Lyrics Letter To the Hood - Basheer Jones

Bismillah
This is my letter to the hood
I wish you could see your beauty
It seems like the whole world does
They wanna dance like you, jump like you, catch like you, dress like you, look like you look like you
And since they can't look like you they kill you, they kill you
Making you hate the face that they love
Call you thug, so that your death makes sense, mugshots that makes the public tense Where even your own tribe Make excuses like, well he shouldn't have been wearing a Hood
He shouldn't have been selling cigarettes
He shouldn't have reached for his id
She shouldn't have been black, she shouldn't have been black, she shouldn't have been Born

It's amazing that a country can be scorned towards the people that the masses love to See perform
But when the lights go dim and the curtains are drawn and the guns are drawn and Respect is gone
For the one whose blood water the earth that we stand upon you, you don't know that You're beautiful
That you're suitable for the American dream
Oh it's ok for us to sing but not to kneel for what we feel is righteous
Don't you know that you're strength is divine and their hatred makes them blind
Murder is horrific but dying before you stop breathing is the greater crime, how do you use your time
Despite who hates your love is greater, but you must love yourself
Put the neighbor brother sister father and mother back in hood
Speak life and not death and enjoy each breath
That the maker has given

Lyrics that promote generational poverty
And looks on faces that say don't bother me but for us who understand the language it Really means, I'm in need
It really means I need love, it really means
Do you see me?
Oh I see you and I acknowledge your divinity
And I will love you no matter what, longer than infinity, I love you
I love who you are and your potential
And nothing is accidental, this war is mental
I try to be gentle when dealing with trauma
Effects of slavery still plague this nation
You see the word has told us to be patient but it's running thin
Hard to trust my kin but dealing with my own issues with in
Like my Jewish brothers and sisters I say never then we are seasoned when it comes to Dealing with racism
But ain't nothing bland about Sandra
Keep that casket open Mrs. Till, show them what racism look like
You, you, and you are divine no matter who tries to trump you, stump you, lump you we Stand strong

Even while we kneel
And the only thing that needs to be killed, is the envy of those who hate what they wish They can be
Oh I love you so much
And no matter what I always will
And even when you hurt me I realize it's only because you've been hurt
But I want you to remember something
The most beautiful flowers was produced by BS and dirt