Akua Naru, Tricia Rose - One Woman lyrics

We made it we're here

Teenage mom's daddy gone
Auction off to the streets
So lost in the sound of racin' heartbeats
Roll across the eyes, crack-cocaine high
Protect and provide for no
One but me, myself, and I
Drinkin' between random thoughts, Kangol
Adidas pants with the stripes on the side
Sweet baby, don't you cry, don't you weep, uh
Hip hop on the streets, rock steady, rap city
Fab Five Freddy walkman tape
Rewound and ready palms sweaty
Reefer roll, uh
Old English private stock, brown paper bag
Hide what you got, blow the spot
Big Daddy Kane in every speaker on the block
'Round the way, girls at the bus stop
Around his neck the Flava Flav clock, uh
In every paper


'nother brother lose his life to the cops
Pour more liquor
Leave flowers and pictures in the very spot
High school drop, outlaw, social statistic
New addition, Mister Telephone-Man
Semen drippin', bust a nut and leave children
Pissy elevator in the buildin'
Milk is chillin'
Escape into the night like an evil villain
Uh like an evil villain

It's one woman and a mic' (One, uh)
It's one woman and a microphone (One)
It's one woman and a mic', y'all, huh
It's one woman and a microphone, uh

Uh, the music soundtrack, our lives, untimely
Parents just don't understand
Ice in the hand, damn
In her belly, pork and beans from the can
Two babies before her womb was ripe
Call her Mommy
But at night her name Roxanne, Roxanne
I wanna be your man
Youth stolen by teenage love deferred
As they hold hands, fake sensitive
She give in
When she wake they do the running man
Aw shit, that's my jam
Anita Baker in the record player
Prayin' for angels
Motherhood got her feelin' strangled
Her wrist, two gold bangles
Door knockers in the ears
Dangle, drop the kids off with strangers
With grandmommy 'cause her mommy spank you
Uh
Painful to watch her leave, bubblegum jeans
Belle Billie Jean, feathered bang, probably
Baby eyes watch
As the image fades in the breeze
Claim "She get us in the mornin'"
We know it's when she damn well please
Red lipstick ain't get Halloween
She schemin' on Christmas
Excuse me, miss, wick, voucher collected
Food stamp sellin'
You could price ten for seven
Convicted felon
Business on phones behind glass
In the letter
Sendin' Polaroids of her naked ass
They wanna sex her up, color her bag
Queen get over 'cause she ain't
Used to and never had
Peek-a boo mother, huh
Your son and daughter love ya
But she never loved herself
Attract men that discover her weaknesses
And suffer through beatings
Listenin' to Christopher Williams
Thinkin', "Don't wake me, I'm dreamin', " uh
Don't wake me, I'm dreamin'

It's one woman and a mic' (One, uh)
It's one woman and a microphone (One)
It's one woman and a mic', y'all, huh
It's one woman and a microphone

The spirit of the community and and
And the one, and the individual
Is not a spirit that is
Perfect in all of it's expression
So what you have
Is power in society, people who are valued
People who are given the
Mic', right? Those with money
Those with resources, those with the
Means of distribution, those with amplifiers
Those with religious, spiritual
Economic, political
Social authority they get the
Mic' all the time
They get the mic', they get the recorder, uh
And they get the
Speakers now, a lot of groups of people
In society don't have access to that, so
Even if the spirit of
Community and individual
Sharing drives a lot of black music
What we find is that black women's
Voices have just too often
Been marginalized in those moments of
Very important storytelling now, of
Course the tradition is rich: Abbey
Lincoln, Nina Simone uh, you
Know, all kinds of people Aretha
Franklin it's been going on
And on, sisters have been
Holding it down but, if you really
Look at the the work it
Takes for women's voices to
Be heard outside of their expected
Channels when they're not
Talking about sex, when they're not
Talking about relationships uh, when
They're talking about power, when
They're talking about suffering
When they're talking
About what it means to be a
Black woman in a way
That maybe doesn't make every brother
On Earth thrilled to
Hear it right away those women
Are harder to get heard
Those women have a harder
Time getting the mic', getting appreciated
For being on the mic'
And for being understood as part of
The the sort of metaphorical cypher
And I think, you know
That power dynamic has to be
Challenged it has to be
Transformed in such a way that
More members of the
Community who are less heard um
They have to elbow their
Way to mic', sometimes, not always
But sometimes and and, you
Know, when they successfully grab hold
Of the sort of the
Narrative and the space and
Compel us to listen
They're the most powerful of all
Because they affirm the tradition
And they challenge the tradition
At the same time