I stumbled upon this video over at Tunji’s crib and at 3 in the morning, felt compelled to jot down the lyrics to this A Capella flow from Brother Ali. The poem pleads with the listener to connect with a black man starting on his forced voyage to the Americas. Upon landing, we see his struggle through the physical, emotional and cultural hardships of slavery. With his last bit of strength, he fights oppression, only to land in impoverished communities with little to no economic viability.

The theme of the poem (for lack of a more fitting word) is clear. “You bend all your life and you can’t see the light/ It gets painful to stand upright, right?” Brother Ali places the listener in the shoes of the slave to provide a visceral picture of the plight of many Black Americans in the past. He goes on to do the same thing for the present. “Now what if that was you born to the left of the tracks?/ The place where you grow up is infested with rats…”

I think I’ll leave it at that.  The lyrics are below along with the video of his performance.  I wanted to capture the complexity of this piece but a) it’s way late and b) there is too much for me to unravel in the short time given.  The gist of it is that the song is a story, or more accurately a history.  But it’s also a first-person narrative about a Black American.  Lastly, there is a metaphorical element to it that reinforces the struggle of not only Black Americans, (as the second scenario applies broadly to many of America’s poor), but also hip-hop as an art form.  What I’m saying is, it’s dope and the layers within the lyrics encase a vast amount of Truth.  If that sounds like some hippie-sh**, just do some Google searches for “epistemology.”  Without further ado, the video and the lyrics to that video.  Enjoy!

Brother Ali – “Good Lord” Promo 2 from Three/21 Films on Vimeo.

Brother Ali – Title unknown

Shackles are heavy on my wrist
Stacked like sardines, belly of the ship
Live in your own —–, sh—- and being sea sick
Cracked across the back with the (?) leather whip
Salt water burn through your wounds
Women are starving with babies in their wombs
On their hands and knees trying to cry ‘God please’
Exhausted, your voice is too weak to speak
Neighbors and strangers are dying beside you
Your decaying body (?) tied to
Cling mighty tight for your fight for survival
Wonder if you try will they ever try to find you
Arrive somewhere and know that the air is cold
You can see your breath and your barely clothed
Your first time ever seeing snow
Sleeping next to it on a hard dark floor
Work from ‘can’t see in the morning to can’t see at night’
You work til your hands bleed white
Your native language you can’t recite
Get murdered on sight if you try to read and write
You bend all your life and you can’t see the light
It gets painful to stand upright, right?
And your eyes bare sight
Of your wife being pulled out your shack,
Brutalized at night
You only taste joy when babies are born
Which became an occassion to mourn
Separated, torn from your celebrated alms
And as quickly as they came they were gone
Sewed away from your farm (?)
This is all they’ve known
Never heard stories from home
They forget your name
The culture from which you came
Teaching it will get you slain
Your God will get you the same
Tortured til near death lest you complain
No choice but have you sing through the pain
Pray that your suffering wasn’t in vain
End of your chain
End of your life
Grandchildren born with no end in sight
So you muster up all your might
And your last breath comes out, ‘Fight!’
This is actually true
Now stop and imagine that’s you
Now, stop imagining, unravel the truth
And ask just ‘who is this happening to?’
Everything that the passenger do
The driver experience too
So if humanity is one then we all get burned ’cause it’s hell that we’re traveling through

Got to save my soul
Put me back together make me whole
Said we don’t know which way to go
Take my hand and place me on that road

Now what if that was you born to the left of the tracks?
The place where you grow up is infested with rats
Now don’t even segregate that
Everybody who could, left in a snap
And they never looked up
Since they’ve been gone they ain’t invested in jack
Left very few ways for you to generate scratch
School is underfunded
Teachers overworked
When it comes to textbooks, you gotta settle for scraps
Seldom… (?)
The wall pressed to your back
If you ever think of anything they’re set to react,
‘You ain’t no Einstein, you’re just a regular cat’
Your self-preservation is a medical fact
They done set you up a hell of a trap
Keep bait in your face and if you take it then you’ll never come back
What type of set up is that?
Just us, just that
Justice, a public defendant with his head up his ass
You’re headed for a place where slavery is legal
And you being a human ain’t a relevant fact
And if you play nice
You might escape with your life
And get a release date ‘But oh, don’t celebrate yet!’
They sending you back to where you fell through the cracks
Except now it’s harder cuz you got this felony rap
Might get an interview but your resume’s jacked
The second they find out you got an F it’s a wrap
In the seventies cats,
From the ghetto made raps
Unified worlwide we all felt the impact
The companies stole that, they’re selling it back
Stripped all down, to really, the irrelevant crap
And the message is that
‘If you’re poor or you’re black
‘Throw some shells up in the gatt
‘And go and sell you some crack
‘Then you’ll have shiny things, and money and stacks
‘And Destiny’s Child will really love you for that’
Look how the f—-in’ deck has been stacked and the effect it can have
Only knowing that you never had a chance
Don’t be judging people in a second, at a glance
Act superior ’cause the blessings that you had
Allah don’t prefer you, He’s just testing your ass
With the benefits you’re given you’re expected to pass
Take a look in the mirror, reflect on that
Just might be a hypocrite reflecting in glass

The whole point of this video was originally to promote Brother Ali’s new album coming out 3.10.09 titled The Truth Is Here.  At the end of the video is Ali doing a bit from his first single “Good Lord.”

Written by SK for OGhiphop.com