You should've been downtown (Word)
The people are rising
We thought it was a lockdown (What? Yeah)
They opened the fire (Man)
Them bullets was flyin' (Ooh)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie (Ugh, look)
It's a war going on outside, I swear to God
I'm on the front line, no front, no cap, no fun-size
Sunshine, cinnamon skin, people blend in together and ride
Side by side, organize
We bust guns at the same time, harmonize (Ooh, ooh)
Form a line, pick a lead, take a leap
Lead with love, please, you sound like Dr. King
People tired of taking beatings from beasts covered in sheets
I love niggas, but we too forgiving for how they treating us
Reparations, though, we tryna get even (Yo, why my shit uneven?)
Just run the paper, maybe then we can start the conversation
Common ground, prison compounds full of my fuckin' people
How you still sleepin'?
Have you had your coffee this evening, Karen?
'Cause you seem a little off
All the black girls missin' and endin' up inside the coffins
But you mad when they hashtag
"BlackLivesMatter" on front your sidewalks
Diabolical thoughts, diatribe from dialogues
Damaging images of men and women who died off
Fighting for civil rights
A simple necessity given when you given life
But we been trippin'? Right- (Skrrt)
You should've been downtown (Ooh)
The people are rising (Ah)
We thought it was a lockdown (Shit)
They opened the fire (Bah, bah, ooh-wee)
Them bullets was flying (Lockdown)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie
Downtown, where I got popped with the rubber bullet
Trey-pound, got it in my name now, I'ma shoot it
Ugh, maybe this Round two
Government cinematic, American drive-through
Eat their apple pie in the morning then bury the strange fruit
Then marry the strange fruit, and call it the Black love
So when he bleeds, I bleed, the sacred riddle
Ain't no money I can make to make the cops get little
We seen 'em murder the indigenous, the Passage Middle
The Constitution, a life for a bag of Skittles?
So when we bleed, I load the sacred pistol
And if you need, I'll read Assata with you
And if you rich, I pray that God forgive you
Supposed to share the garden, grow the Holy in you
Maybe everything is a metaphor, one God
An African liberation is ready to take arms
They telling you, "Stay calm," they double-barrel the shotty
And stand on a graveyard and tell you to slave on
Downtown (Down)
The people are rising (Look around)
We thought it was a lockdown (Shit, lockdown)
They opened the fire (Had to get low, fire)
Them bullets was flying (Down, down)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie (Ooh)
Turn on your tube, dawg, look how they do us
Knee on our necks, bullets in backs
Stimulus checks, strictly for Blacks? History repeating
People scared to eat a chicken, everybody going vegan
What they put in it? Look at the world we living in
They got us shook in it
You go on your jog, then your color might get you took in it
Man in the mirror, don't look away, you better look at it
Black lives matter, so what it means when they shoot at it?
Generation, genocide, what happened to enterprise?
Heard the man infiltrated, Black Panther, re-energize
Nothing to figure out, they tryna kill us out
If I take a kneel, see my fist? I'm a killer now
Just think, bullshit you gotta filter out
Are you really ready for the smoke like a Swishahouse?
Ready for the revolution, who ready to ride?
It won't be televised, so tell me, who ready to die?
Know the difference from a pan- and a plan-demic
Just a bunch of bullshit, how we land in it?
You either fall for anything or you stand in it
It's a lot going on on this damn mission
Big B.G. used to sell microchips
Now, he out here pushing vaccines?
It's about to be another lockdown
Feeling like D.C., fuck you mean?
Downtown (Down)
The people are risin' (Look around)
We thought it was a lockdown (Lockdown)
They opened the fire (Had to get low, fire)
Them bullets was flyin' (Down, down)
Who said it was a lockdown? Goddamn lie (Ooh-wee)
Lockdown, we ain't gotta stop 'cause they tell us to
Downtown, where I got popped with the rubber bullet
Trey-pound (Ugh), got it in my name now, I'ma shoot it
Lockdown, we ain't gotta stop 'cause they tell us to
Downtown
Citizens of Los Angeles
I hereby declare this to be an unlawful assembly
And in the name of the people of the State of California
I command all those assembled
Right here
On Inglewood Avenue... (Let's go)