[Chorus]
~#**************#~
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”
~#**************#~
[Verse 1]
~#**************#~
Everybody wanna tell me what I am, what I am not
~#**************#~
“You aint black, you a mothafuckin white boy
~#**************#~
Shut ya mouth, do it right boy, aight boy?
~#**************#~
Man, why you such a hype boy?”
~#**************#~
“Why you always talk about being black?
~#**************#~
Skin too white, nigga fuck that”
~#**************#~
Everything you talk about, cut that
~#**************#~
That door you trying to open, you could shut that
~#**************#~
Grip the gat, yeah that’s how I’ma buck back
~#**************#~
Tell me what I am and what I know now
~#**************#~
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
~#**************#~
Practice what we preach before it go down
~#**************#~
Practice what we preach before it go
~#**************#~
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
~#**************#~
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?
~#**************#~
[Chorus]
~#**************#~
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”
~#**************#~
[Outro]
~#**************#~
Take it back, take it way back
~#**************#~
Take it way, way back to about 1990
~#**************#~
Shady Grove Hospital in Rockville, Maryland
~#**************#~
7:36 a.m., where a biracial baby was born
~#**************#~
To a black father and a white mother
~#**************#~
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
~#**************#~
The kids at school callin him a cracker
~#**************#~
Identifying as black, looking as white
~#**************#~
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
~#**************#~
What they said?
~#**************#~
Said you wouldn’t be shit!
~#**************#~
You ain’t gon be nothin, nothin, nothin, nothin
~#**************#~
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 didnt 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
