It's Not Working (The Truth)

(album: Crooked - 2017)

[Courtney Orlando:]
All I want, all I need
I just want the truth, I just want the truth
All I want, all I need
Is to focus on you, is to focus on you
All I want

[Propaganda:]
We thought they would take us serious
And would listen if we ain't furious
So we painted our picket signs
And we blessed the due process
And we learned the Constitution
And believed in the Bill of Rights
And learned our country's history
Like you, we stood against that tyranny
And survived the three-fifths compromise
Only to sharecrop and then Jim Crow
And then red lines and we figured it was high time
So we organized two by two because we desired service
We were nervous
But we deserved to be treated like we were citizens
And survived them fire hydrants
And the wild dogs and crooked laws
Only to get smacked with that war on drugs and crack attack
But we believed you, made our hashtags and you mocked us
But we broke our necks just to hold our chins up
And them anti-gang rallies, they lifted our consciousness up
But it feel like this ain't real life
And my American skin won't let me win
And I'm so tired and I ain't tryna scare you
But I looked to the sky like "Grandmama I think I failed you"

[Courtney Orlando:]
All I want, all I need
I just want the truth, I just want the truth
All I want, all I need
Is to focus on you, is to focus on you
All I want

[Propaganda:]
And we thought we could be taken serious
Be all we could be, a rifle and a GI bill
Army first to desegregate
Could stand with your countrymen
Brothers in arms 'cause you got no qualms
We equal rights is that napalm
And the Marine Corps landed them poor black men out in Berlin
And they couldn't help but notice the striking resemblance
Between these Jewish ghettos and the one in they own Chicago
How a man 'posed to gun tote for a country that don't let him vote?
Or take down a dictator doing the same thing his own POTUS do
That riddle alone would ruin your psyche too
And that nitro tricycling, it got him biting five vicodins
It's a shame the Cold War vets ain't get no ticker tape parades
Maybe that's why they alcoholic
Maybe that's why he womanizing
Maybe I can forgive my dad for all the years he kept lying

[Courtney Orlando:]
All I want, all I need
I just want the truth, I just want the truth
All I want, all I need
Is to focus on you, is to focus on you
All I want

[Propaganda:]
Let me tell you what you ain't try
You ain't try taking into consideration
That even if change came, you'd still be the same Jason
Lame Jason, still struggling with patience
And collecting objects and projects and protests, you ain't try
You ain't try listening, history a proven track record
No evil has ever gone unpunished
And kingdoms come and go and thrones get thrown to oblivion
And I am not at all shook in any way by Satan
And you ain't try realizing what you are really running from
And what you are really fighting for
It's a frightening indictment
That even if all these world problems are solved
It still wouldn't resolve what you are actually looking for
And it's not like these problems, they don't need to be addressed
But fixing systemic issues, it ain't the source of your rest
Or satisfaction, and I know it's your life's work
But the work of a man's hands, it has never quenched his thirst
You say I'm King of kings but son, I don't get it how
You could trust me for eternity but can't trust me for now
Hoping in a broken system to fix what's broken in us
It's not working, is it?