“Welcome to America,” Black Thought
From the soundtrack of Judas and the Black Messiah, Black Thought offers a soulful and melodic song with “Welcome to America.” Therein, with his lyrical genius, he takes the listener through a comprehensive trek through Black nationalism. With a Hamptonian vibrato, the Philly rapper commits to a life dedicated to liberation.
“The sins of the father my pop gave me to suffer … The friends I would follow was crack babies and hustlers … It’s steel sharpen steel in the block, made me a cutler … My pen is from the future like Octavia Butler (Welcome to America, oh) … My grandmother sutured a flag from bloody cotton … The fruits of her labor alas already rotten (Welcome to America, yeah, ayy) … My man said, “Yo, it’s crazy how fast that we’ve forgotten
That we used to pull boxes and plows like we were oxen.”
In the song, he includes himself in the brilliant history of freedom-fighting, relating his personal struggles to those Africans shackled during the great MAAFA to those who had bloodied-finger tips from picking cotton. Revolutionary is used often in rhymes, but Tariq brings life to the complicated work that many Black men and women have engaged to liberate themselves from the foundation of hate that built this nation.
“I ran hard from Jamestown with slaves, found Jesus … And found demons that never be charged with malfeasance … I sat through they revival, though I never found credence … I found that we had never know shit about freedom … I’ve been charged with treason and I’ve been scarred and freezing … And I’ve been called a nigga and then called a heathen
When hounds found me, they couldn’t even tell if I was breathing … In America where on black men, it’s open season.”
Released in 2021, it is one of the most powerful songs on his career.