Wale "Diary" (with abridged lyrics and comments)

If I told you I wanted to talk to you, you know

You'd think I'm tryin' to holler at you

And maybe I am, but you wouldn't hear me out anyways would you?

So jaded.

Rather lose love than to move on never knowin' what it feels like

Short days, long nights by the phone, no call

She doesn't want to put herself out there. She doesn't want to risk it.

Need a clear mind cuz I been blind got me goin down that road
Heart made of stone
Far away from home,
Black woman c-c-cold

She would rather look cold hearted than make herself available.

Every problem that you ever had with another man, i gotta face

Started off on thin ice i'm still here but i can't skate
Slow sink, can't breathe

See she wants to give her heart away, but she can't because the last time she did, it only brought pain. She wants to bring him close, but at the same time she can't bear to have him closer than arms length.

No remorse, don't think
Listen to your friend,
Get another man for a minute then repeat

She's thinking maybe if I change the man, I can get a different result, when in reality, she can only change herself to be free.

Queen,
You deserve the title
But she rejects what i give
While she nurse the wounds by them
Tried them, didn't work
Got impossible standards,
Nothin' I do's gonna work
Diary of a black girl

He wants to give her the world, to give her the chance at happiness. He knows exactly what she needs, but she won't let him in. She doesn't want to heal, to be free, so she's trapped, another black girl.

[Chorus:]
I wonder why I sit and cry, wish I could shed all these tears
I'm down and out, I'll keep on movin' and tryin' to get out
I don't know how to move on, where I went wrong
Wish I could live with no fears
So down and out, I'll keep it movin' and try to get out, somehow
The problem is not that she doesn't know she has a problem. The problem is that she doesn't know how to be free. She's tried changing the men, looking for the guy that might change her mind, but the only person to change her mind is herself. She's tired of fighting herself, of getting in a fight with herself, and losing.

Black girl

Raise by a momma who, hates the baby father, so
She don't have a problem with, sayin' "fuck a nigga" quick

All her life, she heard her mother talking about the crappy men in her life, about the men who treated her like she didn't matter. She heard her mother talk about how bad men were, and that stayed. That resentment stayed.

I'm just tryin' to be the one who never run, but you run away from me
Your girlfriend's men cheat, why not me the same thing

He wants to be the world for her, but she only hears the stories from her friends about the bad men, she only hears the things that tell her not to go to him.

She can't see in me, what I see in her
This pain she inherit, can't be reversed

For him, she is the one. For her, he is another nigga, another guy waiting to screw her over.

I can even stay livin' in the shade above the motherfuckers that played ya
The irony in that is I ain't even that but you put it in those pages

He could remain in that place, continuing the stereotype, but he knows there is something much deeper to her pain.

Wife, you deserve the label,
But you been hurt before,
So you sore, and don't feel you're able
Tried them, didn't work
Got impossible standards,
Nothing that i ever do'll work
Diary of a black girl

[Repeat Chorus:] (2x)