Shades (feat. Chrisette Michele)

(Beautiful boy, beautiful boy)

(Beautiful boy, beautiful boy)

(Beautiful boy, beautiful boy)

(Beautiful)

Uh, chip on my shoulder big enough to feed Cambodia

See, I never fit into they quotas

Sneakers wasn't fitting and my knees needed lotion

Long before I knew the significance of a comb

I roam like foam with no vocal reception

Immigrant parents had me feeling like a stepkid

And black Americans never did accept me

That's why I thrive so much when I'm respected

I never fit in with them light-skins, I felt the

Lighter they was, the better that they life is

So I resented them and they resented me

Cheated on light-skinned Dominique when we was seventeen

I figured I hurt her, she evidently hurt me

And all women who had light features, see

I never let a light broad hurt me

That's why I strike first and the first cut's deep

From a light-skinned girl to a dark-skinned brother

Shade doesn't matter, heart makes the lover

Boy, you're so beautiful, boy, you're so beautiful

Shade doesn't matter, heart makes the lover

Honey light, caramel

Coffee brown, chocolate

Toffee, pecan

Licorice, boy, you're so beautiful

Just another knotty head ****

Hoping Wes Snipes make my life a bit different

At middle school I had the right to be timid

I had beautiful words but girls never listened

Listen, blacker the berry, sweeter the product

Well I'm fruit punch concentrate and they water

Walk into my room, thinking how to make moves

Ain't thinking like a student, but how Ice-T do it?

Light dudes had the girls looking there

Ah, yeah, it's not fair, the ones with the good hair

Couldn't adapt to naps, I waved cap

They napped and slept on me, man, I hate black

Skin tone, I wish I could take it back

Or rearrange my status, maybe if I was khaki

Associating light skin with classy

The Minstrel Show showing me that was not me

From a light-skinned girl to a dark-skinned brother

Shade doesn't matter, heart makes the lover

Boy, you're so beautiful, boy, you're so beautiful

Shade doesn't matter, heart makes the lover

Honey light, caramel

Coffee brown, chocolate

Toffee, pecan

Licorice, boy, you're so beautiful

They say black is beautiful but ask them beautiful light girls

If it's black they attract to usually

What if Barack's skin was all black, truthfully?

Would he be a candidate, or just a black in community

Because black dudes tend to lack unity

And them blacker girls ain't on it, too, usually

Right now, at twenty-three, I ain't mad at them reds no more

But for a long time, I had gone cold

Blindfold and my own insecurity was holding me

Back to reds, I didn't know how to act

They would get the cold shoulder and though it was an act

A defense mechanism, what I thought that I lacked

Compliments

From a light-skinned girl to a dark-skinned brother

Shade doesn't matter, heart makes the lover

Boy, you're so beautiful, boy, you're so beautiful

Shade doesn't matter, heart makes the lover

Honey light, caramel

Coffee brown, chocolate

Toffee, pecan

Licorice, boy, you're so beautiful