[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, some 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

[Chorus: Tricia Rose and Akua Naru]
You know, it's not a political thing. I don't know what your experiences have been, and I⁠—the histories behind it, the terrorism that my people have faced in this country, I mean sheer terrorism
No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame
For centuries⁠—not five minutes, not six weeks, not a short period of time⁠—centuries of terrorism: linguistic, physical, psychological, emotional, sexual terrorism
No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame
[Verse 2: Akua Naru]
White man
Crush my womb, shattered, scraped, raped, battered
Another miscarriage, another baby born to a world of shackles
Fire crackers, havin' flash blacks, the middle passage
Spoon fashioned, semen, blood, urine, dragging, human organs splattered
Scattered 'cross Caribbean, Carolina
Reduced to fractions, divided by my black vagina
Enter in the battle in this so-called “new world”
Look at this n***a-girl on Iriquois/Pequot Earth
You up first
Smile, teeth strong, assess my worth
On the 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

[Chorus: Tricia Rose and Akua Naru]
All the things about race and racism and oppression that you do not hear in commercial hip-hop
No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame
For the purposes of armed self-defense, or even showing police doing something wrong, or⁠—housing discrimination, I could listen everything here, nothi⁠—you never see⁠—he won't even consider playing it
No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame
Why? When it comes to raising the question
[Verse 3: Akua Naru]
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 and 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 (Come on)
Degraded by our brothers, they say shake your ass on it
Constructed before the white face
Now its music on my space
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
That set the journey flaming, word up
[Chorus: Tricia Rose and Akua Naru]
It's something that I think we really can not afford to pretend we're transcending when we're living that legacy today
No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame
You know, we want to send our mind past it, so that we reach for whatever rings that we want to reach for, but that doesn't mean forgetting and not understanding
No chords could strum the root of my pain
They set the journey aflame
We don't want to be limited by history, but we always want to be informed by it