CELL BLOCKS FULL OF YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK (2024) By Kevin ”Rashid” Johnson

If you ever wanna discover
A place of boundless treasure
Where sisters and brothers can found with
Talents beyond measure

All one need do is
Tear down these walls
Walk down these halls
You’ll hear it in their calls

Lyricists that could twist
The best industry artists
Into knots without effort
While they try their hardest

Poets and writers
Painters prizefighters
Pulitzer prize bestsellers
Compiled on manual typewriters

I’ve seen them heard them
Been stunned into silence
But these places are written off
As cesspools of violence

Some of the best legal minds
Literal encyclopedias on cap
The sharpest inventors
Guys who have memorized whole maps

I’ve dazzled a few naysayers
With my own creations
Multiply me by millions
That’s what’s inside these plantations

Untapped raw potential
Undiscovered genius
But because of razor wire and walls
None of y’all have seen us

Most are here because of
Lack of opportunity
Lack of developments resources
Out in their communities

So they discovered their abilities
Only after they fell
Isolated they flourished
Blossomed like roses grown in cells

In here they found their voices
While out there they were silent
The average one in here
Would shut down AMERICA’S GOT TALENT

So if you wanna see ability
Come peer inside these cracks
These prisons are facilities
Overrun with young gifted and Black