Verse 1
Some men grow taller than others /Leaving their brothers to saunter in the darkness that their shadow will cover/It is as though they tower above us like mountainous structures/Their shoulders are boulders for us to reach new ground to discover /It’s like they’re hewn with granite the way they do the outlandish/And we view them do it all we do is take them for granted /They become our idols we affix our eyes//These are the men who taught us means for survival/Frederick and Booker marched up from slavery/The treasure’s how they shook up oppression and the shame it brings/Du Bois and Marcus taught us when our souls were languishing/Malcolm and Martin taught us what dreaming in the day could bring/El Hajj Malik el Shabazz, his journey has passed/MLK is in the grave, we learn from the past/But perhaps, the purchase of X embroidered caps can be like unto the worship of calves/Golden, sculpted in smoldering fire in ash/Molded in our hope of how they would inspire our path/But in mistaken instances, we place our emphasis/On making unto ourselves graven images/And satisfy our pagan interest in/Making idols of all of our sacred gentlemen/They were here, but now they are gone again/They were men, but they became our monuments
Verse 2
Some men never grow up, so they never stand tall/They cruise in strollers, they may walk and then crawl/But they’re has stalled, they are engrossed/And its reflected in how they have chosen to walk/Tottering hesitantly, they walk unsteadily/Leaving mothers to tend to toddlers’ incessant needs/And rob their children of father’s legacy/This type of behavior makes it hard on everything/Absent on birthdays, school recitals, and church games/Ball games, graduations and first dates/I know a brother whose mother took to harder liquor/Jack Daniels and Sam Adams was his father figure/His father was no model, he was a coward who ran/Leaving him to figure out what would amount to a man/Listening to the world left him with thousands of plans/Like men work until they die, that’s the way they’re telling it/So they will follow ambition down a road of yellow bricks/But if you listen, pay attention, it isn’t that odd/They are victims imprisoned by the Wizard of Oz/Until they pull that curtain realize that isn’t of God/And neither is its refrain/But many of them live heartless and die like they’ve got no brain/See some live lives worthy of monuments/Others run and hide, and leave their children fatherless
Verse 3
I stand above you now, but there will come a day that you grow taller than me/And the time that falls in between, I pray I show you life for what it is, and all it could be/It’s rarely as hard as it seems/Love God, and love people is what the prophets and law will decree/I give it unto you like it was taught onto me/That you might stand on my shoulders and reach farther than me/Allow your father to speak/Timothy, I gave you my name not as a means of honoring me, but as a charge to honor God with all that you breathe/Put your life in God’s hands, allow the Potter to knead/What He starts he completes/My namesake, I was raised in the way I should go with pain stake/And now that I’m old, I’m training you to walk in the same way/Walk with God, endeavor to keep the same pace/But for me, this life has been no crystal stair/I’ve had some parts with no carpet and bare/But in those times I saw the Almighty was there/Even when it seemed that His presences was scare/In your veins is the blood of those who’ve overcome/Your skin is bronzed by the golden glow of the son/You are royalty son, nobly one/So take heed to the words that your father does share/Above your head there’s a crown that you’ll grow tall enough to wear/Above your head, there’s a crown that you’ll grow tall enough to wear
