Heard - Akua Naru

You know, like I know, what it means to be heard and seen, undisturbed

Rock live, hear the crowd sing the words

Paint your passion in the verse till it hurts

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As rap blogs debate the craft of your work (Heard)

Watch the birth of an album sold, won the platinum

The fact that cats on that Spike Lee, we gotta have it

Anita sung with such rapture, sweet as young laughter

Swingin' they arms as my song charms they ghettoblaster (Heard)

Come off braggin' 'bout your talent to the pastor, to the mail man, whoever

Half flattered, half embarrassed, tell 'em

That your song’s on the radio, story, play me close, and they got your girl on

daily rot—(Heard)—tation

It’s crazy yo, started on a sticky note

Ended in the crowd as a sound in a stranger’s throat

A Facebook post, somebody claim you wrote their favorite quote

And they felt the pain you wrote with each line you labored for

Heard

How you listen to the radio—

The radio—ra-ra-radio—

How you listen to the radio claim—

Claim hip hop is dead?

How you listen—

How you listen to—

The ra-r-r-radio—

How you listen to the radio—

Listen to the radio claim hip hop is dead?

(Just want to be heard) Yo

You know, like I know, what it means to be heard

If not my history shows the trail of silence, confiscation of words

Violence against stories born, never told

What happened, do they dry up like the dreams in that old Hughes poem?

(Heard)

I reminisce on how it all started out, used to beg for a crowd

Thought I was whack before I opened my mouth

Somebody said, «God bless the female child

Who got her own road, the shit sounds phat

We sing along to the song, yo» (Heard)

Love hip hop, supersedes the love it don’t got

For us, drop it like it’s hot and the world watch (Rock)

Guess our story’s too deep for those who’d rather

Listen as we slidin' down poles for the camera, exposed (Heard)

Where my mouth closed, moan for the answer

Show 'em who the boss, Tony Danza, get your hands up

'Cause your narrative deserves a platform

And a turn to know what it’s like to be heard

How you listen to the radio—

The radio—ra-ra-radio—

How you listen to the radio claim—

Claim hip hop is dead?

How you listen—

How you listen to—

The ra-r-r-radio—

How you listen to the radio—

Listen to the radio claim hip hop is dead?

(Just want to be heard) Tell me

What does it mean to be heard and seen?

You’ll notice me

my voice here was sewn in between hopes and dreams

Frustrated, my pen a pistol waving

Nobody move, I blast off on your pages (Heard)

Came a long way from singing at colder plantations

To that church girl honin' her flow up in the basement

Vivid imagination run wild, heart racin'

Dream of rockin' the mic', like Shante and Daddy Kane did (Heard)

, closed eyes, young mind trapped in amazement

See the crowd, smell the sweat, feel the dance on the pavement

Feel that bass kick, catch my ride, starts to fade quick

Big sound just a radiator vibrating (Heard)

From the line of the people who rise, survive slavery (Heard)

Mass hangings, Reaganomics of the eighties (Heard)

We’re back saying, «Fuck all y’all naysayers» (Heard)

Me and these rhymes, we gon' make it heard