Krs-one - Boogie Down Productions's “You Must Learn” lyrics

[Hook] Just like I told you, you must learn It's calm yet wild the style that I speak Just filled with facts and you will never get weak in the heart In fact you'll start to illuminate, knowledge to others in a song Let me demonstrate the force of knowledge Knowledge reigned supreme The ignorant is ripped to smithereens What do you mean when you say I'm rebellious Cause I don't accept everything that you're telling us What are you selling us the creator dwellin' us I sit in your unknown cla** while you're failing' us I failed your cla** cause I ain't with your reasoning You're tryin' make me you by seasoning Up my mind with see Jane run, see John walk in a hardcore New York Come on now, that's like a chocolate cow It doesn't exist no way, no how It seems to me that in a school that's ebony African history should be pumped up steadily, but it's not And this has got to stop, See Spot run, run get Spot Insulting to a Black mentality, a Black way of life Or a jet Black family, so I include with one concern, that You must learn [Hook x2] I believe that if you're teaching history Filled with straight up facts no mystery Teach the student what needs to be taught Cause Black and White kids both take shorts When one doesn't know about the other ones' culture Ignorance swoops down like a vulture Cause you don't know that you ain't just a janitor No one told you about Benjamin Banneker A brilliant Black man that invented the almanac Can't you see where KRS is coming at With Eli Whitney, Haile Sela**ie Granville Woods made the walkie-talkie Lewis Latimer improved on Edison Charles Drew did a lot for medicine Garrett Morgan made the traffic lights Harriet Tubman freed the slaves at night Madam C.J. Walker made the straightening comb; But you won't know this is you weren't shown The point I'm gettin' at it it might be harsh Cause we're just walkin' around brainwashed So what I'm sayin' is not to diss a man We need the 89 school system One that caters to a Black return because You must learn [Hook] "Alkebulan" is the original name Of Africa, now stripped of it's fame It's good to know that in ancient times Egyptians developed all sciences of the mind To the point where they ruled the planet But Rome, Greece, and Persia wasn't havin' it They attacked, and won the war But it wasn't enough, they had to get to the core Cause in that time it was Alkebulan That ruled religion, politics, and man In order to destroy the Egyptian race They had to wipe the sciences from off the face of the planet So they proceeded to ban it Then replace it with Christianity And it's, been that way, all the way to today Learn what we teach; hear what we say But here comes the K-the-R-the-S-the-O-the-N-the-E The BDP and we rhyme intelligently Let me continue with Theodosyius A Greek ruler not known to most of us He, in the fourth century A.D., Calls the Egyptians fools you see Two years later, Justinian rules Six A.D., was it for schools As a result, ignorance had swirled Over Christian Europe and Greco-Roman worlds This went on for a thousand years Of ignorance, stupidity, and tears Now comes the seventeenth century hardness Europe, began to come out of it's darkness So Johann F. Blumenbach, a German Came out of nowhere and started confirming White supremacy and men of colors Before this time, all men were brothers It was Johann, who went on to say There are five different colors in the world today That's caucasian, malayan, and mongolian American-Indian, and ethiopian Yet, the ignorance gets scarier He believed whites were superior According to his idiotic fountain The purest whites were from the Caucas mountains J. A. Blofener, and H. S. Chamberlain Both supported this outrageous racism This went on to what the master race should be And why they k**ed the Jews in Germany Here is the reason why I'm so concerned Because you, must, learn!!!!