James Fields - Rise

Crime pays, they say, and he had to get paid 
Got some weight got himself an AK cause dire straits are second rate to great
Whatever case, it was do or die who are you who am I to scrutinize
The how and why, if suit and ties don't provide a nine to five and the bills are behind
As you must, you must do
The end has to justify the means
It seems when you try to get ahead, you end up dead or locked away in the Feds
The pharmaceutical industry makes billions from opioids, listen
Doctors in coalition with politicians write prescriptions, make convictions
And waxing jurisdictional on individuals whose residuals
Are trivial, menial, the vitriol of the media
Played a major part in the start of the propagandistic war on drugs
Super-predators locked up while the true antagonists run amuck
Run the damn jewels, cash rules tough luck and if you're stuck
They'll provide the noose to pull you loose
It's not a fluke that drug abuse changed to misuse and the views of the media
Switched too, to acclimate us to the opioid epidemic
Conclusion, Street drugs are a crime, pain meds are a mental illness
Who want it
We want it
Come get it
Let's get it
Persistence will trump their resistance
We said we
Want freedom
Want freedom
Redemption
Redemption
It's beyond the horizon but we gotta fight and keep our eyes on the prize
Rise up, rise up, keep pushing
Rise up, rise up, don't stop moving
Rise up, rise up, rain, hail, sleet, snow, sunny
Rise up, rise up, let's go
We the people of American hysteria break down the barriers and paradigms
Social ills, cheap thrills, unequal playing fields and No Child Left Behind
School to Prison Pipeline, signs that Black Codes and Jim Crow stood the test of time
Redesign the Constitution and institutions that deduced us to crimes
The more perfect Union, the more we are removed from the solution
And what's confusing, the illusion of inclusion is all motions no devotion, prostitution
Imperialism played a role in the schism 'cause the systems goals
Were calamitous, drastic, hazardous like plastic
Capitalism is the link, the tie that binds racism, prison and recidivism
The word chattel gets its meaning from capital, what a hegemonic business
Spoils of riches, slave trade on Wall Street outweighed the mass graves
That encapsulated my history, Manifest Destiny, far from a charade
No rhyme or reason, 'tis the season to be tried, convicted, executed all for treason
Justify the mistreatment, called them heathens until they believed it
And over time and seasons, the reasons never changed
But the strategy was rearranged to maintain a stronghold on the ill-gotten gains
Let me explain
Birth of a Nation, the preservation of racial stereotypes that drove discrimination
Rift in race relations due to losing domination and fear of retaliation
Emancipation, segregation, extermination, incarceration
Criminalized by way of legislation
Free labor meant that prisons were the new plantations
Redlining blocked us out of prosperity and locked us in the projects
And like a hex, the ramifications of gentrification displaced a population, next
The neighborhoods
Once considered bad investments were restructured and reassessed
God bless this hefty mess, say less, I digress
This is chess, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Never expect liberation unless you're educated and put to the test
Gotta reject establishments that perpetuate deficits
Teachings from our oppressor, misleading, leaving us deeply in debt
Post traumatic stress, inferiority complex
Embedded deeply in our mind that we acquiesce without protest
   
Expected to be subjected to arrested development
When all we want is success, equality and respect
There's a disconnect at best, at worse, it's more like disrespect
The stress, the stress of having knees on our necks for so long
Has given us strength to take our respect
By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes, Macbeth
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise
Up rise, Up rise   

Written by:
James Fields

Publisher:
Lyrics © O/B/O DistroKid

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