Shad
How I Feel
[Verse 1 - Leonard Sumner:]
Well I could never imagine the pain that the mother saw
When life takes a turn for the worst and creators all
Becomes another canvas that will never be completed
I’m a few degrees away and a thousand times defeated
My energy is depleted
But I wanna stand and fight
So we can move the spirit instead travel back into the light
I feel the fears and depression
Fears and aggression
Woven into society from years of oppression
The violence is normalized
The silence is horrifying
Truth is denied and the fact is more are dying
You don’t have to tell me how you feel
Cause I can hear it in your cries

[Verse 2 – Shad:]
It’s hard to listen, but listen
Cause it’s much harder living it than listening to the hardships
Still the heart's conditioned to condition the air
When they air their conditions, keep cool But the more tears, sometimes the clearer the vision
Now what I see, been a long time coming
The Tribe, running, rocking, reaching new peaks
So them youngins can finally summit
Climbin high above and then flying from it, up to the skies
Overstanding the corruption and deconstructing the lies
I’ve seen this country decline
Trying to keep discussions confined
Hide the underside
Over-extract and try to undermine
Damn, but I still believe in the truth
Whether it’s an MC in a booth, or a PhD in a suit
Yo when we yelling protest, tell em the feeling is peaceful
We profess, we pro-testify to the will of the people
Tell them what they must know
Turn it up loud when we bust flows
Not in hushed tones, speaking up, let the trust grow
Now you don’t gotta tell me how you feel
Cause I can see it in your eyes
You don’t gotta tell me that the pain is real
Cause I can hear it in your cry
[Verse 3 – Leonard Sumner:]
Well, it’s the type of heartbreak that takes more than tears and time to
Stitch up any wounds and heal the scars they leave behind
Separation from the fam, segregation on the land
It was all part of the plan and the blood is on your handsIt’s all divide and conquer
Colonize and slaughter Stabbing at the heart through the backs of our grandfathers
Now we see our daughters that are disappearing quickly
Say it’s through the cracks while ignoring all the history
Governments be scooping babies way before the 60s
When you legalize abduction, you legalize the misery
So now you see the mystery, is really not too complicated
Justice isn’t equally distributed in my observation
Money could be made, while the kids are steady isolated
And splitting up a family has now become an occupation
And it’s been part of the occupation since residential schools enforced starvation
It’s a nation with racism here since the start of it
Hard to let go cause it’s carved in the heart of it
Relation to the land and our rise were a part of it
Roots where I stand, I could never depart from it
And you don’t have to tell me how you feel
Cause I can see it in your eyes
And they don’t have to prove to me that the pain is real
Cause I can hear it in their cries