Battle Scars

Lyrics

[Verse 1] Concrete stained with the ghosts of a broken plan Tryin' to turn a couple fractions to a hundred bands Sirens sing a lullaby that keep the block awake Every nickel that they handed us was a fake Man, I'm sick of playing games with a loaded deck Got a target on my back and a noose on my neck They want a smiling coon, they want a dancing fool I was born out in the asphalt, raised by the school Of hard knocks, where the chalk outlines stay for days Lost in the haze, walking through a metal maze Fuck a compromise, I'd rather die on my feet Than crawl around begging for the scraps of the street [Chorus] This is for the heavy hearts, heavy minds Trapped inside the rhythm of the modern grinds Yeah, we bleed for the cause, we fight for the change Rearrange all the pain, put it all in the gauge No surrender, no retreat, from the mud to the stars We got the battle scars [Verse 2] Switched up the flow, hit the R&B groove Smooth on the surface, but the undercurrents move Got a trap 808 hitting heavy in the chest Put the corporate suits and the politicians to the test They talking 'bout democracy while locking up the youth Building private prisons out of censorship and truth God damn, it's a circus and the clowns got keys Begging us to swallow all their packaged disease I spit blood on the mic, yeah, I said what I said Rather be hated than lying down dead With a sanitized message and a plastic smile Haven't seen a real motherfucker in a mile [Chorus] This is for the heavy hearts, heavy minds Trapped inside the rhythm of the modern grinds Yeah, we bleed for the cause, we fight for the change Rearrange all the pain, put it all in the gauge No surrender, no retreat, from the mud to the stars We got the battle scars [Bridge] (Ooh, yeah) Through the smoke and the fire We are rising higher (Ooh, yeah) No more lies, no more pain We gonna break the chain [Outro] Yeah East Coast state of mind Conscious rap, no cap Outro fade out Peace