To Whom It May Concern

[INTRO] So I had a phone call with a good friend of mine the other night And, um, it seems that I’ve created some confusion He told me straight up, people don’t know you like I do, man I guess I haven’t said enough, or maybe I’ve said too much, I don’t know But I don’t wanna leave any stone unturned or no questions about who I am Or what I represent So here you go… [VERSE] I grew up in the deep gutter Raised by wolves, church steeples, and a single white mother Taught to be blind to any colour by hippies who been smoking weed since the ‘60s With Dukes of Hazzard for bed covers Rock’n’roll, country music, and cocaine One hand on the Bible and the ouija board in the other The irony of it all is so thick that a fly would get stuck in the thin air of that dope smoke Lynyrd Skynyrd and Michael Jackson Practicing moonwalking with a broomstick in the kitchen, popping and locking No BET on television, we didn’t have it, we had the rabbits The 10-4, mason jar on the counter full of bacon oil Now looking back, talking ‘bout freedom, yeah you were spoiled Oblivious to the hideous crimes from the insidious minds That took place right below us on the Southern soil The blood and the pain left a recoil The creekwater’s holding secrets Ghosts of Confederate veterans in the wind Backwoods are haunted with the death and the sin Slave ships carried the lost souls Wicked white men slaughtering angels for a fucking bar code We buried these wicked ways, the world is still turning And these motherfuckers with they crosses is still burning Yeah, I seen ‘em at the courthouse Not really sure what they’re trying to prove still Jumped up on mountains they’re still trying to move hills And their daughters probably listen to Dru Hill Pussy hotter than blue steel for Dru Hill So Jesus come take the wheel No, you steer drunk The youth here’re punks The truth here it come I’ll show you how these country folks pop that trunk Uh, and my honesty is modest To tell the whole truth yeah I’ve pondered and I’ve pondered To be spit at and called a wigger from who you considered a father at 14 ‘ll make you wonder, and you wonder Yeah, that’s hard to hear, ain’t it But at that very moment my picture got painted Call it God, call it what you will But I knew the South was sick still and in need of some changes So I took it upon myself to adpot all of the outcasts I took the American and the Confederate flag Threw it in my back pocket, I even went and got tatts And carried them like a shield for the shit that once held me back And these redneck brothers of mine, playin’ that 3.6 In a fucking cornfield, in big trucks with lift kits Oblivious to the beauty of juxtaposition They had no idea how special it was to witness Them in deep Alabama playing Snoop and Group Home Big Hank and Metallica, I discovered a new zone And Catfish Billy, a way for me to talk about it From them on I was questioned and highly doubted by my peers Who didn’t understand that all these years we’d been the brunt of the jokes America made it clear that we were backwards, wrong, behind, and segregated So I decided that Yelawolf would go make it more obvious that we’ve grown I polished up my tone, I signed to Shady and brought a record deal home Look mama, no hands, I’m coming up, yeah I’m grown Respect from the OGs, cosigning my songs First it was Bun B, then Raekwon, and TIP Then all of these MCs wanted features from me But I was a live wire, my tongue was a fuckin’ blade to these critics Who didn’t get it, the clips from the grenade in my teeth A little too unique, the market for me was smaller than some thought it would be Even me so I looked in the mirror Saw the Jordans, the gold chain, my shirt—Pantera Rebel flag in my pocket, RED tattooed on my neck Heart of Dixie across the stomach and it ain’t clicked yet? Maybe I wore the wrong shoes back to the woods because these suede No. 5s can’t get wet Maybe it’s something I need to go figure out on my own So after Radioactive I took my shit back home Disappeared from the world, became increasingly different Tuned in every once in a while to see who was spitting But mainly I was in Nashville getting back to my roots Explorin’ music with Love Story, I made it my truth Dropped a single called Til It’s Gone and travelled the globe I started seeing rebel flags everywhere at my shows I didn’t think nothing of it, I assumed that they get it I’m on some New South shit, but I have to admit it I saw the posts up on Instagram proclaiming I’m racist And that I’m fucked in the head and I don’t know where my place is I started taking it personal ‘cause I treat people equal Homie, I got mixed kids and music is how I feed ‘em Lo and behold as I’m saying this I discover this evil White boy went in a church and killed 9 innocent people Goddamn, hold on, moment of silence Nine innocent church going people get murdered There’s not a word I can utter, there’s not a rhyme I can say There ain’t no fixing that ever, those people brutally slain And I refuse to see ways to justify all the blame That motherfucker’s insane I got so mad at my own image, I took down merch No explaining it now, it’s only making it worse This fucking coward, this criminal’s, just a puppet, a mental case But the truth is the truth, he did it because of race There’s nothing I can describe, the shame that I felt inside A white boy with the flag committed this homicide I tried solo to defend the South, and yes it was my decision My interviews broke on the internet, you can see my vision I never thought myself to be like a politician, just a witness to the sickness The kindling was in the bridge and the bricks that I laid to the road That I built from the love and the wisdom I’m trying to find my way But now I’m feeling imprisoned from the stereotypes I was prepared for the fight Hell, I’ll be stereotyped until my burial site I married a loaded gun when I married this mic Ain’t playing Russian roulette, ain’t playing ‘round with my life ‘Cause what I cannot lose is the respect that I’ve gained Friendships I cherish, fuck the money and fame Black American culture is in the thread of my veins It’s rock’n’roll till I die, I’m just a rebel in shame Yes I apologize for me and anybody with that flag Honestly, any proud Southerner is sad How do you think I feel when I look at my grandad Imagining him dead because of that piece of trash I got nephews, nieces, who need this, peace between this But media is fiendish So if you feel like you’re above it or beneath it Have a logical mind about who your team is And when you look at me, dawg, don’t look at me like another branch off a tree Lord, I took this shit and balanced it the best that I could Try to hold up the wood of America’s old see-saw But this ain’t Hee Haw with MeMaw We ain’t on the Cosby Show, are we, bro Daddy may give a goodnight kiss, but I can promise you this That you ain’t promised tomorrow I wish I could go back to the innocence I remember my friends with no differences But pigment is relative, isn’t it Maybe by 2050 we’ll be over it Big KRIT, I love you homie, keep killin’ shit You inspired this verse, I got your back and let’s live with this It is what it is, we cannot fix all this ignorance Slumerican flags up, it’s over, I’m ending this