The Appendix - Art & Culture Lyrics

If you look around the room
Ima tell you what you gonna see
Everyone that I ever let
Write a verse for me
You'll see every fan I have
Every girl that I ever dated
Every masterpiece created
And the ones I haven't made yet

Ain't it amazing
All these pictures that I painted
Do I even need these words to illustrate it
Feel free to debate it
I ain't concerned with
Anything you're saying
Trolling in the comments
Ain't gonna make you famous
Ignoramus

I knew this game
Before I grew to be a fetus
Who are you to me
Another endangered species
Rappers dropping feces
Got the nerve to call it
Art up in their speeches
But looking around
Like you, I don't see it

So hard to believe these entertainers
Forget what life before fame was
And no one pays respects to educators
But really can you blame them
It's a shame
How the game done changed up
But only 360 I know
Is the one you pressed play on

Let's talk about our culture
How vultures pic' it apart
They add a twist, make it different a bit
Consider it art
Claimed they invented it
No credit for - what has been ours
That tradition existed since
Columbus passed the Meridian

Pride Blac'er than obsidian
I don't know half of my lineage
As an infant ancestors
Snac'ed on the mammories of Nefertiti
Who's to tell me it isn't true
If I'm writing the history
You can never tell my story
Because you'll retell it differently

You won't tell it as vividly
Might not be as interesting
I can't expect you to get it
If you didn't have to live like me
Culture shapes identity
Colonizers wanna strip away
Edit in their texts
And market our garments
In their store display

As costumes for celebrations
With no invites to the occasion
Which would make it appropriation
Instead of appreciation
I see the nation only celebrates
The better parts
The only thing we have left
Is the only thing that was ever ours

The Struggle