From the recording Nation of Immigrants (The Album)
Life, the Mic & Beyond: The Making of (“Dear Past”) from Nation of Immigrants (The Album) - https://youtu.be/8PEQHFJ8rFA
Lyrics
CHORUS:
1 The Past is the Present, and the Present is Past
2 Suffering through all these ills of life, popping these pills tonight
3 Good Trouble is necessary because it feels right
4 If my neighbor is homeless and hungry, get him a meal, right ...
BRIDGE:
STOP, BREATHE, RETREAT, RELAX (Repeat)
INTRO
CHORUS (1 Repeat)
Verse 1 - Civil Rights Post Reconstruction Era
1 We are sprayed with fire hoses, when we walk in the street
2 We're seated at the lunch counter, but there’s nothing to eat
3 We enter through the backdoor, because this is for Coloreds Only
4 Seated in the back of the bus, as if they don’t need the money
5 Some days are sunny, and others are blood-filled
6 Reloading this revolver, cause we know that these slugs kill
7 But that’s real, it just a part of the life
8 No different than these Klan members burning crosses at night
9 We tossed our hat in the fight, because there’s no other choice
10 Centuries of oppression, but we got something to voice
11 The issues are far from simple, they got this rope round my throat
12 Gerrymandering the lines, convoluting my vote
13 They assassinating our leaders, in the balcony, they seat us
14 We walking down the street and they cite us with misdemeanors
15 Ava introduced us to “When They See Us”, systemic mistreatment
16 Homogeneous to how they see us, somewhat of a heathen
CHORUS (1 Repeat)
Verse 2 - My Mother’s Life/Jim Crow - Segregation/Black Lives Matter
1 Born in Mississippi in the heart of the South
2 Below the Madison Dixon Line, where no color is clout
3 Beautiful baby wit no predisposition on life
4 Segregation’s the tool, they use, to challenge our rights; and
5 Jim Crow is the default rule, and now they pouring acid in pools
6 Need the National Guard, to get into school
7 In Alabama, 4 kids dead, from bombing the church
8 9 killed in Charleston, assassinated in church
9 We’re segregated at work, 1 of a handful of Blacks
10 Overpopulating the prisons, incarcerated for crack
11 Our troops invading Iraq, cause of our interest in oil
12 Black Americans living every day in constant turmoil
13 Banks won’t give us a loan, so we can’t set up our shops
14 Cops won’t leave us alone, and they keep shooting their shots; and
15 Their stops are predatory, like Pedophiles to kids
16 My Black Life Matters that’s why I scream to Live ... Ya dig ...
BRIDGE (1 Repeat)
CHORUS (1 Repeat)