Released: November 26, 2018

Songwriter: Salaam Remi Black Thought

Producer: Salaam Remi

[Intro]
Shit crazy

[Verse]
Dark room with the cloak draped over the mic
Colloquium light, the smoke from the opium pipe
Silk road is a code so the only advice
To bring truth to the light, play this only at night
If it’s over your life, it’s not only a fight
My homie called it a plight and my homie was right
How to speak truth to power is refuse to cower and teach youth
The hour of reckonin’ is upon us, there’s enemies among us
Essentially in more than recent memory, they hung us
Public assembly to watch death become us
Better believe it but if not, check the numbers
Gramps told my father they sold his papa for gold and copper
Even though he was the strongest cropper
Now am I wrong if I teach my son to properly hold a choppa
And how to bring down a helicopter?
What’s the concept? The industrial prison complex
For niggas in the projects with they eyes shut
That still walk around blind to the conquest
That haven’t really realized what’s the time yet
No due process, the price is no object
When sentences match the crime, they do not yet
It’s been a war on the heavily melanated
For your own security, you better be educated, listen

[Outro]
And if you can’t see what’s happenin’, you just can’t see

Black Thought

Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter is the co-founder and MC of the legendary Philadelphia-based hip-hop group The Roots.

Thought is highly renowned in the Hip-Hop community for his socially aware, informed, and character-driven rap style. He is considered by many, a lyrical killer and legend that falls in the same category as Yasiin Bey, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, members of the Wu-Tang Clan and even Nas.

He also is a member and founder of supergroup Money Making Jam Boys, consisting of Black, and other Roots collaborators Sugar-Tongue-Slim (STS), Greg Porn, Truck North, and Dice Raw. STS can be heard on “Right On” while the other three are widely and largely on Undun.