"Let me welcome both of you
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uh, to the show this morning to talk about what I consider
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to be a very very important topic, uh, the Harlem Renaissance
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But before we get into that..."
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[Immortal Technique]
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Yeah, Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)
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Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David
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And you wonder why, people don't own they homes (why?)
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Cause the racist bank wouldn't fuckin mortgage a loan
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Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)
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Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David
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And you wonder why, people don't own they homes (why?)
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Cause the racist bank wouldn't fuckin mortgage a loan {WAKE UP!}
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Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)
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Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David
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And you wonder why, people don't own they homes (why?)
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Cause the racist bank wouldn't fuckin mortgage a loan
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Until after the invasion of, gentrification
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Eminent domain intimidation, that's not negotiation
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And it's frustratin to look at, every day
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Like watchin a porno, on 56-K
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Biohazard labs instead of store rooms
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What's next motherfucker, projects as dorm rooms?
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You ain't fool nobody in this community duke
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With your little fake Manhattanville community group
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Ivy league, real estate firms are corrupt
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I lay siege to your castle like the Moors in Europe
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They treat street vendors like criminal riff-raff
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While politicians get the corporate kickbacks (snakes)
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[Chorus: Immortal Technique]
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Harlem Renaissance, a revolution betrayed
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Modern day slaves thinkin that the ghetto is saved
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'Til they start deportin people off the property
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Ethnically cleansin the hood, economically
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They wanna kill the real Harlem Renaissance
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Tryin to put the Virgin Mary through a early menopause
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The savior is a metaphor for how we set it off
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Guerrilla war against the re-zoning predators
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[Immortal Technique]
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When I speak about Harlem, I speak to the world
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The little Afghan boy, and the Bosnian girl
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The African in Sudan, the people of Kurdistan
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The third world American, indigenous man
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Palestinians, Washington Heights, Dominicans
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Displaced New Orleans citizens
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Beachfront Brazilian favelas that you livin in
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The hood is prime real estate, they want back in again (fuck outta here)
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I didn't write this to talk shit, I say it because
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some of y'all forgot what the Harlem Renaissance was
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We had revolution, music and artisans
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But the movement was still fucked up like Parkinson's
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Cause while we were givin birth to the culture we love
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Prejudice, kept our own people out of the club
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Only colored celebrities in the party (fake nigga!)
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And left us a legacy of false superiority
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W.E.B. Du Bois versus Marcus Garvey
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And we ended up, sellin out to everybody
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The Dutch {?} and the John Gotti's
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Banksters, modern day gangsters, immobile army
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They wanna move us all out the N.Y.C.
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Like they did to the Jews with the Alhambra decree
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So support your own businesses and do the knowledge
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Cause the real Harlem Renaissance is economic (yeah)
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[Chorus]
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{"Green Lantern... The Evil Genius!"}
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"When they were saying it is the renaissance, of Harlem
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they didn't mean, that we had stake in that
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They meant to say that they could make money out of us"
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"They are coming in with all kind of prejudices
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In Brooklyn they're doing the same thing
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In, um, Queens they're doing the same thing; the Bronx
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There's hardly any place which is affordable
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I mean these people are putting up condominiums
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which start from a million dollars
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How many people in this community make that kind of money?
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How many people have that kind of money?"
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"People of Harlem, they are the natural allies of the oppressed people
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of the world, whether the struggle is in Panama, in Africa, Cuba"
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"We spend money with the wrong people
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We are looking for love, with people who don't love us
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What's wrong with us loving each other
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and making sure that we are protected?"
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-----------------
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Harlem Renaissance
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Immortal Technique |