Get all 17 QueenEarth releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Never Leave Quietly, Odo Nnyew Fie Kwan (Love Never Loses Its Way Home) V, Babymaking Music (Volume IV), Queer Core: Songs for Isolation III, Open Mic, Queer Core: Behind the Music, Anna Mae, Queer Core, and 9 more.
1. |
Subject Matter Expert
01:21
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I show up
Nice Clothes
Talk a good game
Domain knowledge
Soft skills
Subject matter expert
All of it
Sales pitch it to you
Train it
teach it too
Build it
Make it beautiful
Spill it
Tell the story
And the strategy
If you want me too
Lay across these lines
Of the product and the service
It’s all words
In the weeds
Or at 30,000 feet
All this jargon
Just a test
To see I can speak
Your language
I code switch without anguish
Double consciousness
When rent turns to mortgage
We can’t plan on broken promises
From the boardroom to the block
Be consistent when you stand
When you got
The gift of gab
And a mic up in your hand
Cardboard dreams
Dancing in my head
Spray the can
With some hip hop
In your hands
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2. |
Queer Core
03:55
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Queer Core
By QueenEarth
They call me something
My ancestors never woulda claimed
“Nigga”
“Queer”
It’s not the same
When you’re raised for a world that don’t exist
No amount of experience
Can prepare you for this,
they scare you for this
With tales of “back in my day”
But we don’t run
And we don’t hide
I hope we have a future to say the same
With global warming and missile soarings
The curve is soaring up to the sky
And i just
Stay home and dig in the dirt like my granddaddy
back in his time
Maybe nothing’s changed
Whether or not they get me
They too 90° for my 360°
I’m too blue collar for their gentry
Clap your hands if you’re with me
If they cock they head on your entry
Queer to the Core
What you writing for?
Queer to the Core
Who you fighting for?
Stone Butch Blues
Womanism
Feminism Suffrage
Ta Nehisi Coates
Dropping knowledge in my syllabus
They try to pit me against me
The core of the constitution written not to fit me
Send me agendas
Conspiracies
Fact checking triggering
Asking me to split my soul
And weigh the worst of suffering
Reparations
Segregation
Stonewall uncoverings
And lies was told
Now a statistic missing from your interest list
We play in the blind space where you can’t see
Making music in your bell curve
X to your Y
How you draw lines without me?
Maybe nothings’ changed
Whether or not they get me
I’m too shiny for the ashy
I ain’t even tryn
The glitter it just finds me
If you gone put me in the story
Let me define me
Queer to the Core
What you writing for?
Queer to the Core
Who you fighting for?
Words hold power
Labels
Stories as well
So what you gonna spell?
With Black girl Magic
In your coattails
Griots in your blood
Chalk lines
Hip hop disco
Black Moses
West like San Francisco
Come up for the Kinfolk
Miss me with the”Oh wells”
Promises and wishing wells
Diggin deep enough to flood the street
We make our own pails
Bootstraps
Underneath the table
Pay my Black tax
Call in Queer
Sck day on my period
Redlines
And no call backs
LLC imperative
Got a coat rack full o’ hats
Which one I’m wearing when you call
You wonder how I got it
And since you not the plug
you gon pay me if you want it
I take it off when the phone clicks
Knowledge
Charge you for the game
Taken from my ancestors
Unapologetically
Maybe nothings changed
Still they won’t silence me
But they use me in their marketing
What?
Queer to the Core
What you writing for?
Queer to the Core
Who you fighting for?
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3. |
Anna Mae
03:33
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It was a season
Between lay offs
And laying around
She met me in my wife beater
But what’s love got to do
When you’re the new girl in town
In take a village just to feed yuh
So I took my gentle hand to be a gentleman
To another queen
She was the elders daughter
She got up to leave
I couldn’t chase
Joker joker deuce ace
She coudlnt play
It wasn’t meant to be
The new girl watched my world
Turn upside down
I hit the aux yo
It was R&B now
Sad songs
The queen left
Before she got to eat
The new girl had a plate
Did my dishes
Bid me peace
Anna Mae
My hands I’ll only
Lay on yout in love
You stayed around to watch me
Put away the guns
Gave me peace in fall
The softest touch
I cook she like to clean
Anna Mae
Anna Mae
I’ll always eat the cake
I’ll always eat the cake
So what you think
Maybe goin half on 1st month’s rent
And drafting up a lease
Consolidating wares and cats
Cut your hair
Didn’t know that in the Spring
The dopeboys would be out like that
Happy in our bubble
Locked the door
I threw the mattress down the stairs
But God ever closes a door
Without opening a window
sp we got a dog
And got the F**k up outta there
YEAH
The sun came out
Higher rent
Smaller space
Backyard to tie a dog
New BBQs to make
New dishes
More to clean
Means more to taste
Ooh
And those meals got so delicious
Found bigger dreams
Asked my first
Samurai
And stars chase
Universe in my hands
Found recipes to bake
But nothing’s
Quite as sweet
as the lovin
that we make, Anna Mae
Anna Mae
Anna Mae
I’ll always eat the cake
I’ll always eat the cake
10% down
Front porch to sit on now
When the sun goes down
And the chopper’s fly around
Silence in the distance
Rentals in the cue
Stackin bread with you
Gave up gluten for these nups
If this is better for health
Then we should keep it up
Doing better deeds with you
See the land
Already claimed
We write down all our wishes
You fill my day with kisses
Between hustlin and business
Build a table in a week
For when we make a feast
Heavy food and gravy
Hustlin in the kitchen
Keep Cyrus out the way
I love you Queen
The most
Doin business
Anna Mae
You give me songs to sing
Anna Mae
Anna Mae
I’ll always eat the cake
I’ll always eat the cake
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4. |
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Written for a podcast, but not chosen. With not regrets and nothing but a gift of an opportunity, I look forward to the harvest for all of us. #collared
This song is one of my stories when I do Queer Core. I come from Southern roots, gospel music, soul food, and cast iron pancakes. I have learned to say enslaved instead of slave, as language is powerful. A slave has no past and no potential. An enslaved person is human and placed in captivity. How shall I refer to my roots? We are called to walk in faith, to till the Earth, and to hold onto the legacy from before captivity.
I hope you enjoy this ode to the musical roots, especially the ones that came from my mother. Unchained. Free. Faith filled. Blessed. Check out this bathroom/ closet flow remix. I decided to share this one early, in honor of all the folks who cannot gather to celebrate their loved ones passing into ancestry during Coronavirus 2020.
lyrics
I stand before my maker
They are between
Me and the darkness
Always
Before and after
I stand between
Heaven and earth
Roots planted
And when they called
I wasn’t afraid to answer
Collared (I wasn’t afraid)
I kneel to pray
Plant these seeds of faith
Lessons
Dirt on my face
I kneel between
The hardest ground
The softest dirt
No empty pursuits
Plenty of food
A harvest
Harvest
Blood of Queens
Blood of Slaves
Out of the darkness
Break these chains
Blood of Queens
Blood of Slaves
Out of the darkness
Break these chains
Collared (I wasn’t afraid)
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5. |
Blue Eyes Brown Eyes
03:15
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blue eyes
and brown eyes
they don't see the world in the same light
do thin lips start their morning
with bitter coffee
and judge me for the sugar
my full lips
would rather taste?
Can you see me in full color?
do you wish for simpler days?
i can't go back
the past was harder
can you do more than look away?
blue eyes
and brown eyes
too often
i see stories
morning news
burn the page
bury my control in the cushions
turning it off
is as simple as the
pushing of a button
I find excuses
not to change
can you see me
in full color?
can you do more than look away?
blue eyes
and brown eyes
I didn't believe in fantasy
you brought me Magic
you brought me Grace
and blue eyes and brown eyes
watch us
will they watch us break?
blue eyes
and brown eyes
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6. |
Naked Truths
03:04
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Damn
Naked Truths
Lay with you
All these trips
Out of town
What’s really good
You duckin’ dodging me
I’m holding down the fort
Dreaming of
Harvests and progeny
You loggin miles in your black book
Passport stamps
There’s words for women like you
I’d never call you a . . .
Damn
Posting pictures of a smile
That we had to pose to take
You block my calls
So folks can like
What they see
They pictures that we take
When I’m out of town
In silence
And I drop you off at Reagen
The queen of checkin in
She ain’t posting any mentions
Where were you?
Don't want no talk
Take our clothes off
Naked truths lay with you
(Tell me the truth
Or I don’t want to talk to you)
Naked truths lay with you
I hear you talking to me babe
Your story ‘s running in and out of places
You ain’t supposed to be
So why you lie to me
I’m not running from you babe
I’m going to my happy place
This dungeon ain’t for me
So call me when it’s clean
And the beast leaves
Don't want no talk
Take our clothes off
Naked truths lay with you
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7. |
Dear Love
04:16
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Dear love
How’d you like to spend today?
I wiped my schedule clean
Meetings got erased
Dear love
Order up some food
No dishes in the sink
how ‘d you like to spend today
Windows open
Service
The neighbors
Think we pray
How’d you like to
Spend today
How’d you like to spend today
Dear love
Dear love
Can’t say that I’ve ever felt this way
So loved
So safe
And you give me the same
This love
Baby it’s the best I’ve ever made
And since it’s only getting better
Let’s just focus and create
I know what you’ll say
If I ask you babe
I know what you’ll say
When I ask you babe
How you wanna
spend today?
How you wanna
How you wanna
How you wanna spend today?
Dear love
Dear love
Can’t say that I’ve ever felt this way
How you wanna spend today?
Dear love
It you answer “nothing”
That’s okay
cus
I just wanna spend today
With you
With you
Dear love
How’d you like to spend today?
Dear love
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8. |
Move 1.0
03:14
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Since the beginning
Of fime, as far as the eye can see
We use stories to tell our legacy
That’s why
Between time ticks,
across land and seas
the problem?
his story
it wasn’t checkin for me
And silene and ommission-ing,
is far worse then a voice
and a positioning
That’s a gift man
And everywhere we go
man we're different
Everywhere you go shit is different
New rules same game
Ain’t shit done changed
They wrote the handbook without you
Ain’t got a seat
At the table for a player
About you
So what you bout to do?
This ain’t your place
No house rules
And everywhere you go
man it’s different
Everywhere you go
shit is different.
What you doin standin still
You’re supposed to move
What you doin standin still
You’re supposed to move
Wake up in the morning
Grab my phone from the night stand
Tryna make an overnight hundred grand
But the market is red
if ida spent a little sooner
Whispers in the valley
Had no green back then to do it
I wanna buy the block
Grow a little crypto
Staring at the screen won’t make
the time a faster tick
They say to save for rainy days
I had a season full of Aprils
And the well went dry
Holding hard won’t make the rocket
hit the moon tho
But damn if I don’t try
Something better happen soon
I got dreams to leave this corner
and I just parked my car
It was perfect in the winter
when the sun was far away
Daylight savings time
Means business hours are longer
Where the dope boys like to play
I wish they had a better way
But not outside my door
I want it different
When it happens close to home
That shit is different
There’s blood in these streets
What you doin standin still
You’re supposed to move
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9. |
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This is the ONLY instrumental on Queer Core: Behind the Music
I started the year with sounds and speechlessness. I ended with an album full of honest lyrics. I am thankful for this opportunity to share my gifts with the Baltimore theatre community, and for the ache to push through, even when my mouth could no longer suffice. I love making beats and scores.
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10. |
The Pill
04:43
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VERSE 1
searching for the perfect snare
to make the dopest instrumental
grew up modest
now I got a piss pot and a window
plain clothes
good indo
no purse to snatch
no intentional walk down
streets that blacks
not lit up
Yo, these people are my kinfolks
taking neighborly advice
from a man that rolls that dice
everyday
taking chances, advances
is it slow to me
he thinks
I’m moving twice as fast
cus I'm nice when I grab the mic
30 years ago
this used to be the central
so I listen when I have the time to pass
long body
white walls
music bumpin to a tempo
deep bass
I see faces like mine
and money moving through these hands
that built these roads
and etched somebody else's story
into the signs and temples
when we get to make our own beats
get to make and own these streets
the roads that we walk
tip our hat off to the misses
and the elders when they pass
sample stories from grandma's dreams
broken glass and dirty dishes
lets go
VERSE 2
I think about my mother's hands
when I stir cheese grits
flip pancakes as big as the skillet
everytime I freestyle, I will the stories
of 7 generations
ask me how I spill it
they try to kill Black voices
and call this gift an illness
the people make a choice to feel it
this is the pill they charge you for
cause Black trauma slaps
cracks like the whip on Tobe's back
a drama to record
watch it with the family
Roots
It's the same as the news
insurrections
the change is coming slow for people that
look like you
and the charges they don't add up
so I stay Grounded with a
direct electrical connection
find an 808 and move my
pen in that direction
take a breathe and
speak with some intention
truth
when your body is showing up
and your head is unscrewed
the best medicine is right
back up in the booth
I used to dream of having my own mic
but now's there’s no excuse
got the pedals in my hand
these are all my notes and grooves
stay soulful
VERSE 3
Good ol days
when was that
Asking me to go back in time
messin up what I know Doc Brown would be against
fucking with time
wasted
capitalism
asks you to be patient
to breathe while they standing on your neck
but you're asking for your check and you worked last week
and you grew up on this block
and 30 years layer yo, you look mad suspicious
during through and testing out the old root
like you casing out the riches
if you knock on the door to have a moment in the bedroom
where you made your first childhood wishes
will you leave wit your face on the concrete
swinging from a tree that you planted
they'll call you crazy
say you look far from home
and you need to leave the premises
i wonder if grandma's refrigerator still running in the basement
or if they got rid of it
built to last.
i take you on a tour
over a river and through the wood, uh
where I lost my innocence
where I ran the bases
hit home runs
shit was mad ridiculous
lifeguards, before my burdens
were these middle aged bills
I wanted so badly to get rid of it
my childhood
I'm missin it.
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11. |
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QueenEarth
It hurts to be misunderstood
When you’re tryna see yourself
The reflection aint’t no good
And you’re lost in the crowd
Wish you could
Break the glass and get out
But the ceiling’s
covered in your dreams
And you’re afraid to shatter
Never considered
A plan
That was bigger than any you’d imagine
For yourself or your path
Wide lines
Skyways
Highways
Silencing yourself
From being verbose
Listening to so called friends
Who assess your thoughts as grandiose
And you’re walking in a vision
Just as long as your were in prison
But on this side of freedom
You’re walking in the light and better days
Bout to catch a flight
Quicker than the drive
you thought you’d have to take
If you want to grow
Go this way
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QueenEarth Baltimore, Maryland
QueenEarth is an acoustic singer/songwriter and emcee. She shares her music through events for social justice and community education. Her showcase, QueerCore: Behind the Music, was created to make safe space and feature stories of LGBT heroes, audiences, and allies. ... more
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