Detroit Lion

Until the lion learns to speak
His mind be trapped in the streets
Constantly running from the thought of think
Splashing puddles of what they bleed
Staining his paws and his feet
In a dull scarlet before they’re free
Living with no knowledge for the young to teach
In this cage Detroit City

I’ve seen the stretchers
The outlined chalk being measured
I felt the cold flesh’s hard texture
I’ve listened to the long lectures of the teachers and preachers
Giving me the run down on how the town was before my era
About how respect and morals use to exist
How we ain’t worried about nothing but what’s shinning on my neck and wrist
How our pants sag to our knees
About how our mind’s our trapped and forever never freed
With a glock as our sword and our shield as a bare naked chest
So we take in and ingest our death wholly
As the new age, the beginning of the end
In a time where a friend could mean death
Where a wrong perception could be your rest in
Piece place, with the worms tucking you in bed
With a fluffed hard tombstone
And I ask you, how can we possibly learn to create change when you don’t teach us to speak
You just complain and let us be

Until the lion learns to speak
His mind be trapped in the streets
Constantly running from the thought of think
Splashing puddles of what they bleed
Staining his paws and his feet
In a dull scarlet before they’re free
Living with no knowledge for the young to teach
In this cage Detroit City

Are you ready to see through our eyes
Can you even grasp a perception of how it feels to be the problem of the world
Of how it feels to fear waking up
Of how it feels to not know what the good days use to be
My best days were spent listening to a lil rnb in the back seat
And that’s only because mom wouldn’t let me see the tears dripping in her lap in the front seat
So how can you all keep judging me
What is there to do but get gassed up on the bul ish coming through the speakers
If you held buckets to catch my tears I would drown you
Because you don’t know the truth
And you tell us we should take a walk in your shoes
Well try and fit yo feet in my shoes and see just how hard it is having all that shit bottled inside of you
So tight that yo heart can’t beat too hard
That you can’t take too big of a deep breath
That we automatically stick out our chests
But enough of that, I was simba

The lion knows how to speak
My mind freed from the streets
I taught myself the art of speech but
My paws forever stained with my fathers blood
But more flows through me
And that’s how I survived until this moment
As a lion in Detroit’s concrete jungle