was a child

Another kid walks up, freakin' a Black & Mild

Fifteen, same age I learn shit's wild

An older lady walks up, greets us with a smile

Asks how we both doing and sits down

She knows what's it's like to grow up in the South

Civil Rights when the whites was hosing us down

I started thinking to myself that even though the times were tougher

They still took time out to speak to one another

But look at us, me and this young brother

Acting to proud to break down and speak to each other

So inside I felt ashamed

Not sure of how to but I wanna change

And as long as I'm alive, then the fact remains

That it's never too late for us to break the chains

Come on, y'all

[Hook]

Come on say it loud

Look what we handed down

Don't it make you proud?

Look what we handed down

Come on say it loud

Look what we handed down

Don't it make you proud?

Look what we handed down

[Scratching]

Things is bound to change