Alicia Keys Responds to the Ferguson Unrest with New Song "We Gotta Pray" (Listen Here)

By Timothy Yap Dec 05, 2014 05:45 AM EST

In response to the Ferguson unrest and the grand jury's decision in New York not to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo for the death of Eric Garner, soul songstress Alicia Keys has written a song "We Gotta Pray." A deeply spiritual song about peace, Keys laments over the riots, violence and protests associated with the whole incident.

Keys told the New York Times she wrote the song after being moved by the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Garner in New York, who both died at the hands of white policemen. Writting on twitter, Keys explains: "I wrote #WeGottaPray awhile ago, yet the lyrics have never meant more to me than during this time."

Famous quotes from iconic civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi are interspersed throughout the song.

Read the words of "We Gotta Pray:"

(You know)

We gotta pray
We gotta pray
We gotta pray, pray for the world tonight
We gotta save, somebody save somebody tonight
Fire in the air, what the hell goin' on?
Sirens everywhere, singin' that street song
Violence everywhere, barely holdin' on
What the hell goin' on?
Do you know who you are?
Do you know who we are?

We, we're extraordinary people
Living an ordinary life
Growing stronger to every question
We're gonna make it or dying, 'till we gotta pray

Pray for the love tonight
Another day, pray for another try
Smoke is in the sky, what the hell goin' on?
Bullets gonna fly, fly right from the gun
Trying not to cry, barely holdin' on
What the hell goin' on?
Do you know who you are?
Do you know who we are?

We, we're extraordinary people
Living an ordinary life
Growing stronger to every question
We're gonna make it or dying, 'till we gotta pray

We gotta pray
We gotta pray
We gotta pray,
We gotta pray!