From the recording Juneteenth
Lyrics
Said we walking off the plantation
It’s a celebration
We don’t need emancipation, run our reparations
Cause you been taking way too long you ain’t no new thief
But this is freedom season now it feel like Juneteenth
Yeah
Feel like 1865, on a Saturday
When we all free word to Donny, that’s on Hathaway
19 long days in the month of June
White flags from the grays when they seen blues
A holiday like Billie when she singing blues
Holy ground when you walking please remove your shoes
Strange fruit whose blood of the slaughtered
Caused many martyrs whose mentionioning still bothers
Tyrants and the turncoats, turnin’ from the torture
Of Mothers and the fathers, we the sons and the daughters
They said we were slaves
We changing how we saying that
When Shackles on the ankles and the wrists of aristocrats
That’s the thing about a queen and a king
Even in a cage, know we still gon’ sing
Lifting every voice til the heavens start ringing
That freedom that ain’t waitin’ on a Lincoln
Said we walking off the plantation
It’s a celebration
We don’t need emancipation, run our reparations
Cause you been taking way too long you ain’t no new thief
But this is freedom season now it feel like Juneteenth
Yeah
Feel like 2025 on a Sunday
Free Black minds that turn somedays and one days
Into being this day (and) everyday after
Free Black souls only servin’ one Master
Put that on the book of Matthew 6 and 24
Or Black Moses when he brought the message from the Lord
Said to let my people go, this a Exodus
Free Black life looking like Black excellence
Rooted in the spiritual, this is more than ritual
This a way of life so it’s mental and it’s physical
Mind, body, soul working out and I’m fasting
Then eat to live so my time long lasting
Love to myself, love to my neighbor
Circulate the currency with Owners and the Makers
We do this for the family, now and ever after we
Here to bring a message that we free
Said we walking off the plantation
It’s a celebration
We don’t need emancipation, run our reparations
Cause you been taking way too long you ain’t no new thief
But this is freedom season now it feel like Juneteenth
Yeah