Fam Jam (Fe Sum Immigrins)

Not bad, huh,
For some immigrants?
From donated clothes to caps and gowns,
It's a little shout to my black and brown
Folks who know the game;
Not in class to clown.
Had the funny accent but look who's laughing now.
See, Samir came here to grind
And he slaved at
Every minimum wage job,
But he saved that.
Brought his sis along;
Scholarship to make stacks.
Working as a surgeon, she bought a whip
And paid cash.
No time to whine;
We just face facts.
Let's fit six in the back and let's take that
To the best restaurants;
Make reservations,
Since we're out here,
Since they made reservations
For First Nations and they never made reparations.
The Natives probably relate more to immigration.
So just for y'all too,
And I can't forget the Haitians
Here for an education.
It's a celebration.
To the guys that draw lines and make borders real,
But then bend the rules when there's more to drill:
Don't turn away the stateless,
Think of the waste if one in three refugees is a Lauryn Hill.
Come a long way;
We could move forward, still,
From the poorest to up by Lawrence or Forest Hill.
But more than that,
Skrillery banks, just chill.
Make a home, just build in a zone,
Let's ill.
In a place to be safe, you found an escape route,
Where we come from, so we're grateful to Jesus.
And now the top is the next stop; this drop.
Ought to have my aunts on the guest spot;
Red hot.
I'm talking going from sweatshops to tech stocks;
Doctors Without Borders
With dreadlocks.
We're quoting S-Dot Carter on Otis;
Turns out some fresh-off-the-boat kid wrote this.
Now when you're third world-born
But first world-formed,
Sometimes you feel pride;
Sometimes you feel torn.
See, my mother tongue's not what they speak where my mother's from.
She moved to London with her husband when her son was one.
And one time after Family Ties,
I turned on the news and saw my family die.
Why?
Pops said it's murder in the motherland
And things about colonialism I didn't understand.
All the things that shape a man in his mind state:
A community, income,
And crime rate.
If times change, why are my people still in dire straits?
If it's a big world, show me, where's my place in it?
I had to talk to Pops for a minute,
He said, "Shad,
This world wasn't home to begin with. Just
Keep defending the oppressed, take steps
And keep reppin',
You just might be the best."
Well, yes.