25 Summers Lyrics

Man, I remember the phone call

My sophomore year in high school

We had just won a football game

Man, I get back on the bus

Expecting some more good news

My mom was like

Taye, your brother got 25 years

Man, that's 25 summers

Away from his mother

Away from his brothers

Man, I wish there was a way for my brother

To get his twenties back man, just pray for my brother

He'll see the seasons change a hundred times

I can't imagine how that look inside my brother's eyes

All I can give him is my love and support

Tell him keep his head up

Man, I'll see you on the other side

I know them walls is boxing you in

And they mad cause they saw it ain't stopping your grin

At 19, you learn the law doesn't work for our skin

At 15, I learn to always be watching my friends

At 19, they gave you 25

I just turned 29

Almost knew you longer in than I knew you out it

And still mad that there ain't nothing I can do about it

I heard my uncle say one time

That any time is really excessive time

When you haven't committed any crimes

And that's real

Man, I feel like they just want a body

They don't care who really did it they just want somebody

25 summers, carjacking, robbery

Somebody could've got less time for trying to body me

Would a change in skin tone change the time

Would he get a slap on the wrist if his skin was white

Would they see him as a kid with a different crime

With how things are going, I'm glad that he's still alive

When he got jammed, he was still a kid

I mean, he had his whole life to live

Supposed to be innocent until proven guilty

But all I ever seen is the opposite

You know, when you're a naive 15-year-old

And you see your dad in and out of jail

And your brother get locked up

You kinda make that about you

Like they were choosing those lifestyles over me

Sometimes I sit and argue with God

About why he won't let you out of that pod

Times get hard and they never seem to ease up

People say that they can't help but only seem to tease us

Something gotta give don't it

It's their world, we just try and live on it

Man, we just wanna be free, man, on need land

Where a murderer can get less time than a weed man

And I ain't seen no flicker of hope yet

I've been depressed, sometimes I give this liquor my whole check

Empty bottles never gave no hope to the hopeless

It hurt my heart, it felt like I got hit in my whole chest

And man, it's worse because I'm so certain

That if they open up the box, man, it won't hurt them

Whatever lesson they was teaching, man, we done learned it

I wish the show was over, wrap it up, close curtains

It's like, I'm still waiting to wake up one day

And this whole thing just be a dream, or rather a nightmare

But I know that this is my reality

It's been way too long,

I've been on my own

Open up that cell,

Bring my brother home

I know you've seen it over and over and over again

Cause I know I've seen it over and over and over again

Shine a light on it,

This can't be what justice is

Changed by the melanin,

I cannot change my skin

I cannot change my skin

I know you've seen it over and over and over again

Cause I know I've seen it over and over and over again