The People

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

We are people yeah

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Are outdated, teacher no longer outspoken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

We are people yeah

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

We are people yeah

We are the world

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 ho
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

We are people yeah