Shades

(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

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

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)

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

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)