my brother. Lyrics

I love my brother my brother

My American brother said he got a problem

With my African brother, don't know how to solve it

I said what you mean, what the fuck he done to you?

Maybe you can tell me so that I can talk to him

He said he don't recognize the shit that I done for him

Sacrifices that I did so he can be comfortable

Never give me any credit only turns his nose up and then

Act like he is better than me, tell him bro got it wrong

He always thinks that he is living life the better way

Always looking at me like I'm a degenerate

He be criticizing how I talk and what I say

How I dress, and my culture, how I show my faith

Know his mama don't want me to come around again

Cos she thinks that every one of us involved in gang

And his father don't want me around his sister man

Claims that we impregnate women and abandon them

Man he really always acting like I'm the one who's evil

Let us not forget that his people sold my people

All my fathers were in chains cos his fathers were so greed filled

Now he has the nerve to eat from fruits of all the seeds tilled

In the land watered with the blood of those the ships filled

Beaten bruised and lynched because my brother needed cheese

Killed back when we were slaves, we are killed by the police still

Airing out my problems to you I can't even breathe still

They stripped our culture had to make a new one

Then they took that too so we just made a new one

Now he criticizing me because I grew from

The identity we shared like it's my choosing

We lost everything we had when we got took from

Our motherland and now we proudly proving

That we more than what they ever thought when moving

Us in ships, now we dictate to y'all what cool is

Man I fight for us, he's free to walk this land off the backs of what we do

Advocation of desegregation of the education system how he ended up in our school

Wouldn't be no immigration, integration of his people seeking haven from the wars and countless coupes

If my people didn't have the patience, the contrition, dedication to abolish our servitude

I love my brother my brother

My African brother said he got a problem

With my American brother, don't know how to solve it

I said what you mean, what the fuck he done to you?

Maybe I can share the word next time I talk to him

Well, he claims I sold my brothers that is just cap

Sold my opps, the rest of them were caught and kidnapped

They came with Bibles sold us on some bullshit gift wrapped

'Fore we knew it, white men shooting, it ain't Kristaps

Man before he was my brother we were warring putting spears through face

When your color was just color and no one knew race

Til oppressors made the concept, justify cruel ways

That they treated those with melanin called us true slaves

Said we meant for nothing better than to work, chew hay

They convinced themselves that we don't even hurt through pain

The excuse they used defending their chattel crusade

Didn't see him as my brother til became too late

I know there's some hate there I get it

It's not his fault I give full credit to the ones that broke us up they blemished

Our relationship made lies up and spread it

They wrote them down in books, he read it

Can't find the truth in schools invented by the people who retooled and severed

All ties he had to the land that birthed him

Look, I know that he paved the way for the ones that look like us in the face

But I want him to grasp that we don't fight the same

Our battles are identical they're not duplicates

For example, I'm not black til I move outta state

In the borders of my continent my tribe and my faith

Are what indicates identity, unique and distinct

When we winning marathons is when we care about race

He don't have the luxury of not being judged by his skin

Cos he lives with his oppressors, I acknowledge his pain

But my problems are my problems, there's no white man to blame

In my land the oppressors share our pigment and names

I see evil in people, he sees evil in shades

And he's right, but I'm right too is all that I'm saying

I don't need his validation, he don't want to attain mine either

But let's show respect and acclaim

Gotta shed the pride we feel and get rid of disdain

Think about it, makes no sense me and him are estranged

Cos we're weak when divided history backs the claim

Only get a broken home when you fight with the fam

Keep debating who is better but to them we're the same

Hair braided, skin bling, gold in our chain

Shared trauma, same pain, we mirror everything

With all that said at the end of the day

I love my brother my brother