I concede ahead of time that I used rap genius here a decent amount.
[Hook]
You would never know if you could ever be You don't know what you can do unless you try,
If you never try, you would never see How would the role of blacks in the United States have been different if slavery had never occurred?
Stayed in Africa, we ain't never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery
Call me crazy, or isn't he?
See I fell asleep and I had a dream shout out to MLK
It was all black everything A world in which people's complexion is irrelevant, all black = blind to color
[Verse 1]fairly creative rhyming occurs here
Uh, and we ain't get exploited
White man ain't feared it so he did not destroy it Alludes to: MLK and Bertrand Russell within one line regarding race relations- pack mentality stimulates picking on minority
We ain't work for free, see they had to employ it
Built it up together so we equally appointed since = job opportunities and salaries were provided in the past instead of slavery, slave codes etc., the distribution of power is equal and the nation is content overall
First 400 years, see we actually enjoyed it
Constitution written by W.E.B. Du Bois <- civil rights leader being part of Founding Fathers, once again "equally appointed" makes table even or even better, irrelevant regarding race
Were no reconstructions, civil war got avoided if there hadn't been slavery, no civil war… basid
Little black sambo grows up to be a lawyer
Extra extra on the news stands
Black woman voted head of Ku Klux Klan flips race relations, patriarchy and the path to the 15th amendment upside down
Malcolm Little dies as an old man
Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him bringing two assassinated civil rights activists with differing ideas together naturally
Followed by Bill O'Reilly who read from the Quran
President Bush sends condolences from Iran
Where Fox News reports live
That Ahmadinejad wins the Mandela Peace Prize now flips current politics upside down, to be honest, the fact that he can get the name Ahmandinejad to fit smoothly into his song is astounding
[Hook]
[Verse 2] I'll stop annotating/explaining lyrics, they can be found at http://rapgenius.com/Lupe-fiasco-all-black-everything-lyrics
Uh, and it ain't no projects
Keepin it real is not an understood concept
Yea, complexion's not a contest there are no "desirable" colors as colors don't matter
Cause racism has no context no reason for racism to exist if colors are ignored
Hip-hop ain't got a section called conscious
Everybody rappin like crack never happened
Crips never occurred nor bloods to attack them
Matter of fact no hood to attack in
Somalia is a great place to relax in
Fred Astaire was the first to do a backspin
The Rat Pack was cool group of black men
That inspired the five white guys called the Jacksons
Eminem fitted in but then again
He inspired a black rapper tryin to mimic him
And thats what really rose up out of Michigan
The "sounding white" rapper by the name of 50 Cent
so many civil rights related messages in one song
[Hook]
[Verse 3]
Uh, and I know it's just a fantasy
I cordially invite you to ask why can't it be
Now we can do nothing bout the past
But we can do something about the future that we have
We can make it fast or we can make it last
Every woman queen and every man a king and
When those color lines come we can't see between
We just close our eyes till its all black everything
[Hook]
Not all that much internal rhyme but the density of the lyrics of this song is ridiculous. There are an ungodly amount of allusions in the verses and a lot of shots from Lupe at Bill O'Reilly. Ends on a very hopeful note!
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