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TAKEN FROM THE cd "BLACK HISTORY 101"

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KEEP ON USIN’ ME

I was taken from my habitat where I used to chill
Brought to America against my will
Made to do labor, treated like a slave
Killed and mutilated when I wouldn’t behave

Taught I was inferior, made to believe
Knowledge and success I could never achieve
Kept down kept out of the mainstream
While always searchin’ for the “American Dream”

So many times I tried to escape
To protect my sistahs who you used to rape
But I would always get caught when I tried to run
Shot, beaten bad, burnt, bit and hung

Branded like an animal, put in chains
Fed the worst food time and time again
Made to sleep in quarters too narrow and small
And rise at dawn with no rest at all

I built your plantations, I built your nice homes
Planted your crops and your gardens all alone
Made you look good in the New World
While my sistah raised your little boys and girls

Playin’ nanny while your woman sat on her fanny
Thinkin’ evil thoughts about my granny
When all I ever wanted was to be free
So why, oh why, can’t you let me be ?




2
Let me explain to you
Why I’m feelin’ black and blue
You just keep on usin’ me
Until you use me up...

For this country, the one I helped build
I worked in your house and in your field
I worked in your factory and on your farm
Took care of your cattle and built your barns

I fought to free you from colonial oppression
And in the civil war, I showed my aggression
In a battle over me that I had to fight
During slavery, both day and night

Getting paid less, as a soldier
Sleeping in places that were much colder
I fought in every battle, even World War 1
Then came back to hatred when I was done

I fought for you in World War 2
Loyal on our soil, standing proud and true
Which is the reason I can’t understand
Why I was considered three-fifths of a man

I wanted to go home But you wouldn’t let me go
Wanted equality, so you gave me “Jim Crow”
Wanted Education and the right to vote
So here you come in your sheet with a gun and a rope

Committing hateful crimes, shouting profanity
All in the name of God and Christianity
When all I ever wanted was to be free
Yet to this day, You won’t let me be


3
You say we’re all the same
Yet you keep on playing games
You just keep on usin’ me
Until you use me up

Now in the nineties, things ain’t even changed
You still continue to treat me the same
Every time I speak out on how much you hate me
You want to discredit or assassinate me

You still got me fighting for Uncle Sam
Yet at home you’ve got me starvin’ and don’t give a dam
I continue to help you defeat your enemies
In the name of freedom and democracy

You pay me to give drugs to my people
You bring them in the country and then call ME evil
I seem to take the rap for all the bad you do
A.I.D.S, unemployment, crack and crime too

In my own neighborhood you use me to spy
Be an “Uncle Tom” in the F.B.I
While you make certain that my freedom doesn’t ring
By beating down my brothers like Rodney King

I’ve helped you everyday, every minute, every hour
Made sure you became the “Number One Super Power”
Helped you to control, coerce and create
Yet you still deny me justice, still give me hate

Why, oh why, must you be so cruel ?
Must I always be made a fool ?
When all I ever wanted was to be free
So why, oh why, can’t you let me be ?

credits

from Greatest Spits volume 1: ( A Hip Hop Poet with soul), released January 1, 2015

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TONY B. CONSCIOUS image

TONY B. CONSCIOUS Los Angeles, California

A renaissance man (Harlem Renaissance that is), TONY B. CONSCIOUS
is the personification of AFRICAN- AMERICAN culture.

He is (amongst other things) A B-BOY, BEATBOX,EMCEE, GRAFFITI/VISUAL ARTIST (known as “THE GHETTO VAN-GO”), Poet/ Spoken Word Artist, Vocalist, AUTHOR, ACTIVIST, VEGAN VEGETARIAN and PHILOSOPHER.

ALSO a member of THE UNIVERSAL ZULU NATION and THE TEMPLE OF HIP HOP. ... more

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