[Intro - Method Man:] Wake up... wake up Wake up...
[Verse 1 - Method Man:] Wake up, get a hold of your life, go get your cake up The motto in the streets is you eat, or you get ate up Straight up, you tired of waiting, go get your weight up My peoples tired of waiting for reparations to pay us Screaming Jesus can save us, I, I get the Bentley if I save up But that's just another trick to enslave us Push the minimum wages Put, put our fathers up in them cages Then watch out when mother struggled to raise us But, but my ambition won't let me live in this poor condition That doesn't care about color, creed, or your religion Priests, politicians gotta listen to opposition From my position, we still ain't got a pot to piss in From my position, we still ain't got a pot to piss in
[Verse 2 - Masta Killa:] Allah said to save the babies from the cold Pour wisdom in the cup so the truth overflows Still, knowledge is that bread that keeps us well-fed Old time religion will not bring us satisfaction Without action now who can disagree with me? God is not a mystery, there's nowhere in history That you could show and prove to me But still you face east and nod your head to me religiously I'm G-O-D, to infinity, for real
[Hook - sample:] The world won't get no better If we just let it be The world won't get no better We gotta change it yeah, just you and me
[Verse 3 - Cappadonna:] Poor reparations, the Bush administration Unequality, martial law, segregation False hood, false teaching, false education Now's the time for us to come amongst this nation They deceiving us, they don't believe in us They believe in that Cream like Julius Caesar I'm like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X with the heaters Ripping the chains of the remains of all of the leaders Never worship the image if we were swine eaters I'm on the back of the bus with two fine divas We in the jungle of life, but never jungle fever I'm God-body all day long, spiritual life lessons That I recite with song Trying to wake up everybody, can't we all get along? For all my people that's out there persevering through the storm Black fist, Staten Island, stand up, stand strong Penetrate through the gate and bring the Clan along
[Hook]
[Verse 4 - Raekwon:] Wake up and realise the times That we living in the world is getting more iller than ever Thought we was chillin', striving change for the better But it was a dream like Martin Luther He had a vision that could move a mountain Protect one another, that's world to my brother Malcolm As-salamu alaykum, alaykum as-salam We want justice, police supposed to protect and serve And then they shoot us down like wild animals The nerve of them cold-hearted killers With blue suits slaying our black youth The earth cries from all the blood that's being spilled We need a solution fast, get InshAllah bill Let me educate them, translate it meaning God's will It goes all in together, together how we are To stand with a plan, provided we down to fall And that's the Willie Lynch tactics that separated the masses Taught us all to think backwards