Black Ocean Video (MV)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter twisted lies
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still like dust I'll rise

Did you want to see me broken
Bowed head and lowered eyes
Shoulders falling down like teardrops
Weakened by my soulful cries

You may shoot me with your words
You may cut me with your eyes
You may kill me with your hatefulness
But still like air I'll rise

Does my haughtiness offend you
Don't you take it so hard
Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard

Out of the huts of history's shame
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I'm a black ocean leaping and wide
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide
I rise
I rise
I rise

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave
I am the dream and the hope of the slave
I rise
I rise
I rise