manifesto written (after a cipher at yca)

i was born with hella privilege / white skin / doors open / livin
hella north up on francisco ave / near orthodox hasidics
just within the city limits / near Devon’s indian village
so even tho I was comfy the city’s diversity was still imminent

for example / at the magnet k-thru-8 school I attended
half the kids were black / and they apparently offended
mostly white middle-class faculty and often got suspended
so i knew there was some s--- that reconstruction hadn’t mended

in seventh grade i felt depressed cuz school was hella boring
i hated the fact that they made me go back every day and kept ignoring
that i couldn’t care less about standardized tests / my childhood written for me
even being privileged did not feel like livin and this is the root of my story

i went to northside college prep / “the best school in the nation”
but Louder Than A Bomb was where I got my education
learned to listen / heard another side of the equation
saw the power of the spoken word for massive integration

now i’m rockin the pen with a raw kind of vengeance and finding the flow that’ll fit
keepin the hustle and spreadin the gospel and grinding the teaching-art biz
usin the music to get movin to it and murder each bar that i spit
you can tell by my flow that i come from the 'go and been wordplayin since i's a kid!

i’m talkin about emcees from Chicago like Defcee and Tomorrow Kings,
Bella Baahs, Nate Marshall, Emanuel Vinson, Lamar Jorden, No Name, PIVOT!
Deja Taylor, FM Supreme, Raych Jackson, April Fools, knawmean?
and a million unmentioned / renaissance yep & i’ll be reppin the Chi till I’m dead!

now i’m on a mission for freedom, for my people, so i been readin
revolutionaries and dreamin / bout a world that we can all breathe in
where there’s no one dead from not eatin / and money ain’t even needed
and i’m never gonna stop / like a radio pop hit if I make it to the top
it’ll be cuz y’all deem it

necessary / let’s get very real for a sec / it's gettin scary
the system’s broke and the cloak is tearing / it ain’t a joke it’s a smoking barrel
conclusion of this revolutionary / not a prophet / more like an emissary
here to say: with bravery and brains /
this generation could do something legendary