“400 Years” Single

Description

‘400 Years’ is a critically acclaimed powerful black protest track and slavery legacy reminder. The song is accompanied by an impassioned official music video that sees its singer/producer/writer, Ruff Gr8ness, re-enacting the pain that his – and every black person born in North America or the Caribbean’s – slave ancestors endured. The song and video connect the kidnapping of black people from the continent of Africa, their enslavement in the American colonies, as they toiled as indentured servants picking crops such as tobacco and cotton, to post-emancipation proclamation methods of oppressing them. The video attempts to show how plantation slaves suffered living in inhumane conditions and how modern-day black people are still prone to inhumane treatment.

Part of the proceeds from “400 YEARS” will be donated to Black Lives Matter (Toronto), where Ruff Gr8ness is based, and other organizations that advocate for non-violent protest against all racially motivated violence and systematic racism against black people.

RUFF GR8NESS – 400 YEARS [LYRICS]

INTRO:
Yeah
You aint know what we do man
This one, we gon black out
Straight
It blacker than a mother
Ya dig?
Aight

CHORUS:
The chain on me put me to work
Blooding my back
Rip up my shirt
Let it be, my fingers hurt
400 YEARS
Feel the pain growing bigger yeah
Feel the pain growing bigger yeah
Feel the pain in my neck again
Feel the pain in my neck again
Now it’s pain in the duffle bag
Only pain in the duffle bag
Now you wonder why I bang bang
So, you wonder why I bang bang

VERSE 1:
Some people don’t like what I do
But I love what I do
could give a WHAT about you
And people don’t like what I say
But I say anyway
Coz that’s how I stay
Tell me, how you gon fly
If you scared of heights
And tell me, how you gon ride
If you scared to die

CHORUS:
The chain on me put me to work
Blooding my back
Rip up my shirt
Let it be, my fingers hurt
400 YEARS
Feel the pain growing bigger yeah
Feel the pain growing bigger yeah
Feel the pain in my neck again
Feel the pain in my neck again
Now it’s pain in the duffle bag
Only pain in the duffle bag
Now you wonder why I bang bang
So, you wonder why I bang bang

VERSE 2:
On your daddy back
hear the whip crack
Yet still it’s me that you’re grillin
Instead of the fro-grow
You let the snow blow
Now you call yourself a ‘G’ tho
Tell me, how we gon rise
You can’t stand with I
And tell me, how you gon try
If you’re scared to try

CHORUS:
The chain on me put me to work
Blooding my back
Rip up my shirt
Let it be, my fingers hurt
400 YEARS
Feel the pain growing bigger yeah
Feel the pain growing bigger yeah
Feel the pain in my neck again
Feel the pain in my neck again
Now it’s pain in the duffle bag
Only pain in the duffle bag
And you wonder why I bang bang
So, you wonder why I bang bang