Lyrics

### **[Verse 1]**
We spoke in thunder, walked in gold—
Kings before they stole our souls.
They wrapped our hands in bible pages,
Made our praise a gilded cage.

### **[Verse 2]**
Ogun’s hammer built their rails,
Yemaya sang through auction sails.
Shango’s fire lit their pyres,
While they called us *"liars."*

### **[Chorus]** *(Call & Response)*
**Oh, can you hear us?** *(Hear us!)*
**Through the lash and the liar’s creed?** *(Preach!)*
**We are the gods they couldn’t kill—** *(Say it!)*
**Still breathing under the cotton field.** *(Still here!)*

### **[Verse 3]** *(Whispered, over djembe & organ)*
They thought we’d forget Legba’s crossroad,
Or that Damballa’s blood still flows.
Baptized us in Mississippi’s mud,
But the loa *remember*—

### **[Bridge]** *(Sudden silence, then a shout)*
**Who taught the rivers to rise?**
**Who made the hammers *revive*?**
Every chain link’s a psalm unsung,
Every lynching tree—*a drum.*

### **[Chorus 2]** *(Frenzy, polyrhythmic)*
**Oh, can you hear us?** *(Hear us!)*
**Through the riot and the river’s moan?** *(Sing!)*
**We are the gods who crack the whip—** *(Break it!)*
**And turn the master’s house to ash.** *(Burn!)*

### **[Verse 4]** *(Sung in Yoruba & English)*
*"Àṣẹ lorúnmìlà, but they bound our hands…*
*Still, the spirits hum where the shotgun stands."*
They buried Shango deep in the coal,
But his lightning lives in the miner’s soul.

### **[Outro]** *(Sung softly, fading)*
We’ll wear our scars like sacred robes,