Consciousness

[Intro]
Ooh, baby, let's ride
Baby, FYI
Okay, uh, yeah

[Verse 1]
Now what if there wasn't no niggas, just master teachers?
And what if there wasn't no rappers, only preachers?
Would you eat what they feed you?
And would you let them beset you?
Would you let them box you up and put that price on ya back?
Nineteen forty-nine, that's including the state sales tax
For the money, sell ya soul to the Confederate flag

[Refrain]
Now where's this conscious that you speak of?
Told me it's hidden in the reefer

[Verse 2]
And I can smell it in the air
Like them dark bodies swinging from the poplar tree
And I can feel it in my bones
As I become everything they told me not to be

[Refrain]
Now where's this conscious that you speak of?
Told me it's hidden in the reefer

[Verse 3]
Throw that fluoride in your drink to censor everything you think
Fuck up a third time and then they sentence you to life
This ain't no game, baby, but you keep playin' baby
The same rope they throw you is the one you hang from, baby

[Refrain]
Now where's this conscious that you speak of? (Yeah)
Told me it's hidden in the reefer (Yeah, yeah)

[Verse 4]
'Cause it ain't nothing quite like this country of mine
Where a nigga gets shot by a cop at the drop of a dimebag
It's sad 'cause that's really where we at
That's really where we at

[Refrain]
Now where's this conscious that you speak of?
Told me it's hidden in the reefer

[Chorus]
Where's this consciousness? (Where is this consciousness?)
Where's this consciousness? (Where is this consciousness?)
Where's this consciousness? (Where is this consciousness?)
Where's this consciousness? (Where is this consciousness?)

[Verse 5]
But you keep rappin' 'bout the trap 'cause you trapped
And that's exactly where they want you at
Liberate yourself, don't let them steal your mental health
'Cause it's the white ones with the wealth who benefit off what you sell
Throw you in jail, taking your right away to freedom
Shackle you in chains, as if that's really proper treatment
I'm not a preacher, but I had to let it out
In the name of those before me like Nina Simone and James Brown
I'm black and proud, yeah, yeah, I'm black and proud
I'm black and loud, yeah, yeah, I'm black and loud
And if you got a problem, you can sit the fuck down

[Refrain]
Now where's this conscious that you speak of?
Told me it's hidden in the reefer

[Chorus]
Where's this consciousness?
Where's this consciousness?

[Outro: James Baldwin]
I don't know if the Board of Education hates black people, but I know the textbooks I give my children to read and the schools we have to go to. Now, this is the evidence. You want me to make an act of faith risking myself, my wife, my woman, my assistant, my children on some idealism which you assure me exists in America, which I have never seen.

[Refrain]
Now where's this conscious that you speak of?
Told me it's hidden in the reefer