Pen To Paper - Brother Ali

Put pen to paper the first time when I was barely eight or

Maybe nine that was the late eighties Reagan time

Put in the freshest tape rewind wait let me take my time

The entire landscape of that blank page was mine

Created space to climb inside escape the crazy times

Reshape the climate break it down that was my frame of mind

Thank the divine great designing

This as my sacred shrine

I made myself a place to shine

Wait let me spray this rhyme

When I was thirteen I met Krs

He put me on the stage

Suggested I read up on Malcolm X

Y'all know the rest

So much pushing down on my chest

Both my folks got laid to rest

Loved ones wishing me all the best

I'm a ball of stress yet I digress

I've spent my every hopeless dream

And my unspoken secret

You hear it floating through your speakers

In my old releases

My fanbase began to grow beneath and crowd around me

I never tiptoed 'round here shy

I spit it loud and proudly

The u s government profiled me

And the sponsors dropped me

Some of my listeners felt away so they no longer got me

I knew that telling that truth is costly

No one alive can stop me

I rolled that flag out on the ground

And prostrated my body

This is more than music to me this is ancestors

Speaking through me at the tomb of rumi

My Mic's a rifle

I'm honor bound to fire my weapon truly

Whether they jeer me cheer me

Boo salute me or just shoot me

Let it be known my whole life

I break that cycle set it in stone

I'd still rather be known as a man that stand on my own

Rather than beg at a throne cold

You know I honor my own code that go down to the bone

We just want to get it on shooting at the devil

With a megaphone till we dead and gone