Lyrics
Ain’t got time to be all in my feelings
Got a family to feed I got children
In the kitchen got nothing but dishes
No more rats, the roaches they be killing them
On the journey I’m moving persistent
God is my witness
Pushing through all of the pain
Told my daughter her mama a dreamer
I needed better for you so I made a few changes
I made it here when I shouldn’t be
Look at me
Product of luck and my mama dream
I did it all when they doubted me
So many demons surrounded me
I made it out I had God with me
I got you we gon ride til the morning
Grinding
Starving
But I gotchu we gon make it I promise
Who said
God did
I got you we gon ride til the morning
Grinding
Starving
But I gotchu we gon make it I promise
Who said
God did
I got you we gon ride til the morning
Z is…
- 55 Years-Old
- Female, Cisgender
- Central American
- Catholic
- Lower Middle Class
- Heterosexual
Author’s Note
This song is homemade, from the beat to the lyrics. Damping Bob Marleys Redemption song and NYC Drill Music, I tried to encapsulate the journey from the Caribbean to the U.S.
Redemption Song was my song of choice because Bob Marley talks about the despair that black people feel since being robbed of all they have during slavery. In this song I speak about the redemption that my interviewee, Z, was seeking for her children. I mention her dream and her mother’s dream. Both dreams are for their children to have a better life. One generation will do so by leaving Central America, and the next by seizing the opportunities from that action. The morning symbolizes when it is bright, and the sun is out and she can finally say she has reached her American Dream.