Living Proof (Young Black Youth)
Written by K. Frazier
Vocals performed by Khary WAE Frazier
Produced & Composed by Joe Black
Mixed by John Brown Jr.
Recorded at Sights & Sounds Studios Southfield MI & John Brown Jr. Studios
From the ‘Broken English Ideologies’ EP 2015
VERSE ONE
Kids looking up to me I don’t know what to tell them
Ain’t no options out here cause Detroit done failed them
. . .So I try to just listen
And offer them some love if they make a bad decision
Though I wish things was different
Hard for me to justify still living where I’m living
Doing what I’m doing and getting what I’m getting
In Detroit skies I can clearly see a ceiling
Antiquated thoughts and old ideas
Of assembly lines and unionized men
Everything that’s left for the past 40 years
What the politicians say they can bring back here
And I wanna believe but its hard when you see
A college grads options just like a GED
And I wish things was different, . . .it ain’t up to me
I accept the worse, . . it’s just what I think
VERSE TWO
Life ain’t fair and its worse if you Black
It’s the land of the free but the ghetto is a trap
it’s a state of mind not a place where we at
That don’t trust people but it will trust cash
we don’t understand how this philosophy is born
Evans family here what Plato was to Rome
So I brush it off with the books that I read
to shake off the laziness, jealousy and greed
with notes of Marcus Garvey thoughts of Faud Muhammad
quotes of Dudley Randle and Assata’s sonnets
cause without knowledge slavery’s not abolished
and I find myself even shackled to a dolla
//Hard places makes rocks get softer
Can’t find work? streets got job offers
Why young kids even robbing and shooting
And we blame parents, teachers, and music
VERSE THREE
I got a little homie who just graduated
Ex-dropout alternative education
As he thinking now that he can just make it
His alternative prison and basic training
It’s a harsh reality but a sad truth
When you can barely read college not you
You ain’t got no money college got you
You ain’t gotta plan life stops you
Things stack up as time moves on
thinking what’s next, not right or wrong
Why I make decisions that might risk it all
life is a hustle I can flip or I fall
On a high wire I’m Dominique Dawes
With my information that’s of value when I talk
Coming together everything’s in my palms
To catch all the snakes that fatten up the frogs
