Brother Ali - Pray For Me lyrics

Somebody pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody please, pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
What more could you say to me?
(Bless his, bless his heart)

The first day of third grade
Topic of discussion at the kick ball game
Is who's the new student why
He look that way?
A eight-year-old expert determined
I've got AIDS
A vote must've been taken, it became my name
I mean literally AIDS is my name okay
It made it's way around
The school and eventually
I heard a teacher try to catch herself
As she yelled it to me
I tried to be invisible honestly
Wishing that the ground would just open up
Swallow me what kind of crime did I
Commit for this mockery?
Guess I must've lost some
Kind of cosmic lottery
How am I processing this at a baby's age?
It felt like I had a gut full of razor blades
I fantasized someone else would
Come take my place
Because they taught me to hate my face

Somebody please, pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody please, pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
What more could you say to me?
(Bless his, bless his heart)

Imagine how my mama felt
Obviously she want to offer me
Some kind of help
Pretty white lady never probably dealt
With this particular type of hell
If she dyed my hair blonde maybe I can blend
Get a better response maybe even a friend
She took me to the salon
Put chemicals in my head
When they took the towel off
It was purple in the end
Lot of money spent just to get me presentable
Message that it sent
The real you ain't acceptable
I knew what she meant
What else could she expect to do?
That was just the lens that
She viewed protection though
And so eventually I began to see that
What grows out of me is
My dirty little secret
Had to go back every few weeks to keep it
I think that part depressed me the deepest

Somebody please, pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody please, pray for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
What more could you say to me?
(Bless his, bless his heart)

Thank God for the grown ups
That roll up when they know
It's time to hold us
The elder queen showed so much homegrown love
She said "hair doesn't die
But your soul does"
She said "Elvis wore his hair in a pompadour
So he could try to look
Like Muddy Waters more"
But he would fry his crown so
That he could lay it down
Like a white boy they called it a conk before
Until James Brown came kicked down the door
Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud my boy
That's the meaning behind the afros and all
Get free being what it is
That you know you are
She said "Beauty's the splendor of truth
You will never cut loose 'til
You're suitable to you
And your living is the proof just
Let it do what it do
Now watch them follow suit and try
To catch up to you"

Somebody musta prayed for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody prayed for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
Somebody musta prayed for me
(Bless his, bless his heart)
What more could you say to me?
(Bless his, bless his heart)