[Intro]
From the soil to the sky (yeah)
From the roots to the rise (uh)
Say it straight, say it right
We been here the whole time
[Verse 1]
We ain’t from there, we from here, get it clear now (clear)
Granny kept a map in her mind, that’s a real town (real)
Stories in the scar on her hand, that’s a seal now
Names that they stripped, but the blood never peeled out
Old roads, red clay on the church shoes
Great-uncle on the porch talkin’ curfews
Sayin’, “Boy, they erased what we first knew”
But the dirt still remember who it turned to
They tried to ship our pride, couldn’t move it
Painted us a past that was crooked in the blueprint
Told us where we from like they drew it
But the bones in this land say, “You can’t prove it” (nah)
Look close, see our face in the canyon
See our mark in the march and the anthem
Every crop, every brick, we the hands in
Oldest of the old, still they call us “expansion”
[Chorus]
Raise your hearts high, say it from your chest (from your chest)
We the real ones standin’ in the West (yeah)
Black tribe, first fire, first breath (first breath)
Old nation still walkin’ through the flesh (through the flesh)
We belong here, never been a guest (never)
Roots run deep, cut across the map’s text (deep)
Truth in the veins, can’t hide that sign
You from here, lift your head, raise your hearts high (hearts high)
[Verse 2]
Whole world on our back like a backpack
Grandma kept the proof in her flashbacks (facts)
Names carved faint in the clapboard
Dates scratched out, but the land know the password
We the first ones, last ones leavin’
Still breathing, still never beaten
Taught the world how to stand through the seasons
Yet they scribbled out our page for a reason
They can twist up the books, not the lineage
We still cook in the house of the villages
Still talk in a code they ain’t mimic yet
Even in the chain, we was infinite (yeah)
Look around, every block, that’s kin folk (kin)
Every laugh, every cry, that’s big hope
We ain’t foreign to the soil that we live on
We the start, not the side, we the end zone (uh)
[Chorus]
Raise your hearts high, say it from your chest (say it)
We the real ones standin’ in the West (standin’)
Black tribe, first fire, first breath (first breath)
Old nation still walkin’ through the flesh (through the flesh)
We belong here, never been a guest (never)
Roots run deep, cut across the map’s text (deep)
Truth in the veins, can’t hide that sign
You from here, lift your head, raise your hearts high (raise your hearts high)
[Bridge]
If they ask you, “Where you from?” say, “Right here” (right here)
Point your finger to the ground, make it quite clear (quite clear)
When they tell you what you ain’t, don’t bite fear
Say, “My people been the story for a light-year” (for a light-year)
[Chorus]
Raise your hearts high, say it from your chest
We the real ones standin’ in the West
Black tribe, first fire, first breath
Old nation still walkin’ through the flesh
We belong here, never been a guest (never, never)
Roots run deep, cut across the map’s text
Truth in the veins, can’t hide that sign
You from here, lift your head, raise your hearts high (hearts high)