As artists we put a lot of intention, energy, and attention to detail into our work. And as parents we’re still figuring out how to make time for our expressions…y’nah mean? We’ve poured so MUCH time, heart, and soul into this piece y’all!
This is for the ancestral wisdom keepers, the indigenous revolutionaries, the courageous healers, scientists, doctors, and leaders challenging pasteurian/pastoral norms, the earth guardians and nature stewards, our elders, our families, our communities, our ancestors, our youth, and the torch passed onto us that is still burning within a flame that we feed to grow strong every day.
This means you, doing the work to reclaim your life! Thank you for the ways that you show up in the world, we hope this song is fuel for your power!
Alternative places to find Ancestral Traditions
Lyrics
Pre-Chorus
They try to wipe out our wisdom
But they couldn’t take away the flavor
You know it when you taste it
It’s that richness that you savor
Chorus
Ancestral Traditions
Cooking up in grandma’s kitchen
It’s the food and the medicine
By the roots we’ve been given
Ancestral Traditions
Cooking up in grandma’s kitchen
It’s the way we be nourishing
Our roots as we’re living
Ife’s Verse
Everybody always talking ’bout peace
Trying to live in the light ’til the day that they cease
Trying to
Reclaim their culture
Release the vultures
Sing out, no falter
Walk on earth softer
But who here really talking ’bout place?
The race to pace our deepest lace with grace
Nurturing space
Re-wilding aims
Community based
With symbiotic claims
Cuz, wherever you are you’re on land
Roots peak by deepening
Indigenous as native in this life
Homesteading the earth in your sight
Speak it
Into light, don’t let fade your might
‘Cuz there’s an illusion evolving into flow from fright
Into light, don’t let fade your might
‘Cuz there’s an illusion evolving into flow from fright
Ife’s Verse’s Hook
The beast of the machine
Tries to consume everything
But wants us to eat it’s waste
The oils of industry
The plantation’s been transformed
Into your drug and grocery store
Your addiction to convenience
Keeps you wanting more
Ife’s Verse Continued
Of what? Canola, soy
Get a little fancy with some grapeseed oil?
Anything except what you can make yourself
They make it in a factory and call it health
But we know better
Indigenous mind never truly tethered
Never truly lost
No other cause keeping us from
Reclaiming our wisdom
‘Round wellness
‘Round wealth
‘Round peace
‘Round self
In interrelation with all
Recognizing the cyclical
Nature of Life
Sacred right
Of reclaiming the fight as guardian
And part with the whim to do anything other than settle in and nurture you kin
Pre-Chorus
They try to wipe out our wisdom
But they couldn’t take away the flavor
You know it when you taste it
It’s that richness that you savor
Chorus
Ancestral Traditions
Cooking up in grandma’s kitchen
It’s the food and the medicine
By the roots we’ve been given
Ancestral Traditions
Cooking up in grandma’s kitchen
It’s the way we be nourishing
Our roots as we’re living
Lev’s Verse
Deep within my essence
There’s a yearning for connection
To the eternal presence
Of my spirit pre-concepted
Which lived through my ancestors
Into me now manifested
Voices within direct me from the lies I’ve been injected
Colonized minds the real infection
Of religious misconception
Covering the eyes of the collective
From an indigenous resurrection
These voices of direction
Give me guidance and protection
When my actions need correction
They come to help me learn my lessons
The blessings I be ingesting
Come from those already resting
In the earth
We doing work
For the fruits I be harvesting
I give my offerings of reverence
That’s how I pay my respect
And I give them all my honor
’til I return to their dimension
While I’m living it’s my mission
To reclaim ancestral wisdom
From this system built on sickness
Slavery of corporate business
Pimping riches off the sickest
Killing you slow is their intention
Your dependence and consent
Is the pretense for their incentive
While they pretending they defending
Public health in your best interest
Then they hit you with that sales pitch
“Vaccines are safe and effective”
But look at each generation
Getting sicker with the next one
Fear of death keeps us from living
The way
We are truly destined
To stay
Connected to the elements
The energetic dialectic
To awaken the innate intelligence
Fine tune the senses
Maintain with routine cleansing
Nourish the body, mind, and spirit
Before the disease has even entered
The cure already existed
Lev’s Verse’s Hook
So give me the herbs, the barks, the roots
Nose to tail – bones, the broths, the soups
Give me them wild fermented brews,
Mushrooms and heirloom seasonal fruits
So give me the herbs, the barks, the roots
Nose to tail – bones, the broths, the soups
Give me them wild fermented brews,
Mushrooms and heirloom seasonal fruits
Lev’s Verse Continued
Talking ’bout that good food you know?
Straight from your great great grandma’s
great great grandma’s
great great great great great grandma’s
Great great grandma’s kitchen
That food of substance
To get that replenishment
Before food like substances
Were even an invention
Ain’t nothing new under the sun
What the ancestors knew is still now relevant
Change your perspective when you realize
Modern disease can be prevented
When you eat what your ancestors were fed
Rotten teeth and birth defects end
Plant seeds in this incarnation
To secure a strong foundation
For the next generation’s elevation
Until you become the ancestor they celebrating
Chorus
Ancestral Traditions
Cooking up in grandma’s kitchen
It’s the food and the medicine
By the roots we’ve been given
Ancestral Traditions
Cooking up in grandma’s kitchen
It’s the way we be nourishing
Our roots as we’re living
Outro
Sometimes you gotta fast
You know there is time to feast
We can learn from the past
The cure comes before the disease
So bust out them old remedies
Whip up them old recipes
What you saved from what remains
From those who now rest in peace
