Manlissen (Strangest Fruit)

Fighting fire with fire's just the go ahead for them burning crosses Even the cost of living's less than what our living costs us And these grand juries just bury the leads on the lead Buried in people for cops overturning losses Of original crime bosses Officers riding in squad cars like overseers on high horses Claiming divine causes But question the abuse and they run through excuses when their mind pauses Good cops get blue balls stuck behind blue walls Built for goons acting like Special Forces Flamethrowers in a concrete jungle Heat up the block, and leave you sautéed in your red sauces Out in the field they don't know how to yield Fantasizing like they're Director Coulson when the S.H.I.E.L.D flosses We used to play Cops & Robbers as kids Not knowing it was a setup for bids and closed coffin lids Black people trying to say we got a right to live too but these dudes want proof -- ManLISSEN They still got us by the neck, strange fruit, placing bets on if we make it past youth -- ManLISSEN And we claim to be a Nation Under God how the Tree of Life ah bleed from the root? -- ManLISSEN I don't condone cop killers; they just get fans regardless As kids try to taste the rainbow and get fed to the heartless Every day is like a walk in the valley of shadow Even if you on the straight and narrow, you a crooked target Dudes are trippin' like they stuck on rock Crackin' the holster and aiming for your back and your armpits Instead of lookin' for facts like Trebek Media spins like Sajak for the departments Just like a test effin' us up in the worst fashion Actions louder than social media comments I cram to understand huntin' Blacks for the habit Next thing they lockin' down nuns in the convents Who needs to read the warrant, when they got Kevlar garments For decompression of civilian compartments You think I beg for justice? I beg your pardon They claiming it's a few bad eggs, never checkin' the cartons Black people trying to say we got a right to live too but these dudes want proof -- ManLISSEN They still got us by the neck, strange fruit, placing bets on if we make it past youth -- ManLISSEN And we claim to be a Nation Under God how the Tree of Life ah bleed from the root? -- ManLISSEN These snakes in the grass ah rather nyam pon deh Meanwhile, at the Legion of Doom, politicians flip funds to militarize Guerrillas blues with killer eyes to lower the boom On the villagers, tactics similar To Nazis any war tribunal would criminalize Symbolic of subliminal ties To the frontal lobe they would use to minimalize Familial cries for an undeserved demise A step further to vilify, dehumanize and euthanize Anyone not unionized in the Bluest Eye Meaning you and I are caught up in a game of Do or Die They love the black-on-black crime, gettin' dime from your grime Fears of the Black Planet streets unified And no matter what the answers would prove I would doubt the Feds question the Klan like it was King or the Panthers and MOVE Why dumb down the rundown While getting tasered, choked up, and gunned down Black people trying to say we got a right to live too but these dudes want proof -- ManLISSEN They still got us by the neck, strange fruit, placing bets on if we make it past youth -- ManLISSEN And we claim to be a Nation Under God how the Tree of Life ah bleed from the root? -- ManLISSEN These snakes in the grass would rather nyam pon dem flesh than feed from the truth - Chu