I’m having nightmares, homicidal fantansies
I wake up stranglin, danglin my bed sheets
I call the nurse cause it hurts, to reminisce
How did it come to this? I wish they didn’t miss
Somebody help me, tell me where to go from here
Cause even Thugs cry, but do the Lord care?
Try to remember, but it hurts
I’m walkin’ through the cemetery talkin’ to the, dirt
I’d rather die like a man, than live like a coward
There’s a ghetto up in Heaven and it’s ours, Black Power
is what we scream as we dream in a paranoid state
And our fate, is a lifetime of hate
Dear Mama, can you save me? And f**k peace
Cause the streets got our babies, we gotta eat
No more hesitation each and every black male’s trapped
And they wonder why we suicidal runnin’ round strapped
Mista, Po-lice, please try to see that it’s
a million motherf**kers stressin’ just like me
Only God can judge me
Now I’m hittin’ MC’s like ‘Shoryuken!’ Ain’t no doubt about it, I’m the undisputed.
“
| — | Lady of Rage (from Afro Puffs, 1994) |
Female rappers today need to learn from those before them like Salt N Peppa, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and Lady of Rage. They weren’t using derogatory terms to refer to themselves, they didn’t overly-sexualize themselves, playing into the age-old Jezebel stereotype, and they empowered women. We gotta get back to that here today.
