[engine starts]
♪ ♪
[rapping]
I feel the latent effects
Of assimilation
Inner city native
Raised by bright lights
Skyscrapers
Born with dim prospects
Little peace in living
As a child, hot headed
About the fact
I wasn't wild
Like they called my ancestors
Imagined what it'd be
To live nomadic off the land
And free
Instead I was full of heat
Like a furnace cause
I wasn't furnished
With language and traditional
Ways of my peeps
Yeah I used to feel
Like I wasn't truly indigenous
Now I say
Miigwech gichi-manidoo
For showing me my true roots
Definitely native
Take responsibility
For being educated
My people and customs
Originating from early phases
Of history
It's deeper than frybread
And contest pow-wows
Tears shed in the sweat lodge
Prayers go out to
All those I've wronged
And who have wronged me
Gotta treat 'em like family
Gichi-manido wiidookawishin
Ji-mashkawiziyaan
Mii dash bami'idiziyaan
Miizhishinaam zaagi'iiwewin
Ganoozh ishinaam
Bizindaw ishinaam
Mii-wenji nagamoyaan
Nimishomis wiidookawishinaam
Ji-aabajitooyaang anishinaabe
Izhitwaawin
Mii-ji-bi-gikendamaan
Keyaa anishinaabe bimaadiziwin
Becoming aware of a heart beats
Fragility so I
Pray for my creator's will
And humility
It seems my prayer's weak
I can't speak
Not a linguist
Does he hear my English
When I vent I fear
The answer to the question
This is symbolic of anguish
I feel regarding language and
The obligation of revitalizing
Something sacred
Failure to carry through
Is disgracing a nation
My first tongues in need
Of a face lift but
Deciphering conjugations
Like trying to find my way
Through a maze in the matrix
Complex hard to start without an
End aside from being fluent
I gotta push the limit
If I'm gonna keep pursuing
So I, use it in a way that
Relates to my life and vocab
Bring some entertainment to it
Spit it on a track
And I take it out the class
Can't let what I lack
Become a self-defeating habit
That'll make me want to quit
Gichi-manido wiidookawishin
Ji-mashkawiziyaan
Mii dash bami'idiziyaan
Miizhishinaam zaagi'iiwewin
Ganoozh ishinaam
Bizindaw ishinaam
Mii-wenji nagamoyaan
Nimishomis wiidookawishinaam
Ji-aabajitooyaang anishinaabe
Izhitwaawin
Mii-ji-bi-gikendamaan
Keyaa anishinaabe bimaadiziwin
It's far fetched but grandfather
Please help me learn it
Help me assist in keeping it
From burning, don't let me quit
And flee from working
For a worthy purpose
Enlighten me and help me
Comprehend effects of my
Service, I need a spark in my
Desire from something higher
Prior to negative reminders
Killing my stride
Sometimes I'm the type that
Likes getting results overnight
Without sweating or stressing
Overnight, so I pray, creator
Give me strength
Then I can move on
Creator show us love
So it can spread around
Communicate with us, from above
Hear me now, my prayers
In a song I speak em out loud
Grandfather help us to
Revitalize the language
And ways so we walk the red road
That you paved, communicate
With us from above hear me now
My prayers in a song
I speak em out loud