Boots on the gravel 'fore the sun even crest Somethin' on my heels and it never let me rest Can't tell you what it is, can't describe how it's dressed Just a shadow with a hunger and a debt to collect I been runnin' since a child, since the day I could walk Tay handed me a pistol like a key to a lock Said "boy, don't you stop, don't you slow, don't you talk To the thing on your back 'cause the thing only stalks" Through the cotton, through the city, through the decades of dust I been movin' like a fugitive from a verdict unjust Never named, never charged, but I'm guilty 'cause I must Be, the cops hate us niggas, we can neve be trustin' "Rain start fallin' but I cannot find shelter Mud on my ankles but my soul will never welter And the thing behind me growin' I can feel the flames swelter Helter skelter, nigga, go find shelter" I done lost some brothers on this everlasting run Watched 'em stop to catch a breath and the demon was done With the chasin' and the patience, just a flash of a gun And I couldn't even grieve 'cause to grieving means they won So I kept on movin' forward, steppin' over the adored Whisperin' sorry brother, but time I cannot afford Grief gettin' compressed in the chamber that I store Cause a man who stop to mourn is a man the demon scores "Rain start fallin' but I cannot find shelter Mud on my ankles but my soul will never welter And the thing behind me growin' I can feel the flames swelter Helter skelter, nigga, go find shelter" But sometimes when the road get quiet and long I let myself imagine where I really belong A little house with a porch and a old school song Playin' soft in the kitchen where my family sings along I see my mama in a rocker with her eyes full of peace I see my kids in the yard and the laughter never cease A woman by the stove and the worry just release A Sunday with no sirens and my nerves at ease "Rain start fallin' but I cannot find shelter Mud on my ankles but my soul will never welter And the thing behind me growin' I can feel the flames swelter Helter skelter, nigga, go find shelter" But the dream don't last 'cause the dream ain't mine It evaporate the second that I cross the next line The porch turn to pavement, the family to a sign That say "keep it movin', nigga, you can't go back in time" Maybe it's the devil, maybe it's my sin Maybe it's the choices that I made way back when Maybe it's the color of my skin In a country that been huntin' me since the country began I'ma run 'til I can't, 'til the legs finally fold 'Til the demon finally catch me and my story is finally told And maybe in that moment when my body's finally cold I'll find out what it wanted, before it takes my soul "Rain start fallin' but I cannot find shelter Mud on my ankles but my soul will never welter And the thing behind me growin' I can feel the flames swelter Helter skelter, nigga, go find shelter"
