Rise (feat. Boog Brown)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
Just 'cause I walk as if I have oil wells
Pumping in my living room

Just like suns and like moons
With the certainty of tides
Just like hopes springing high
Still I'll rise

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my sassiness upset you?
Don't you take it so hard just
'cause I laugh as if I have gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard

You can shoot me with your words
You can cut me with your lies
You can kill me with your hatefulness
But still, like life, I'll rise

Does my sexiness offend you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance as if I have diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past rooted in pain
I rise
A black ocean, leaping and wide
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's miraculously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave
I am the hope and the dream of the slave

There I go rising