[Verse 1:]
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I used to think I hated this place
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Couldn't wait to tell the president straight to his face
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But lately I changed, nowadays I embrace it all
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Beautiful ideals and amazing flaws
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Got to care enough to give a testament
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'Bout the deeply depressing mess we're in
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It's home so we better make the best of it
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I wanna make this country what it says it is
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Still dream in the vividest living color
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No matter how many times my love been smothered
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Who's ever above us won't just let us suffer
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All of this struggling got to amount to something
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This is a letter to my countrymen
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Especially those my age and younger than
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We're up against an ugly trend
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Everybody's hustling don't nobody touch their friends
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No group singing and dancing
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No anthem nobody holds hands, and...
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Instead they give a handheld
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And make you shoulder life's burden by your damn self
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One thing that can't be debated
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Power never changed on it's own you got to make it
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That's why community is so sacred
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That's the symbol that we make when we raise fists
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[Chorus:]
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"Sooner or later" [x2]
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[Verse 2:]
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We don't really like to talk about the race thing
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The whole grandparents used to own slaves thing
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Pat ourselves on the back in February
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Looking at pictures of Abe Lincoln and the great King
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But the real picture's much more embarrassing
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We're still not even close to really sharing things
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The situation of oppressed people
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Shows what we feel it means to be a human being
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What does it mean to be American?
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I think the struggle to free is our inheritance
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And if we say it how it really is
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We know our lily skin still give us privilege
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Advantages given to the few
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That are built into the roots of our biggest institutions
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That's the truth in life we got to choose
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Do I fight in the movement or think I'm entitled to it
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This is not a practice life
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This is the big game we got to attack it right
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Each one of us is headed for the grave
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This old crooked world won't be saved by the passive type
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This is a letter to my countrymen
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Not from a Democrat or a Republican
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But one among you that's why you call me brother
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Ain't scared to tell you we're in trouble 'cause I love you
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[Chorus:]
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"Sooner or later" [x2]
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[Verse 3:]
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They tell me I'm a dreamer, they ridicule
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They feel defeated, old, bitter, and cynical
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Excuse me but I see it from a different view
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I still believe in what a driven few could really do
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I know that the masses want to sleep
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And they would just rather hear me rapping to the beat
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But I want to pass this planet to my son
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A little better than it was when they handed it to me
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So I wrote a letter to my countrymen
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I'll be happy if it only reaches one of them
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Reporting live A-L-I, your brother
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Mourning in America, dreaming in color
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[Dr. Cornel West:]
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My dear Brother Ali,
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I think you know deep down in your soul that
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Something, something just ain't right.
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You don't want to be just well adjusted to injustice
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And well adapted to indifference. You want to be
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A person with integrity who leaves a mark on the world.
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People can say when you go that you left the world
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Just a little better than you found it. I understand. I want
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To be like that too.
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Letter To My Countrymen
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| Brother Ali |
