Lyrics Raphael Saadiq – Rikers Island Redux

America America
Purveyor of mass hysteria
Mass production
And mass incarceration

The epitome of huddled masses yearning to breathe free

The masses

Mass is the property of matter regardless of the state
But it seems we don’t matter until we’re properties of the state en mass

And Massuh’s still trying to trick himself into believing he picked the cotton too

No matter how much I cow tow tap dance and jump through a bunch of hoops
I’ll still be the one who winds up in a jumpsuit
I’ll still be the one who winds up with the gun wounds
King had one dream that won’t seem to come true
X had necessary means and a gun too
Though there’s always more than one truth
Even on cloudy days sun rays still come through
I mask feelings of pain and ask healing we got the same
Glass ceiling but I’m sposed to be thankful for my sun roof

And Massuh’s still trying to trick himself into believing he picked the cotton too

It’s Complex how being born with this complexion ups the likelihood of dying in a prison complex and orange ain’t the new black
Black is the same
Same black

This ain’t just for black folks
Just ask those backward folks
Who stay intolerant like lactose
We bout to blast blowing
Like Miles, Coltrane, and Satchmo
You can act slow
But we want our civil rights in fast forward
Ain’t we asking for it

So let’s stand for ’em
In New York, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Charlotte, ATL, Charleston, San Fran, Oakland, LA, B-more, Detroit, DC, Chicago and Ferguson

Time for turning up, time to turning tables, turning heads and it’s time to plan
Take a line from my man Lin-Man who wrote Ham, revolution is messy but now it’s time to stand

So stand up
Stand up
Word to the words of the police hands up
Word to the folks in jail copping pleas, puh-lease people copy me, no misogyny we gotta man up
We gotta open that can up

I’m not worried bout becoming worms meat what concerns me is my people learning the difference between earning our own keep and working another man’s land for free
One’s just the same slavery
The other unlocks chains, turn key
Hate that this deferred dream keeps recurring
Wake up America, and hurry