Under Lock & Key

I wanna believe that education is more valuable than incarceration, but it’s hard when prison yard outnumber campus quads in every state across the nation.
I wanna believe….
I wanna believe that black lives matter to all and not just the blacks who live it, but I can’t erase the vision of black men murdered by white police with no punishment because their families’ pain is so vivid.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that confederate flags don’t represent real oppression and race hatred, that we as a people can rise above the stereotypes that we perpetuate to keep us from becoming wasted.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that we can open our eyes and recognize the Kings and Queens that Africa birthed, surviving this genocide with pride and living out the prize of realized and mastered worth.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that my people didn’t hang from trees and get sold on blocks, that our babies’ heads weren’t stomped while slave masters prayed to God not to let their savage souls rot.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that we only do drugs to escape a reality too hard to accept, and that it’s deeper than just a high when you’ve lived your whole life with neglect and a heart full of regret.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that times have changed and life isn’t only getting worse, but a white man just took a .45 and murdered nine people praying inside a historically black church.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that kids can live free without the fear of being shot while coming home from school, that we can teach our babies something more useful than “hands up, don’t shoot” rule.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that being in a gang means more than flagging a color and throwing signs, that we know the foundation was to oppression and stand for our communities not to show that we’re blind.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that the brothers behind the wall are doing more than getting high, playing ball and lifting weights, and that they spend more time studying the law trying to see how many loopholes exist in their case.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that losing another brother only helped to make me stronger, that every struggle I’ve faced and conquered has left me with lessons that I can embrace a little longer.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that when I’m done my words will forever rest in your hearts, and that if you hear my pain and sincerity I’ve done my part.
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe, I really do, but I’ve never had a reason to,
so to me believing is deceiving
and if I believe I’m afraid I’ll begin to grieve anew,
belief is faith and faith is hope
while hope is something I’ve never really had,
so if I hope and believe in faith
how do I know I’ll never again be sad?
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe…
I wanna believe that love is something we can all achieve, and I really want love but even more than that I just wanna believe!!

The grand jury is a mockery, no matter all white or all black
Psychologically conditioned into seeing all pigs as right and exact
Just like a trial jury, the state can never be wrong
The state’s not trying to indict, they’re only playing along, singing a song
To keep the people pacified and from raging against the machine
It’s a police state, a black persyn’s life ain’t worth a thing
They can kill us but we can’t kill them, what kind of justice is that
How can we free the people with all this warring against us Blacks?
“No Egalitarianism, No Peace!” this double standard of law must stop
Calling us extreme for us only responding to them extremely peeling our caps
Leaving it to their mock grand jury like leaving it to their mock god
Til we show them what we’ll do for our blood, we’re scarred
We must do more than just protest, we must boycott
We must organize and educate and revolutionize believe it or not
We are the only people that the constitution don’t protect
Shooting us down now is equivalent to ropes around our necks
They’re killing us while screaming they’re in fear for their lives
They pick the fight then go to crying, telling lies
Bullies, that’s all they are, goons for the rich
Take their guns and badges away, they’ll run back to the sticks
6 conscripted pigs on one Black man, chokehold him to death
And his family is screaming for calm, that’s all we get
“Burn it down!” Michael Brown’s step dad said
Look how quick he was about to face indictment, as a threat
Amerikkka fascinates us but infuriates us more
You’re an Amerikkkan if you’re not against Ms. Justice and her so-called law
Having all Black pigs won’t make a difference either
Because their oath is to the anti-egalitarianist imperialist agenda
We are not supposed to fight back or take a stand
Just accept our inferior status, know our place and stand in it looking grand
It’s not angry, extreme or wrong to kill an innocent black man
Criminal background or not, 12 or 90, blam blam
Not only in Amerikkka but in many distant lands
Bombing innocent wombmen and children in Afghanistan
But one of theirs get killed they go Amerikkkan Nam
Oppression is oppression here, there and everywhere
Apartheid is apartheid, in Azania, Palestine or Amerikkka
We are occupied by imperialist forces, we can’t afford to bow
The pigs want beef, we gotta bring the whole cow
Egalitarianism now, yes right now

Kidnapped, tortured
Held against my will
Humiliated, degraded
Until I can no longer feel
Blood, revenge
Is all I seem to see
33 strategies of war I plan to forge against my enemy
Isolation, frustration
The moment I got caught
Plan, reflect
Became natural in thought
Learn, study
For the upcoming sequel
Fight, sacrifice
For the liberation of the people!

Yes we say “Liberation”
So you can know the level of the Brotha you facing
Breaking de chains of colonial domination
Enlightening the minds of my New Afrikan nation
My revolutionary violence blow ya brains out
Warring with parasites and mice
COINTELPRO flow
i think twice before i give advice
Because informants got stories with my name on it
Bourgy fools only fighting for fame and fortune
i woke up this morning mad at the colonial world
That raped my mama as a little girl
It make me hurl
Put my colonial oppressors in stretchers
While in my cell receiving love letters from sisters
But my heart beat fire
Don’t you see that Obama a liar?
Cutting food stamps to give money to richer farmers
Can’t you see you and dude Uncle Toming?
Time to get the bombing!

My strive is to liberate
So with my scribe I demonstrate
Teaching those education who seek to be free
So with their own two eyes, the truth they will see
Oppressors abuse their authority with fallacious tendencies
To whom do officers rehabilitate, it ain’t you or me
If I could liberate just one, maybe two, or even three
They will know the cause of a revolutionary
Realizing that one can make a difference
Look at Malcolm X or Nat Turner for instance
Each with their own position in the cause
So this is why I strive to perfect my flaws
For their descendants is why my ancestors died
So regardless if I fail at least I tried

Placed in this prison
Under a false pretense
Forced to work each day
Or face consequence

I have to follow their rules
And all their regulations
If you are politically aware
You end up in bad situations

They try to keep you down
Under their boot heel
Trying to make you bend
On the ground, you won’t kneel

In this imperialist world
Where it’s sink or swim
You have to fight the man
Stand proudly against him

On a United front
Where we Struggle and fight
Doing anything and everything
That’s Within our might!

They say “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link”
So all this prison violence gives me the creeps
Those prison wars that help keep us all blindfolded
We don’t see where all that has been going
I can feel it as if these walls are closing in on me
But somehow I’m still opening up some cell doors
As if I have the key
For all those who want to be freed
Mentally
The last thing we need is to make one another enemy
So whoever’s serving time, we have to draw a line
That makes room for some peace
Do you feel me?
If so, throw up them deuces
That gives us all a sign that you’re all for
Making peace!

Locking us down simply because they can
Trying to break us down to make us feel less of a man
Instill hate in us, turning us against each other
When will we utilize our 3rd eye which is the mind
Through its strength alone it will break these chains that got us blind
We must stand as one together, we must unite
Realize violence is not the only way to fight
So much can be done by the force of a powerful voice
Confined behind these walls but my mind will never be under lock and key
Exercise my mind daily so there’s no stopping me

I am an imprisoned lumpen
Ready to do some revolutionary stumpin
Sick and tired of the capitalist pigs’ continuous humpin
He has humped and humped and screwed all the lumpen
In this uncivilized world
Molotov cocktails, let the oppressed nations hurl!
With nothing to lose, I ain’t afraid one bit
Listen to the pigs squeal
As they waddle in their own shit!
Power to the people, who make a direct hit
Anti-imperialist, I hate all pigs
I dislike swine of any kind, ya dig?!

Let the truth be told about MIM Theory
It is revolutionary thought that makes the imperialists weary
Gil Scott-Heron said the revolution would not be televised
But the so-called Arab Spring has proved otherwise
The world witnessed what may have been merely an Arab fling
Because without communist principles
Revolution don’t mean a thing
We must embrace true revolutionary principles
And support the United Struggle from Within
Because unity is the empowerment that will enable us to win
And unlocking the minds of the oppressed is where it begins
And though many of us are under lock and key
The revolutionary teachings of Mao Zedong are setting us free