Letter To My Countrymen

I used to think I hated this place

Couldn't wait to tell the president straight to his face

But lately I changed, nowadays I embrace it all

Beautiful ideals and amazing flaws

Got to care enough to give a testament

'Bout the deeply depressing mess we're in

It's home so we better make the best of it

I wanna make this country what it says it is

Still dream in the vividest living color

No matter how many times my love been smothered

Who's ever above us won't just let us suffer

All of this struggling got to amount to something

This is a letter to my countrymen

Especially those my age and younger than

We're up against an ugly trend

Everybody's hustling don't nobody touch their friends

No group singing and dancing

No anthem nobody holds hands, and...

Instead they give a handheld

And make you shoulder life's burden by your damn self

One thing that can't be debated

Power never changed on it's own you got to make it

That's why community is so sacred

That's the symbol that we make when we raise fists

"Sooner or later" [x2]

We don't really like to talk about the race thing

The whole grandparents used to own slaves thing

Pat ourselves on the back in February

Looking at pictures of Abe Lincoln and the great King

But the real picture's much more embarrassing

We're still not even close to really sharing things

The situation of oppressed people

Shows what we feel it means to be a human being

What does it mean to be American?

I think the struggle to free is our inheritance

And if we say it how it really is

We know our lily skin still give us privilege

Advantages given to the few

That are built into the roots of our biggest institutions

That's the truth in life we got to choose

Do I fight in the movement or think I'm entitled to it

This is not a practice life

This is the big game we got to attack it right

Each one of us is headed for the grave

This old crooked world won't be saved by the passive type

This is a letter to my countrymen

Not from a Democrat or a Republican

But one among you that's why you call me brother

Ain't scared to tell you we're in trouble 'cause I love you

"Sooner or later" [x2]

They tell me I'm a dreamer, they ridicule

They feel defeated, old, bitter, and cynical

Excuse me but I see it from a different view

I still believe in what a driven few could really do

I know that the masses want to sleep

And they would just rather hear me rapping to the beat

But I want to pass this planet to my son

A little better than it was when they handed it to me

So I wrote a letter to my countrymen

I'll be happy if it only reaches one of them

Reporting live A-L-I, your brother

Mourning in America, dreaming in color

My dear Brother Ali,

I think you know deep down in your soul that

Something, something just ain't right.

You don't want to be just well adjusted to injustice

And well adapted to indifference. You want to be

A person with integrity who leaves a mark on the world.

People can say when you go that you left the world

Just a little better than you found it. I understand. I want

To be like that too.