Under Lock & Key

They got me Under Lock and Key
The movement that got me ta see
How these imperialist capitalist countries
want us to be
Dumb to the facts
They don’t care
Whether we white, Latino or Black
Why we glorifying those things
That got us right where we at
In this position
Tryna find our ways
Out of these prisons
Time ticking away
Mail censored
So we gotta watch what we say
Oppression gets worse by the day
Commissary prices up
But we continue to pay
Defeating the cause
Time 2 take a second and pause
Why we giving our money away
When they only giving us
17 cents 4 a pay
No medical benefits
So who really benefits
The rich keeps getting rich
Why we getting the short end of the stick?

To protect and serve or belittle and torture?
It’s the same to me, to them I’m not sure
Kind of feels like these pigs they feel that
They enjoy our deaths, our “suicides” and body bags
Abu Ghraib wasn’t a fluke or freak of nature
Those atrocities pale in comparison to what I see here
Except this stuff’s o.k. if we’re Amerikans?
Faces filled with expressions of understanding
Loving benevolence as if they’re doing me favors
And I’m deserving of my cage, not a slave here
Questioning my motives, like “Why’s he fighting back?”
Your corrections made me this way, that’s real as a heart attack.

Pobre Imperio, triste
son sus acciones
Destructivas y sangrientas
Invasiones en nombre
de la libertad convertida
a su voluntad…

I’m a mortal man
I do what I can
Just to withstand
The pressure I feel
From those who wanna steal
All that is real
Through my sensory loss
Attempting to toss
Silence across
My very existence
Waning resistance
Till I break down
Wearing a frown
All beaten down
But I simply refuse
To let them abuse
And give me the blues
I will stand tall
Not ready to fall
That is my call

Time will tell,
As we go through hell,
prisons known as modern day slavery.
Taking young lives every hour endlessly,
Why should kids starve and look at us as the enemy,
When their father, mother, sister, brothers
have been stripped of their liberty.
And still, at this moment you say ‘you can’t tell,’
just listen closely and you’ll hear their wails.
And you’re wasting time watching every day go by,
As the real criminals are right in front of your eye.

Imagine losing your fucking mind from being confined behind dollar signs
Imagine the times I’ve cried
The times I’ve tried
Imagine me alone in a dark room dying inside.
But can you imagine me locked on the block?
One more shot
Jumpin’ back hot like hollow tips from a glock
Rippin’ the spot
Grippin’ a knot
If they ain’t shittin’ getting em off the pot.
Imagine after a decade of space
Me showing up at my ex-girls place
Imagine her face
Imagine her mouth’s taste
As she wishes she could erase the day she went astray
And the way I was betrayed
Imagine me not having anything to say and just walking away.
Yea, imagine me hittin the streets again
Reheatin’ beef’s again
Breaking limbs off of the family tree and friends that sinned
Imagine me back after just doing ten.
Imagine hate being so strong it becomes one man’s home
The beat in his heart, the strength in his bones
The seed in the garden that grows all his wrongs.
I imagine getting one more lot to cast
For all things new and things passed
I imagine puttin’ a flame to gas
An aim to the blast
Imagine me telling the whole world to kiss my ass
Yeah, imagine that
The system stealing your life ’til you’re old then saying you can have it back
Stuck in a box like a savage jack
And expected to pop back to society like an average kat
But I can’t imagine that
Imagine my eyes being the last ones you see
My expression being the last one you read
The last time you breathe
Imagine the need
Imagine being me!

Mental purgatory trapped inside the
matrix
hells aging heaving grabbing at me.
Suicidal mind battles fictional characters
trying to hold on.
I believe I can fly touching the
sky inside my mind zone.
I rather die before I submit to
genocide systemized legalized lynching.
Judicial homicides of the black
strong and gifted.
Invisible teardrops manifested
Obama can’t change this.

Sacred memories painted black on
brokeness of hard times canvases.
Mirrored images of many men confined
who remind me of me in memory.
Souls tear stained with blood of
our ancestors past.
Injustices pain like rain falls forming
puddles around ankles like shackles.
Unwritten script fist clenched against
bad experiences within the penal system.
Too many talented dreamers behind
prison fences.
Prison Central is confinement of the mind
Black life in eyes still shinning but dimming
He went from living to merely existing.

We’re told when we can eat,
We’re told when we can sleep,
We’re treated like animals,
We’re treated like the sheep.

No one really cares,
As long as it’s not them,
Prisons treat us like animals,
Instead of grown-up men.

They open our doors to chow,
We race for it like cattle,
They may have won this round,
But they haven’t won the battle.

We all must stay strong,
Surrender is not a choice,
We will rise up,
We will use our voice!

So let’s be animals,
But not the one’s they think,
Roar like lions,
Let them know their policies stink.

Don’t give up,
Don’t be blue,
Cause’ even though we prisoners,
We’re humans too.

In my quest for freedom I continue to struggle
spitting conscious thoughts, so I’m flexing my muscle
overdosin on oppression on this modern day plantation
with knowledge. I rebel to improve my situation.
I strive for the greatness that our people once displayed.
No longer influenced by the beast, disgusted by his wicked ways.
I’m militant like Huey
Ready to lead like Marcus
I come in peace like Martin.
But like Jonathan I’ll spark shit
Like Malcolm by any means necessary
For my people I’ll go there,
might get assassinated like George
with the Black Power fist in the air
I’m a conquerer like Hannibal
A warrior like Shaka
lead you to freedom like Harriet
might break out like Assata
I ride for the cause
and stay on point like a needle.
What more can I say
Power to the People.