Song Lyrics

I try to hold some hope in my heart for these African youths
Coming up where I'm from many traps to elude
Surrounded by mostly white and affluent dudes
And somehow, you expected to have

Mastered this smooth, swagger and move
With the right walk, the right talk, fashion and crews
Souls subtly attacked and abused
And what's funny's being black wasn't cool

Where I'm from 'til suddenly
You started hearing rap in the school
Hallways admist this madness I grew
With knack for amusing through this little skill

For rappin' at dudes an' we all like to laugh at the truth
But when you young and same facts
Pertain to who you rappin' 'em to
Well, I opted not to bring that to the booth

But after a while, it sort of starts naggin' at you
The crazed infatuation with blackness
That trash that gets viewed and the fact that
The tube only showed blacks actin' the fool and I was watching

Saturated with negative images and a limited range of
Possibilities is strange

And it's sad 'cause that naturally do
Sort of condition your mind and over time
That's what's attractive to you
So young blacks don't see themselves in

Scholastic pursuits or the more practical routes
It's makin' tracks or it's hoops or God-forbid movin' packs for the loot
Even with this music we so limited, it's rap or produce
And that narrow conception of what's black isn't true

Of course, still we feel forced to adapt to this view
Like there's something that you're havin' to prove
Now add that to the slew of justification the capitalists use
For the new blaxploitation many actions excused

In the name of getting cash, that's adversely impactin' our youth
With mental slavery, the shackles is loose
And it's hard to cut chains when they attached at the roots
So what the new black activists do

For our freedom is just being them
Do what you're passionate to
Not confined by a sense that you have to disprove
Any stereotypes, so-called facts to refute

Or match any image of blackness
They've established as true
Perhaps we'll break through the glass ceilings
Shatter the roof and emerge

From these boxes that they have us in cooped
And grow to smash the bold that they casted of you
I'll keep watching

E. Y. Harburg, Jay Gorney

The duration of Brother (Watching) is 3:37 minutes and seconds.