Released: September 29, 1998

Featuring: Common

Producer: Buckwild

[Grand Puba]
Yeah, yeah yeah yeah
One time as we do it like this, yeah
Grand Puba, Common Sense

[Common]
Yeah, yeah, yeah
It's all love y'all (3X) what you say?

Intro/Chorus: all, Common

[All] Maybe one day we can work it out
Strive to understand what life's about
All it seems to be is sadness and pain
Blood like rain clogs urban drains
[Com] When we gonna realize and make the change
And take the blame, erase the shame
Cause new millenium is knockin at your door
The New World Order's what they got in store

[Grand Puba]
Now I can't stress this enough, life sure is rough
You gotta go through a whole lotta shit
Just for you to get a little bit
Born into existence where your existence is non-existant
But your persistance overcomes their resistance
Your daily mechanism is your defense, whether it be
Past or present tense, don't be dense
I'm droppin this with Common Sense (true indeed)
As we linger on into the darkness
Poisoned by society where high-anxiety is just one variety
Hatin each other is another, brotha
I mean I'm really true to the shit, my spit ain't just spit
My duty is to save my people from all of this shit
And if I can get somethin for doin that then I'm gon' get
And I won't quit
My ways and action manifest in my way of thinkin
I just can't stand around and do nothin
While my people sinkin
I told you that I stay true
And I gotta do, what I can do, when I can do, so

Chorus

[Common]
Grand Pu...I'ma do....what I gotta do....what I can do
It's one for all like Brand Nu-bian, feedin the multitudes
Of five loads, dead men walkin with lost souls
Some say the games are strange, our ways have been tribal
Since the days of Kemet, now displayed on Bennett
Revolution's like a pussy, I'm tryin to stay up in it
And our music is a message, though some is afraid to send it
I don't know much about the New World Order; I know I
Got a new daughter, direction and protection I must provide for her
The moral of the story I'm building...
Like ODB say, "We for the children"
Nike make a killin off us, we kill each other, it kills me to see that
You take a life for gold, nigga did you really need that?
We try to escape the mixtapes, rims and weed sack
And to the new age, they say the women's gonna lead that, so

Chorus

[Puba] Oh say it ain't so
[Common] It ain't so
[Puba] My peoples at a all time low
[Common] Double oh Pu'
[Puba] Nowadays we doin anything for dough
[Common] For the dough doe
[Puba] Don't you know that knowledge is the note
[Common] What?
[Puba] Know the ledge, don't hit the edge
The negativity pulls us down like gravity
[Common] Yup
[Puba] Devilish ways and actions poisons us like a cavity
[Common] Yessir
[Puba] As we send this one throughout our whole proximity
[All] Grand Pu' and Common strive to come together

[Common]
In this era of prepaid calling cards
I roll with squads called the Gods
Ignorance is at large, struggles in our backyard
I slapbox with life and see we wasn't that hard
Long as you got God, even got Gramps off lah
It's stray lies and bullets directed, to lead the village
Of lies disconnected like ghetto phones
Fuck a search through a magazine for Better Homes
It ain't gonna happen
Til the devil's gone with the breeze
And niggas get off they knees so...

Chorus

Brand Nubian

Brand Nubian, consisting of rappers Grand Puba, Lord Jamar, and Sadat X, as well as DJ Alamo and DJ Sincere, is a long-running group out of New Rochelle, New York. The group is known for its hard-hitting political content and its adherence to the doctrine of the Nation of Gods and Earths.

Their debut album, One For All is a generally acknowledged classic, having received the highest rating of five mics in The Source and consistently placing on best of all-time lists. Among their best-known singles are “Slow Down” and “Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down”

From the album