RISE UP! - J.Period, Black Thought, Posdnuos

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

The bane of my own existence, strange

Our defeat is deranged

Add that, multiplied by my feelings

The pain still egregious, but strategic

I came to rise up out of the flames like a phoenix

My words’ll reach a million or more when I tweet it

That’s as many people as MLK and Jesus

In half the time, peep the rhymes of a genius

Who refuses to align with the elitist

Seeing Dr King’s dreams were not for the squeamish

Children of a lesser god, oppression gets repeated unless

We slide up out of the chains and delete it

America’s like black and white dice tumbling

Any day you could bite the dust, another one

So while our culture is crumbling I will enunciate every line

Clearly so you can hear what the fuck I’m saying, no mumbling

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

The irony of a nation claiming to be the United States

Yet never in a state of unification

Egos and ignorance creates incisions

Comforted ones believe these divisions

And we rep the rhythm with a little bit of scepticism

Leaving us jaded and traded in compassion for compression

Ready to squeeze the life out of anyone who steps to us

With aggression

The media runs with it, calling us aggressive

When it’s just reaction to a system that’s oppressive

Raised fists are claimed offensive

But when both arms and open palms are up

Police

it’s the mood and the outcome of this selection is stewed

In a mellow no longer good for blending

And yet it’s never too late for the cleansing

If we want to rise up, then put the lies up

Know the truth, make sure you need to size up before you judge

In order to unify someone’s got to budge

And to the choir don’t preach, and discard the beat

So instead those trapped in ignorance can be reached

The outcome from this is a high

Consciousness instead of a fist, push to the sky

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rise to power then fall from grace

Though often cases our heads are lost in the clouds

Or we’re lost in space

Citizens of the divided states identify with hatred

For our demise, they watch and wait

Look at the downward spiral, it’s goin' viral

Nobody’s ever accountable, who’s held liable?

If anyone could court respond, if they so inclined to

It’s sad, they want a borderline, redefine you

As a people we can rise like the tides

Due to tower over evil as a nation under God

Indivisible the weight of all our odds

But together we’ll survive, just never sever ties

We could rise to a brilliance, rise to a balance

Rise to a way to coexist in nonviolence

Rise to a volume that’s impossible to silence

In the morning when I rise, I’ll rise to the challenge

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Rising up out of the flames like a phoenix

Never in the history of this nation have so many people been for the cause of

freedom and human dignity.

Now let me say this, keep this movement going,

keep this movement rolling.

Long as we keep moving like we are moving,

the power structures will have to give in. In spite of the difficulties and

we’re gonna have a few more difficulties, keep trying.

Keep moving,

if you can’t fly, run.

If you can’t run, walk.

If you can’t walk, crawl.

But by all means, keep moving