Freedom 2 Me

I come to dis’ 'stage 2’ day to speak to you

about what MLK Day means to me.

You gonna feel this!

A day to set all issues aside,

it doesn’t matter if you’re white or if you’re black—

The latter.

B’cuz we in these streets getting’ shot up and beaten

by da’ cops cuz’ dey’ think we look suspicious.

Dudes in my hood?

Foldin’ like ladders!

A mob decked out in all black, bearin’ hats n’ batons

Ain’t no Black Lives matterin’—

Once a dirty fed plants me without a conscience.

Give me this day, MLK’s birthday

To speak out against dis’ injustice.

Cuz’ I already know once they kill me, it won’t be no justice!

What you do next, suspend the officer on pay?

Put me on a shirt, place images of me all over the media?

Tell em’ on Twitter, “how he did not deserve to die?”

Put the video of da’ damn shootin’ all over Instagram?

If I was to get tried in a court of law

because of a systematic issue—

Could I still be able to spit you this poem

Fore’ they throw me into a maximum security facility

For a crime I’ve never committed?

Is that what the judge did to Khalief Browder?

So, what did a dream DO FOR MLK?

Once they popped him in the neck

For not believin?’

You know what I mean, he woke up from it!

He fought for the freedom of man himself, but

King must have died in vain because a brother will weep for Tamir Rice, but

He’ll shoot one as black as the street for stealin’ his bike!

What’s freedom 2 me—

And they kill us

For havin’ our freedom of speech?

What’s freedom 2 me?

Could it be walkin’ down da street

Without gettin’ my brains smashed in by vigilantes?

Could it be…

Expressin’ my freedom of opinion,

Without bein’ judged or

Told to forget about over three generations of apartheid?

What’s freedom 2 me?

Bein’ able to live my life comfortably without

Being called the n-word

Or gettin’ eyed down in the store by security guards

Cuz’ they may gain the notion that I’m tryna’ shoplift?

Freedom 2 me?

Is being me, unapologetically.