Redefine Cutter

73rd and San Pedro,

Uncle Sunny and Odell

Take your pick on what killed ya

Bullets, cancer, or jail

Huh, what a life.

Listen

I came out a town in gangs

And a gang of grace

Cuz fo' sho' sin abounds and round these parts

Crowns is made of tin foil

And them boys play Halo with real guns

Lay low

Right there I blang slang

That twice born rhetoric

Our Papi pound the ground

And out came all humanity

Write heavy handed

Sharpie ink laced with mercury

Magnetic raps to draw out all impurities

Round the time the good Lord took mama winnin

The light bulb turned on

This world ain't my home

I huddled up to Triage

With curb servers and griots

That’s such an L.A. reference

All good if you don’t get it

But for those who would listen

I break you out your radio prison

Redefine manhood, blackness, and time

Shape and define culture

Let me fashion you some shades

Introduce you to a trend that transcends the will of men

LORD

I ain't a product

I ain't apologizing

You ain't a number

Pay them no minding

Ring the alarm

We came to redefine cutter

Carve truth in his heart

And love on her arms

Hey, I’m literate in graffiti

I am not at all kidding

From the heart of the city

That Stevie lived just enough for

Jackson, Mississippi: My people toiled the soil

And share croppers’ pop coppers got they kin lynched in

That was the lynch pin of the mass migration into Texas

Rest of us would push west still

Manifest destiny

A black American family

Wanted better for they kids

And landed in Southern Cali

Who knew it was a war zone, my uncles got recruited in

Shawn and Kiona seen death out in Compton

But they ain't fall victim

Cousin Brandon either

We should have framed the tax return and moved us to Covina

There I met the mic and spray can instead of blue rags

And fell in love with flairs and entiendo Spanglish

Stand on my own and rep the Son of Man

And brand my own chest so I would never blend in

LORD