Black Girl Pain

[Hook]

My mama said life would be this hard

Growing up days as a Black girl scarred

In every way, still, you've come so far

They just know the name, they don't know the pain

So please hold your heads up high

Don't be ashamed of yourself, know I

Will carry it forth till the day I die

They just know the name they don't know the pain, Black girl

[Verse 1: Talib Kweli]

I do it for the people, I do it for the love

I do it for the poet, I do it for the thug

This is for victory, and this is for the slaughter

I do it for my mother, I do it for my daughter

Promise I'll always love ya, I love to kiss and hug ya

You and your brother should be looking out for one another

I'm so blessed, man, y'all the reason I got up

Somebody put his hands on you I'm getting locked up

I'm not playing, that's the prayer I'm saying for Diani

And if I die then she'll be protected by Amani

That's her bigger brother and I love the way he love her

She a girly-girl, she love to imitate her mother

But she a Gemini, so stay on her friendly side

She'll put that look on you, it's like somebody friend just died

My pretty Black princess smell sweet like that incense

That you buy at the bookstore supporting Black business

Teach her what black is; the fact is her parents are thorough

She four reading Cornrows by Camille Yarborough

I keep her hair braided, bought her a black Barbie

I keep her mind free; she ain't no black zombie

This is for Aisha, this is for Kashera

This is for Khadijah, scared to look up in the mirror

I see the picture clearer through the stain on the frame

She got a Black girl name, she living Black girl pain

This is for Makeba, and for my Mamacita

What's really good Ma, I'll be your promise-keeper

I see the picture clearer through the stain on the frame

She got a black girl name, she live in black girl pain

[Hook]

Mama said life would be this hard

Growing up days as a Black girl scarred

In every way, still, we've come so far

They just know the name they don't know the pain

So please hold your heads up high

Don't be ashamed of yourself, know I

Will carry it forth till the day I die

'Cause they just know the name they don't know the pain, Black girl

[Verse 2: Jean Grae]

This is for Beatrice Bertha Benjamin who gave birth to Tsidi Azeeda

For Lavender Hill, for Khayelitsha

Athlone Mitchell's Plain, Swazi girls I'm repping for thee

Manenberg, Gugulethu; where you'd just be blessed to get through

For beauty shining through like the sun at the highest noon

From the top of the cable car at Table Mountain; I am you

Girls with the skyest blue of eyes and the darkest skin

For Cape Coloured for realizing we're African

For all my cousins back home, the strength of Mommy's backbone

The length of which she went for raising, sacrificing her own

The pain of not reflecting the range of our complexions

For rubber pellet scars on Auntie Elna's back, I march

Fist raised, caramel shining, in all our glory

For Mauritius, St. Helena; my blood is a million stories

Winnie for Joan and for Eadie, for Norma, Leslie, Ndidi

For Auntie Betty, for Melanie; all the same family

Fiona, Jo Burg, complex of mixed girls

For surviving through every lie they put into us now

This world's yours, and I swear I will stand focused

Black girls, raise up your hands; the world should clap for us

[Hook]

Mama said life would be this hard

Growing up days as a Black girl scarred

In every way, still, we've come so far

They just know the name they don't know the pain

So please hold your heads up high

Don't be ashamed of yourself, know I

Will carry it forth till the day I die

'Cause they just know the name they don't know the pain, Black girl

Momma said they'll be days like this...