Outside Looking In ft. SoulChef Lyrics

The "real Hip-Hop" is a popular myth

Ideas have their power when they are not fixed

Grace Lee Boggs knows what it is

It goes purpose, people, places...

My city blew up but I don't see myself

Why?

I still make music to free myself

I exist

Without your permission

Foundational to the buildings you live in

Laid over Black folks bones

Historical omission

The styles went mainstream

But somehow it's different

A poisonous mix of music and business

These new pop stars used to watch us and mimic

Younger rappers want to be them

And don't get it

It's like the new Hip-Hop is just attracting attention

For the sake of attention

If this is what we built, I don't want to be in it

I'm not here to fit in

Or to sell you an image

My ability to write has made more than a living

It has kept me alive through times when I didn't

Think I'd survive the night

Music gave me a vision

Strength to overcome

Even when no one listened

I didn't see myself, why? I still made music to free myself

Looked at the whole industry and didn't see myself

I still make music to free myself

And I'll do it even if it never feeds myself

I'll still make music to free myself

We're only someone, in relation to everyone else

We still make music to free ourselves

Everything we were ridiculed for then

Somehow, one day, became a new trend

How are we now on the outside looking in

To something that wouldn't exist

Without what we did

I used to be proud

But seen fame change friends

These films about our scene

I can't relate to them

They just blah blah blah on about making it

It's no different, they only think as capitalists

As if only in an industry does culture exist

Disconnected

"Conscious" when the radio played that

Those same rappers now do coke and sell crack

Asian kids say the n-word and get a pat on their back

Claiming "POC" and staying anti-Black

My whole city doesn't seem to care that it's gotten wack

I got love for a few

Who clearly stay true

Even when what you've made no longer includes you

And you find strength in self

To still make music to free yourself

On the underground railroad escaping hell

They were making music so they could free themselves

Slavery got abolished now except for jails

Private prisons and media giants fill cells

Popular rap music brings us back to hell

How do we make music now that can free ourselves

I only want to make music to free myself

How do we all make music to free ourselves

I only want to make music to free myself

How do we all make music to free ourselves

I only want to make music to free myself

How do we all make music to free ourselves