About the song
A story for this song hasn’t been added yet.
Words from the artist’s archive
Ten Generations Deep lyrics
Artist-supplied lyric sheet, matched by title. The sheet may differ from this released performance. Production notes and alternate promotional cuts are omitted.
Read the lyric sheet
Intro
Rain tapping zinc in the Carol City yard… Phone static carrying Kingston through the speaker… Ten generations whispering in the static…
Verse 1
Woke up in the 305, Liberty City heat pressing like judgment I-95 humming low while the rain hits the pavement Grandma on the line talking cane fields and names I can’t say right How the blood crossed oceans but the roots still hold tight Warehouse on 62nd, stacking boxes until my back scream Sending what I can when the rent leave the account lean The disconnect notice sitting in the drawer with the bills Kids asleep upstairs while I’m calculating what the light bill kills
Chorus
Ten generations deep in the rain The blood remembers what the papers can’t explain From the motherland soil to this concrete lane Ten generations deep, still standing in the rain
Verse 2
The weight sit different when you know where the story began Ten generations of hands that worked the same land Court date downtown for papers that don’t match the skin Trying to prove where I come from while the system pretend Publix line stretching long, kids pointing at things we can’t reach Rain outside matching the storm that I keep underneath How you carry ten generations when the power might cut When the phone ring with news and your stomach stay in a knot
Chorus
Ten generations deep in the rain The blood remembers what the papers can’t explain From the motherland soil to this concrete lane Ten generations deep, still standing in the rain
Verse 3
Look in the mirror, see the jaw from the island, the eyes from further back The way I stand when pressure come is the same way they stood on the track Rain on the window look like tears from people I never met Every drop carrying stories that ain’t been written yet I see them in the calluses on these hands from the warehouse floor Same hands that fold the money and send it out the door The rain don’t wash it away, it just make the roots show clearer Ten generations looking back every time I look in the mirror
Verse 4
The enemy ain’t just the rain or the bill that come late It’s the forgetting, the distance, the closing of the gate Systems that want the story to fade into background noise Voices that treat your bloodline like it don’t have a voice But I fight with the names I teach my son before bed With the rhythm from the island when the day finally end With the strength that traveled oceans and still live in my chest Turning every generation’s fight into the fuel for the next
Chorus
Ten generations deep in the rain The blood remembers what the papers can’t explain From the motherland soil to this concrete lane Ten generations deep, still standing in the rain
Verse 5
So when the rain fall heavy on this 305 home I tell the young ones this is how the blood has grown From Africa to Jamaica to this land that test the will We carry the legacy, we plant what they couldn’t kill Learn the names, feel the rhythm when the pressure get thick Know every generation had to fight to exist The ancestors don’t leave, they move through what we choose to do Ten generations deep… and the story still move through you
Outro
Rain still falling on the zinc… But the lights stay on.
Inside the recording
Rain tapping zinc in the Carol City yard… Phone static carrying Kingston through the speaker…
Ten generations deep in the rain The blood remembers what the papers can’t explain
Rain still falling on the zinc… But the lights stay on.
Excerpts from artist-supplied lyric files matched by title. Lyric sheets may differ from the released performance.