In this song, America is a very wealthy person who is throwing an extravagant party in their expensive mansion. The Ghost of Black Wealth shows up at the door personified as an uninvited guest who was once well acquainted with America, but now is no longer welcome as their partnership has been used up for the gain of America solely. The Ghost of Black Wealth, outraged, gives America an account of their time together - some of it true, some of it perhaps only true in intention - and leaves America issuing a curse/threat/warning. A lot of this album is putting on display what people in different situations sometimes put their hope in. I wanted to paint a picture of the dissatisfaction that one is ultimately left with when they put their hope in worshiping their own blackness, and this is that song.
lyrics
"The Wealth"
America, my old friend, now it seems you're deemed as highbrow.
Don't leave me at the door. Please do invite me into my house.
From where does this rare hesitation stem? No, I'm no enemy!
It hasn't been that long now, has it?
Just a pair of centuries.
I know you jest and kid with me.
You cannot scoff in view of me.
My exclusive allowance assembled your land of opportunity.
You know the facts well.
So throw my past tales into the earshot of all of your guests.
I am The Ghost of Black Wealth.
I've not visited this continent since Egypt's 18th Dynasty.
Your Mississippi River was like a secondary Nile to me
But finally, I have you in the sight of me again
and it's delightfully surprising to see you stridently ascend.
You and I know, back in Europe, you resided in those pens
with all of those animals you raised and all of their viruses within.
I'm glad that I could take sabbatical from thriving syndicates
to show you how to live indoors. Now, step aside and let me in.
How dare you block my entrance to your petty party's scene!
You were dwelling in a cave on the day we first convened!
My lot of slaves were dressed in silk!
You couldn't afford to keep your's clean!
Your oligarchical exclusion attempts are laughably a dream!
You plan on using the tool of race to demonize my genius?
I invented the thought of thinking before the existence of your genus.
I was the first to circumnavigate the globe,
the first to map Antarctica, the first chemist, I made up the periodic code.
As Musa Keita, I owned more wealth than your greedy arms could hold,
quick to give 100 million of your currency in gold.
But I am more, I am the Moor that taught your heads of Renaissance.
I am the Moor that brought you the Arabic language the Quran.
I birthed the first Asian Dynasties.
I welcome your subtraction.
Hide in Vaticans depictions of your stolen savior's black skin.
But I curse your Empire to be split into two factions,
half your kingdom only loyal to what nations urge me back in.
And since you see brightness as the mightiest force achievable,
and you say exploding stars conclude your myth or something helical,
when darkness smothers ashes of your sun and all seeable,
know black matter, Heaven's melanin, is the hardest rain conceivable.
In humble origins, all aristocracy was sin.
We shed like skin, but not within, what we will one day want again.
A joyful celebration of the sounds of Southern rap from an artist who's never felt more at home and in command of her space and vision. Bandcamp Album of the Day May 25, 2023
Having shacked up with Del and MF Doom, production powerhouse Parallel Thought now collabs with streetwise MC Bentley. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 5, 2016
