The People

[Intro]

Now

Usually when a party is given, right

It's given by a promoter, right

And the promoter has his own people distributing fliers and advertising to get people to come down to the party

But this time

The promoter that gave the party

He was so, like, down

And such a together brother, you know what I'm saying

We threw down with him

To try to make the party a little something

Now I don't know how many people remember who gave you a flier for the party

But if you didn't see it hanging up somewhere one of us probably gave it to you

Cause we was busting our ass giving these fliers out

Trying to get this thing, you know, a nice size for y'all

[Hook]

We are people yeah

[Verse 1]

We are the ones left to make due with the two hands the good Lord gave us

With no resources enthroned to the forces that be with no one to save us

The ones in the classroom where the books are outdated, teacher no longer outspoken

The ones left to congregate where the pusher gives a fix to those who had their dreams broken

The ones left to drown and rebuild the towns in the path of the waters from the levies

The ones with the problems of the world on they back to make light of the fact that the weight is getting heavy

We are the ones who have daughters and sons who commit themselves to having unsafe nights

The ones who lost family in 9/11 hours after telling them to have a safe flight

We are the one

[Hook]

[Verse 2: Chuck D]

We be the soul, the human core, the planet whose blood, sweat and tears even we take for granted

We the ones separated by wardens at international borders [?] to take government orders

We are the ones with the same childhood dreams but adulthood brings nightmares and screams

We be the raw excuse to slang, I mean, we the people they stereotype for gangs

Who sowed the seed for our daughters and sons, withstand the infiltration of drugs and guns

We are the ones who kneel to the young with a heart of gold to avoid being victimized by our sons

We be the ones trying to raise them into all man brothers got some whipping post from coast to coast

We are the people run down, lied to, cried to, still they depend on our culture to live and dance to

We are the people

Still the wretched of the earth

At the end of God's day

We persevere through the hurt

We are the ones

[Hook]

[Break]

We are the world

[Verse 3]

Come on, Michael, that's a motherfucking lie

We the people at the fish fry

We the eighty six percent with heart disease

Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Nike shoes wearing, no banking accounts

No misbehaving, catching the blame

Same old same lotto playing

Looking to Obama for deliverance

But ever since they popped Malcolm and Martin

We at the front of the bus now, pouting

Complacence ain't nothing but a lazy man's sofa

You can see the whole scope [?]

With a video hostess hoe

We're emotional, but if we [?] I think we're supposed to roll

But we the same lying, cheating, backstabbing

We part of our own struggle

We would burst our neighbor's bubble

Destined to meet the maker but at the same time we the same people late for his arrival

Yo, a false survival

No longer feeling tribal

And as much as it makes me feel good to say "we are beautiful people"

There's a lot of us messing it up

For the people

[Hook]