[Verse 1]
They called you "The Rise of the Black Messiah"
Like so many boys before ya
And there will be more, more to follow
Threatening and hard to swallow

[Verse 2]
I'm sitting underneath that hanging tree
Just me and the ghost of the KKK
Poor man's gallows in the middle of the woods
The saddest tree that ever stood

[Verse 3]
My friend I heard you tell of slavery's end
But have you heard of mass incarceration?
That ol' Jim Crow, he just keeps getting born
With a new hanging rope for the black man's scourge

[Verse 4]
Ol' Man River, what do you know
'Bout a plantation they call Angola?
Devil spawned a prison there
The saddest farm that ever lived

[Bridge]
Now your great-granddaddy, he worked that land
With shackles on his feet and on his hands
He built them levees, he chopped that cane
He died in the mud in his chains
Now you stand where he once stood
Shackles on you all the same
[Chorus]
But he's gonna rise
He's gonna rise
And all them lynchers are gonna be damned
When outta that mud walks a brand new man

[Verse 6]
They called you "The Rise of the Black Messiah"
Said they'd do any damn thing they could to keep ya—
You and your brothers from spreading the word
The gospel of freedom and the black man's worth

[Verse 7]
Forty years in solitary
Consider the man that they just can't bury
I got this letter in my hands
Saying tell this story when you can

[Chorus]
And he's gonna rise
Yeah, he's gonna rise
And all them lynchers are gonna be damned
When outta that hole walks a brand new man