Caged Bird (Explicit)

Caged Bird (Explicit) - J. Cole/Dreamville/Omen

Yeah caged bird

Something like a caged bird

Caged bird

Yeah look

You ain't a man till you stop chasing your friends my ni**a

Think for yourself make your own plans my ni**a

I'll be lying if I said I ain't understand my ni**a

Cause who you gon' follow when the leaders all get swallowed

By ** clouds and bottles

In and out of county jail

This is hell see the young black males in packed cells

With they heads down

And they fists clenched tight

Thinking I could bust a hole through this wall

And b**ch I just might

It's just like the caged bird I sing a song

Hoping they open up these bars and send a ni**a home

I cry when I'm alone

I'm wondering why would God send me here

Knowing that they hate us

Knowing that they make us feel like we evil so we kill our people

Without a second thought in every lesson taught by OGs

We full of real ni**a wisdom so we proceed

Like real niggas who been stripped of our humanity

I see the judge's eyes I know that he ain't understanding me

A caged bird yeah a caged bird

Let this little caged bird sing caged bird

Yeah caged bird

Freedom's just an illusion that's my conclusion

And if it ain't then how my niggas keep on losin' theirs

This goes out to childhood friends that's doin' years

Prison tats on they backs like souvenirs

We wish that you was here

A mother's tear spilled on this page

A brother's tear spilled on this page

How many days left

And can you find peace when you released

Still filled up wit' rage

Back on the streets just to peep that you still in the cage

Well it's the oratory vet

Turned down king slash poet laureate

Used to paint a picture with a story of neglect

I could've been a shorty drinking 40s on the steps

With a shorty on my lap

With a shorty on the way coming shortly to protect

I could've been a dealer in the party with the X

But I'm hardly in the mix and I partially confess

I definitely got a couple parts in me that I regret

Is the cup half-empty or is it half-full

I fill mine up with Hennessy then get back to him

I'm just a jazz musician trapped in a rap form

You think you standing for something you on a trap door

Well it's the Mr Introspective

I'm a dreamers dream a sort of an inception

I never fiend for the scene but I dreamed of the things

That a Mercedes brings like slow sex with fast women

Drinking cognac I'm past grinning

A sexy dress fat a** in it

But still hit it till I'm half-winded

Cause niggas tell me I'm the sh*t

Well I be hitting all these dimes

See I'm caged by the visions of the blind

I started as a king

Turned to a slave

Put us in our chains

We was forced to entertain

Thinking bout the present day I'm living off the stage

Wonder if a ni**a ever get up out this cage

As I sing

A caged bird yeah a caged bird

Let this little caged bird sing caged bird

Yeah caged bird

Freedom's just an illusion that's my conclusion

And if it ain't then how my niggas keep on losin' theirs

This goes out to childhood friends that's doin' years

Prison tats on they backs like souvenirs

We wish that you was here

A mother's tear spilled on this page

A brother's tear spilled on this page

How many days left

And can you find peace when you released

Still filled up wit' rage

Back on the streets just to peep that you still in the cage