Battle Cry

TRIGGER ALERT: Graphic Self Harm.

This is an amazingly powerful song. I watched the clip, cringed, identified, and watched it again.
It’s one of the most stunning pieces of lyrical honesty I’ve heard in a long time with an incredible message of strength and being your own salvation.

While I’m not usually a fan of female rappers, Angel Haze has this intensity and clarity in both her rhymes and her message that has me helplessly hooked. Everyone should hear this song, if the trigger alert is too much for you (& it is confronting, especially if you, like me, have history) then I’d advise you to press play and scroll down or at least read the lyrics under the cut. Her words are unflinchingly honest and saturated in genuine meaning.

Battle Cry

Angel Haze ft. Sia

[Sia]
Money cannot buy
All the love that’s here tonight
All the love that’s here tonight
Ouh-ouh
It’s just you and I
So lift your hands toward the sky
Lift your hands toward the sky
Ouh-ouh

[Angel Haze]
It seems like yesterday that I was nothin’
Then all of a sudden I’m a volcanic eruption
Then all of a sudden it’s like spontaneous combustion
And I’m all up in your face yellin’: “Bitch, you can tell me nothin’.”
Cause I came from the bottom, now everybody’s watchin’
I said it was my time, now I’m who everybody’s clockin’
And I’m just out here sprintin’, I’m runnin’ right through my vision
I’m trying to outrun my past, but still trying to defeat my limits
Cause you only get one moment in this life to be great
And you can give it your all despite what it takes
And you never let ’em kill you, you take everything they give you
And throw it right fuckin’ at ’em and tell ’em it doesn’t build you
And no it don’t ever break you, and no it can’t overtake you
Life’s like a bed of roses, you take the thorns and you make do
Sometimes you have to hurt for the cause to be reached
But one day you’ll be stronger than all that you beat
And you can say

[Sia]
Money cannot buy
All the love that’s here tonight
All the love that’s here tonight
Ouh-ouh
It’s just you and I
So lift your hands toward the sky
Lift your hands toward the sky
Ouh-ouh

[Angel Haze]
I woke up one Sunday morning, stopped believing in Jesus
Stopped believing in churches, I stopped believing in preachers
I realized I was a teacher, not just one of the heathens
I’m born to destroy the fallacies, start creating believers
Start creating the leaders, tell ’em who they should follow
Nobody but themselves, especially if they hollow
Especially when they empty and death reserves for fulfillment
You the only person alive who holds the key to your healin’
So you take it and you run with it
And keep going even when your sun’s hidden
Because the time we spent in darkness when the rain come
Is where we often find the light soon as the pain’s done
There ain’t no material things in the world
That can change the fact that you feel alone
Despite the fact that it gets hard,
You take it all and you still go
Take the sun and you still grow,
Lose the light and you still glow
I been there, I’m still here and I know how you feel, so

[Sia]
Money cannot buy
All the love that’s here tonight
All the love that’s here tonight
Ouh-ouh
It’s just you and I
So lift your hands toward the sky
Lift your hands toward the sky
Ouh-ouh

[Bridge]
We don’t wanna fight
So sing with me your battle cry
Sing with me your battle cry
Ouh-ouh
Money cannot buy
All the love that’s here tonight
All the love that’s here tonight
Ouh-ouh

[Angel Haze]
It’s hard to explain my way of living to people who never lived it
A minute in my position filled with my opposition
That anybody not different fighting to stay the same
I got lives in my hands and I’m fighting to make ’em change
Couldn’t accept responsibility, find somebody to blame
The emotions that I’m harboring ’bout to drive me insane
Tried to say fuck everything, but I ain’t have a heart to
Rarely had a heart to do a lot of things I ought to
So now I spit it for people who say their cords missing
Inspire life into anybody that’s forfeiting
Cause it’s easy to keep pretending that there’s nothing wrong
But it’s harder to keep your head up and be fucking strong
So, now they’re telling me, “Go, Haze, they can’t stop you.
Heavyweight flow, if they can’t lift you then they can’t drop you
The pinnacle, if they can’t reach you then they can’t top you
Man, they can’t do anything that you’re about to.”

[Sia]
Money cannot buy
All the love that’s here tonight
All the love that’s here tonight
Ouh-ouh
It’s just you and I
So lift your hands toward the sky
Lift your hands toward the sky
Ouh-ouh

We don’t wanna fight
So sing with me your battle cry
Sing with me your battle cry
Ouh-ouh
Money cannot buy
All the love that’s here tonight
All the love that’s here tonight
Ouh-ouh