The System from Unc Music by GaKnew Roxwel

So DCFS took her kids
And the judge said
In order to get them back
She gotta do therapy.
You ever had help forced on you?

VERSE 1

They can have these lil mu’fuckas
Rah rah rah
Pride puttin’ on a show.
What’s that? A drama?
You know you love them kids,
when it come down to it.
Bein’ forced to face trauma
and you don’t really wanna do it.

I get it. Who wanna relive it?
Get livid?
Especially when the perpetrator
still won’t admit it.
We just like them.
Don’t respect yo limits,
but expect you
to find the benefit in it.

Who accepts help from people
they don’t trust?
Trust mu’fuckas
when it don’t just?
Adjust to what they told,
just because they told?
Criticized in gist.
About to explode.

Jumpin’ through hoops.
More like like hoolahoopin’.
Life loopin’.
Patterns are apparent.
Enslaved for centuries,
we learned control.
Inherently imposed
some emotional impairment.

How you was raised
taught you how to parent.
Being wrong holds shame.
Hard to be transparent.
Society will hurt you
to make you heal/heel,
like a mu’fuckin dog.
Dangle kids like carrots.

CHORUS

The system.
It’s the system y’all.
It’s the system,
but we assist them y’all.
It’s the system.
We know the system flawed.
It’s the system,
but we the system.

It’s the system.
It’s the system y’all.
It’s the system,
but we assist them y’all.
It’s the system.
We know the system flawed.
It’s the system,
but we the system.

VERSE 2

Social worker got a cousin
seem just like you.
Heard it all before.
Bullshit not new.
Wanted to save kids,
but she had no clue
of what the trauma of bein’
taken from they momma would do,

how bein’ rescued
could feel like kid napped;
communication cut
from everybody you’ve known.
In the restroom,
elbows in ya lap,
thinkin’, “what the fuck happened?
I just wanna go home.”

Momma gotta change.
Gave her 26 weeks.
What about the needs
her habits be trynna meet.
Visits feel like seein’ pops in jail.
I just wanna run,
go back to my street

where the homies at.
Even the strangers are familiar.
Ma, you owe me that.
Makin’ them changes ain’t go’n’ kill ya.
Gotta show me that
I could really do better
by you doin’ the same,
or are we in this forever?

CHORUS

The system.
It’s the system y’all.
It’s the system,
but we assist them y’all.
It’s the system.
We know the system flawed.
It’s the system,
but we the system.

It’s the system.
It’s the system y’all.
It’s the system,
but we assist them y’all.
It’s the system.
We know the system flawed.
It’s the system,
but we the system.

VERSE 3

It not a collective of departments
the way we think.
It’s more like
the way we think.
Experience plus ignorance
Multiplied by gossip
equates to prejudice
we call instincts

Algebraic formulas
stored in the brain
Automated logic
for default response
Fight flight or freeze
Or are we free to be calm
Appearance of a threats
The primary concern

Whatever you expect
Can effect what becomes,
Shape what you see,
form how you look.
We ll learn to judge
By the cover of the book
‘cause we can’t afford thumbin’
through ever one we find.

Thin line between
what’s given and mistook.
With everything you perceive
keep that in mind.
What it means here
may not be that there.
Which means how you color it
could be out of line.

CHORUS

The system.
It’s the system y’all.
It’s the system,
but we assist them y’all.
It’s the system.
We know the system flawed.
It’s the system,
but we the system.

but we the system.

but we the system.

but we the system.

We the system

We the system…

• Hip-Hop/Rap
• adult contemporary
• boombap hiphop
• lyrical hip-hop
• unc music
• Los Angeles