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about
I wrote this song 2 years ago.
It was after the Freddie Gray riots and the advent of BlackLivesMatter
movement. I wanted to write something epic to capture the emotional weight of being Black in America.
How much weight one bears every day in the face of systemic injustices from every facet of your life ( social, health, education, financial, etc). The burden of being the perpetual foster kid in a home that doesn't love you but wants you to smile for family pictures.
As James Baldwin eloquently put it "..being educated and black in America is to be in a constant state of rage..."
How does one rise in the face of constant oppression when the consequences are ever so real.
And yet we do
Time and time again.
We must.
I initially wrote this song for Trayvon Martin, Oscar Gant, Philando Castille, Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Grey, Sandra Bland, Korryn Gaines, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott and so many others
and now we can add Ahmad Aubery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd to the list
We will Rise.
lyrics
RISE
So let me be
Set me free
And We will see
If we can just rise
If we can just rise
X2
Standing before you 3/5ths of man
Shackled in chains part of the plan
System corrupt rigging the game
Bending the rules dirt on your name
So bury your pride shovel your pain
Slavery and prison is one and the same
13th amendment aint mending a thing
Changing the labels the table aint changed
We strangefruit swinging from trees
Land of the free home of the brave
Home of the slave battered and bruised
Hurt and ashamed we slammed and abused
And we learn to survive
Its just part of the ride
It’s so hard to decide
Whether to live or to die (live or to die)
In the land of the free
we still swinging from trees
I just want to be happy (want to be happy)
I just want to be me
I just want to be happy (want to be happy)
I just want to be free
So let me be
Set me free
And We will see
If we can just rise
If we can just rise
X2
Thy poison the water and lock up our kids
Killing their hopes killing their dreams
Filing their minds filing their souls
With hate and despair until they get cold
And when they get cold (when they get cold)
They are trapped in the system
thats killing them slowly
And when they get cold (when they get cold)
They are trapped in the system
thats killing them slowly
Parolees for profit Pipelines cant stop it
Cuz money is power System corrupted
Justice can’t trust it
They shooting us dead
with our hands in the air
Not a fear not a care
just how it goes (just how it goes)
When will it stop nobody knows
I just want to be happy (want to be happy)
I just want to be free
So let me be
Set me free
And We will see
If we can just rise
If we can just riiise
X3
So let me be
Set me free
And We will see
If we can just rise
We will riise
credits
released June 5, 2020
original lyrics by Abdul Adedeji
main vocal by AbRock
additional vocals by Jonathan Gilmore and Omnia Azar
produced by crwnd2wce
mixed and mastered by Nate Lanzino
UK rapper and composer Oscar reconnects with his youth on a sleek, diaristic LP influenced by ’90s hip-hop and '00s R&B. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 21, 2024
