Yea, so we got this tune called "For Women" right
 Originally, it was by Nina Simone
 She said it was inspired by, you know
 Down south. In the south, they used to call her Mother Antie
 She said No Mrs.
 Just Antie
 She said if anybody ever called her Antie
 she'd burn the whole goddamn place down
 I'm over past that
 Coming into the new millenium, we can't forget our elders

 [Talib Kweli]
 I got off the 2 train in Brooklyn on my way to a session
 Said let me help this woman up the stairs before I get to steppin'
 We got in a conversation she said she a 107
 Just her presence was a blessing and her essence was a lesson
 She had her head wrapped
 And long dreads that peeked out the back
 Like antenna to help her get a sense of where she was at, imagine that
 Livin' a century, the strenght of her memories
 Felt like an angel had been sent to me
 She lived from nigger to colored to negro to black
 To afro then african-american and right back to nigger
 You figure she'd be bitter in the twilight
 But she alright, cuz she done sseen the circle of life yo
 Her skin was black like it was packed with melanin
 Back in the days of slaves she packin' like Harriet Tubman
 Her arms are long and she moves like song
 Feet with corns, hand with callouses
 But her heart is warm and her hair is wooly
 And it attract a lot of energy even negative
 She gotta dead that the head wrap is her remedy
 Her back is strong and she far from a vagabond
 This is the back of the masters' whip used to crack upon
 Strong enough to take all the pain, that's been
 Inflicted again and again and again and again and flipped
 It to the love for her children nothing else matters
 What do they call her? They call her aunt Sara.

 Woman singing in the background

 [Talib Kweli] (  Background Vocals)
 I know a girl with a name as beautiful as the rain
 Her face is the same but she suffers an unusual pain
 Seems she only deals with losers who be usin' them games
 Chasin' the real brothers away like she confused in the brain
 She tried to get it where she fit in
 on that American Dream mission paid tuition
 For the receipt to find out her history was missing and started flippin
 Seeing the world through very different eyes
 People askin' her what she'll do when it comes time to chose sides
 Yo, her skin is yellow, it's like her face is blond word is bond
 And her hair is long and straight just like sleeping beauty
 See, she truly feels like she belong in 2 worlds
 And that she can't relate to other girls
 Her father was rich and white still livin' with his wife
 But he forced himself on her mother late one night
 They call it rape that's right and now she take flight
 Through life with hate and spite inside her mind
 That keep her up to the break of light a lot of times
 (I gotta find myself) (3X)
 She had to remind herself
 They called her Safronia the unwanted seed
 Blood still blue in her vein and still red when she bleeds

 (Don't, don't, don't hurt me again) (8X)

 [Talib Kweli] (  Background Vocals)
 Teenage lovers sit on the stoops up in Harlem
 Holdin' hands under the Apollo marquis dreamin of stardom
 Since they was born the streets is watchin' and schemin'
 And now it got them generations facin' deseases
 That don't kill you they just got problems
 and complications that get you first
 Yo, it's getting worse, when children hide the fact that they pregnant
 Cuz they scared of giving birth
 How will I feed this baby?
 How will I survive, how will this baby shine?
 Daddy dead from crack in '85, mommy dead from AIDS in '89
 At 14 the baby hit the same streets they became her master
 The children of the enslaved, they grow a little faster
 They bodies become adult
 While they keepin' the thoughts of a child her arrival
 Into womanhood was heemed up by her survival
 Now she 25, barely grown out her own
 Doin' whatever it takes strippin', workin' out on the block
 Up on the phone, talkin' about
 (my skin is tan like the front of your hand)
 (And my hair...)
 (Well my hair's alright whatever way I want to fix it,
 it's alright it's fine)
 (But my hips, these sweet hips of mine invite you daddy)
 (And when I fix my lips my mouth is like wine)
 (Take a sip don't be shy, tonight I wanna be your lady)
 (I ain't too good for your Mercedes, but first you got to pay me)
 (You better quit with all the question, sugar who's little girl am I)
 (Why I'm yours if you got enough money to buy)
 (You better stop with the compliments we running out of time,)
 (You wanna talk whatever we could do that it's your dime)
 (From Harlem's from where I came, don't worry about my name,)
 (Up on one-two-five they call me sweet thang)

 Scratches   Woman singing in the background

 [Talib Kweli] (  Background Vocals)
 A daughter come up in Georgia, ripe and ready to plant seeds,
 Left the plantation when she saw a sign even thought she can't read
 It came from God and when life get hard she always speak to him,
 She'd rather kill her babies than let the master get to 'em,
 She on the run up north to get across that Mason-Dixon
 In church she learned how to be patient and keep wishin',
 The promise of eternal life after death for those that God bless
 She swears the next baby she'll have will breathe a free breath
 and get milk from a free breast, And love beeing alive,
 otherwise they'll have to give up being themselves to survive,
 Being maids, cleaning ladies, maybe teachers or college graduates,
 nurses, housewives, prostitutes, and drug addicts
 Some will grow to be old women, some will die before they born,
 They'll be mothers, and lovers who inspire and make songs,
 (But me, my skin is brown and my manner is tough,)
 (Like the love I give my babies when the rainbow's enuff,)
 (I'll kill the first muthafucka that mess with me, I never bluff)
 (I ain't got time to lie, my life has been much too rough,)
 (Still running with barefeet, I ain't got nothin' but my soul,)
 (Freedom is the ultimate goal,
 life and death is small on the whole, in many ways)
 (I'm awfully bitter these days
 'cuz the only parents God gave me, they were slaves,)
 (And it crippled me, I got the destiny of a casualty,)
 (But I live through my babies and I change my reality)
 (Maybe one day I'll ride back to Georgia on a train,)
 (Folks 'round there call me Peaches, I guess that's my name