Song Lyrics

(Boy) Beautiful
(Boy) Beautiful
(Boy) Beautiful
(Boy) Beautiful
(Boy) Beautiful
(Boy) Beautiful
(Boy) Beautiful

Chip on my shoulder
Big enough to feed Cambodia
See, I never fit into they quotas
Sneakers wasn't fitting and my knees needed lotion
Long before I knew the significance of a comb
I roam like phone with no vocal reception
Immigrant parents had me feeling like a step-kid
And black Americans never did accept me
That's why I thrive so much, win and respect dig
I never fit in with them light skins
I felt the lighter they was the better that they life is
So I resented them and they resented me
Cheated on light-skinned Dominique when we was seventeen
I figured I'd hurt her, she'd evidently hurt me,
And all women who had light features
See, I never let a light broad hurt me
That's why I strike first and the first cut's deep

[Chorus]
All my light skinned girls to my dark skin brothers
Shades doesn't matter heart makes the lover
Boy you're so beautiful boy
You're so beautiful shades doesn't matter
Heart makes the lover
Boy (beautiful caramel),
Boy (beautiful coffeepot)
Boy (Beautiful chocolate)
Boy (Beautiful toffee)
Boy (Beautiful pecan)
Boy (beautiful licorice)
(boy you're so beautiful)

Just another knotty head nigga
Hoping Wes Snipes make my life a bit different
In middle school, I had the right to be timid
I had beautiful words but girls never listened
Listen, blacker the berry, sweeter the product
Well, I'm fruit punch concentrate and they water
Walk into my room thinking how to make moves
Ain't thinking like a student but how Ice-T do it
Light dudes have the girls looking there all year
It's not fair, the ones with the good hair
Couldn't adapt to naps, I wavecap they naps and slept on me
Man, I hate black
Skin tone, I wish I could take it back
Or rearrange my status, maybe if I was khaki
Associating light skin with classy
The menstrual show showed and me, that was not me

[Chorus]

They say black is beautiful
But ask them beautiful light girls
If its black they attract to usually
What if Barack skin was all black, truthfully?
Would he be a candidate or just a black in community?
Because black dudes tend to lack unity
And them blacker girls ain't on the tube, usually
Right now, at 23, I ain't mad at them reds no more
But for long time I had gone cold
Blindfolded my own insecurity was holding me back to reds,
I ain't know how to act
They would get the cold shoulder and know it was an act
A defense mechanism what I thought that I lacked
Confidence

[Chorus]

Chrisette Payne, Writers Unknown

The duration of Shades is 3:56 minutes and seconds.