Brother (Watching)

[Hook] (I've been watching everything Oh, brother, brother, brother) [x2] [Verse 1] I try to hold some hope in my heart for these African youths Coming up where I'm from, many traps to elude Surrounded by mostly white and affluent dudes And somehow, you expected to have mastered this smooth Swagger and move with the right walk, the right talk Fashion and crews, souls subtly attacked and abused And what's funny's being black wasn't cool Where I'm from till suddenly you started hearing rap in the school Hallways, amidst this madness I grew With a knack for amusing through this little skill for rapping at dudes And we all like to laugh at the truth But when you young and the same facts pertain to who you rapping 'em to Well, I opted not to bring that to the booth But after a while, it sort of starts nagging at you The crazed infatuation with blackness, the trash that gets viewed And the fact that the tube only showed blacks acting the fool And I was watching [Hook] [Verse 2] (Saturated with negative images and a limited range Of possibilities is strange) And it's sad cause that naturally do Sort of condition your mind and over time that's what's attractive to you So young blacks don't see themselves in scholastic pursuits Or the more practical routes, it's making tracks or it's hoops Or God-forbid moving packs for the loot Shoot, even with this music we so limited, it's rap or produce And that narrow conception of what's black isn't true Of course, still we feel forced to adapt to this view Like there's something that we're having to prove Now add that to the slew of justifications the capitalists use For the new blaxploitation, many actions excused In the name of getting cash that's adversely impacting our youth With mental slavery, the shackles is loose And it's hard to cut chains when they attached at the roots So what the new black activists do For our freedom is just being them, do what you're passionate to Not confined by a sense that you have to disprove Any stereotypes, so-called facts to refute Or match any image of blackness they've established as true Perhaps we'll break through the glass ceiling, shatter the roof And emerge, from these boxes that they have us in-cooped And grow to smash the mould that they casted of you I'll keep watching [Hook x2]