Cost Lyrics

Black man, let me tell you what your life like

Shot in cold blood all because you carried a flashlight

Advice, don't ever let them find out your past life

Stack up on the charges and now you swung on your last strike

Innocent man took a knee to the neck

Black man who fought for the country never gets his respect

Brought us over on the ship, and kept us below the deck

And now you cellmates with your people while they cashin' a check

Uh, marchin' for justice, they police those back

Sayin' we violent, starting riots, I don't see those facts

So many things we have created, we don't see those plaques

They had to take away our riches, we got repo snatched

I'm not brown or tan, America, I'm negro black

Black as the ashes of all my ancestors

Why somebody gotta die for us to stand together

Somehow we always stood in rain, yet they can't change the weather

Why you treat me like a slave even though I'm free?

Why they slap you on the wrist but point a gun at me?

How you livin' with no stripes and I'm on number three?

How you allowed to take a stand but I can't take a knee?

Seems like they got a vendetta

Had to take out Dr. King but we still had a Coretta

And put you in a full Nelson, yeah, I'm talkin' Mandela

So many black and white spots, it's like the wrath of Cruella

Uh, so many killed as an innocent child

Maybe if you die young, they'd remember you now

You think you have the right to question but they pinnin' you down

I thought these black lives mattered but they killin' them now

I'm gone