Strange Fruit

Chorus: shawn chapelle

Southern trees, bare us strange fruit

Blood on the leaves, blood at the roots

Black bodies swingin, in the southern breeze

All that strange fruit hangin... hangin from the trees

Verse one: danja mowf

Check it out, here's a story that's true (aight)

They had me locked up, for this crime I didn't do

This white girl identified me, as a rapist

Had me wishin I was harry houdini, the great escapist

But wait it's, more check it out the plot thickens (aight)

Cause shorty started tellin more tales than charles dickens

She said I kidnapped her, trapped her, slapped her

Then after, I tapped her, I fled through the pasture

Nah, not me cuz, knew I'd get acquitted

But seemed every white face in town knew I did it

Or done it, shit about a hundred, approachin white figures

Bearin triggers screaming, "kill that nigger!"

I'm gettin nervous just a little concerned

Cause in the south where I'm from niggaz will get burned

Cause them whitey's on some next shit -- some hang you by your neck shit

Oh well, I'm in jail man; I figure I'm protected (right..)

Chorus

Verse two: danja mowf

Yeah, should have expected not to trust the police

Them cops ain't even yell "freeze!" they just gave the mob the keys (uh)

They beat me like I stole somethin, pistol-whipped me like a stickup

Tied my hands behind my back, tied my feet to the bumper

Of a pickup, truck, now I'm gettin shucked like corn

Bein drug through the town, face down

To the gravel, my clothes and skin unravel

I guess I'm guilty, the lynch mob dropped the gavel

They took me to a tree, hung me naked by my wrists

When I beg and I plead I can't take it like this

They shoved a pole in my mouth (what? ) cause you see down south

Lynchin was a show, erybody came out

See the mothers brought they daughters, to come and check the slaughters

And fathers brought they sons, to see how it was done, they brung

Everyone, from the old to the young

Cause it really was nuttin to see a nigga get hung, word

Chorus

Verse three: danja mowf

Yeah, I hung bloody, down by the muddy

Water of the missi-ssippi for my slaughter

The order in this court was plantatation mutilation

I felt the cool sensation of a knife point

Slicin through the joint of each toe, each finger

Each thumb and, face it that's for touchin on a white woman

My screams and tears brought more celebration and cheers

Than twelve o'clock on new year's

A girl couldn't see, someone raised her higher

So she could watch them breakin out my teeth with the wire plier

My one desire was to meet my messiah but they wouldn't let me die-ah

Sayin, "nigger we gon' fry ya in the fire"

I prayed that death was movin near; that's when

They castrated me and kept my nuts as souveneirs (uh)

Gasoline cleaned my wounds like liquor

Saw the match flicker, begged em do it quicker

Ahh yes, the smell of burning flesh

A hundred angry bullets, penetrate my chest

Sweet death long awaited, I hang as a monument

A warning simply stated for a people that they hated

But nowadays, the table's turned like a wrench (aight)

Cause white folks no longer have a reason to lynch (why? )

Cause when it comes down to it (uh-huh) there's no need to pursue it

When you got a million niggaz round the country that'll do it

Think!

Chorus (repeat 2x)