Released: January 1, 2003
Featuring: Common Dead Prez The Last Poets
Songwriter: The Last Poets Dead Prez Common
Producer: Will Roberson
[Hook x3]
I used to run with a clan that was militant/
Preparing for war we studied strategies with diligence/
The revolution was our real intent/
We had to theory to work so we could find out what it really meant...
[Verse 1] Then I was sent to Chicago, Illinois/
The place where the most Black Panthers were destroyed/
You either pushed dope, locked down, or unemployed/
Hearing shots late at night keeping the people paranoid/
In the heart of the South Side, countless died gangsters/
...
From the outside, we could be deceived it’s all pretty/
When you travel the streets, projects be small cities/
Where the beast at the gate change the guard at each hour/
The older generation sing songs of Black Power/
And me, well I was reading Fanon and Chairman Mao/
So I could change the situation I’m in right now/
Listen close to my people who could really show me how to organize with my n***** put the system on trial/
But the streets kept calling my name, you know the song/
Even though I’m a solider, took my oath to stay strong/
Life goes on, some things take too long/
Sometimes you don’t recognize what you got until it’s gone/
[Chorus]
Black fists, afros, kufis, and black gloves/
Five Point Programs, rifles, and black love/
Black Panthers, holding it tight like black hugs/
All the black ears who calling what black was/
[Verse 2] Have you ever read Seeds of Time,/
I read it when I was sixteen and it freed my mind/
Coming up on the dirty south floor of the roads/
Being exposed to the Panther code make me a soldier/
A child of the Ten Point Platform and rap form/
Word to this Huey P. tatted on my left arm/
It’s fo’ life, cuz if it wasn’t for the Panthers/
The real OGs like Akua and Fred Hampton/
And comrades on the West Coast side out in Watts/
East Coast be LA returning shots at cops/
It wouldn’t be no free school lunches/
It was Mutulu Shakur that gave us acupuncture to clear the junkies//
The real walkers, up early feeding the children/
Punk police would drive by and spray the buildings/
Who was holding it down when Rap Brown got locked down/
If you love Tupac, his pops still in the box now/
This is how the Panther cubs growl/
Black Power thug style RBGs up//
[Chorus]
I used to run with a clan that was militant/
Preparing for war we studied strategies with diligence/
The revolution was our real intent/
We had to theory to work so we could find out what it really meant...
[Verse 1] Then I was sent to Chicago, Illinois/
The place where the most Black Panthers were destroyed/
You either pushed dope, locked down, or unemployed/
Hearing shots late at night keeping the people paranoid/
In the heart of the South Side, countless died gangsters/
...
From the outside, we could be deceived it’s all pretty/
When you travel the streets, projects be small cities/
Where the beast at the gate change the guard at each hour/
The older generation sing songs of Black Power/
And me, well I was reading Fanon and Chairman Mao/
So I could change the situation I’m in right now/
Listen close to my people who could really show me how to organize with my n***** put the system on trial/
But the streets kept calling my name, you know the song/
Even though I’m a solider, took my oath to stay strong/
Life goes on, some things take too long/
Sometimes you don’t recognize what you got until it’s gone/
[Chorus]
Black fists, afros, kufis, and black gloves/
Five Point Programs, rifles, and black love/
Black Panthers, holding it tight like black hugs/
All the black ears who calling what black was/
[Verse 2] Have you ever read Seeds of Time,/
I read it when I was sixteen and it freed my mind/
Coming up on the dirty south floor of the roads/
Being exposed to the Panther code make me a soldier/
A child of the Ten Point Platform and rap form/
Word to this Huey P. tatted on my left arm/
It’s fo’ life, cuz if it wasn’t for the Panthers/
The real OGs like Akua and Fred Hampton/
And comrades on the West Coast side out in Watts/
East Coast be LA returning shots at cops/
It wouldn’t be no free school lunches/
It was Mutulu Shakur that gave us acupuncture to clear the junkies//
The real walkers, up early feeding the children/
Punk police would drive by and spray the buildings/
Who was holding it down when Rap Brown got locked down/
If you love Tupac, his pops still in the box now/
This is how the Panther cubs growl/
Black Power thug style RBGs up//
[Chorus]
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