Wake up, everybody, no more sleeping in bed
No more backwards thinking, time for thinking ahead
Thinking ahead
Thinking ahead
Niggas better wake the fuck up
Niggas better stand the fuck up
Niggas better get the fuck up
Do y'all realize
That collectively as black men in America, we don't run shit?
We ain't building no institutions
So that means it's another motherfucker
Dictating the course of our life
We ain't developing or implementing no educational curriculum
That means it's somebody other than ourselves
Training our children on how to function in this world
We ain't cultivating no natural resources from the earth
That means another motherfucker feeding us
Shit, our women and children
Have to depend on a whole other race of men
For food and shelter
Niggas better wake the fuck up
Niggas better get the fuck up
Niggas better stand the fuck up
It's a goddamn shame, when a grown-ass man
Complain about a pain that he has to maintain
When all he got to do is use his brain and make a change
That's a goddamn shame
What you so-called ballers gon' do
When it ain't no more dope to sell?
What you so-called gangsters gon' do?
When they build enough institutions
To facilitate all the brothers in jail?
Won't be no more making bail, 'cause right about now in America
If you're a black male, you work more to the system
If you were housed in a jail cell
What you niggas better do is pay close attention
And be able to thoroughly recognize
When you start hearing words like
Corporations, prisons, and privatized
Bear witness to the reinstitution of slavery, my brother
It's time to open your eyes
No more lies are to be accepted
From this point on, we have to lead with the principle of truth
How you gonna allow yourself to be conned into believing
That you can build a bridge to your future
Without first building the minds of your youth?
No more time for weak-ass compromises
'Cause now, it's time for a unified stand
'Cause for every one of our youth that gets destroyed in this country
The responsibility and the blood is really on our hands
I thought you was a man, nigga
Did you not hear the warner when he made his final call?
You better stop letting your natural enemy choose your leaders
For that makes haste to your final fall
You should have seen me pumping my fist
With two million black men in Washington DC, on the capital's mall
It was my responsibility to join over a million brothers
For the breaking of the mental bread
'Cause I knew these so-called black men in my town
Was gonna have excuses for not going
Or just straight up be scared
So I chose to be a delegate for the brothers
That wanna make a new start
This piece was inspired
It was written and it is recited in the spirit
Of the Million Man March
It's a goddamn shame when a grown-ass man
Complain about a pain that he has to maintain
When all he got to do is use his brain and make a change
That's a goddamn shame
What you so-called pimps and players gon' do
When these sisters begin to peep your game?
When these sisters begin to realize
That it's just a creative front for your disguise weakness
And your poorly concealed inner pain?
Nigga, who do you really blame?
Nigga, who do you really blame?
Nigga, who do you really blame?
Did some black female traumatize your thinking
And you developed mental years?
You saying you don't love these hoes
I'm saying you just crying slick tears
What makes you not honor or protect
That which brings forth future black life?
You need to ask yourself that question
Next time you see the happy Caucasian husband
With his think-she-happy black wife
It's a goddamn shame when a grown ass man
Complained about a pain that he has to maintain
When all he got to do is use his brain and make a change
That's a goddamn shame
What you so-called black men gon' to do?
Once you realize that we cannot build a strong
Independent black nation
Until the black woman is properly protected
And upon her proper elevation?
Until the black woman is properly protected
And upon her proper elevation?
I'm talking to Christians, Muslims, and Masons
'Cause right about now, it don't matter what you choose for religion
What matters right now is that black folk
Make collectively conscious decisions
'Cause for too long, for too goddamn long
We've been pursuing someone else's watered down dream
No disrespect to Martin Luther King
But if past and present situations indicate what the future brings
Then the future don't look good
'Cause it ain't no love, It ain't no brotherhood
That's why we had to meet, reconcile, and atone
Then bring that reconciliation and atonement back home
And let it be known that since October 16, 1995
Mentally, I have continuously developed
And spiritually, I have definitely grown
That means the spirit of the Million Man March lives on
Not Farrakhan's speech
But the spirit of the Million Man March lives on
Not Ben Chavis
'Cause he joined the nation of Islam
And changed his last name to Muhammad
But the spirit of the Million Man March lives on inside of me
It's a goddamn shame, when a grown-ass man
Complains about a pain that he had to maintain
When all he got to do is use his brain and make a change
That's a goddamn shame
Wake up, wake up
Wake up, wake up
Get up, get up, get up, get up
Stand up, stand up, stand up, stand up
Wake up, nigga, get up, nigga, stand up, nigga
Yeah
I'm a serial killer, spittin' murder words
Man, that was hard for you niggas even heard a verse
I've been runnin' with some hungry niggas out the wind
Ran through hell and I'm ready to go back again
Mic in my hand, I'm not Afro or African
If anything, I'm an American nigga hustlin'
Dogs in the yard and my jewelry got plenty rocks
Always love B.I.G and motherfuckin' Tupac
Keep it in the hood, keep it hood
Call me Robin Hood, 'cept I got a 4-5 when I'm tippin', drippin' wood
I'm not a killer, I don't think I'm some old bad nigga
But when I'm with ya, I do keep my finger on the trigger
Niggas be snitching, then go talk about it with they bitches
Can't walk in public cause they scared them boys gonna get them
I can't do nothin' for them, can't do nothin' but ignore them
When they get them, he gon' wish he wasn't fuckin' born
America, home of the free
Land of the brave, that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave, that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave, that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave, that made every nigga like me
Wake it up, sleep for the weak and the broke niggas, sun here
Shine like he live up on the coast, nigga raw
When I spit it take a minute for you really get it straight
Got a lyrics like my motherfucking mouth shitty
I learned from niggas used to watch them
Now I'm living like 'em
Rich or poor, it's a bitch trying to break the cycle
My pops was in the street so naturally I'm in the streets
Watching how the hustlers dressing how them pimps speak
I took a page from the book and wrote my own laws
No cut, straight dope, cooked up by 8ball
Now they call me 8Ball, fat boy, tight flow
Lick a little kitty kind of good like a tight hole
Hard top, black tint, whole car bulletproof
The body, the windows, the ties and the rims too
Hennessy and weed, I'm a fiend for the good dro
8Ball, fat boy, mama call me premro
America, home of the free
Land of the brave that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Yeah, land of the brave that made every nigga like me
I come from Memphis, Tennessee
Whether you know it or not
The city where Martin Luther King got shot
My folks pick cotton, got no education
Fought and made it easier for my generation
And how we pay 'em back, we kill our own kind
Murder innocent niggas who grind for they little shine
Go and do the time, come back home like it's all fine
But all that weed and all that drink keep fuckin' with your mind
Somebody look your way and you be like a pitt scratchin'
Ready to pull somethin' out and get to click clackin'
And you don't know that's what they want you to do
It's a trap, made to catch up niggas like me and you
It's a shame all the petty shit, for bread we'll do
Send your soul straight to hell, tryna keep up with your crew
My word's true, and I ain't never gon' front
I'm a field nigga, momma didn't raise no punk
America, home of the free
Land of the brave that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave that made every nigga like me
America, home of the free
Land of the brave that made every nigga like me
