i cant breathe
As you can see right now, Times Square is covered with protestors. There's about 20 riot cops over there. Other groups have joined and are converging here in Times Square. Today is the ceremony for the lighting of the Rockefeller tree and there's police officers swarming everywhere to make sure the protestors do not disrupt that ceremony that they're having. There's hundreds and hundreds of protestors right now, in the streets right now, blocking all traffic, a huge number. An announcement that the cop who killed Eric Garner was not indicted by the police department
They tell me I'm resistin' arrest
But I'm only protectin' my breath, I can't breathe
The cops hate a black man to death
They tell me that mentality left, it didn't leave
See bein' black come with a price
Sometimes we gotta pay with our life, our family grieves
The grand jury never indicts
The grand dragon's wearin' his white, true indeed
No justice, no peace again
I won't trust the police again
Another black man murdered
In the streets by police, he won't hug his own niece again
So what's a black mom tell her son?
"They might hate the mere sight of you
So no, I can't buy that pellet gun
They might try to Tamir Rice you"
I guess the Devil's job is never done
Respect the value of my life too
For me change may never come
Cause I can't change into a white dude
Cops workin' with the prosecutor
Prosecutor manipulate the grand jury
Grand jury say it's no indictment
Send the community into levels past fury
Protestors on the sidewalk
They say Eric Garner was choked here
I say we burn this whole shit down
But won't nothin' change when the smoke clear
That's cause the system is broken
Another victim of a chokin'
By a modern day lynch mob
The cops probably wished they could've roped him
How many tears gotta fall?
How many peers gotta fall?
The cops kill instead of capture
A black man of that stature
How many fears were involved?
How many cheered what they saw?
See, equality's the problem
How many years 'til it's solved?
I think somebody want a race riot
But hip-hop isn't swayed by it
Too many black rappers sellin' out
You white rappers shouldn't stay quiet
(Put your hands behind your back) I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I can't breathe
I can't breathe
I can't breathe
I can't breathe
I can't breathe