Can't Let It Go

I been growing up with choirs
Souls of black folk i been growing up inspired
I thought we had the answers
We was singing the Negro National Anthem-the chorus and the vamping
Sometimes 3-4 hours
But it went like minutes with that feeling in the crowd
Everybody known by they first name
You gon stay loyal by your church name
Keep up with suit game, like we stepping out
Boy you better preach that, girl you better shout
Reading from the King James, with a different language
Brand new member but you never met a stranger
Find me by the drum set nodding to the pocket
Momma hit that high note- we up like a rocket
The devil can't stay round here
Trouble don't last always round here

I can't let it go
(Take-Take me to that old time church)

But trouble find a way
There's a midnight hour for every brighter day
Lemme light the way-I'm show you tears
Hope that when you seen them, I'm show you mirrors
We was kids but we could see the cracks
Like when you lost 40 pounds wrestling with crack
I saw you take money from the widow to furnish up your windows
Sleeping with the widow, stepping on a primrose
I ain't have no offering till you told me God wanted more
So been sleeping on the floor
As I advanced, so did older women's compliments
Dropping hints like, come give your aunt a kiss
I saw your deacons spitting game to my moms
Then you taught my dad just stay faithful to God
I been growing up with choirs-gay men leading songs
Treated like family until they started talking
I saw this too often-now it's feeling awkward
Cuz it's still a part of me the beauty and the cautions
Ain't no on and off switch wouldn't change those times
Something deep inside me come alive

How I got over, how I got over this
How can I open this chapter and close it blessed
Cuz it been tried and true-people complex on some real
Talk about Christ paid debts on some real
That old time religion put some watchmen on the wall
The mothers of the church know he hear them when they call
I'm speaking on some trauma to triumph
To tryna iron out complexity while still preserving honor
It's homage-the black struggle is tradition
The black church showed me how to live it
And I can't let it go, gotta hold on
Through all of the pain we see, we gotta go on
Climbing the rough side-we gon get home
We gon make it there-cuz we not alone