Spoken

Yea so we got this tune called For Women right

Originally it was by

Nina Simone

She said it was inspired by you know

Down south

In the south they used to call her

Mother Antie

She said No

Mrs Just Antie

She said if anybody ever called her

Antieshe'd burn the whole godd**n place down

I'm over past that

I got off the 2 train in

Brooklyn on my way to a session

Said let me help this woman up the stairs before

I get to steppin'

We got in a conversation she said she a 107

Just her presence was a blessing and her essence was a lesson

She had her head wrapped

And long dreads that peeked out the back

Like antenna to help her get a sense of where she was at imagine that

Livin' a century the strenght of her memories

Felt like an angel had been sent to me

She lived from n****r to colored to negro to black

To afro then african american and right back to nigger

You figure she'd be bitter in the twilight

But she alright 'cause she done sseen the circle of life yo

Her skin was black like it was packed with melanin

Back in the days of slaves she packin' like

Harriet Tubman

Her arms are long and she moves like song

Feet with corns hand with callouses

But her heart is warm and her hair is wooly

And it attract a lot of energy even negative

She gotta dead that the head wrap is her remedy

Her back is strong and she far from a vagabond

This is the back of the masters' whip used to crack upon

Strong enough to take all the pain that's been

Inflicted again and again and again and again and flipped

It to the love for her children nothing else matters

What do they call her

They call her aunt

Background Vocals

I know a girl with a name as beautiful as the rain

Her face is the same but she suffers an unusual pain

Seems she only deals with losers who be usin' them games

Chasin' the real brothers away like she confused in the brain

She tried to get it where she fit inon that

American Dream mission paid tuition

For the receipt to find out her history was missing and started flippin

Seeing the world through very different eyes

People askin' her what she'll do when it comes time to chose sides

Yo her skin is yellow it's like her face is blond word is bond

And her hair is long and straight just like sleeping beauty

See she truly feels like she belong in 2 worlds

And that she can't relate to other girls

Her father was rich and white still livin' with his wife

But he forced himself on her mother late one night

They call it R**e that's right and now she take flight

Through life with hate and spite inside her mind

That keep her up to the break of light a lot of times

I gotta find myself

3X

She had to remind herself

They called her

Safronia the unwanted seed

Background Vocals

Teenage lovers sit on the stoops up in

HarlemHoldin' hands under the

Apollo marquis dreamin of stardom

Since they was born the streets is watchin' and schemin'

And now it got them generations facin' deseases

That don't k**l you they just got problemsand complications that get you first

Yo it's getting worse when children hide the fact that they pregnant'cause they scared of giving birth

How will I feed this baby

How will I survive how will this baby shine

Daddy dead from crack in '85 mommy dead from

AIDS in '89

At 14 the baby hit the same streets they became her master

The children of the enslaved they grow a little faster

They bodies become adult

While they keepin' the thoughts of a child her arrival

Into womanhood was heemed up by her survival

Now she 25 barely grown out her own

Doin' whatever it takes strippin' workin' out on the block

Up on the phone talkin' about

My skin is tan like the front of your hand

And my hair

Well my hair's alright whatever way I want to fix it it's alright it's fine

But my hips these sweet hips of mine invite you daddy

And when I fix my lips my mouth is like wine

Take a sip don't be shy tonight I wanna be your lady

I ain't too good for your Mercedes but first you got to pay me

You better quit with all the question sugar who's little girl am I

Why I'm yours if you got enough money to buy

You better stop with the compliments we running out of time

You wanna talk whatever we could do that it's your dime

From Harlem's from where I came don't worry about my name

Up on one two five they call me sweet thang

Scratches

Background Vocals

A daughter come up in

Georgia ripe and ready to plant seeds

Left the plantation when she saw a sign even thought she can't read

It came from

God and when life get hard she always speak to him

She'd rather k**l her babies than let the master get to 'em

She on the run up north to get across that

Mason Dixon

In church she learned how to be patient and keep wishin'

The promise of eternal life after death for those that

God blessShe swears the next baby she'll have will breathe a free breathand get milk from a free breast

And love beeing alive otherwise they'll have to give up being themselves to survive

Being maids cleaning ladies maybe teachers or college graduates nurses housewives prostitutes and d**g addicts

Some will grow to be old women some will die before they born

They'll be mothers and lovers who inspire and make songs

But me my skin is brown and my manner is tough

Like the love I give my babies when the rainbow's enuff

I'll k**l the first muthaf**ka that mess with me I never bluff

I ain't got time to lie my life has been much too rough

Still running with barefeet I ain't got nothin' but my soul

Freedom is the ultimate goal life and death is small on the whole in many ways

I'm awfully bitter these days''cause the only parents God gave me they were slaves

And it crippled me I got the destiny of a casualty

But I live through my babies and I change my reality

Maybe one day I'll ride back to Georgia on a train

Folks 'round there call me Peaches I guess that's my name