[Verse 1]
We claim we’re lovin’ this hip-hop, are we ready to understand it
In its fullest cultural state beyond its useless branding
Beyond the story that keeps us feeding us the common myth
People started rapping in the '70s what a bunch of shit
Done with the talk, I'm lovin' New York for impact in my heart
But let's not pretend there was no foundation to this art
Because KRS-One and Bam would be the first ones to say
Birth of hip-hop runs far deeper within our veins
Before Kool Herc came to New York pumping a hundred watts
Before the Watts Prophets, Last Poets and Gil Scott
Before there was jazz, before there was blues, before there was Cab Calloway
Before the whips the ships and all the tragedy
Before we were stripped of knowledge of our cultural anatomy
You could be apart for generations you’re still family
Before there were slaves, fuck the bullshit about slave music
They must have had a cultural base to even produce it
The schools of Timbuktu they already knew
The cycles of the planet and the motions of the Moon
A hundred and fifty years before Galileo, check it
And medieval Benin’s in the Guinness book of records
And all of them cultures thee, they had a Griot speaker
A storytelling musician poet and history keeper
Who had to memorise a couple thousand oral epics
The tradition still exists today but it could get neglected
And hip-hop? Needs to be understood
In its fullest context not just as a product of the hood
'Cause Miles Davis was rich and still played with the same feeling
It’s that cultural memory, go and ask Stevie
Ella Fitzgerald, scatting's basically rapping
When we know we lost our language then you know what has happened
So when you hear somebody’s rapping, the base of it is African
It ain't about excluding no one; it's just accurate
[Chorus]
Knowledge is power!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!!
If you don't feed your mind how can you live in health?
Knowledge is power!!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!
[Verse 2]
Look around, hip-hop’s becomes this global voice
But we must understand its roots so we can have a choice
What we should do with it, how to use it, how to teach our students
'Cause Viacom is not our cultural institution
But it will use this culture for its prostitution
And our destruction, anything but a solution
But ghetto dilemma's as bad as it's ever been, people are dead, just ain't rememberin'
Roots of the rhythm and bass [?] thing is as good as the parts that assemble it
Hamlet is writing, we think the pencil is people are sacred
We think the temple is if I'm uncomfortable you shouldn't mention it, I'm by superior so watch your sentences
Don’t disturb my privileged pensioners living off ignorance of all the members of
Every one of all the people we severed off, never one of all the people we’re never soft
Any gun or the better we sell it off, any sum of all the cheddar we level off
Cultural suicide is a necessity to get you to worship celebrity
Cos people with a strong sense of themselves could say that we’ll never be
[Chorus]
Knowledge is power!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!!
If you don't feed your mind how can you live in health?
Knowledge is power!!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!
[Verse 3]
When they say that knowledge ain't for you and your people, they’re tryna keep you less than equal
'Cause deep down in themself, that’s how they really see you
Less based on status or the places you was raised in
Or the shape of your faces, degrees or bank statements
So we gotta reject whatever they set, they’re never benevolent yet
Yet we sit at a desk collecting a cheque, no need to ever respect
Mess coupled by death, tripled by theft, look at the West and the rest
Transfer knowledge, transfering power, now tell me what is left
Bliss? No ignorance ain't, it just just his head that is numbing the pain
Only the clever shit should ever change our development towards an aim
No, bro, push off the chain, training the muscle is training the brain
It is the same if you push through the pain, once you are strong you are never the same
Manner your swagger, the way that you stand up, the way that you work with your boys as a rapper
I’ve seen a killer convert from a trapper to working with yout dem and tellin’ em man up
I am not telling you it will get better but if we are to fight we must keep our jabber
C’mon my people stand up
[Chorus]
Knowledge is power!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!!
If you don't feed your mind how can you live in health?
Knowledge is power!!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!
Knowledge is power!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!!
If you don't feed your mind how can you live in health?
Knowledge is power!!
Don't let them tell you 'bout yourself, never, that's your wealth
Knowledge is power!