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featuring Gamilah Shabazz
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"I was born.."
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[Big Daddy Kane]
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A black man from the motherland
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Speakin a language today most people don't understand
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where no one could bother me
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cause I had freedom, justice, and equality
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But then one day it was tooken away
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and I was shipped to the U.S.A.
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A young brother, made into a slave
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to harvest the midlands and clean the chittlins
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Given a new name, new religion
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No freedom to vote, not even to make a decision
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I saw my peoples, sold raped and took out
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The rest of that stuff that Alex Haley talks about
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They said I'm not from Asia I'm from Africa
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And all the blacks there now are just scavengers
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That's the way my mind was poisoned
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to believe that in America blacks are inferior
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A weak mind and a body of swine
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only adds up to being - deaf dumb and blind
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Illiterate to who where what and why
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So I ask myself: who am I?
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"I was born.."
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[Big Daddy Kane]
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A native New Yorker on the streets
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Known for rockin rhymes to real rough beats
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that I found in the attic, noisy with static
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A sound that made me, a hip-hop fanatic
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I made a few songs that sold OK
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Never top 20 or plenty airplay
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I came out hardcore, flexin cock diesel
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Saw a little cash, and pop goes the weasel
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I had to make that change and rearrange
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my whole rap format, no hardcore rap
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So now all the pop charts I rule
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over New Kids on the Block and Paula Abdul, huh
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I thought I made it, then my song faded
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and none of the black stations ever have played it
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I tried to blame it on MTV
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and say, "Damn, they cold played me for Young MC"
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But when you get down to it, I'm the real blame
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because I wanted the fame
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Money is not only the root of all evil
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It's also the destruction of black people, so
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conjunction junction, what's your function?
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Bein a scout, or sellin out?
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Look in the mirror at yourself, eye to eye
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and say: who am I?
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[Gamilah Shabazz]
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A solid change, have to rearrange this strange
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feelin I'm feelin, so appealin
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I am having to deal with
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Time to forget the myth, of bein black and a woman
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Can't get ahead, walkin on a thread, a tightrope
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Can't cope, don't be a dope, have a little bit of hope
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Runnin your scope on affairs
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You have to be aware, don't flare up
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Let your cup runneth over
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I'm not Irish, don't need a donut to fill up my dish
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nor two mango wish to wish on a star, they're so far
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Anyway I'm thinkin about today, not tomorrow
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I'm not a follower of anyone
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My time has come, it's already here
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My message is clear
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Like the women of long ago, I am also here
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also to show, I have the courage
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Have the strength, I'm for equal opportunity
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no matter the life, length of time
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Show me a sign, should I rely on a
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subliminal message, should I question
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what would seem to be, life's told me?
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Yes indeed, so let me speak
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[Big Daddy Kane]
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And that's comin from the daughter of Malcolm X
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So black women put it in your texts
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so you can never let, opportunity pass you by
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or even ask yourself, who am I?
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Who Am I
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| Big Daddy Kane |
