The Roots, Ursula Rucker - The Return To Innocence Lost(1999)

[00:04.15] (Ursula Rucker)
[00:30.50] Muffled sound of fist on flesh
[00:32.88] Blows to chest
[00:33.84] No breath
[00:34.50] Air gasps
[00:36.03] You ain't nothing but white trash, bitch!
[00:38.28] With each hit, each kick, each... broken rib
[00:40.31] Crack, Crack!
[00:41.46] Bones are crying
[00:42.95] Mommy's crying and bleeding
[00:44.66] And pleading
[00:45.52] And then...
[00:46.25] Daddy wants to fuck
[00:47.83] Dick hard, swelled with power rush
[00:50.52] And as if all that wasn't enough
[00:52.44] Mommy's seven months heavy with birth
[00:54.70] As... Daddy grunts and cursed drunk nothings in her bloodied ear
[00:59.10] (Singing softly)
[01:01.71] First... lullaby
[01:03.32] First... Son... will... ever... hear
[01:07.13] And never forget
[01:15.69] Mommy almost bled to death when she have him... finally
[01:19.58] She'd already lost... three
[01:21.48] Uterus-bruised, shredded, and weak
[01:23.75] >From being daily beat
[01:25.10] And Friday nights were the worse and...
[01:26.93] Daddy never came with flowers
[01:29.74] Instead he spent hours at some corner spot
[01:32.46] With some bar pop named Cookie
[01:34.49] Putting his thing down
[01:35.68] Soiling Mommy's sheets with...
[01:37.20] Sweet... talk shit,
[01:39.09] Cookie's cheap lipstick,
[01:40.46] Hair grease, sperm, and jezebel juice
[01:42.34] To hell with the good news that...
[01:44.59] He was a father for the first time
[01:47.09] His thirst for wine and women
[01:48.43] Clouded his vision...
[01:50.40] No warm welcome for mother and son
[01:53.46] Just...
[01:54.09] The rank smell of ass-crack, funk, and cum
[01:56.97] But Mommy's prayerful strength-her best defense
[01:59.39] She... burned the dirty linens
[02:01.24] Made a fresh bed
[02:02.70] Laid sleeping First Son down
[02:05.41] And never made a sound
[02:07.39] As she purged her scourge
[02:08.62] With birth-blood and quiet tears
[02:11.13] Watching as her fears and love and sacrifice
[02:14.41] Lie there in his soft skin and new life
[02:17.53] Breathing, dreaming, fresh from God's eye
[02:20.65] Mommy's little survivor
[02:22.30] Like... her
[02:24.32] Mommy called crazy and scorned
[02:27.12] 'Cuz she two more born
[02:28.85] One boy soon after
[02:30.13] The girl much later and...
[02:31.47] Although they were both sung the same lullabies of hate
[02:34.50] Her... First Son, the first one
[02:36.99] Whose... womb-world was profaned
[02:39.95] Came of age playing street games
[02:42.08] With Stewie, Rezzie, and Little Brother
[02:44.89] 'Till his heart start to wither
[02:46.55] In pain and shame
[02:48.44] Blamed Mom for the wrong she let Daddy do to her
[02:52.24] And him...
[02:53.14] Let... sins of the Father cause his Innocence to wander
[02:56.04] Found out amongst thieves
[02:57.98] Chose to squander his dreams
[03:00.44] Stopped believing in himself
[03:02.61] Become prodigal with his life
[03:05.27] Make impossible shit right with...
[03:07.32] Gang-ties, crime, lies
[03:09.22] Erase wise, woeful words of Mother
[03:12.54] Replaced them with absurdities of others
[03:15.46] Who had also lost their way
[03:19.67] Played a different kind of street game now
[03:21.79] First Son plunged deep
[03:23.28] Speak street-family vows
[03:25.42] Espouse no causes but his own
[03:27.42] See, he couldn't protect Mommy's neck from Daddy's grasp
[03:30.78] Or... protect Mommy's ass from Daddy's wrath
[03:33.78] Couldn't shield her ears from...
[03:35.30] Daddy's foul-mouthed, liquor-breath jeers
[03:38.80] His only defense-served be confidence
[03:41.86] Brown bottles housed his swift descent
[03:45.53] Phones called cops on block frequent for his shenanigans
[03:49.66] Now... Daddy and him twins in addiction
[03:52.92] Driven to false-hearted heavens and friends
[03:55.75] By liquefied demons
[03:58.85] Had become what he despised from Conception 'til End
[04:02.68] Destined for a demise
[04:04.97] Survived nine lives of staying high
[04:08.56] Conning, jewelry-pawning, arrests, theft
[04:11.57] Womanizing... only for money, never for sex
[04:15.06] Bullet in chest, baseball bat to the head
[04:17.72] Left for dead
[04:19.41] So, eyes wide and glassy
[04:22.15] Speech... slowed and slurred
[04:24.35] Lips twitched with caked-up codeine candy
[04:27.19] And mouth corners one December 24th
[04:30.05] Mr. Hide and False Friend
[04:33.19] Took final ride to suburban supplier
[04:36.63] Shots were fired by the gray man
[04:38.68] With shaky hand
[04:40.24] But not shaky enough to miss...
[04:42.38] Hit... Lost Boy in back
[04:44.25] So-called Friend runs for door
[04:46.93] Leaves First Son blood-born
[04:49.37] Lying alone in blood on cold floor
[04:53.27] Death was the cost of...
[04:55.25] Returning to Innocence Lost...
[04:59.66] Baby 'Sis awake for dawn on Christmas morn
[05:06.47] To Mommy's sobs and shakes
[05:08.95] Daddy's silhouettes of regret
[05:10.66] All past, omitted, and absolved by lost
[05:14.72] As they clung to each other
[05:16.59] Knowing...
[05:23.63]