"In The Field" lyrics

[Malcolm X (Styles P):]
There was two kind of slaves. There was the house negro and the field negro. The house negro they lived in the house, with master. The house negro, if the master said "We got a good house here," the house negro said, "Yeah we got a good house here." Whenever the master said we, he said we. That's how you can tell a house negro. If the master got sick, the house negro will say "What's the matter boss, we sick?" We sick!?! That was that house negro. In those days, he was called a house nigga and (The truth ain't negative, nor positive, it's just the truth, ya dig?) that's what we call them today 'cause we still got some house niggas running around here

[Styles P:]
Yeah it's black on black crime but it's blue on black crime
Police killin' the brown man and doing no time
The judge is a Nazi, but he ain't in the Klan
The jail's the plantation they spread it across the land
I'm thinkin' what will that change?
If big industry money pays for campaigns (think about it)
I know the 1-percenters lovin' that the gov run the people
But people should run the government
The day of reckonin' is when the sleep wakes up
And the 99-percenters can really cake up
I ain't go to Harvard or Yale, I went to jail
Behold a horse that's pale, and the slave ship sails
It ain't on water, but I know who's steerin' it
The reptilians hid the truth about the pyramids, damn
My genetics is kinetic, the devil is a lie
His agenda is pathetic

[Styles P & Talib Kweli:]
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
But I ain't a slave, I'm a king and that's real
I be in the field, I be in the field (house nigga)
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
If we ain't got freedom, we ain't got free will
I be in the field, I be in the field

[Talib Kweli:]
Yeah there's black on black crime
But there's white on white crime
When you adjust for population all the numbers they align
So why we never hear white on white on the nightly news?
Ain't no profit in over-criminalizin' white dudes
Poverty breeds criminals but watch what you call me
Because if I'm a criminal what about bankers on Wall Street?
Or the fast food industry that be feeding us horse meat?
Been this way since in the fields picking sugar or coffee nigga
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field
Probably with the steel now they got me on the wheel
With the ghost, too confident to be cocky to keep it real
We veto that phony shit and block it like a bill
Whether Bobby by the pound, or Whitney by the ki
We movin' weight it's a mistake to get money and make it free
They'll lock up Jesus when they see woolly hair and burnt feet
If you a felon you a slave, remember the thirteenth, nigga

[Styles P & Talib Kweli:]
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
But I ain't a slave, I'm a king and that's real
I be in the field, I be in the field (house nigga)
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
If we ain't got freedom, we ain't got free will
I be in the field, I be in the field

[Styles P:]
I thought Barack could have been a spook who sat by the door
But he signed a dark act middle finger to the law
Now I gotta get a foreign plan to eat raw
But I wouldn't be surprised if they killed me on tour
Life is a bitch, America is a whore
Get sick and try to see this little picture I draw
You can have a gun but need bullets to go to war
You already half-dead from the food that's in the stores

[Talib Kweli:]
Ghost these rappers ain't better tellin' tales so tall
A whole industry of employees pretendin' that they the boss
Niggas that you thought was official is fallin' off
Shit ain't been the same since the '95 Source
Every breath that we take is a threat, they pissed off
If we alive we get put in the system and get lost
My mother scared for us, prepared for the loss
But sayin' shit like if you die make sure you got on clean drawers

[Styles P & Talib Kweli:]
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
But I ain't a slave, I'm a king and that's real
I be in the field, I be in the field (house nigga)
I ain't no house nigga, I be in the field, I be in the field, I be in the field
If we ain't got freedom, we ain't got free will
I be in the field, I be in the field

[Malcolm X:]
I'm a field negro. Just as the slave master of that day used Tom, the house negro, to keep the field negroes in check, the same old slave master today has negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Tom's to keep you and me in check, keep us passive and peaceful. It's like when you go to the dentist, and the man is gon' take your tooth, you gon' fight him when he start pulling. So they squirt some stuff in your jaw called Novocaine, to make you think they not doing anything to you. So you sit there and 'cause you got all that Novocaine in your jaw you suffer, peacefully