Young Black Men

A couple of weeks ago, this Florida rapper named Julio Foolio (sc?) was gunned down in a Holiday Inn parking lot. This seems to happen a lot: Two aspiring rappers start doing "dis raps" or maybe one claims to be with one gang and is shot by someone in a rival gang. These shootings always ping on my radar and I've been trying for a couple of years to put it into words. Sometimes I think "Well, who am I---a middle aged guy who appears to be white---to say anything about this?" But, I don't see it as a "Black" issue, I look at it as a human issue. You think about all these parents who have to live with the memory of their murdered children; parents burying their children is outside of the natural order. You know a situation where parents bury their children? During a war. This actually has music to it, I think I I have a solid musical backing for it and will record it when it's more polished. What does this have to do with the American Outback? Well, the whole concept of TAO is leaving a world, leaving habits that have a negative effect on our lives, and whatever leads to these killings is definitely something to leave in the past. I had to keep the lyrics simple due to rhyme and keeping them in such a way to make singing them not completely impossible. Anyway....

YOUNG BLACK MEN

He was 23, never gonna be 24

Shot in a Holiday Inn lot near the smoker’s door

Pissed off another young black man we’ve heard the story before

Does it even matter if we say “no more!”?

Now someone will target the guy with the gun

Could be a vendetta or could just be for fun

Could be in Las Vegas with its merciless sun

Young black men, just killed another one

Young black men, just sacrificed another one

One year no one remembers the beef

A mother wrestles her memories on the anniversary

Overwhelmed by her guilt and her grief

Where did she go wrong?

Where did the world go so wrong?

She recalls a laughing boy before he tried to act so tough and strong

Running through the sprinklers in the summer days bright and long

He was laughing won’t be laughing anymore

23 never gonna be 24

Shot in a Holiday Inn lot near the smoker’s door

Young black men, just killed another one

Young black men, just sacrificed another one

Don’t like how you looked at me, gonna shoot you down

You come from another street, gonna shoot you down

Don’t like your shirt, gonna shoot you down

Next week it’ll be me, someone gonna shoot me down

They’ll speed off as I fall, and then you and I will be equal

In the stillness that follows

You and I will be equal, in the stillness that follows

Young black men, just killed another one

Young black men, just sacrificed another one…