75 years of Jim Crow and legal lynching
The knowledge that I/we/us could always be arrested
for breathing in the wrong direction
or looking
or walking
or working
or having the audacity to be ourselves
in our own skin . . .
A Great Migration and a Stonewall later,
I emerged to tell my Queer Black story.
I hope you enjoy! #bars
lyrics
By QueenEarth
They call me something
My ancestors never woulda claimed
“Niggaâ€
“Queerâ€
It’s not the same
When you’re raised for a world that don’t exist
No amount of experience
Can prepare you for this,
they scare you for this
With tales of “back in my dayâ€
But we don’t run
And we don’t hide
I hope we have a future to say the same
With global warming and missile soarings
The curve is soaring up to the sky
And i just
Stay home and dig in the dirt like my granddaddy
back in his time
Maybe nothing’s changed
Whether or not they get me
They too 90° for my 360°
I’m too blue collar for their gentry
Clap your hands if you’re with me
If they cock they head on your entry
Queer to the Core
What you writing for?
Queer to the Core
Who you fighting for?
Stone Butch BluesWomanism
Feminism Suffrage
Ta Nehisi Coates
Dropping knowledge in my syllabus
They try to pit me against me
The core of the constitution written not to fit me
Send me agenda
Conspiracies
Fact checking triggering
Asking me to split my soul
And weigh the worst of suffering
Reparations
Segregation
Stonewall uncoverings
And lies was told
Now a statistic missing from your interest list
We play in the blind space where you can’t see
Making music in your bell curve
X to your Y
How you draw lines with out me?
Maybe nothings’ changed
Whether or not they get me
I’m too shiny for the ashy
I ain’t even tryn
The glitter it just finds me
If you gone put me in the story
Let me define me
Queer to the Core
What you writing for?
Queer to the Core
Who you fighting for?
Words hold power
Labels
Stories as well
So what you gonna spell?
With Black girl Magic
In your coattails
Griots in you blood
Chalk lines
Hip hop disco
Black Moses
West like San Francisco
Come up for the Kinfolk
Miss me with theâ€Oh wellsâ€
Promises and wishing wells
Diggin deep enough to flood the street
We make our own pails
Bootstraps
Underneath the table
Pay my Black tax
Call in Queer
Sick day on my period
Redlines
And no call backs
LLC imperative
Got a coat rack full o’ hats
Which one I’m wearing when you call
You wonder how I got it
And since you not the plug
you gon pay me if you want it
I take it off when the phone clicks
Knowledge
Charge you for the game
Taken from my ancestors
Unapologetically
Maybe nothings changed
Still they won’t silence me
But they use me in their marketing
What?
Queer to the Core
What you writing for?
Queer to the Core
Who you fighting for?
credits
Written and composed by M. Smith
Co-production and mastering by Kariz Marcel
Recorded in Baltimore, MD