(Black &) Blues People

[Chorus: Akua Naru]
Black people unite
Black people unite
Black people unite
Black people unite

[Verse 1: Akua Naru]
Uh, uh
Fathom a people, fracture rattle in bones of West Africa
Trapped in the burden that's chained to the diaspora
Middle passenger, captured and framed and named hazardous
Tackled by catastrophe, tragedy paved a path for us
Lost on the shores, who but us could draw a map for us?
Chorus when that caged bird sing another sad story
Pastor told me Lord see our plight, won’t forsake us
Though his face favors the same snakes that enslaved us
Tobacco in Mississippi, sugar cane in Jamaica
A European grave for [?] acres
An array of shots fired at a Audubon stage
Malcolm falls to his death before a crowd of black faces
As his wife wept, life crept from this plane, joined the angels
Four little girls left, a set of twins gestatin', behold
A shining prince eulogized by Ossie Davis
Huh, take it

[Chorus: Akua Naru]
Black people unite
Black people unite
Black people unite
Black people unite

[Verse 2: Akua Naru]
Yo, uh
Fresh pressed shirts, clothes be the code that stays sit ins
Till the doors skid and my blood could stain white linen
Pidgins of the Queen's English, flawed, uneven
A radical king’s dreams, a Hallmark greetin'
Blues confronts the awful war even more so
Black limbs ripped from a Congolese torso
No media blitz, so you could text on that iPhone
Applause for Lupita Nyong'o
[?] beauty exotic, a war, Roberta Flack killin' us soft
They won't stop till they kill us all
41 rounds, make it 44
Mama told my brother not to leave the porch
Panic every time he open the door
How many Trayvons walk the streets at night?
Renisha McBrides groomed in the state that don't respect black life
When we bleed, do it amuse the knife? Huh
Facebook like, too perfumed to fight

[Chorus: Akua Naru]
Black people unite
Black people unite
Black people unite
Black people unite

[Verse 3: Akua Naru]
Call us a blues people in the blood, the breath, and every handshake
That head wrap, stretch of the tongue, how we translate
In the plantains, that vast, creative landscape
That viral hit on some old shit that we been made
Dreadlocks and braids, them greens you just ate
That "hotep", that "asé", "ago", "ame"
Police fire shots and drop you out all day
Another officer walk, no love lost, full pay
Baseline crossed, that low-frequency war paint
[?] shells hit the ground, astounded by the loud face
Another new black in the old trap of post-race
Won't wake up till they the next to catch a court case
Cornel West said it best, "Fuck what you all say"
Got Kenny G and the world looking for Coltraine
Self-love supreme, get free and watch the game change
Gotta start out with this one thing

[Chorus: Akua Naru]
Black people unite
Black people unite
Black people unite (Black and blues people, y'all)
Black people unite (Justice, justice, justice, justice, justice)

[Bridge: Akua Naru]
Uh, justice
Justice, justice
Justice, justice, justice, justice
Justice
Black and blues people, uh
Black and blues people
Justice, justice, justice
Black and blues people
Justice, justice, justice, justice, justice, justice, justice
Justice, justice, justice
Justice
Justice, justice, justice
Justice
Justice
Huh
Black people unite, huh
With my people tonight
Justice, justice, justice
Black and blues people

[Outro: Akua Naru]
Puppets most prominent, rape of a continent
Neo-colonial debt and paid parliament
Cultural products unknown and foreign profited
Every djembe that that palm get
Every note of that guitar lick, distraction’s obvious
Corporate domination of conscience
Surface seem harmless
Who pause to applaud at the Oscars?
A radio keep playing that garbage, constant
Assata Shakur most wanted by congress
Cash cow be the black and brown convict, logic
Every choir harmonize the pain of their profits
Let the light be the judge of the darkness