Serengeti

(album: No Thanks - 2022)

On June 9th, 1963
I had attended a voter registration workshop
Ten of us was traveling by the Continental Trailway bus
"It was a State Highway Patrolman and a Chief of Police ordered us out"
I stepped off of the bus to see what was happening (Every time my people grow, they cut us down)
And somebody screamed from the car and said, "Get that one there" (Every time my people grow, they cut us down)

Every time my people grow, they cut us down
Every time my people grow, they cut us down
Every time my people grow, they cut us down
Every time my people grow, they cut us down

I'd rather be centerfold than hunted down
White supremacy's tentacles reach all around
Police, domestic military
America the Serengeti (They hunt us down)
They hunt us for the cemetery, they shoot us down
They hunt us for the cemetery, they shoot us down
Police, domestic military (They hunt us down)
America the Serengeti (They hunt us down)

Look, I know botany is not really my thing
I also know to grow some shit, you gotta' let it breathe
My grandma told me flowers get more powers when you sing to 'em
Tried to bury us, they didn't know that we was seeds
Tried to bury truth but, you can smell it when we bleed
That shit fertilize my soul
That shit sacred at my feet
See my niggas from pot soil
Seen these roses from concrete
Seen my city pour concrete over plots that we just bloomed
Over spots that we might meet
I won't sponsor no hypebeast
Conversation, I might tweet
Contemplating my bone growth
When these niggas gon' smite me
Know these niggas don't like me
These just Skittles and iced tea
Why you want to Kool-Aid my white tee?
We got FN's and 19's
I can't let you tread on me
Not since 1917, not since 1923
They didn't break the dream of Martin Luther King
They done breaked chains but never break bread
Then think it's strange when niggas fight back
(Every time my people grow, they cut us down)

I'd rather be centerfold than hunted down
White supremacy's tentacles reach all around
Police, domestic military
America the Serengeti (They hunt us down)
They hunt us for the cemetery, they shoot us down
They hunt us for the cemetery, they shoot us down
Police, domestic military (They hunt us down)
America the Serengeti (They hunt us down)

Ain't no masquerades
Death to any motherfucka' tryna segregate
The news is fake because they play cadence, they exaggerate
These positions get futile so reevaluate
Who holds the powers in your hands?

They hunt us for the cemetery, they shoot us down
They hunt us for the cemetery
Police, domestic military (They hunt us down)
America the Serengeti (They hunt us down)