White Tuxedo (Lyrics)

LyricsPoem
Written By Miguel Fracno
 
 

White Tuxedo

and now Miguel

0:00 / 0:00
 

Man in a white tuxedo running. The background is red. Below him off to the right reads “The man in the white suit.”

Movie poster of the 1951 British film The Man in the White Suit,

Artist: A.R. Thomson, S. John Woods

Prolog

The physical altercation between Solange Knowles and Jay-Z took place on May 5, 2014, following the Met Gala after-party at The Standard Hotel in New York City.

I think Solange’s “Almeda” (2019) might have been a response to Jay-Z’s “Oceans” (2013).

I have no leads besides the event and those two songs. I may be wrong. Not a hill I’d die on. But a vantage point I’d rap from.

Lyrics

The god M.C. made me, an atheist, a communist maybe just?1

Reasonably I doubted I’d turn 30 but2

51 rotations around the sun and Hip-Hop still sounds dirty bra3

Jahova got caught calling Colin Kaepernick a Capitalist without re-wording shit4

I guess in god we trust repackaging, bricks5

Yup they still Target folks put us at the butt of their jokes

All in a scope, Chucklin’ while we cross our arms at our roast6

No Hart7 in their art they sold what’s below The Vail8 like D-Boys9 or Du Bois

He had once said “All art is Propaganda” I don’t give a god damn10

Save your whole glitz and glamour

Cause Hell, Ida B. Wells would wail

All in the news derails,

Red coded scales11, too heavy set

With calls from the moans and ails

May Ma’at prevail12

We holds the weight of those profits they sold and sail13

Yachtin’!! couldn’t wash the dirt off them white suits they got in14

But Black kin remines pure never rotten15

Even if cut with raw(hide) or that old cotton16

“I remain” rooted in Black Thoth before Tariq Trotter17

Or European land squatters

I am and now Miguel, check how it’s spelled18

The right hand of the Goddess is how I’m held

FOOTNOTES

  1. 1. My use of, “the god M.C.” here is not a reference to Rakim. I am explicitly referring to Jay-Z and his “Take Over” (2001) verse, “No God in the sky, just me, Jay-Hova.” While researching for this verse I learned about his use of the title in another track, “Jay-Z and Sauce Money takin’ over Change the face of rap, give it a makeover God MC, me, Jay-Hova” from Sauce Money’s “Luv Is Love” (Feat. Jay-Z) [un]released 1998, per Discogs. ↩
  2. 2. Jay-Z’s first studio album, Reasonable Doubt (1996) turned 30 in June 2026. He released a special version of the album exclusively at Target stores after many Black Women and POC decided to boycott Target. Ps. Regarding the line, it’s sorta a trope of his to start with a lot of logos, numbers and figures, so I started with numbers too—but I admit, I suck at numbers! Also, Funny enough, in this K-Shaped economy, many retailers and brands are marketing towards more “premium” customers. Keep the K and the K-Shape in mind for later. ↩
  3. 3. Rhetorical question as in still sounds dirty? As if it is something that Jay-Z would want to distance himself from, huh? Continue reading as this relates to the “Oceans” (2013) song reference below. ↩
  4. 4. During a performance (Friday, July 10, 2026, Yankee Statum—The Bronx, Birthplace of Hip-Hop) Jay-Z rapped about critics of his business moves (most recently with Target) and mentions Kaepernick's 2019 settlement with the NFL. Jay-Z claimed, "Buddy took a check, I ain't even mad at him, but along with that check you have to sign a non-disparagement [agreement]." Colin Kaepernick responded in September 2026, stating that the rapper's remarks came from a "guilty conscience" regarding his corporate partnerships with the NFL and Target, see: Colin Kaepernick Believes Jay-Z Has a ‘Guilty Conscience’ Over Deals With NFL,” NBC News, November 9, 2022. All this started when Jay-Z joined/partnered with the NFL and quickly silence Colin Kaepernick by saying “I think we, passed kneeing… I think everyone knows what the issue is. We done with that … We all know what the issue is. Okay next.” In the same NBC News report, journalist Craig Melvin ended the segment saying: “Jay-Z also went on to reveal that when he passed on the Super Bowl [in Sept 2016, see “Apeshit” quote below] it was not because of he was in solidarity with those protesting on the field, he did not, according to him yesterday, like the selection process was what he went on to say. We should also point out that we do not know the financial details of the arrangement between Roc Nation and the NFL … Jay-Z is saying that this is [the partnership between Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, and the NFL] is an extension of the on field protest … he sees this as an attempt to fix things on the inside.” See NBC News "Jay-Z Talks NFL Partnership: 'We've Moved Past Kneeling,'" video, NBC News, August 14, 2019. Mind you the deal that silenced Kaepernick came after Jay-Z said, "I said no to the super bowl you need me I don't need you" on the 20XX track song "Apeshit” (2018). See photo of Jay-Z in 2017 (when he turned down the Super Bowl and was “protesting” prior to his deal with the NFL that silenced Colin).

     ↩
  5. 5. What is that Gospel saying about paying Rome their taxes? “They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And He [Jesus] said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Matthew 22:21. Repackaging could be the bricks from the Wailing (or Western) Wall as Rome became Catholic (conquest and co-opting spirituality). Also, dollar bills look like bricks. And the next line points to big box [Brick and mortar] stores with red targets; Them Bullseye Dollar Spot Dealers. ↩
  6. 6. Chuck-D and Public Enemy logo reference as brands target Black creative/inventive output and culture to repackage it for profit. ↩
  7. 7. 2026 Kevin Hart comedy roast. During the roast special, Tony Hinchcliffe (mad problematic, look him up) delivered a joke referencing George Floyd and his murder (that is another K reference I guess). I won’t repeat the joke, look it up. This line ties to larger motif in my work around the death of The Comedian (Edward Blake)—A reference to A. Moore’s discarded comic book, Watchmen. Check out my verse “On The Doc” that is the seed of this running motif. Substack pub, “Whose with me” by W. Kamau Bell has a great article on the roast. ↩
  8. 8. The Vail, the metaphor for the physical, social, and psychological separation between Black and White Americans in The Soul’s of Black Folks (1903) Du Bois, and drug dealer economic reference, Jay-Z’s “Regrets” (1996) “… It's difficult to read 'em The windows to his soul were half closed ...” This plays on the idea of cut with the “raw(hide) mentioned latter in my verse here. The raw(hide) as a reference to social-psyche-bodily fracture/separation in DuBois’ concept of The Vail and American racism and how those raw cuts both dealer and user—a sorta racial mixing or obversion towards the population you are dependent on to live the life style your living? (Also, the flow I am using is from The Ville (Fayetteville, NC)). ↩
  9. 9. “Go Crazy Young” (2005) [Young] Jeezy ft. Jay-Z ↩
  10. 10. 100 years from this year, 2026 and Jay-Z’s Reasonable Doubt turning 30 a 1926 essay “Criteria of Negro Art” W.E.B Du Bois, “All art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for [progressive] propaganda.” W.E.B. Du Bois officially joined the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in late 1961 at the age of 93, near the end of his life. He chose to leave the United States in 1961 after facing intense political harassment, a passport revocation, and disillusionment with American systemic racism during the Cold War Red Scare. ↩
  11. 11. Reference to The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (1895). In recent years in the US, we have been dealing with Black youth found hanging from trees and the need to prove that this is not simply suicide. Also, important to note here, Colin Kaepernick and his organization, Know Your Rights Camp, paid for an independent, private autopsy for 18-year-old Nolan Wells after his tragic death in July 2026. See: Brandon Tensley, “Ida B. Wells’ Family Is Debunking a Viral Claim About Nolan Wells,” Capital B News, July 30, 2026, ↩
  12. 12. Ma’at is the ancient Kemetic (or Egyptian) concept and goddess of truth, balance, cosmic order, law, morality, and justice. Emphases on Goddess. The contrast is important especially when read along with the opening lines of this verse. As a Buddhist, I think that Dharma (before the Buddhas teaching of The Dharma) was similar to that of Ma’at. I am still exploring the similarities in my own privet study. ↩
  13. 13. “Sold and sailed/sale” as in, common folk carry the impact of massive profits. A deeper layer is, Black bondage was sold and sailed across the Atlantic and those profits got others Yachtin’ while the progeny of people in bondage carry the weight of the slave trade in their body, in there DNA. Also be from an environmental justice stand point, “Africatown is surrounded by heavy industry. Growing up, [Joycelyn] Davis remembers residue from a paper mill raining down on the school playground … reports would reveal that the factories were releasing hundreds of thousands of pounds of chloroform… fighting environmental racism is crucial to the town’s revitalization. She emphasizes that such issues are not unique to Africatown. Across the country, historic Black communities are facing the same challenges as the descendants of the Clotilda families.” see Ellen Wexler, "These Descendants Never Forgot the Story of the Last American Slave Ship," Smithsonian Magazine, October 21, 2022. ↩
  14. 14. See “Oceans” (2013) by Jay-Z, I am responding to the chorus where Frank Ocean sings, “I hope my black skin don't dirt this white tuxedo before the Basquiat show And if so, well fuck it, fuck it.” A motif or theme in this track is dealing with the K-Shaped economy and framing that as a Klan Shaped economy. How the policing of Black labor and its profits are at the heart of global economic systems. My hard K sounds in this verse are intentional starting with “Jahvon got caught calling Colin Kaepernick a Capitalist.” In Jay-Z’s recent free style he tries to distance himself from MAGA—I need not unpack the Klan’s ties to MAGA right? K-Shaped economy is Klan-Shaped (Hope to write a something on The Klan Shaped Economy), backed by the same energy of that domestic terror of White supremist groups who started as overseers to ... See KRS-One "Sound of da Police." Also, the “… them white suits they got in” is a reference to Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Mask (1952) and it is worth bring up the term Black petite bourgeoisie as Fanon uses it in, The Wretched of the Earth (1961) see chapter “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness” (I do not agree with Fanon’s homonegativity and psychoanalytic views on homosexuality and his hetero-patriarchy views). If there is a better, more inclusive reference than Fanon I can use, please feel free to educate me. Touré gives a wonderful critique of Jay-Z’s freestyle regarding Jay’s use of Colin Kaepernick and the ethical problem with Jay-Z’s Billionaire status. Also see my track “MATTE BLACK” specially the last verse for layered yacht reference see Touré on YouTube, “Jay-Z Freestyle Explained Line by Line,” June 1, 2026. Touré says, “Oliguric Jay-Z feels different than up from the streets Jay-Z” from “Why Are People Hating on Jay-Z?” June 9, 2026. So the White suits has many layers, but Ima just leave the ideal of Diddy’s all white parties here in contrast to “washing the dirt off the white suits they got in.” They are trying to make pure what was already profane may I quote? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God,” Mark 10:25 (also see, Matthew 19:24). Also, from an environmental justice standpoint, we bear the cost and impact of billionaire sales/sails: “Twelve of the world’s wealthiest billionaires produce more greenhouse gas emissions from their yachts, private jets, mansions and financial investments than the annual energy emissions of 2m homes, research shared exclusively with the Guardian reveals” see, "Twelve Billionaires' Climate Emissions Outpollute 2.1m Homes, Analysis Finds," The Guardian, November 20, 2023. ↩
  15. 15. One more time for those in the back! “But Black skin remines pure never rotten” ↩
  16. 16. Raw reference to pure white cocaine, and “pure” White as in of European ancestor (I think there is a sorta addition to Whiteness that the word Raw is helping unpack/explore) Blackness remains pure regardless of the legacy of sexual abuse—see Thomas Jefferson fathered six children with Sally Hemings) for an example—or those who freely create. The bottom line is, we all came here as pure children no matter what our parentage. Raw cane sugar, because before the cotton Black forced labor was made to work the sugar cane fields see histories of the island of Ayiti (meaning "land of high mountains") or Quisqueya (meaning "mother of all lands" or "large land. And Rawhide whips where one of the tools used in forced labor—oddly enough working in professional services you would here people say “crack the whip” or “getting bodies” when it came to employment—mind you I worked for the biggest professional service firm. Any who, check out the track “Tar Baby (Raw Ways)” I got a line about raw in there too. ↩
  17. 17. Black Thoth, I am referring to the Kemetic (or Eygption) God Thoth. Reference to “I Remain Calm” by The Roots, (1995). Also, I remain calm cause I take my meditation serios. Grounded in Buddha’s teaching. ↩
  18. 18. A reference to the etymology of the name Miguel. ↩
 
Miguel Fracno
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