You Grew Up

OddiseeOddisee 

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Oddisee

Amir Mohamed el Khalifa, better known by his stage name Oddisee, is a rapper and producer currently recording for Mello Music Group and splitting his time between Brooklyn; Washington, DC; and London. He was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Prince George's County, Maryland, and his love for this area is clear in his work. As a member of the Low Budget Crew, Diamond District, and as solo artist, he has released more than ten records with various labels. more »

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Let me take it back to my childhood
When six flags was still called wildwood
Where I had every race as a neighbor
We were all working class trying to make it out of our hood
My best friend back then was a white kid
We was tight he liked the same things I did
Despite us being different colors, man
We were tight as Elmer's, and we called each other brothers
While I was trying to keep my Nikes clean
He was trying to scuff his Chucks up
He was grunge, I was fresh we were young
And we cuss along to rap trying to sneaking into punk clubs
But things changed when his pops got laid off
He blamed my father for the loss of his job
He said immigrants robbed citizens jobs
And I better never set foot again in his yard
As we became adults in a cult called America
He got himself a job as an officer of law
My thoughts got blacker and his views got cracker
There was no way backwards, to the roots at heart
Many years apart, I recognized him in the news
He shot a black man that was sitting in his car
Near the same park where we used to shoot hoops
And all I could blame was the cause

You grew up
No you didn't change
You were made the same
As those before you came
You grew up
All our growing pains
Were given like our names
You just bought the blame
You grew up

You ever have a friend that became a fanatic
Most of you all haven't
But if you ever did
You'd understand the one thing they all have in common
That somebody took advantage of their damage as a kid
I knew a guy who's folks were professors
Proof in the flesh that Allah was a blesser
Grew up in a mid-western town
Where there weren't many brown people he could seek reflection
Got picked on in school during lectures
Graduated hating everybody in his class
Picked on because he prayed five to the east
And he didn't eat meat that Allah said was bad
One day a man approached him in a mosque
Changed his life when he asked him a question
Do you ever feel your life was a loss
And what if I could teach you that life is a weapon
Attracted strong to the feeling of acceptance
He was soon gone with delusions of a cause
People of the present had faces of the past
Make it easier to blast them if he feel they did him wrong
You can raise a child in a house full love
But can't keep them safe in a world full of hate
So he blew up
The only mistake that could hold all the blame

You grew up
No you didn't change
You were made the same
As those before you came
You grew up
All our growing pains
Were given like our names
You just bought the blame
You grew up

My heart's a jug and when I was born it was filled with love
It ranneth over, life ran me over till I spilled the blood
I poured the cups and I left it up you to say enough
Never ending, never quenching, I sealed it up
Tried to change my reality but settled for, real enough
Life is better when you're thinking lesser go on give it up
When I was younger I was so determined 
I would change it all Couldn't fly but wasn't chained to fall
So where is it I put the blame and cause
Well, I grew up

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