Marlon Craft - State Of The Union (Official Video)

 

The state of the union is that there isn’t one
If a house divided can’t stand, we been sitting but sitting officials lettin’ you starve and die
They’d say for a party, I say it’s dogma to America’s artful lie
Sniffin’ the party line, intoxicated from white
That fake superiority created by authority to convince the poorest he still one caste up
‘Cause at least you not black, and if at least you not that
And if you see and got mad
That the elite eat on backs of your labor, you’d point at your neighbor – instead of up
To keep you off track, they told you your sins weren’t sins but, beneath that hatred is shame
Your humanity was picked and sold with the cotton of slaves
System is fucked, we benefit passively
White liberals and such, make a social identity from giving a fuck
But that privilege they may acknowledge, they ain’t giving it up
We ain’t living it much, the ego’s driving the car
And it just depends on where it got it’s license
How many of us really choose our own thoughts and vices?
You don’t get paid, but you a walking advertisement
Made us all addicted to fame, so that we’d work for free
Million factless ’cause their schools ain’t teach ’em how to find them
If they get to choose, they pick the ones that their wants align with
Can you track your opinion to it’s origin? If not, aight then
We move without intent, they profit when we not decisive
Rappers been lazily referencing The Matrix for years
Who knew algorithms would really dictate what we cheer?
Too lazy to care, afraid to look inward
We’d live in our own noose ‘fore we live in our own truth
Vague tweets about how you love everyone
You won’t even wear a mask to save somebody’s grandmother
Entitled to the lies of freedom, you in denial
I seen this shit for a while
It’s lethal man, word to Dan Glover

You can’t fake lightning but you can plan thunder
Pay a racist brand before we’d pay attention
I sit in damn wonder

And everyone talking generational wealth
But outside making money for ourselves
We won’t give the next generation no help
It may already be too late to save the fucking planet
If we don’t stop playing, there will be no more generations to help
We trained people for survival of the fittest
In traumatic conditions and sold them things that kill ’em
We made life into a gamble, in the name of capitalism
Then tried to hit the democracy switch when COVID hit and that was destined to fail
You can’t abuse populations, leave ’em destitute and vacant and then ask them to care
About anything but their next move, our own nation to blame
So I get why we at the club, still I ain’t say I’m not enraged
I want better from us, I just don’t expect it
Trauma is cyclical, the most likely ones to neglect are the neglected
They had Future sellin’ you – Molly, Lean, Percocet
And you think for a check, they need a scheme on vaccine injections?
Lot of the soft bigotry of low expectations
Lot of fetishization, celebrating regressive themes in the name of progression
And when something truly powerful come
It’s hesitation

And there’s this fishy correlation, between what’s considered cool and what profits for corporations
Rappers streamin’ tens of mills considered not as poppin’
‘Cause on their next endeavor, no label holds an option
Soul vacancy across the culture
So when they say they do it for it, man I gotta wonder
The only culture is validate wins, and win equals money
The truth’s like my chest in ’06, it’s beneath where the rug be
I don’t even like talking this direct
I ain’t no book report ass rapper but I object
To the marriage to greed and clout, without heeding doubt of what winnin’ means
Ask why we on different teams
We don’t play the same sport
Started getting to some places I been tryna go and lookin’ round like
Yo, this ain’t what I came for
So if I gotta give up what’s righteous to get it, you can keep it
Fuck a popular lie I’d rather be a truthful secret
Herd immunity to truth and self-assestment
Truth is if not for COVID, Trump would’ve won re-election in a landslide
So we evaded armageddon, for good old store brand oppression
But if a leader more savvy, and less sociopathic with true fascist aspirations come along, it’s gon’ be tragic
74 million proved if the right rhetoric is used
We could end up on the wrong side of World War II 2
And to defeat white supremacy, you gotta first want to defeat white supremacy
I don’t think most of us really do
How many white mirror convos really bearing fruit?
The only hope is that this moment in history
Looks the same in both timelines of what the end could be
Whether this the infection rising up and we fight and quell, or if it outscrapes us, and humanity just dies and fails
It was always gon’ get worse ‘fore it got better
Racism was never gon’ go quietly to the night
It never will but I do believe that it along with greed, can make it’s way out of our institutions so that all are free one day
I ain’t say that it will, but today looks like today
In both versions of the story
So gon’ grab you a quill
It depends what we do, there’s only one person the future starts and ends with
It’s you