| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first black man
|
| Long ago before the white man
|
| Could paint the black man with a gun in his hand
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first white man
|
| At the very moment when they looked around and said
|
| «Fuck it, I’ma steal this land»
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way way back to the first black man
|
| Long ago before the white man
|
| Could paint the black man with a gun in his hand
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first white man
|
| At the very moment when they looked around and said
|
| «Fuck it, I’ma steal this land»
|
| Everybody wanna tell me what I am, what I am not
|
| «You ain’t black, you a mothafuckin' white boy
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| Shut ya mouth, do it right boy, a’ight boy?
|
| Man, why you such a hype boy?»
|
| «Why you always talk about being black?
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| Skin too white, nigga fuck that»
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| Everything you talk about, cut that
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| That door you trying to open, you could shut that
|
| Grip the gat, yeah that’s how I’ma buck back
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| Tell me what I am and what I know now
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| All this prejudice has got to go
|
| Life is moving fast, it need to slow down
|
| Come and see me when I am in yo' town
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| Practice what we preach before it go down
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| Practice what we preach before it go
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| Yes, I got the gift to gab fo sho
|
| Will I have to get the gat? |
| No, no
|
| Yes, I got to gift to gab fo sho
|
| But will have to get the gat, get the gat, get the, get the?
|
| Masta deep down inside of me
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| The plantation deep down inside of me
|
| Everybody fuck like sodomy
|
| 'Cause one or the other what it gotta be
|
| Tell me why my momma gotta lie to me
|
| Unity for everyone that lied to me
|
| Peace on Earth what I try to be
|
| I just wanna spread the message of equality
|
| And yes, I got to gift to gab fo sho
|
| Will I have to get the gat? |
| No, no
|
| Yes, I got to gift to gab fo sho
|
| But will have to get the gat, get the gat, get the, get the gat?
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first black man
|
| Long ago before the white man
|
| Could paint the black man with a gun in his hand
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first white man
|
| At the very moment when they looked around and said
|
| «Fuck it, I’ma steal this land»
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way way back to the first black man
|
| Long ago before the white man
|
| Could paint the black man with a gun in his hand
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way way back to the first white man
|
| At the very moment when they looked around and said
|
| «Fuck it, I’ma steal this land»
|
| Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to about 1990
|
| Shady Grove Hospital in Rockville, Maryland
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| 7:36 a.m., where a biracial baby was born
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| To a black father and a white mother
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| Father that wasn’t there
|
| Addicted to crack cocaine, alcohol, and various other drugs
|
| Same as his mom
|
| (Way, way back)
|
| So I’m gonna tell you about that, right?
|
| And I’m gonna tell you about how
|
| All this young boy ever wanted was happiness
|
| All he ever wanted was positivity
|
| All he ever wanted to do was entertain
|
| And this boy went through hell
|
| You gotta understand, his mother was racist, which is crazy
|
| 'Cause how in the fuck is you gonna have
|
| All these black babies with black men but you racist
|
| Like bitch, that don’t make no sense, but it is what it is
|
| You know, he grew up, her callin' him a nigger
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| The kids at school callin' him a cracker
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| Identifying as black, looking as white
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| Being told what you can or can’t be
|
| This kid went through everything
|
| He went through…
|
| He saw narcotics in the household
|
| Violence, murderers, drug dealers, he was kidnapped
|
| There was crazy shit that happened to this kid
|
| And he persevered while the whole world said
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| What they said?
|
| Said you wouldn’t be shit!
|
| You ain’t gon' be nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin'
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| Nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin', nothin', nothing
|
| And I, and he, he said fuck that, I’ma persevere
|
| And that’s why the message is always peace, love and positivity
|
| See, he always saw things from two sides
|
| He always saw things from two sides
|
| He always knew that the message
|
| Everybody was born equal |
| Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation
|
| He knew that because he saw that
|
| (Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way)
|
| Because he was stripped and torn down
|
| By his black brothers and sisters that were uneducated
|
| And that did not know
|
| And he was stripped and he was torn down
|
| By his white side that did not know
|
| These people that are ignorant
|
| That cannot see the bigger picture
|
| That must fight and kill and murder each other
|
| But once again, all he ever wanted to do
|
| Was spread a message of equality
|
| For every man, woman, and child
|
| Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation
|
| (Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first)
|
| Now imagine this child growing up
|
| And seeing the craziest shit
|
| Being a part of the craziest shit
|
| Running around with the wrong people
|
| Running around with guns and knives
|
| And fighting and stealing and, and all this
|
| Because he didn’t know, he didn’t know!
|
| But he knew deep down in his heart that it wasn’t right
|
| And he knew that he needed to get away from it
|
| Now I want you to also imagine, that at 17 years old
|
| This child, okay, leaves home and gets two jobs to support himself
|
| Two jobs that he works in the morning and the evenings
|
| And then he would then come home
|
| To about eight or nine hours of sleep
|
| But spend four, five, six hours of that
|
| Working on music, persevering
|
| Grabbing the remote control and looking in the mirror
|
| And pretending to see thousands and thousands and thousands of people
|
| Just chanting his name
|
| Hoping that it would happen
|
| But the, but the, but the world said no!
|
| Mothafucka, little mothafucka no-no, no-no, no-no, no-no
|
| Ya nigga, ya cracka, ya white boy, ya black mothafucka
|
| No-no!
|
| (Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first)
|
| And he said fuck that
|
| He said peace, love, and positivity
|
| He said equality for all man
|
| Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation, yeah
|
| Now I want you to also imagine
|
| People telling him that he did not live this life
|
| «You just a white boy
|
| You ain’t never experienced that shit
|
| You from Gaithersburg, Maryland, nothing happens there
|
| Oh no, no, we know, we weren’t there
|
| We didn’t live with you, we didn’t live in your Section 8 household
|
| We didn’t live with the narcotics and violence in your household
|
| We just saw it from the outside, outside, outside, outside
|
| Outside, outside, outside, outside
|
| And since you white, you gotta have money, right?"
|
| (Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first black man)
|
| And this young man persevered in spite
|
| Of what people told him he was, wasn’t, and would never be
|
| (Take it back, take it way back
|
| Take it way, way back to the first black)
|
| And that man is here today, proud
|
| A lover of all human beings
|
| Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, sexual orientation, yeah, yeah
|
| And he’s here to say:
|
| Even though we’re all born and created equal
|
| We are not treated equally
|
| There’s extremists on every side
|
| And you should just do your best to live life
|
| And let other people believe whatever they wanna believe
|
| As long as they’re not hurtin' anybody
|
| You can believe they’re going to hell
|
| You can believe it’s not right
|
| You can believe you’re superior, fine
|
| Just stop killing each other |