Songtext In the field Talib Kweli

In the field

There was two kind of slaves, there was the house negro and the field negro, the house negro they lived in the house, with master
The house negro if master said we got a good house here the house negro said "yeah we got a good house here" whenever the master said we you said we that's how you can tell a house negro if the master got sick the house negro will say "whats the matter boss, we sick?" We sick!?!
That was that house negro in those days he was called a house nigga and that's what we call them today cause we still got some house niggas running around here

Yeah it's black on black crime but it's blue on black crime
Police killin' the brown man and doing no time
The judge is a Nazi, but he ain't in the Klan
The jail's the plantation they spread it across the land
I'm thinkin' what will that change?
If big industry money pays for campaigns (think about it)
I know the 1 percenters lovin' that the gov run the people
But people should run the government
The day of reckonin' is when the sleep wakes up
And the 99 percenters can really cake up
I ain't go to Harvard or Yale, I went to jail
But hold a horse that's pale, and the slave ship sails
It ain't on water, but I know who's steerin' it
The reptilians hid the truth about the pyramids, damn
My genetics is kinetic, the devil is a lie
His agenda is pathetic

I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
But I ain't a slave, I'm a king and that's real
I be in the field, I be in the field (house nigga)
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
If we ain't got freedom, we ain't got free will
I be in the field, I be in the field

Yeah there's black on black crime
But there's white on white crime
When you adjust for population all the numbers they align
So why we never hear white on white on the nightly news?
Ain't no profitin' over criminalizin' white dudes
Poverty breeds criminals but watch what you call me
Because if I'm a criminal what about bankers on Wall Street?
Or the fast food industry that be feeding us horse meat?
Been this way since in the fields picking sugar or coffee nigga
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field
Probably with the steel now they got me on the wheel
With the ghost, too confident to be cocky to keep it real
We veto that phony shit and block it like a bill
Whether Bobby by the pound, or Whitney by the ki
We movin' weight its a mistake to get money and make it free
They'll lock up Jesus when they see wooly hair and burnt feet
If you a felon you a slave, remember the thirteenth, nigga

I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
But I ain't a slave, I'm a king and that's real
I be in the field, I be in the field (house nigga)
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
If we ain't got freedom, we ain't got free will
I be in the field, I be in the field

I thought Barack could have been a spook who sat by the door
But he signed a dark act middle finger to the law
Now I gotta get a foreign plan to eat raw
But I wouldn't be surprised if they killed me on tour
Life is a bitch, America is a whore
Get sick and try to see this little picture I draw
You can have a gun but need bullets to go to war
You already half-dead from the food that's in the stores

Ghost these rappers ain't better tellin' tales so tall
A whole industry of employees pretendin' that they the boss
Niggas that you thought was official is fallin' off
Shit ain't been the same since the '95 Source
Every breath that we take is a threat, they pissed off
If we alive we get put in the system and get lost
My mother scared for us, prepared for the loss
But sayin' shit like if you die make sure you got on clean draws

I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
But I ain't a slave, I'm a king and that's real
I be in the field, I be in the field (house nigga)
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
If we ain't got freedom, we ain't got free will
I be in the field, I be in the field

I'm a field negro, just as the slave master of that day used Tom, the house negro, to keep the field negroes in check the same old slave master today has negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Tom's to keep you and me in check, keep us passive and peaceful
It's like when you go to the dentist and the man is gon' take your tooth. you gon' bite him when he start pulling, so they squirt some stuff in your jaw called Novocaine to make you think they not doing anything to you. So you sit there and cause you got all that Novocaine in your jaw you suffer, peacefully