🎵 Jim Crow // by Sho Baraka

21 ContributorsJim Crow Lyrics “Jim Crow” is the ninth track off Sho Baraka’s 2013 album Talented 10th. This song’s title refers to the so-called “Jim Crow” signs during the segregation period in the early 1900’s to the late 1960’s. It… Read More  [Hook] I feel I’m trapped in a crazy place Asking the Lord for amazing grace I see the masses wanna change me I’m waiting for someone to save me Until then, until then Well I guess I'm stuck here on nigga island Where niggas be wilin’ And color is violence Moment of silence Well I guess I'm stuck here on nigga island Where niggas be wilin’ And color is violence Moment of silence [Verse 1] (Yeah) I am the invisible man Though I have a soul I am from an invisible land They gave me a slave pen For my freedom of speech Yeah I’m trying to leave the island But swimming through bleach “C’mon son why you always ruin the mood? Race talks happen every time you enter the room.” There’s ignorance in the masses Too many people think racism is past tense We fight for blackness But we don’t know what Black is I know it ain’t the zero sum of white men They wanna know how to reach the hood like there’s magic Like we’re all the same Like we’re not dynamic Hollywood wants to pimp us to get dough Exploit us, but give us money Somebody say “Ho!” Let’s thank them movies and them TV shows Be a token or I’ll play an Uncle Tom role Or be a magic negro until the day I’m gone Help the white man reach his goal But never reach my own Or an oversexed male Even a coon A young man who loves ignorance Praising his doom Until then… [Hook] [Verse 2] Say hello to the great cultural brainwash Washing my brain from some of the things that race taught Miseducate Colonize, divide Teach beauty in straight hair In the bluest of eyes And because of lies, I’m debating five percenters How the mideast movement gon be a white man’s religion? How a privileged man gon say it’s time to move forward And say the game’s fair when he monopolize the board? And corporate greed just manipulates the poor Outside the hood, I don’t see liquor stores I know God is sovereign and I should pray about it But a man won’t stop it, if it increases his profits And most Ain’t realistic with the flow They make music for the streets, but I don’t see ‘em at the show So Instead of truth, they’d rather be duped I guess they want me to make more songs for youth groups Until then [Hook] [Verse 3] Yeah I got a double consciousness, but I’m still in touch Cops got my hands in the air, so I ain’t feeling much Lookin for protection, all I can see is tyrants I’m fighting them coons and thugs, some racists and Don Imus That lady you call ho (yeah) That’s my lover That woman you call bitch (yeah) That’s my mother Them boys that you killed Them my brothers Send the ship to the island, we can rescue some others Did they fight for civil rights so we could sit on gold? I can’t walk in your shoes, you keep sellin your sole No Ain’t much Booker T when you look at me But a whole lot of Dubois making noise Until then [Hook] [Outro] Here we are, put on a show Dance a jig, go Jim Crow Here we are, put on a show Dance a jig, go monkey go Here we are, put on a show Dance a jig, go Jim Crow Go Jim Crow say go Jim Crow Go Jim Crow, say go monkey go That’s what you want me to do, right? (Are you entertained?)