[Verse 1] Grab a hold of yourself, open your eyes Get wise to the exercise Being taught by the teacher that's most dominant You need knowledge? Well I'm dropping it Listen to the rap allow it to trap Your body and soul so that you can adapt To the man on display as I take you away So may I? [Yes you may!] Proud to be a Black man Coming exact and Giving up to brothers five on the back hand Pray for lease and peace upon each other With my sisters and brothers [Marley Marl: yo, word to the mother!] I say the mother, as in the motherland But on the other hand, another man Tackled and shackled our ancestors But we beat him with freedom, so let's bless the Country that we all came from Because the moral of it all is we shall overcome The cream will keep rising We be sizing Up, the Asiatic one is enterprising Building and building to carry on All the way from Malcolm X to Farrakhan Martin Luther was a tutor, many were pupils Those who fell victim were those without scruples However, to sever, we could never So hold up the peace sign and stand together Take heed to the words that I manifest And when I'm through speaking, Marley Marl'll do the rest
[Break] [James Brown getting cut up: People, people We gotta get over, before we go under (x2) Let's get together] (x2) [Marley Marl?: Yo Big Daddy, what you gonna say now?] [Verse 2] Take a stand the fight for power Cause we've been here before the Mayflower Living superior abiding by nature The history of the Asiatic one paid the Price to be paid in slavery Like the name of Antonio was gave to me But knowledge of self broke every shackle and chain Now I declare myself as the Big Daddy Kane The teacher, teaching a lesson to be heard That's word, to the mother my brother So discover the truth of one another Cause here's the real deal upon our skin color Lay down white, yellow, red or pink But the color of black is most dominant The rising and sizing can never cease [Marley Marl: what you going say now?] Peace! [Farrakhan: ...the mother of all living things and the Black man Is the original man, we just can't escape our destiny] [Word to the mother!] (x2) [Farrakhan: I thank Allah for allowing me to teach this subject today Crowd: yeah, that's right...]