I was on my usual path to class but as I sat I let my mind wander These tracks crossed quite often Had it not been for my professor’s jargon I probably would have paid attention Noticing I’m already broke after these student loans I should probably go all in Pausing I reflected on knowledge After all, I paid a lot to get that here And the kind these textbooks contained was exhaustive Meaning both the regular connotation tiring But also able to comprehend But I questioned what’s the kind that redefines the individual? Residual traces from culture are sums I just couldn’t take serious Accumulated numbers on instagram and twitter that didn’t resemble the real life figure Folk aren’t really famous And even if you are I had to ask if fame is a reasonable end Ever shifting But if you asked me I’ll still exchange all my handles Didn’t have much on the court but could still sport a solid case against competition Finding definitions in blueprints like sneakers Line up all day for them things just to feel defeated when the next fashion has you walking home without rent money for the weekend Then I see pride of all kinds besides the things we can buy But could slim bodies from gyms make diamonds in the rough, any sleeker? Folk forget character And at the same time no mate could ever sustain an identity for every season Tweaking son Currency I hoped to accumulate wasn’t enough And any occupation seemed enticing, but tedious Family over all But what’s a legacy worth if this is all just meaning, less? There was more to explore but his lecture was up But not my mind It kept winding down as the day was Are these pleasures solid joys or clever distractions? If I eat today, I’ll hunger tomorrow Is that satisfaction? How is it attractive? I’ve seen folk riled up over social injustice But couldn’t explain to me what society’s point was I’ve seen grown men chase wives’ tales and claim At least they’re committed I’ve seen hypocrites, and the devoted From most of the major world religions Those who hope to make one And others who don’t care about a difference And of course those focused on adding up for their own pro Vision Amateur sites (sights) that have hated constructive eyes But of all the illusions these optics provide I have known God Eternal life Through the One whom He sent To make manifest to us To come Repent From all these images failing to mirror the original And return to the firstborn visible This is a quick interlude for your own depiction Fragments I’ll make vivid so you’ll live with the intention Let’s get it It started sometime around uh Think I was thirteen Thirteen or fourteen when I knew For the first time Who I was Who are you? Who are you? Do you know?

Wasn't poor, but far from the richest Daddy came out the hood to the fences Suburban living with exposure to the city See them stunt like this community was gritty Couple of them had the straps and rap music added flash 'Cause when you black and middle class The hood still attractive See the street life glorified Around this time I wasn't tripping trying to be a scholar See all the dogs barking at a white collar Religion overrated, school barely touched on Martin For the White man's (religion) Never be a martyr Pardon me but we all black on black The reason for the bondage Funny what a couple commas got a heart regarding Don't hesitate to straight up put 'em in a coffin Either ball or go viral off the vine(divine) comedy The whole world a play A commodity Honestly Praying for a trade Saw the free, somberly Looking like they're slaves Call police, pigment to embody modern chains Auctioning artists as a gallery of cages I've known cats that act like hits from the whip lacerated their very back Yet still blast hits in the whip that hold the people back Black as ever (Jason) Oh Precious is the flow That Makes me white as snow No Other fount I know Nothing but the blood The blood The blood of freedom Oh (Black America) Precious is the flow (Black America) That Makes me white as snow (Black America) No (Black America) Other fount I know (Black America) Nothing but the blood The blood The blood of freedom (Black America) For the White man's never be a martyr Pardon me but we all black on black The reason for the bondage Funny what a couple commas got a heart regarding Don't hesitate to straight up put 'em in a coffin Either ball or go viral off the vine comedy The whole world a play A commodity Honestly Praying for a trade Saw the free, somberly Looking like they're slaves Slaves Slaves Throwback talking Pangaea We were all across the land of freedom Still breathing Beating faster Getting blacker when the Son meet us True silver lining made the blood boil deeply Heated Trying to be the puzzle to the world pieces Crazy how it split and then we had the people shipped to till but never cash Convinced the color of a brother made his sum a fraction Bad math flashback Three fifths Backward Like fifth-third They banked on that Social class by skin to pass Made them all forget the catch Soul (sole) promoted Running on a campaign Gunning for a Little bit of major change Broke and stolen Appropriated cultivation from the language of the oppressed Now death is cool for glorification I recognized I was a native placed within this situation now I'm looking out far The declaration made a statement Constitution gave direction But no changing of the heart And now we staring at the fragments trying to piece it all together Living centuries apart All lanes en route From the hood to the white house All Americans are black Oh Precious is the flow (Concords supporting our grapes of wrath) That Makes me white as snow No (I'm trying) Other fount I know Nothing but the blood The blood The blood of freedom (You trying to tell me you can't outrun straps with how much them Js was?) Oh Precious is the flow (Silver spoon all your life, you ain't never got nothing from the mud boy) That Makes me white as snow (Pull yourself up by the bootstraps, cuz) No Other fount I know (I'm all about black power, but) Nothing but the blood The blood The blood of freedom (The hearts of men are blacker than ever) Oh (Lord help us) Precious is the flow (Help us) That Makes me white as snow No Other fount I know Nothing but the blood The blood The blood of freedom

One time for the dead ancestors that survived the stretch over It’s hard when they start from the middle passage To have a frame of reference greater to imagine That the standard idealized is not a proper fashion And this value From your birth Says you’ll never have it Lord Only knows the ostracism with less jobs in sight And even from your own folk if you talk too right I forgot they had the market for the educated But I don’t forget the margins that we’re often placed in Typed Bold-faced So I understand getting tired Trying to fit within the blank white Lines I see the colors in the box And appreciate them To be blind is disrespectful to the God that made us If He had kings Then we reigned too Whether (weather) you agree We feel the rain blue Winds on us Just and the unjust Struggle never was confined to a single cut And the cloth still covers when we’re caught naked But the same blood that cleaned me received my complexion If it’s distance Question roots to the tension Did you just attack a tree, or was the forest mentioned? If you only see division pray you’ll be accounting ‘Cause wrath adds up when oppression’s mounting (mountain) Overlooked And dismissed irrational And restoration from suspicions aren’t as tackled through Real people Real hurt From the past they knew And because this climate I write White Is Beautiful White is beautiful And so is brown too And every shade from the palette The painter used It’s been a symbol for my slate And the past renewed But my blackened heart departed, not my physical Heritage is an expression of a God who moves So I use mine in these times to uplift you Yeah White is beautiful And so is brown too So I use mine in these times to uplift you And every shade from the palette The painter used (Michael Santiago) I’ve seen my white skin make me accepted as American While others in the same circle are treated as irrelevant Cause somebody's teaching "the root of crime is in the melanin" Pointing at news stories to solidify what they’re mentioning While other news stories they say are lies and invented Then I guess the news is only a source of truth when it’s relevant Don’t you realize you’re bragging on something that you inherited? We didn’t have the power to choose the skin that we’re covered in How could it make you better if we didn’t make ourselves? If we ain’t make ourselves that means we were made by somebody else That somebody else would have to be perfect like a God or something So let’s say we were made by God Now we’re on to something If we were made by God and He wanted one single race Then to make another one would be saying God makes mistakes And If He makes mistakes then Get a load of this He’s not perfect He couldn’t have created you You don’t exist But since you do exist In order to justify any prejudice You would literally have to deny God and be atheist ‘Cause if He isn’t perfect then He couldn’t be God For Christians to justify hate is saying their faith is a lie God is Love Remember that scripture Mr. white christian Even if somebody did curse us Man we should act different But that is not the case Evil is not a race And just so you know these words are coming out of a white face White is beautiful And so is brown too And every shade from the palette The painter used It’s been a symbol for my slate And the past renewed But my blackened heart departed, not my physical Heritage is an expression of a God who moves So I use mine in these times to uplift you Yeah White is beautiful And so is brown too So I use mine in these times to uplift you And every shade from the palette The painter used

Hey wassup baby girl How you doing Aphrodisia? Nah Listen I know Before I was just trying to holla But let me talk to you on the real girl They gotta know what you’re made for I Still remember when I told them that I had you I was trying to act like it would make me fool-proof I was young and didn’t understand you had rules Culture broke them made me hope I could escape too Treated like another weak end of the stick And on the weekend made it easy for a temporary fix Tried to hide my lust for you Especially when parents near But you would only bring fear I saw you implicated Even with the burgers on the television Tried to clear my mental but bombarded with the image Now I’m looking at my sister only with a hope of you Lens get me demented wishing we had never knew But you were just being you I could never place the blame No matter what they do to distort you My responsibility remains It took some time but now I find the right pure view You are a beautiful creation Man made claims that you make pain But life comes from your labor They frustrated So they tarnish your reputation But you were never meant to save them I know the lies make it seem like you be saying to them You can take your time (Always seemed like you were saying to me) I should make you mine (That’s what you sounded like, everytime) Am I what you like Freedom is found in you Create what we knew (What you sounded like) You can take your time (It’s what you sounded like) I should make you mine (I done heard the same thing, but you ain’t life) Am I what you like Freedom is found in you (You can make life) Create what we knew (But you ain’t life) I done grown and gotten older in my walk Up in college see folk think you’re calling them to give their all Different angle I be standing with impatience But still grateful if we never make it through See destruction when they think they own you Caught up in the moment never in the after No stopping ‘cause the green makes it industry And nobody giving thought about the traffic When they staring at the women and the children Fulfilling secret wishes that should never be as openly depicted Probably products of the rape and molestation that they did this and the cycle gets perpetuated The rapists want in life what they see on screen Therapists see drugs for the human brain Folk who are religious keep you under chain But you were never evil to begin Nah You were never zealous for promoting sin Sealer of a marriage not adulterous Heiress and a symbol of a covenant Building a relation in the intimate Keeping the commandment multiply and fill How Adam knew his wife to conceive a kid Absent in conception by the Holy Spirit You would not produce who we would need to live But one thing is clear You are a gift And they make it seem your role in most is choke out hope and tempt Can’t stunt I thought you might be key to life content ‘Til Christ emptied Himself for me for the things my heart had did When I thought you said You can take your time I should make you mine Am I what you like (Yeah) Freedom is found in you Create what we knew (I’d be trying to play it off) You can take your time (Yeah I heard ‘em say, know I heard ‘em say) I should make you mine (Now I treat her right) Am I what you like (Yeah) Freedom is found in you (Christ) Create what we knew (Eternal life)

Yeah Do for three They said It’s nothing to fear but fear itself When you see circumstances surrounding you There’s several choices When I saw him I only heard one option Try Do it ‘til you die And it’s ‘bout that action Ain’t no way that you can hide ‘Gone ‘head bring the horns in Ride Do it ‘til you die You can wait to get it But it might just be your life Now everybody say No fear (x8) I see you there homie you ain’t welcome ‘round here (x4) Mind state One place Leave make Two faced Folk hate Three ways Ball State, 38th, or try to make a living (W)rapping like I’m on the northern polar of the hemis Fearing staying home and getting looked at like a misfit Swear a slight depression from reality I lived in Chilled at the Connect avoiding all of the division That was offa high school road Served God Hit blocks Preaching Christ Got my heart worked on Koo summer there, now I’m praying I’ll still go hard Year later and I’m up in college getting twerked on Feel the pressure rising had to separate my face Book to pages that I’m likened to a master piece Now I’m slaving Running tracks to give the realness in my lyrics that the average individual will never speak Try Do it ‘til you die And it’s ‘bout that action Ain’t no way that you can hide ‘Gone ‘head bring the horns in Ride Do it ‘til you die You can wait to get it But it might just be your life Now everybody say No fear (x8) I see you there homie you ain’t welcome ‘round here (x4) Be a voice when the evil seems noisy and death is the threat A valley’s steep but a shadow means light is ahead Don’t fear a weapon ‘cause Thy rod and Thy staff will protect So I go ham Hit the stage like every second is my last chance Interrupt your regularly scheduled program Cosign truth and never waiting for an advance Label me whatever always be a Christ fan Still remember offa georgetown with my mans D Talking with this OG Bring me back to Q spitting ‘bout that Naptown Clapped down ‘fore you go and get a cap and gown And I was chilling making moves all in the background I hit my bro he said he wanna change his life around He said he not a d-boy wanna make his life count I told him Jesus make you worth it if you lay it down Try Do it ‘til you die And it’s ‘bout that action Ain’t no way that you can hide ‘Gone ‘head bring the horns in Ride Do it ‘til you die You can wait to get it But it might just be your life Now everybody say No fear (x8) I see you there homie you ain’t welcome ‘round here (x4)

Are these pleasures solid joys or clever distractions? Fragments I’ll make vivid so you’ll live with the intention Eternal life Lately I’ve been wrestling with fear Struggling with purpose and the reason that I’m here Now I put this out in hopes that it would grab an ear Know that when I wrote this it’s so you would go and live So, live! I want you to (Live) I hope you go (Live) I need you to (Live) So just go (Live) Live (Live) (x4) I’m here What a fascinating statement Staring at the sky knowing many things are greater But honestly I wake up feeling like I kinda hate it Am I only striving just to make it on your playlist? Gimme the way, now gimme the truth, now gimme the life Oh my, my people depraved, my people enslaved, my people deprived And I’m just trying to carry some light Too many feel like they died Wander to find a supply Demand but won’t pay the price Well The hype lied ya’ll tell them gone step it up It’s no legs to this race that I’m standing for I know we running for a purpose while we hurting but They say it’s relative to(o) mean like you’re family rough It seems We seek to make ends meet While we never think on our own screaming season’s greetings And that’s the greedy, needy, and the in-between It’s time we find out what live really means Lately I’ve been wrestling with fear Struggling with purpose and the reason that I’m here Now I put this out in hopes that it would grab an ear Know that when I wrote this it’s so you would go and live So, live! I want you to (Live) I hope you go (Live) I need you to (Live) So just go (Live) Live (Live) (x4) Bump this when you feel at your wit’s end Been a victim of a system But then When the kick hits Felt a lifting Is it, in the music, that I get this? Nah ‘Gone ‘head bob yours to the vibe The high that you get from the horns won’t suffice The stress rolls out when you step and you slide But the life I proclaim only found in the Christ, yeah And that’s word to the wise Grab mics and put it down to the heathens So confused - I hit the church in my wife beater My poetry is spoken Word - that’s Jesus I know ya’ll missed that meaning but For my people in the burbs He don’t stop And for my people in the hood He don’t stop All the campus, all the earth He don’t stop Lately I’ve been wrestling with fear Struggling with purpose and the reason that I’m here Now I put this out in hopes that it would grab an ear Know that when I wrote this it’s so you would go and live So, live! I want you to (Live) I hope you go (Live) I need you to (Live) So just go (Live) Live (Live) (x4) My laptop broke, bike stole Work load too full Paid slow, rent due Food went bad from the store and I don’t know where I’m gone live And that’s just how it is My heart’s broke Don’t know one place that feels quite like home Mind’s cold Fight every morn’ Why one more need my soul here But heard the good Lord say go live I want you to I hope you go I need you to Go live (x8) Live (x2)

Oh Lord You have searched me and known me You know when I sit down and when I rise up You discern my thoughts from afar You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways Even before a word is on my tongue Behold Oh Lord You know it altogether You hem me in Behind and before And lay your hand upon me Such knowledge is too wonderful for me It is high I cannot attain Where shall I go from your Spirit And where shall I flee from Your presence? Search me, oh God And know my heart Try me And know my thoughts Bleary eyed, wiped the sleep from mine As I tried to find the words to tell him why being here deserves another try You ever been up at a time where it ain't just one to be alive Because the clock strikes 2 And your guy is talking suicide? Mental checklist of supposed answers to depression And as you going down it, notice these the things you wrestle Instead of pressing with a lecturing on being selfish Let embracing cause the mutual stress to take an exit So I admire the scenic route without forgetting about the journey so far Step out to stretch and find a greater joy in simple pleasures I once didn't see as a blessing from an omnibenevolent God The stars and the planets align but yet His mind prioritized little hearts And saw before our thoughts a beauty greater than we are Broken people He perfects And chose to love as they reject And still accepts when resting all our efforts at the cross I am not perfect Ain't always lived for the better you know But I am searching So I can live for the better you know I wanna know Whats its like To make Him known In my life Its Tuesday Right after bible study as I biked back from the library The night breeze watering my eyes just like the timeline did Couldn't dream of sleeping through the whole Mizzou nightmare Declared the prayer vigil but got back and I hear About the perishing in Paris and the terrorist threat Fixed my dinner as I spilled my weariness to my mans In the midst of demonstration Desperation was clear Would there ever be enough to make aware? Prayers up that would reach their ears? Tears shed that would echo you prepared Every second to the minute that we breath and move and have our lives within? In a world that's so connected Pray we see a great e-clips(e) Of a movie that's directed from beginning to the end Eternity in action on the set of all hearts to know You And the One whom You have sent Jesus

Then the Lord God said Behold The man has become like one of us In knowing God and evil Now Lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat And live forever Therefore The Lord God sent him from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken He drove out the man And at the east of the garden He placed a Cherubim And a flaming sword That turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life Yeah At the crib Put on for the city My residents live in the future Though present in regiments Count it a blessing to press while we here Often folk question the hope to appear So we keep reasons to contrast it clear Negatively affected Tests show positive Copy then All the lines in my mind Where the crime and the violence don't exist Crying not needed there No word for despair Definition projects so vivid Lens of the scripture were temporal visuals Systems are community driven Lifting men and women with theocratic intervention Agenda identified Politically correct to say they're the bride What that mean? Them hunger pangs will never cause the malnourished adolescent baby to faint from starvation Historical tension from systematic oppression will have no authority in my friends' relations And I will never mind grief Apologizing that death is the way that it is New world order where the coroner is permanently out of an employer Mortgage can't force a father to a warzone mentally Hindered the works of an enemy As I'm walking home at night And glance instinctively left to the right No heart would devise the theft of my possessions or envy my life Nor would animals find my flesh a de( )light Yo there ain't no darkness Carcasses or cardinal sins to mock a bird in orbit Offering his all to reach atmospheric stream where wings can't be clipped Flipping the script on intent Folk play(w)right without a fight on the fringe Respect isn't earned or given It just is Justice in the purest sense No grievances overlooked as unimportant Nor people because social norms imply they're boring These are all the former Fallen worldviews eyes can't even bring to focus Only thing in mind is crying Holy Holy Holy A worthy Lamb had opened Slain the show now center stage His lady sings the chorus Joining in the ancient angelic euphoria And as I force myself to summon tears the ducts are wiped of all the light momentary afflictions compared to the glory in sight Everything I imagined while simultaneously nothing like it My partners chilling in the streets But streams of life flow by them On the other side a tree got un-forbidden sweets Leaves bringing healing to the deeply wounded peoples Landscape and all creation not accursed or taken But the face of God Himself is present just for gazing No ear could drum up a proper explanation Heard are the unsung in perfect pitch Verb tense denoting measurement of time is irrelevant Simply is existence without reason for acknowledgement Scholarship of learning eternally Riches of His excellence With an intimate ignorance still accepted with the limited comprehension Of the King's speech No language barrier or lengthy prayers unaware if He's reached But in clear proximity And that's just the city It’s a whole new earth included in the description Exploration and cultivating culture as He meant it Epitome of science free from danger Not endless toil yielding back-breaking labor Truth in beauty Co-creating with the fruits to savor Before was known in part Seeing dimly in a mirror Now is known fully face to face the proper image Before was known in part Seeing dimly through a mirror Now is known fully face to face the proper image Now we know life fully Jesus Christ is living Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life Bright as crystal Flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb Through the middle of the street of the city Also On either side of the river The tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit Yielding its fruit each month The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations No longer will there be anything accursed But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it And His servants will worship Him They will see His face And His name will be on their foreheads And night will be no more They will need no light of lamp or sun For the Lord God will be their light And they will reign forever and ever And He said to me These words are trustworthy and true And the Lord The God of the spirits of the prophets Has sent His angel to show His servants what must soon take place And behold I am coming soon Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book The Spirit and the bride say come And let the one who hears say come Let the one who is thirsty come Let the one who desires Take the water of life without price He who testifies to these things says Surely I am coming soon Amen Come Lord Jesus!