I used to stress myself to sleep, trying to catch or grab success
Now I fight to leave the struggle to the veins above my neck
From me screaming at this microphone to get shit off my chest
But at the time I couldn't vote when almost nobody had my back
Except my mama and she told me,
Don't ever give up having hope (I won't)
You can be a royal king if being a king is what you want
So I soak my skin in ink on how I feel in desperation
And I catch a couple Zs and I immerse and make a statement
And I close my eyes and drift through the weeds
Of the fields wide open with the owls and the trees
And the snakes in the creeks got that muddy water raging
After the white church is shaking and the thunder lights the way
And past the double doors that open with velvet on the steeple
The only dream of mine is living dreams out for my people
So let me grab a pillow and lay beneath the willows
And I'll tell you all about it when I wake up from Tennessee dreaming
Young U with a cracked windshield and barely any money
Now I get shit from these folks for turning my life around
and I got myself something
But I ain't feeling bad no not one bit
If you ain't helping yourself I don't wanna hear shit
'Cause I didn't have help in music city,
I'm a high school dropout, didn't even finish
No GD, no damn degree, now I'm talking to folks with GPA
Asking me about choices they gotta make, well my voice on Rolling Stone magazine
'Cause my face is a imagine of a genre across this road in all these American streets
And it freaks me out till I pinch my skin just to make sure that this ain't a dream
And I close my eyes and drift through the weeds
Of the fields wide open with the owls and the trees
And the snakes in the creeks got that muddy water raging
After the white church is shaking and the thunder lights the way
And past the double doors that open with velvet on the steeple
The only dream of mine is living dreams out for my people
So let me grab a pillow and lay beneath the willows
And I'll tell you all about it when I wake up from Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Ooh, Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming
Tennessee dreaming