Paul Willis - What's After Revolution Lyrics

There's a war going on outside, no man is safe
No man is safe

Teacher, teacher you say that you wish me well
But please tell, why I gotta barely pass or always fail
I try to excel, I know that you would rather see me fail
Dismissin to detention, when my life's a living hell
Doctor fill me with prescription, police throw me in jail
Mother fightin addiction, pops stuck in prison cells
I'm livid, telling myself there's no way I'm not a criminal
I'm King, pawns after me, I castle
Out of frustration with mass incarceration, it carousels
Carry shells from the sands and lands of our former selves
I inhale, and breathe seeking some sort of inner peace
In a sanctuary city surviving the police
I'm hungry, fighting for scraps in the belly of the beast
Writing raps to keep the peace and honor the deceased
It's disease, and war on the poor and poverty-stricken
Media don't pay attention, cause our lives are different pigments

There's a war going on outside, no man is safe
No man is safe

Don't make sense to fight a war when there's trauma at home
How you represent the poor and still sit on a throne
It's time to face the fact, even though my race is black
I carry genes from a land I could never call home
Slave trade erased all these names, times and dates
I can't replace your history without knowing my own
I've grown, as a man, to expand my understanding
Didn't need a college or textbook to demand it
My elders in the streets were truly outstanding
Sister went to Harvard after Hood College in Maryland
That's true facts, what makes that story even better
I put my sister in a rap and now I gotta tell her
Black excellence, check my reference, every letter
That spills from my pen only begins to get better
How clever, even if I'm miseducated
I get to live my dreams and tell my momma that I made it

There's a war going on outside, no man is safe
No man is safe

I'm grown now, thinking bout buying homes now
My girl teaching, so we building other thrones now
Grew up in the struggle, now we standing next to you
Nerdy as all hell, ghetto intellectuals
Still learning how to eat all these vitamins and vegetables
Mo' money but watch what the effects of stress'll do
Not protected or removed, privilege wit these syllables
Won't keep me safe from the state and it's many tools
There's plenty fools who step in the circle acting cool
But that's who these raps for, check who I'm rappin to
You black and still alive, working a 9-5
Came from the hood, but the boardroom eats you inside
It's time to support our people out here dyin
I can't bite the hand that feeds when I recognize it's mine
We all equal, one under the sunshine
So son shine, while I hit em with the one time

There's a war going on outside, no man is safe
No man is safe