What’s Your Labels - JohnnieB

Lyrics

JohnnieB on the beat. Yeah. Everybody got a label for somebody. So fuck it. What’s yours? Verse 1 Well, I guess ’cause I’m me, they gotta label my skin, Like they can read my whole soul from the shade I was born in. They don’t know where I been, but they know what I am, That’s a hell of a trick from a judgmental man. They slap words on my name like a sticker on glass, Then act shocked when I peel that shit off and talk back. You can call me what you want, but it don’t make it fact, A label ain’t truth just ’cause you say it with sass. I’m not your headline, not your hashtag, not your joke, Not your easy little box for the narrative you wrote. I’m a man with a past, with a pen, with a throat, And a whole lot of scars that don’t fit in your quote. So what’s your labels? What names do you wear? Victim? Judge? Saint? Snake? Fake? Fair? Everybody points like their hands stayed clean, Whole time their own mirror got shit they ain’t seen. Big John says, “Grace, don’t answer with hate,” Little Johnnie says, “Drag every clown by the face.” JohnnieB says, “Nah, let me carry the weight, And ask who made the label in the first damn place.” Hook What’s your labels? What do they call you? What do you hide when the mirror walks through? You can label me, bitch, but I’ll label you too, Everybody got names that they’re trying to outgrow. What’s your labels? What do they mean? Are they truth, are they lies, are they shit you believe? You can judge my cover, but you don’t know me, JohnnieB ain’t a sticker that you slap on a dream. Verse 2 See, I know what it’s like to get painted one color, Like a whole damn person can’t be more than another. Like a mouth full of rumors makes the truth undercover, Like your pain is valid but mine has to suffer. That’s where labels get dangerous, that’s where they twist, When you stop seeing people and start seeing lists. When you throw out a word like a loaded-ass fist, Then act like you’re righteous ’cause you’re mad when it hits. I’m not saying I’m perfect, I got flaws in the frame, I said wild shit before and I’ll own what I claim. But don’t confuse growth with a permanent stain, And don’t confuse my skin with a goddamn chain. You don’t know my roots, don’t know my road, Don’t know the weight that I had to hold. You don’t know the nights when my heart went cold, You just saw the outside and called it the whole. I’m JohnnieB, bitch, I’m the split and the center, The sinner, the learner, the writer, the member. Not just one word you can throw in a blender, I’m every damn label they tried to surrender. So before you point, better check your own shelf, Before you label me, better label yourself. Are you healing or hiding? Are you helping or hell? Are you telling the truth or just selling yourself? Hook What’s your labels? What do they call you? What do you hide when the mirror walks through? You can label me, bitch, but I’ll label you too, Everybody got names that they’re trying to outgrow. What’s your labels? What do they mean? Are they truth, are they lies, are they shit you believe? You can judge my cover, but you don’t know me, JohnnieB ain’t a sticker that you slap on a dream. Verse 3 They say labels help, but they also divide, Put walls on a person and call it a side. Then wonder why people start burning inside, When the world keeps shrinking what they feel in their mind. I got labels I chose and labels I hate, Labels I earned and labels from snakes. Labels from love, labels from pain, Labels that broke me, labels I changed. Call me white, call me rapper, call me flawed, call me loud, Call me sinner with faith, call me lost in the crowd. Call me smartass, call me too damn proud, But don’t call me simple when my soul got clouds. Little Johnnie wears insults like armor and knives, Big John wears grace like the morning sky. JohnnieB wears both with the truth in his eyes, Trying to turn every label into something alive. So what’s your labels when the lights go black? What name do you run from when the past talks back? What word did they give you that still leaves cracks? What truth did you bury under all that act? I’m not here to erase what made me, I’m here to define what couldn’t break me. You can label the song, but you can’t label the soul, ’Cause JohnnieB is the whole damn role. Hook What’s your labels? What do they call you? What do you hide when the mirror walks through? You can label me, bitch, but I’ll label you too, Everybody got names that they’re trying to outgrow. What’s your labels? What do they mean? Are they truth, are they lies, are they shit you believe? You can judge my cover, but you don’t know me, JohnnieB ain’t a sticker that you slap on a dream.