Released: August 7, 2020

Featuring: JID Noname Jay Rock

Songwriter: Vicky Farewell Nguyen Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman Kenya Rae Johnson Jay Rock Noname JID Anderson .Paak

Producer: Anderson .Paak J.LBS

[Chorus: Anderson .Paak & JID]
You should've been downtown (Word)
The people are rising (For real?)
We thought it was a lockdown (What? Yeah)
They opened the fire (Man)
Them bullets was flyin' (Ooh)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie (Ugh, look)

[Verse 1: JID]
It's a war going on outside, I swear to God
I'm on the front line, no front, no cap, no fun-size
Sunshine, cinnamon skin
People blend in together and ride side by side, organized
We bust guns at the same time, harmonize (Ooh-ooh)
Form a line, pick a lead, take a leap
Lead with love, please, you sound like Dr. King
People tired of taking beatings from beasts covered in sheets
I love niggas, but we too forgiving for how they treating us
Reparations, bit', we tryna get even
Just run the paper maybe, then we can start the conversation
Common ground, prison compounds full of my fuckin' people
How you still sleepin'? Have you had your coffee this evening, Karen?
'Cause you seem a little off
All the black girls missin' and endin' up inside the coffins
But you mad when they hashtag "BlackLivesMatter" on front your sidewalk
Diabolical thoughts, diatribe from dialogues
Damaging images of men and women who died off
Fighting for civil rights, a simple necessity
Given when you given life, but we been trippin'? Right (Skrrt)

[Chorus: Anderson .Paak]
You should've been downtown (Ooh)
The people are rising (Ah)
We thought it was a lockdown (Shit)
They opened the fire (Bah, bah, ooh-wee)
Them bullets was flying (Lockdown)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie
(We ain't gotta stop 'cause they tell us to)

[Post-Chorus: Anderson .Paak]
Downtown, where I got popped with the rubber bullet
Trey-pound, got it in my name now, I'ma shoot it

[Verse 2: Noname]
Uh, maybe this round two
Government cinematic, American drive-thru
Eat their apple pie in the morning then bury the strange fruit
Then marry the strange fruit and call it the Black love
So when he bleeds, I bleed, the sacred riddle
Ain't no money I can make to make the cops get little
We seen 'em murder the indigenous, the Passage Middle
The Constitution, a life for a bag of Skittles
So when we bleed, I load the sacred pistol
And if you need, I'll read Assata with you
And if you rich, I pray that God forgive you
Supposed to share the garden, grow the Holy in you
Maybe everything is a metaphor, one God
An African liberation is ready to take arms
They telling you, "Stay calm," they double-barrel the shotty
And stand on a graveyard and tell you to slave on

[Chorus: Anderson .Paak]
Downtown (Down)
The people are rising (Look around)
We thought it was a lockdown (Shit, lockdown)
They opened the fire (Had to get low, fire)
Them bullets was flying (Down, down)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie (Ooh—)

[Verse 3: Jay Rock]
Turn on your tube, dawg, look how they do us
Knee on our necks, bullets in backs, stimulus checks
Strictly for Blacks? History repeating
People scared to eat a chicken, everybody going vegan
What they put in it?
Look at the world we living in, they got us shook in it
You go on your jog, then your color might get you took in it
Man in the mirror, don't look away, you better look at it
Black lives matter, so what it means when they shoot at it?
Generation, genocide, what happened to enterprise?
Heard the man infiltrated, Black Panther, re-energize
Nothin' to figure out, they tryna kill us out
If I take a kneel, see my fist, I'm a killer now?
Just think, bullshit you gotta filter out
Are you really ready for the smoke like a Swishahouse?
Ready for the revolution, who ready to ride?
It won't be televised, so tell me, who ready to die?
Know the difference from a 'pan' and a 'plan'demic
Just a bunch of bullshit, how we land in it?
You either fall for anything or you stand in it
It's a lot going on on this damn mission
Big B.G. used to sell microchips
Now he out here pushing vaccines?
It's 'bout to be another lockdown
Feelin' like D.C., fuck you mean?

[Chorus: Anderson .Paak]
Downtown (Down)
The people are risin' (Look around)
We thought it was a lockdown (Lockdown)
They opened the fire (Had to get low, fire)
Them bullets was flyin' (Down, down)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie (Ooh-wee)

[Post-Chorus: Anderson .Paak]
Lockdown, we ain't gotta stop 'cause they tell us to
Downtown, where I got popped with the rubber bullet
Trey-pound, got it in my name now (Uh), I'ma shoot it
Lockdown, we ain't gotta stop 'cause they tell us to
Downtown

[Outro]
Citizens of Los Angeles
I hereby declare this to be an unlawful assembly
And in the name of the people of the State of California
I command all those assembled
Right here
On Lomitas Avenue
(Let's go, let's go)
Come on, right here

Anderson .Paak

Brandon Paak Anderson, a.k.a. Anderson .Paak, is a singer, songwriter, producer, and drummer from Oxnard, California. He released his debut EP, Violets Are Blue, under his original moniker, Breezy Lovejoy, in 2010. He eventually began using his new stage name and released O.B.E. Vol. 1 in June 2012 and Lovejoy in October 2012.

Before his 2014 album Venice, .Paak officially changed his name to Anderson .Paak. When asked if his name change was symbolic of a turning point in his career by Consequence of Sound, he

Yeah, that was the case. […] and I felt like it was time to transition to a different name.