(feat. Jean Grae)


[Talib Kweli]

I do it for the people, I do it for the love

I do it for the poet, I do it for the thug

This is for victory, and this is for the slaughter

I do it for my mother, I do it for my daughter

Promise I'll always love ya, I love to kiss and hug ya

You and your brother should be lookin out for one another

I'm so blessed, man, y'all the reason I got up

Somebody put his hands on you I'm gettin locked up

I'm not playin, that's the prayer I'm sayin for Diani

And if I die then she'll be protected by Amani

That's her bigger brother and I love the way he love her

She a girly-girl, she love to imitate her mother

But she a Gemini, so stay on her friendly side

She'll put that look on you, it's like somebody' friend just died

My pretty black princess smell sweet like that incense

That you buy at the bookstore supporting black business

Teach her what black is; the fact is her parents are thorough

She four reading Cornrows by Camille Yarborough

I keep her hair braided, bought her a black Barbie

I keep her mind free; she ain't no black zombie

This is for Aisha, this is for Kashera

This is for Khadijah scared to look up in the mirror

I see the picture clearer thru the stain on the frame

She got a black girl name, she livin black girl pain

This is for Makeba, and for my mamacita

What's really good, ma? I'll be your promise-keeper

I see the picture clearer thru the stain on the frame

She got a black girl name, she livin black girl pain



[Hook]

My mama said life would be so hard

Growin up days as a black girl scarred

In so many ways though we've come so far

They just know the name they don't know the pain

So please hold your heads up high

Don't be ashamed of yourself know I

Will carry it forth til the day I die

They just know the name they don't know the pain black girl



[Jean Grae]

This is for Beatrice Bertha Benjamin who gave birth to

Tsidi Azeeda for Lavender Hill for Kyalisha

ALTHLONE, Mitchells Plain, Swazi girls I'm reppin for thee

Mannesburg, Guguletu where you'd just be blessed to get thru

For beauty shinin thru like the sun at the highest noon

From the top of the cable car at Table Mountain; I am you

Girls with the skyest blue of eyes and the darkest skin

For Cape Colored allied for realizing we're African

For all my cousins back home, the strength of mommy's backbone

The length of which she went for raising, sacrificing her own

The pain of not reflecting the range of our complexions

For rubber pellet scars on Auntie Elna's back I march

Fist raised caramel shinin in all our glory

For Mauritius, St, Helena; my blood is a million stories

Winnie for Joan and for Edie, for Norma, Leslie, Ndidi

For Auntie Betty, for Melanie; all the same family

Fiona, Jo Burg, complex of mixed girls

For surviving thru every lie they put into us now

The world is yours and I swear I will stand focused

Black girls, raise up your hands; the world should clap for us



[Hook]

My mama said life would be so hard

Growin up days as a black girl scarred

In so many ways though we've come so far

They just know the name they don't know the pain

So please hold your heads up high

Don't be ashamed of yourself know I

Will carry it forth til the day I die

They just know the name they don't know the pain black girl