I’ve already featured a couple tracks from Brother Ali’s spectacular new album “Us.” Yet last night while I was writing a review for the album, I decided that I had to feature just one more track. Tight Rope is a lyrical storytelling masterpiece in which Brother Ali talks about the struggles of people forced to live multiple lives, dedicating verses to immigrants, children of divorced parents, and homosexuals. Click below to listen to Brother Ali’s Tight Rope:

And be sure to following along with the lyrics after the break.

[Verse 1]
Frigid, frozen, Minnesota/
Chip on his shoulder/
Six sleeping on a pissy sofa/
Unwanted visitor in a different culture/
Missing home and can’t go, they civil warring/
Listen soldier, forget getting over/
Prison sit around the corner/
Homelessness even closer/
Kids with similar skin color still don’t want ya/
Spinning in torture, ‘cause they been her longer/
You leave the crib it’s guaranteed the pigs approach ya/
‘Where you going? Where you from? Any weapons on ya?’/
Your family is stressed out, you’re getting older/
You don’t live the way they did back in Somalia/
It’s extra difficult to be a daughter/
Trying to keep it modest, the sin is all around ya/
Wear the wrong garment, your parents get an ulcer/
If you wrap it up the other children picking on ya/

[Chorus]
Living two worlds with your eyes closed/
Tiptoeing on a tight rope/
Holding on for survival/
Nobody to blame, that’s just how it goes/
Living two worlds with your eyes closed/
Tiptoeing on a tight rope/
Holding on for survival/
Nobody to blame, that’s just how it goes/

[Verse 2]
Holidays and you know what the business is/
You get two birthdays and two Christmases/
Older you get, you resent how sick it is/
They’re trying to cover their guilt with the gift they give/
Bounce from his house to her house/
To bad their marriage didn’t work out/
Now you don’t have a your house/
Daddy fighting mommy, they both tell me they love me/
If I get too close to one, the other one start acting funny/
Mom went and had a baby by a different dad/
You act happy to please him, but you’re really sad/
Seeing firsthand the family that you’ll never have/
Plus you ain’t no real brother, you’re just a half/
Gotta pick up the pieces and move on/
Bedtime stories they read ‘em on the phone/
Live in two houses and neither one is home/
Wishing you were grown had the freedom to get gone/

[Chorus]
Living two worlds with your eyes closed/
Tiptoeing on a tight rope/
Holding on for survival/
Nobody to blame, that’s just how it goes/
Living two worlds with your eyes closed/
Tiptoeing on a tight rope/
Holding on for survival/
Nobody to blame, that’s just how it goes/

[Verse 3]
Daddy was a preacher/
Mama was a Sunday school teacher/
Big brother football squad leader/
Now far be it for you to disappoint or displease ‘em/
You’re just being what you feel you see in/
The mirror every time you peer in/
Swallow the tears inside that empty feeling/
Her boy terrified to let the world in/
He has girl friends but doesn’t want a girlfriend/
He retreats inside himself where he lives life itself in secret/
Daddy says people go to hell for being/
What he is and he certainly believes him/
‘Cause their ain’t no flame that can blaze enough/
To trump being hated for the way you love/
And cry yourself to sleep and hate waking up/
It’s a cold world y’all shame on us/

[Chorus]
Living two worlds with your eyes closed/
Tiptoeing on a tight rope/
Holding on for survival/
Nobody to blame, that’s just how it goes/
Living two worlds with your eyes closed/
Tiptoeing on a tight rope/
Holding on for survival/
Nobody to blame, that’s just how it goes/