"Follow the Gourd"

[Verse 1]
They said the research wasn't ready for us.
We said we been ready.
Look up.

[Chorus]
Look up, the ladle lit, it's pointin' north
Four days in the hills, we went back to the source
They ran the trials and we wasn't in the room
So we built our own table and we set it by the moon
(Follow the gourd) through the fog and the pines
(Follow the gourd) bring your kin, bring your lines
(Follow the gourd) we ain't beggin' for a seat
Black medicine, Black hands, set the plates, let's eat

[Verse 2]
Fog on the hills like a robe on a priest
Eucalyptus in the air, the whole East Bay released
I done sat in the rooms where the white coats preach
"Set and setting," never asked what my setting was to me
They ran the trials, put the findings in a journal
Sample size small, we was footnote, not the kernel
Funny how they mapped the mind and missed the bloodline
Charted every neuron, never charted my time
So I'm done waitin' on a grant or a board vote
We was carryin' this water 'fore they ever wrote a note
Harm reduction in the church van, Narcan in the glove box
Grandmama's prayer on the dashboard, love don't stop

[Chorus]
Look up, the ladle lit, it's pointin' north
Four days in the hills, we went back to the source
They ran the trials and we wasn't in the room
So we built our own table and we set it by the moon
(Follow the gourd) through the fog and the pines
(Follow the gourd) bring your kin, bring your lines
(Follow the gourd) we ain't beggin' for a seat
Black medicine, Black hands, set the plates, let's eat

[Verse 3]
Root from Gabon where the Bwiti drum talk
The painter met the iboga, now the canvas can walk
Cross the water to the Cape where the dreamers keep the fire
Isangoma throw the bones and call your name a little higher
Medicine ain't a product, it's a lineage, a debt
It's the elders and the forest and the vows that you kept
Not a weekend at a villa, not a microdose brunch
We came here to do the work, we came here to cook lunch
Kitchen's on the syllabus, the table is the text
Wash a dish, pass the greens, ask who's carryin' what's next
Huts on the hillside, tent if you want it
Come as a whole person, bring the parts you ain't fronted

[Chorus]
Look up, the ladle lit, it's pointin' north
Four days in the hills, we went back to the source
They ran the trials and we wasn't in the room
So we built our own table and we set it by the moon
(Follow the gourd) through the fog and the pines
(Follow the gourd) bring your kin, bring your lines
(Follow the gourd) we ain't beggin' for a seat
Black medicine, Black hands, set the plates, let's eat

[Verse 4]
Who carried it? We did
Through the water? We did
Through the fire? We did
Through the lab and the law and the liar? We did
Who's carryin' it now? We is
Who's carryin' it now? We is

[Chorus]
Look up, the ladle lit, it's pointin' north
Four days in the hills, we went back to the source
They ran the trials and we wasn't in the room
So we built our own table and we set it by the moon
(Follow the gourd) through the fog and the pines
(Follow the gourd) bring your kin, bring your lines
(Follow the gourd) we ain't beggin' for a seat
Black medicine, Black hands, set the plates, let's eat

[Verse 5]
Four threads: the body, the bottle, the doctor, the spirit
Pleasure got a lesson plan, consent, so make 'em hear it
Addiction ain't a sin, it's a story with a door
Told by folks who walked it, not who read about the floor
Medical: check the heart, check the script, know your history
Safety ain't the opposite of sacred, it's the ministry
Spirit thread's discernment, 'cause every voice ain't kin
Learn which knock to answer, learn which door to let in
Applications close the fifteenth of February
Scholarship seats for the ones the system buried
Payment plans for the ones who stretch a check
July in the hills, bring your questions, bring your debt

[Chorus]
Look up, the ladle lit, it's pointin' north
Four days in the hills, we went back to the source
They ran the trials and we wasn't in the room
So we built our own table and we set it by the moon
(Follow the gourd) through the fog and the pines
(Follow the gourd) bring your kin, bring your lines
(Follow the gourd) we ain't beggin' for a seat
Black medicine, Black hands, set the plates, let's eat

[Verse 6]
Follow the gourd.