Dark Matters

[Intro]
"In some way be predicated on various interests that historically have been indifferent to black people, poor people and working people. It is not just white brothers and sisters and the abstract, we talking about corporate interests, we talking about Wall Street oligarchs, we talking about those at the top that have been making billions and billions and billions of dollars when 21% of all American children live in poverty."

[Verse 1: Alex Faith]
They sick of hearing me talk about this, Damn it man!
I'm sick of having to talk about this
It's so hot in America, frying pan to the fire
An account from the lips of an officer who's a coward
A cellphone video proving that he's a liar
Never got to say goodbye in his final hours
And a young black mother and her tears are like showers
On the blood stained concrete, victim to the power
Of a system that hates them
The logical evolution of a system that rapes them
Of course the state regulated media berates them
I'm losing my patience
That's the boot of the law on the neck of the poor
White people on the internet they heckle you for it
I can only live in the standards that my sheckles afford
If they ain't serving and protecting what the heck are they for?
If we don't say anything we just settling for it
And the people on the internet will say I hate the police
Because of this song and that's a lie bruh (that's a lie)
Man I love freedom and freedom is alive bruh
And if I love freedom then I gotta hate the lies bruh

[Verse 2: Alex Faith]
Uh, Yeah, but ya'll ain't hearing me clearly
Reduce to what I'm saying to conspiracy theories
You see it from a distance, but this all is very near me
I'm saying all of this so that the status quo should fear me
Do you feel me?
You ever seen somebody get shot?
I ain't start at the bottom, but I'm miles from the top
Class warfare, what do you believe about it?
History is on my side, you better read about it
You agree with me you better get up and go be about it
Wanna have the conversation, come on and we can see about it
And I ain't talking out the side of my face
People that's around me saying I'm betraying my race
Tell me, can you feel the fire in my bones?
Tell me, can you hear the cries from their homes?
Uh, really think that I'm willing to lose friends
And hop on social justice because it's the new trend
Uh

[Spoken: Alex Faith]
And I ain't being divisive. My desire is for unity and I don't hate the law. But I do believe that it's flawed. Before we can have unity, we have to have equality

[Spoken Word: Adan Bean]
The Earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep
And so was my dark ebony skin on the surface of the street
Chocolate cheek face down on the concrete, padded from the waist down
A cop's knee in my spine, ironically as he called for backup
I dare not make a sound
The officer said this was routine, I believed him this was not a new thing
Plenty black faces found their homes on the pavement, this was my turn
I pray that the concrete does not become my urn
Burned to ash by the biases of a badge
A son is looking at his dad and I wanna tell him he can grow up to be more than a hashtag
More than a means to march, more than a grieve remembered in the heart, more than a deceased matter that is dark
Let there be light cause see the boys in blue will ROYGBIV you
Have you taste the rainbow with Skittles and iced tea
Society will write in bold Times New Roman that you are no angel in your obituary
They'll Tamir Rice your children at a pavilion
Sean Bell your future spouse
The belly of the beast will feast on you despite the Sandra Bland taste your skin leaves in its' mouth
And when you are not afforded a process that is due
Shouting a quote from Ta-Nehisi Coates won't save you
Plus there are those who will All Lives Matter you until you no longer matter due
Black and blue, what does a man with my hue have to do in order to survive you?
So that officer eventually let up, offered no apology, but said I could get up
Went about his way and said stay out of trouble with an unfriendly smile
And I'm left piecing back my dignity in front of my only child
And as I drive home that night I try not to let my heart harden knowing that this is what happens when marginalized people refuse to stay in the margins