Aint Enough

Guess it is what it is
And what it is ain’t enough
That’s enough
It’s all good, I’ve been trying my best
But sometimes just don’t wanna get out of bed
But it’d still be the case if I had more than a dollar to my name
Would I be selling cocaine to everyone?
Find my way up, out of habit
Substance abuse like rush-hour traffic
Disney movies say, «If you want it, you can have it»
I’m not convinced though; does it happen to my kind, of my kin folk?
Maybe we don’t move at the right tempo
Oh no, the right info coming from the ghetto
Hungry stomachs growl, only answer is a
Striving for my goals, facts tell me I should let go
The people pay to keep us safe, use authority to intimidate
Why you think we been afraid?
Mister Officer, I’m not tryna bother ya, please just let me live
Know I look like a foreigner; I used to have a home
My mom taught me of a place we came from, where we called our own
But that got stolen by the Queen of England
Why you don’t think I fight for what you call freedom when my people barely
eatin'?
Guess I have another, to pay tax to a government that don’t care
It’s not fair; guess it is what it is but what it is ain’t enough
Guess it is what it is
And what it is ain’t enough
Those who have
'Cause they ain’t been down this road before
You ain’t never been down this road before
They don’t understand every day’s a war
You don’t get beat by police
All we wanna do is live in peace
They tryna heal the pain in my people by saying «Peace, peace» when it ain’t no
peace
That’s taken from the book of Jeremiah
Talkin' about peace—I, I, I never had peace, I don’t know what it’s like but—
I’m, I’m striving for it and it’s hard to attain when I got my own people
standing against me, you feel me?
Stand with me
I’m a brown man, though that one time I was just another nigga
Used to ask Auntie Liz, «Why they call me 'nigga'?»
Go figure, maybe I could be above of this monopoly
, Poly proud panther, say it loud
Born to rip a crowd, rather lead them to freedom
'Cause we held down, sister; can’t you see that we bleedin'?
Can’t you see that they lyin'? They lead us not to the truth?
Yet my little brother fightin' for the U.S. Troops
Guess them’s just another and they tryna shove me up
How many times they tried to lock me up?
Don’t want the revolution televised; they tellin' lies
You could see it in they eyes, they just capitalized
Forty acres and a mule, forty lashes after school
Forty years in the cell just for screaming out «Freedom»
Till my sister got shot, that’s the price of our freedom
Yet you look at us funny when we talk about freedom
Why you actin' like you don’t love us?
Don’t the tattoos make you nervous?
Are you unsure about yourself in a White world?
Tell me this—do you really know who you are?
Never acquiesce, play my part
Stay spittin' for the mind, liberated from dark
And yes, it is what it is; still it ain’t what it ain’t
Stand tall, stand strong, stand together for God’s sake
Guess it is what it is
And what it is ain’t enough
Those who have
'Cause they ain’t been down this road before
You ain’t never been down this road before
They don’t understand every day’s a war
You don’t get beat by police
All we wanna do is live in peace
Seeking truth with a false motive
Closed mind’s harmful, doors forced open
All hope blindfolded and; man, just the evidence
Once you treasure dignity for, never arrogance
It ain’t all about the win, it’s the journey you’re earnin'
Don’t you feel it in your aura burnin', burnin'?
I’m learnin', observin' the stone before you turn
Protect you from serpents, movin' with a purpose
out where they could count a bunch of murderer
Leave me long gone and forgot like the Hamburgular
I’m tired of the blah-blah, yaddy-ya, this-and-that
Hooks and lines ain’t real but you were wishing that
Pretty funny, illusions of reality
Have you running, confused with reality
Enjoy the slow steps like an escalator
Keep it humble in this jungle full of fakers
Guess it is what it is
And what it is ain’t enough
Those who have
'Cause they ain’t been down this road before
You ain’t never been down this road before
They don’t understand every day’s a war
You don’t get beat by police
All we wanna do is live in peace
Calls have been made on the Australian and Queensland Governments to officially
apologise to the descendants of South Sea Islanders, who were victims of the «blackbirding» trade that brought them to Australia to work on plantations
There was a re-enactment today to mark the 150th anniversary of the arrival of
the first ship with its human cargo of Pacific Islanders
Our correspondent Sean Dorney was there