Released: June 26, 1996

Songwriter: Meshell Ndegéocello

Producer: David Gamson

All I ever wanted was a nigga
Who would be true
All I wanted was a nigga man

All I ever wanted was a nigga
Who would be true, be good to me
While doing the evil that niggers do
My view of self was that of a divine ho

Like the ones portrayed on the
White man colonized minded rap shows
Oh, the Afro dizzy act of my black rebel
I am a woman and to this world I accommodate myself

My place is in my black man's defiance
My nigga divine for his sadness
So well complemented mine
When I look at you so black and blue
My love for you sad but true

All I ever wanted was a nigga
Who would be true
All I wanted was a nigga man

One night on a love high
We metamorphasized into gigantic black butterflies
And for the first time I saw the god inside
I realized my nigga redefined was the black man
Divine and he could take me higher
And the divine woman was what the black man desired

But of the tree of the knowledge
Of good and evil, you shall not eat
For in the day that you eat of it
You shall surely die
To them he said, "I will greatly multiply"


Your pain and your conception
In pain shall you bring forth children
And you shall be dependent on your husband
And he shall rule over you"
Then god said, "Let us make man in our image"

Let's go back to the time when the mind and soul
Were divine faith unquestioned
Mother, father, god said
"Let us make man in our own image god"
Was not alone as no one should be
I search for a righteous hand to rule over me

For you are a holy people
To the lord your god, the lord your god
Has chosen you to be a beloved people to himself, above all
People that are upon the face of the earth

The Lord shall bring a nation
Against you from afar, from the ends
Of the earth, as swift as the eagle that flies
A nation whose language you do not understand

Your sons and daughters
Shall be given to another people
And your eyes shall look on
And you shall grieve over them all the day
Long and there shall be no might
In your hand to do anything

The fruit of your labors shall a nation
That you know not eat up
And you shall be wronged
And oppressed always

Meshell Ndegéocello

Meshell Ndegeocello (born Michelle Lynn Johnson, August 29, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist, and vocalist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on some of her later work. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock.