Had to make it PHAT, had to take it back
Had to rep for a culture that the roots are reaching Black
Beautiful, Powerful, Indisputably Immutable
The history a crucible, the music is a tool to use
Cathartic when it needs to be, hard to beat society
At times, the rhymes, plant the seeds we need to breathe
Through police brutality, fatalities, impunity
the root of e-vil, our people see the enemy
An internal colony, Fanon saw the tragedy
Overseer to officer, KRS, a prodigy
His progeny, are challenging, violence’s monopoly
By the state, the fate of which, attempt to claim us property
Hip Hop is the voice/ and the weapon of choice!
Since Grand Master Flash and DMC were making noise
Cuz with the “Message,” hood pov-erty, was being challenged
& “Fuck the Police,” expounded on that knowledge

My roots are reaching Black
to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob
To Lauren Hill and them all
My roots are reaching Black
To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown
that’s the tip that I’m on
My roots are reaching Black
to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation
Cuz our history’s bomb
My roots are reaching Black
Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul
Yo! The revolution’s on!

Not to say it’s not a party music, wouldn’t be true
It’s the part of the genre, we be celebrating to
Get ya club on, ya dance on, or smoke a blunt to
Or, however you hang, when you’re chillin wit your crew
Don’t be fooled, “Walk Ruff and Stuff with yo Afro Puffs”
Was Black Power, to the core, filled with Black Love
challenging pat-riarchy, white standards of beauty
And Internalized Oppression with con-tinuity
Queen Latifa, a master emcee
Blessed us with her presence in the 1980s scene
& Helped to make the music what it is to you and me
So Lauren Hill could call out “Politrixions” with the Fugees
While Bill Clinton, prison warden, playin the sax
Signed into law, the 1994, Crime Act
No more education in the prison labor system
& 3 Strikes was made law by those Politrixions

My roots are reaching Black
to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob
To Lauren Hill and them all
My roots are reaching Black
To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown
that’s the tip that I’m on
My roots are reaching Black
to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation
Cuz our history’s bomb
My roots are reaching Black
Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul
Yo! The revolution’s on!

What is problematic, was the corporate takeover
of a cultural art form, meant to restore the
pride of our people, integrity the needle
The One’s and Two’s, the Wheels of Steel, spinnin through to freedom
When they moved in and sup-planted, their business model
& Threw down the throttle on producin gangsta bauble
to make a Modern-Day-Minstrel, Black Face, metropolis
but a Dangerous Black, outta control, was all you got from this
While the War on Drugs, was being waged, out on our Streets
The Reagans and the Clintons, were pulling back their sheets
Stereotypes, that fed the hype, of the white supremist blight
and the P.I.C. was being formed right in plain sight,
With these images that the corporations spun about us
The public in Amerika, had no doubt, about us
Thank god the Underground rose to challenge all this B.S.
Where people like Mos Def and Immortal Technique flourished

My roots are reaching Black
to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob
To Lauren Hill and them all
My roots are reaching Black
To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown
that’s the tip that I’m on
My roots are reaching Black
to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation
Cuz our history’s bomb
My roots are reaching Black
Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul
Yo! The revolution’s on!

The sound of resistance, the people and the message
Answering the questions, most pressing to the masses
Ripping through the truth, conflicting our community
Familiar and sad, like, this is nothing new to me
Jobs are always fleeting degrading our sense of worth
Our schools so deplorable it’s education that hurts
Drugs on the streets, but don’t own a poppy field
The youth are packing heat for safety, can we be real
Red Lining, White Flight, Welfare, Ghettos
Out-sourcing, Globalization, yup and there goes
The neighborhood, with the manufacturing work
To other countries, into prisons, where they’re getting paid dirt
150 years from slavery, but ain’t much changed
Time to claim the economic means and shatter these chains
Hip Hop, the voice of the oppressed and the poor
So, I’m wit LL Cool J, “It’s time for war!”

My roots are reaching Black
to Tupac and Biggie Smalls, to Jay z and Goodie Mob
To Lauren Hill and them all
My roots are reaching Black
To Assata, MLK, Malcom x, and James Brown
that’s the tip that I’m on
My roots are reaching Black
to the pride of a nation, and the fight for Liberation
Cuz our history’s bomb
My roots are reaching Black
Through the Hip Hop in my blood, and the music in my soul
Yo! The revolution’s on!