Foreward, 1619 Lyrics - Sho Baraka

The devil goes to and fro 

Like a lion seeking someone to devour 

Resist him 

Don't close the book, I got more to write 

You can change the story, that is my advice 

I read in color, they see black and white 

You just saw the cover, but there's more to life 

Don't close the book, I got more to write 

You can change the story, that is my advice 

I read in color, they see black and white 

You just saw the cover, but there's more to life 

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Yeah, hello 

Quick introduction before I narrate 

I'm from the west, between Cornel and Kanye 

I grew up between section eight and cloud nine 

During my youth I lost my sense of being colorblind 

In between white supremacy and black nihilism 

AME churches, corner stores and the prison systems 

Hoteps and preachers on the block, they was dropping wisdom 

I would pick it up and just give it a little rhythm 

They said my lineage had a couple of kings 

A couple queens, a couple thieves, a couple fiends 

Despite the struggle, I would teach that we are equal 

I fall short like a midget but I'm down for the people 

The people, argue I died with integration 

Their false liberation is really assimilation 

The youth view my history with some suspicion 

They wanna progress past religion and tradition 

I say 

Photos 

Don't close the book, I got more to write 

You can change the story, that is my advice 

I read in color, they see black and white 

You just saw the cover, but there's more to life 

Don't close the book, I got more to write 

You can change the story, that is my advice 

I read in color, they see black and white 

You just saw the cover, but there's more to life 

Hello average, let me introduce you to awesome 

That Harlem renaissance age had some excellent artists 

That miseducation, that midnight marauding 

That life before Eve ate that fruit in the garden 

They say 'You might be on the wrong side of history' 

Well, that depends on who's writing 

Who's reciting, who's typing and who likes it 

If we want peace somebody has to do the fighting 

We exit Egypt, happy to speak resistance 

Then turn around, and ask pharaoh for his assistance 

Huh, what is logic to the ignorant? 

What's forgiveness to people who think they're sinless? 

We are those, fully exposed, Adam and Eve hiding our weakness 

Folks who wanna be close but the devil stands between us 

Who knows the dirty souls with an urgent need to be cleaned up 

They oppose my solution, everybody hates Jesus 

Don't close the book, I got more to write 

You can change the story, that is my advice 

I read in color, they see black and white 

You just saw the cover, but there's more to life 

Don't close the book, I got more to write 

You can change the story, that is my advice 

I read in color, they see black and white 

You just saw the cover, but there's more to life 

Yeah, what's protest to the law? 

Should I pray or should I riot? 

Do I want peace, or do I want power so I can try it? 

Who's gonna give the truth when these church moms retire? 

When censorship gets you fired and nobody gets inspired 

I don't care what you look like, black, white or magenta 

I don't care where you come from, Africa or placenta 

We all desperate and broken, given the same dilemma 

Do I serve God, or do I make off in my agenda? 

I remember thinking I was Daniel with the lions 

I'm like Israel in hiding when it's time to fight Goliath 

I've been broken, I've seen death working 

I've fought doubt, I've been knocked out, I know what hurt is 

I run from the truth, but I know where the church is 

I failed doing my job but yet I know my purpose 

Praise Jesus I was blind but now I see 

But my problem is I think I see too many things 

Let us chiropractic crack open the spine of this book 

Turn a few pages and take a deep look 

This is not the Catcher in the Rye 

This is the African who caught the slave catcher's eye 

Yet an invisible man who has the whole world watching 

Shall we meet the protagonist? 

For I am the colored cog in the capitalist wheel 

With baby faced bronze skin and melanin appeal snatched from the cradle of civilization 

My name is Louis Portier 

Arrived on these shores but I've got more to say 

From Bali to Barbados to Beaufort, South Carolina 

Sierra Leone to Sapelo, with 

Sugar cane on my fingertips and shackles on my feet 

There are limitations to a man so pity me until I sunk my tooth into Juneteenth 

Freedom tastes like grandma's sweet potato pie 

But it goes from master's plantation to mass incarceration 

As the Jim Crow flies, all of this happened, more or less 

This is Up From Slavery, meets Porgy and Bess 

August Wilson, and Kenya Barris 

James Brown and James Burr 

Kehinde Wiley, and Kara Walker 

George Carrothers, Clinton and Washington 

Carver, the great migration and reconstruction 

From black wall streets, to Harlem Artilliers 

This is black survival and success, put on full display 

Whether it's the Little Rock, or the Charleston Nine 

Trying to integrate, or praying to stay alive 

Thinking that if my work was good somehow y'all would recognize my personhood 

But nah, instead I had to hustle this chocolate charm 

This black brilliance, this ebony ingenuity 

I know what this nation has done, can do, and is doing to me 

Also what it could be and therefore still, I rise 

From 1619 and beyond here I stand 

From being three-fifths of a compromised plan 

Using the breath in my black lungs 

Shouting words from a place of black love 

'I am a man'