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f/ Cee-Lo |
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(Common) |
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In the Spirit of God. |
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In the Spirit of the Ancestors. |
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In the Spirit of the Black Panthers. |
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In the Spirit of Assata Shakur. |
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We make this movement towards freedom |
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for all those who have been oppressed, and all those in the struggle. |
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Yeah. yo, check it- |
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There were lights and sirens, gunshots firin |
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Cover your eyes as I describe a scene so violent |
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Seemed like a bad dream, she laid in a blood puddle |
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Blood bubbled in her chest, cold air brushed against open flesh |
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No room to rest, pain consumed each breath |
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Shot twice wit her hands up |
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Police questioned but shot before she answered |
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One Panther lost his life, the other ran for his |
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Scandalous the police were as they kicked and beat her |
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Comprehension she was beyond, tryna hold on |
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to life. She thought she'd live with no arm |
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that's what it felt like, got to the hospital, eyes held tight |
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They moved her room to room-she could tell by the light |
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Handcuffed tight to the bed, through her skin it bit |
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Put guns to her head, every word she got hit |
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'Who shot the trooper?' they asked her |
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Put mace in her eyes, threatened to blast her |
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Her mind raced till things got still |
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Opened her eyes, realized she's next to her best friend who got killed |
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She got chills, they told her: that's where she would be next |
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Hurt mixed wit anger-survival was a reflex |
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They lied and denied visits from her lawyer |
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But she was buildin as they tried to destroy her |
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If it wasn't for this german nurse they woulda served her worse |
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I read this sister's story, knew that it deserved a verse |
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I wonder what would happen if that woulda been me? |
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All this shit so we could be free, so dig it, y'all. |
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(Cee-lo vocals) |
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I'm thinkin' of Assata, yes. |
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Listen to my Love, Assata, yes. |
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Your Power and Pride is beautiful. |
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May God bless your Soul. |
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(Common) |
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It seemed like the middle of the night when the law awakened her |
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Walkie-talkies cracklin, I see 'em when they takin her |
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Though she kinda knew, |
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What made the ride peaceful was the trees and the sky was blue |
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Arrived to Middlesex Prison about six inna morning |
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Uneasy as they pushed her to the second floor in |
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a cell, one cot, no window, facing hell. |
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Put in the basement of a prison wit all males |
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And the smell of misery, seatless toilets and centipedes |
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She'd exercise, (paint?,) and begin to read |
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Two years inna hole. Her soul grew weak |
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Away from people so long she forgot how to speak |
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She discovered frredom is a unspoken sound |
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And a wall is a wall and can be broken down |
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Found peace in the Panthers she went on trial with |
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One of the brothers she had a child with |
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The foulness they would feed her, hopin she's lose her seed |
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Held tight, knowing the fight would live through this seed |
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In need of a doctor, from her stomach she's bleed |
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Out of this situation a girl was conceived |
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Separated from her, left to mother the Revolution |
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And lactated to attack hate |
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Cause federal and state was built for a Black fate |
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Her emptiness was filled with beatings and court dates |
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They fabricated cases, hoping one would stick |
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And said she robbed places that didn't exist |
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In the midst of threats on her life and being caged with Aryan whites |
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Through dark halls of hate she carried the light |
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I wonder what would happen if that woulda been me? |
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All of this shit so we could be free. |
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Yeah, I often wonder what would happen if that woulda been me? |
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All of this shit so we could be free, so dig it, people- |
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(Cee-Lo) |
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I'm thinkin' of Assata, yeah. |
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Listen to my Love, Assata, yeah. |
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Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful... |
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May God bless your Soul. |
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Oooh. |
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(Common) |
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Yo |
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From North Carolina her grandmother would bring |
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news that she had had a dream |
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Her dreams always meant what they needed them to mean |
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What made them real was the action in between |
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She dreamt that Assata was free in they old house in Queens |
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The fact that they always came true was the thing |
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Assata had been convicted of a murder she couldna done |
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Medical evidence shown she couldna shot the gun |
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It's time for her to see the sun from the other side |
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Time for her daughter to be by her mother's side |
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Time for this Beautiful Woman to become soft again |
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Time for her to breathe, and not be told how or when |
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She untangled the chains and escaped the pain |
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How she broke out of prison I could never explain |
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And even to this day they try to get to her |
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but she's free with political asylum in Cuba. |
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(Cee-Lo vocals) |
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I'm thinkin' of Assata, yeah. |
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Listen to my Love, Assata, yeah. |
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We're molded from the same mud, Assata. |
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We share the same Blood, Assata, yeah. |
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Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful... |
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May God bless your Soul. |
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Your Power and Pride, so Beautiful... |
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May God bless your Soul. |
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Oooh. |
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(Assata) |
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Freedom! You askin me about freedom. Askin me about freedom? |
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I'll be honest with you. I know a whole more about what freedom isn't |
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than about what it is, cause I've never been free. |
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I can only share my vision with you of the future, about what freedom is. |
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Uhh, the way I see it, freedom is-- is the right to grow, is the right to |
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blossom. |
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Freedom is -is the right to be yourself, to be who you are, |
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to be who you wanna be, to do what you wanna do. (fade out) |
