Talib Kweli, Jean Grae - Black Girl Pain lyrics

My mama said life would be this hard
Growing up days as a Black girl scarred
In every way, still, you've come so far
They just know the name
They don't know the pain
So please, hold your heads up high
Don't be ashamed of yourself, know I
Will carry it forth till the day I die
They just know the name they
Don't know the pain, black girl

I do it for the people, I do it for the love
I do it for the poet, I do it for the thug
This is for victory
And this is for the slaughter
I do it for my mother
I do it for my daughter
Promise I'll always love ya
I love to kiss and hug ya
You and your brother should be
Looking out for one another


I'm so blessed, man
Y'all the reason I got up
Somebody put his hands on you
I'm getting locked up i'm not playing
That's the prayer I'm saying for Diani
And if I die then she'll
Be protected by Amani
That's her bigger brother and I love
The way he love her she a girly-girl
She love to imitate her mother
But she a Gemini
So stay on her friendly side
She'll put that look on you
It's like somebody friend just died
My pretty Black princess smell
Sweet like that incense that you buy at the
Bookstore supporting Black business
Teach her what black is the fact
Is her parents are thorough
She four reading Cornrows
By Camille Yarborough
I keep her hair braided
Bought her a black Barbie
I keep her mind free she
Ain't no black zombie
This is for Aisha, this is for Kashera
This is for Khadijah
Scared to look up in the mirror
I see the picture clearer through
The stain on the frame
She got a Black girl name
She living Black girl pain
This is for Makeba, and for my Mamacita
What's really good Ma
I'll be your promise-keeper
I see the picture clearer through
The stain on the frame
She got a black girl name
She live in black girl pain

Mama said life would be this hard
Growing up days as a Black girl scarred
In every way, still, we've come so far
They just know the name they
Don't know the pain
So please, hold your heads up high
Don't be ashamed of yourself, know I
Will carry it forth till the day I die
'Cause they just know the name
They don't know the pain, black girl

This is for Beatrice Bertha Benjamin who
Gave birth to Tsidi Azeeda
For Lavender Hill, for Khayelit'sha
Athlone Mitchell's Plain
Swazi girls I'm repping for thee
Manenberg, Gugulethu where you'd just be
Blessed to get through
For beauty shining through like the
Sun at the highest noon
From the top of the cable car
At Table Mountain I am you
Girls with the skyest blue of
Eyes and the darkest skin
For Cape Coloured for realizing we're African
For all my cousins back home
The strength of Mommy's backbone
The length of which she went for raising
Sacrificing her own
The pain of not reflecting the
Range of our complexions
For rubber pellet scars on
Auntie Elna's back, i march
Fist raised, caramel shining
In all our glory for Mauritius
St helena my blood is a million stories
Winnie for Joan and for
Eadie, for Norma, Leslie, ndidi
For Auntie Betty
For Melanie all the same family
Fiona, Jo Burg, complex of mixed girls
For surviving through every lie they
Put into us now this world's yours
And I swear I will stand focused
Black girls, raise up your hands the world
Should clap for us

Mama said life would be this hard
Growing up days as a Black girl scarred
In every way, still, we've come so far
They just know the name they
Don't know the pain
So please, hold your heads up high
Don't be ashamed of yourself, know I
Will carry it forth till the day I die
'Cause they just know the name
They don't know the pain, black girl

Momma said they'll be days like this