i am...

Look at my face,
peep the physique,
a big black man,
I bet he's an athlete,
a bouncer, a dealer or maybe you see,
former inmate 46t883.
I bet the last place you thought was the library,
now i get the gazes,
the prolonged looks at me.
Reading is disdained,
like knowledge got us shook,
our existence is farce,
I found truth in books.
And I am not saying that vocab makes one legit,
sublime works the same way as dope as shit.
But reading is still stigmatized within my nation,
nice to see nothings changed since the masters plantation.
In the modern cesspool ignorance is the rule,
conformity is championed,
inquiry ridiculed.
Wise up you fools, your being made into tools,
that repair and sustain a system that enchains,
demeans, suppresses the brain.
But damn i forgot real niggas pack glocs,
bust shots at their brethren,
to hold down their block.
Don't got time for the books,
man that's not a good look,
my stomach keeps grumbling, and nobodys hiring
at least cracks there to cook.
This ain't up for dispute,
we all need to get loot,
but everybody can't rhyme so most hustle and shoot.
A new generation upholding massa's command,
the old record stays spinning and like Jim Crow we dance.
But I refuse to succumb to statistics and figures
so I'll politely retort with,
"these nuts nigga."
Increasing mental capacity disrupts the mold,
they are all to aware of the potential we hold.
If white equates to intellect,
then you seem to forget every race has its ignorant,
be they vatos or rednecks.
Centuries of displacement have yielded misguided,
nearsighted and vain, staunchly divided.
Plotting and scheming for all you've been shown,
is that dreams are within reach,
the lighter the skin tone.
Melanin has determined present condition,
so we black men are left with too few decisions,
success for our race follows a narrow line
cook rocks, spit rhymes or you got some nasty hang time.
In the 21st century we're a new breed of slave,
the sun is outside yet we stay in the cave,
crushed and impeded, conditioned to behave,
being locked up like this who needed the chains?
This whole fucked up game is all part of the plan,
to corrupt, exploit and vaporize the black man.
But there is still time,
to halt our demise,
stand up, become conscious,
we must organize.
I'm bitter and angry so I won't act coy,
I was born into a system, for which I'll die to destroy.
You may sit back and watch,
remain idle and tame, I'll spark the match,
others will fan the flames.
The redemption of my people is all that I seek,
I'm not sure about y'all but this is what I believe:
I am the untapped rage of the african slave,
all the pride and dignity of when his ancestors reigned,
with the goal of levelling this unequal terrain,
the racists worst enemy:
a nigga with a brain.