[Verse 1: Akua Naru]
At once
We were people on our land
African feet touch the sand
Free woman and man
Stand tall
Respond call
Conga djembe
We sing a song for our first born
Skin uncovered, unashamed original names
We served god through a pantheon, then secular world came
Some prisoners of war betrayed by our own others chained, sold
Stolen from the shores by a foreign man we never seen before, families torn
Put in chains
The chattel slave trade
Black bodies chained, whipped, burned, maimed
Many tongues speaking the same pain
Confused, I can't understand a damn thing
World view rearranged, in Elmina’s castle caged, somebody say a ship came
Forced board, feet lusting for my soil, what the fuck is going on?
“Ain't I a woman?”
Somebody just jumped overboard
'Cross the Atlantic, skin branded, left stranded, laid in fractions
Heart in fragments, captured, deemed as savage, pull my body backwards
Uh
[Chorus: Akua Naru]
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame
Uh, no chords could strum the root of my

[Verse 2: Akua Naru]
White man
Crush my womb, scattered, scraped, raped, battered
Another miscarriage, another baby born to a world of shackles
Fire crackers, I'm havin' flash blacks, middle passage
Spoon fashioned, semen, urine, dragging, splatter
'Cross Caribbean, Carolina
Reduced to fractions, divided by my black vagina
Enter in this battle in this so-called “new world”
Look at this n***a-girl on Iriquois/Pequot Earth
Smile, teeth strong, assess my worth
On this auction block, they say I'm ripe for birth, strong stock, look at my buttocks
Hair like wire, you need brush not
Nothin' pretty to rub hot
Behind my chest heart beats the first seeds of hip hop
Fire, burnin' rage is... gun cocked
My water breaks, the beat drops
Mic' chords bind me, stop, rewind me
Let my memories rock, enemies drop
Oh lord, let us fast-forward, promise to let my tape rock
And it won't stop, and it won't stop, and it won't stop
And it won't stop, and it won't stop, and it won't stop
And it won't stop
[Chorus: Akua Naru]
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, uh, uh
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, uh, uh
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, uh, hey
Uh, no chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, no, uh
No chords could strum the root of my

[Verse 3: Akua Naru]
Uh, sometimes I want war for these muthafuckas
And I'm restrained, n***a, negro, colored, nigra, bitch, hoe
Mammy, harlot, minstrel
Aunt Jemima kinfolk
Nicki Minaj instrumental
Sista stomp hard!! but we forced to tip toe
Three-fifths of a human, two-fifths 'cause you woman
Abandoned oshun, praying for Christ second coming
Jiving, shuckin' corn, word is bond
Used to sing work-songs about being free
Now freedom comes (w)RAPped in porn
Buying European wigs, Italian designers
Manolo Blahnik, Gucci, Prada
Somebody baby mama
Rhyme about the dollar
Identity draped in male desire
The illusion of free, but we for hire, lost in buying power
Who got it made? Last week we was the maid
Breast-feeding white babies
They grow, sell our children as slaves
Billie Holiday, hang from maple trees
A game of make-believe
Log on to facebook, forget the rape of centuries
Grammar stays in present perfect
But us, we simple past on it
Degraded by our brothers, they say shake your ass on it
Constructed before the white face
Now its music on MySpace
Body parts separated from soul
Bought and sold
Nothing new though
My question crucial
What's the worth of a black woman, who go
'Cross the Atlantic, stranded
On plantations
Projects
College loan payments
Exploited, captured and framed in
White imagination
Black male sex arrangements
Christian names
Master’s house the first stage
That made my body famous
Beauty caged in
Tainted
Behind the lust for blue eyes and blond manes and I'm saying
It started with that slave ship that set the journey flaming
Set the journey flaming
They set the journey flaming
It's the journey aflame
[Chorus: Akua Naru]
No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame, uh
No chords could strum the root of my pain, no
They set the journey aflame, no, no
No chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, yo, no
Uh, no chords could strum the root of my pain, uh
They set the journey aflame, hey

[Outro: Akua Naru]
Journey aflame, uh
No, no
The root of my pain
They set the journey aflame
Journey aflame
They set the journey aflame
Uh, who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
Who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
Who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
Who's gonna tell my story?
Who's gonna sing my pain?
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain, uh
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain
I'm gonna tell our story
I'm gonna sing our pain
Pain, uh, uh-huh
I'm gonna tell my story
I'm gonna sing my pain
I'm gonna tell my story, y'all
The journey aflame