Knowledge is Power

[Verse 1: Akala] We claim we’re lovin’ this hip hop Are we ready to understand it In its fullest cultural state Beyond its useless branding Beyond the story that keeps us telling us the common myth People started rapping in the 70’s what a bunch of shit Done with the talk Im lovin New York for impact in my heart But lets not pretend there was no foundation to this art Cos KRS-ONE and Bam would be the first ones to say Birth of hip hop runs far deeper within our veins Before Kool Herc came to New York pumping 100 watts Before the Watts Prophets, Last Poets and Gil Scott Before there was Jazz Before there was Blues Before there was Cab Calloway Before the whips the ships and all the tragedy Before we were stripped of Knowledge of our cultural anatomy You could be apart for generations you’re still family Before there were slaves, fuck the bullshit about slave music You must have had a cultural base to even produce it The schools of Timbuktu they already knew The cycles of the planet and the motion of the moon 150 years before Galileo check it And medieval Benin’s in the Guinness book of records And all of them cultures there… they had a Griot speaker A story telling musician poet and history keeper Who had to memorise a couple thousand oral epics The tradition still exists today but it could get neglected And hip hop? Needs to be understood In its fullest context not just as a product of the hood Cos Miles Davis was rich and still played with the same feeling It’s that cultural memory go and ask Steven Ella Fitz Gerald scatting's basically rapping If you know we lost our language then you know what has happened So when you hear somebody’s rapping? The base of its is African Its not about excluding nobody its just accurate… [Hook: Akala] KNOWLEDGE...IS...POWER! Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself Never that's your wealth KNOWLEDGE...IS...POWER! If you dont feed your mind how can you live in health? KNOWLEDGE...IS...POWER! Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself Never that's your wealth [Verse 2: Akala] Look around hip hop’s becomes this global voice But we must understand its roots so we can have a choice What we should do with it how to use it How to teach our students Cos Viacom is not our cultural institution But it will use this culture for its prostitution And our destruction, anything but a solution The ghetto dilemma's as bad as its ever been People are dead, just ain't rememberin' Roots of the rhythm and bass [?] thing is as good as the parts that assemble it Hamlet is writing, we think the pencil is People are sacred, we think the Temple is If i'm uncomfortable you shouldn't mention it Im superior so watch your sentences Don’t disturb my privileged pensioners Living off ignorance of all the members of Every one of all the people we severed off Never one of all the people we’re never soft Any gun or the better we sell it off Any sum of all the cheddar we level off Cultural suicide is a necessity To get you to worship celebrity Cos people with a strong sense of themselves could say that we’ll never be [hook] [Verse 3: Akala] When they say that Knowledge ain't for you and your people They’re tryna' keep you less than equal Cos deep down in themselves, that’s how they really see you Less based on status Or the places you was raised in Or the shape of your faces Degrees or bank statements So we gotta reject Whatever they set They’re never benevolent yet Yet we sit at a desk Collecting a check No need to ever respect Mess coupled by death Tripled by theft Look at the West and the rest Transfer knowledge transfer the power then tell me what is left Bliss? No ignorance It just just his head that is numbing the pain Only the clever shit should ever change Our development towards an aim No bro, push of the chain Training the muscle is training the brain It is the same if you push through the pain Once you are strong you are never the same Your manner your swagger The way that you stand up The way that you work with your boys as a rapper I’ve seen a killer convert from a trapper To working with yout dem and tellin’ em man up I am not telling you it will get better But if we are to fight we must keep our jab up C’mon my people stand up [HOOK] x2