[Verse 1: Method Man]
Wake up, get a hold of your life, go get your cake up
The motto in the streets is you eat, or you get ate up
Straight up, you tired of waiting, go get your weight up
My peoples tired of waiting for reparations to pay us
Screaming Jesus can save us, I, I get the Bentley if I save up
But that's just another trick to enslave us
Push the minimum wages
Put, put our fathers up in them cages
Then watch out when mother struggled to raise us
But, but my ambition won't let me live in this poor condition
That doesn't care about color, creed, or your religion
Priests, politicians gotta listen to opposition
From my position, we still ain't got a pot to piss in
From my position, we still ain't got a pot to piss in
[Verse 2: Masta Killa]
Allah said to save the babies from the cold
Pour wisdom in the cup so the truth overflows
Still, knowledge is that bread that keeps us well-fed
Old time religion will not bring us satisfaction
Without action now who can disagree with me?
God is not a mystery, there's nowhere in history
That you could show and prove to me
But still you face east and nod your head to me religiously
I'm G-O-D, to infinity, for real
[Hook: sample]
The world won't get no better
If we just let it be
The world won't get no better
We gotta change it yeah, just you and me
[Verse 3: Cappadonna]
Poor reparations, the Bush administration
Unequality, martial law, segregation
False hood, false teaching, false education
Now's the time for us to come amongst this nation
They deceiving us, they don't believe in us
They believe in that Cream like Julius Caesar
I'm like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X with the heaters
Ripping the chains of the remains of all of the leaders
Never worship the image if we were swine eaters
I'm on the back of the bus with two fine divas
We in the jungle of life, but never jungle fever
I'm God-body all day long, spiritual life lessons
That I recite with song
Trying to wake up everybody, can't we all get along?
For all my people that's out there persevering through the storm
Black fist, Staten Island, stand up, stand strong
Penetrate through the gate and bring the Clan along
[Hook]
[Verse 4: Raekwon]
Wake up and realise the times
That we living in the world is getting more iller than ever
Thought we was chillin', striving change for the better
But it was a dream like Martin Luther
He had a vision that could move a mountain
Protect one another, that's world to my brother Malcolm
As-salamu alaykum, alaykum as-salam
We want justice, police supposed to protect and serve
And then they shoot us down like wild animals
The nerve of them cold-hearted killers
With blue suits slaying our black youth
The earth cries from all the blood that's being spilled
We need a solution fast, get InshAllah bill
Let me educate them, translate it meaning God's will
It goes all in together, together how we are
To stand with a plan, provided we down to fall
And that's the Willie Lynch tactics that separated the masses
Taught us all to think backwards