[engine starts]
? ?
[Tall Paul performing "Prayers in a Song"]
[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 powwows
? 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 heartbeat's
? 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 tongue's 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
[fading beat]