Uhh

[Nas]

Yo, you believe when they say we ain't %#@!, we can't grow?
All we are is dope dealers, and gangstas and hoes?
And you believe when they be tellin you lie, all on the media?

They make the world look crazy to keep you inside?
Why you listen when the teachers at school
know you a young single parent out strugglin, they think you a fool

Give your kids bad grades and put 'em in dumber classes
Killin shorty future, I wonder how do we last it
Underground in they casket? Ancestors turnin

I'm learnin somethin every day, there is no Lazareth
Words like God is Greek or Latin
So if you study Egypt, you'll see the truth written by the masters

My ^!$$%z is chillin, gettin high, relaxin
Envisionin, ownin %#@!, yo it can happen
What do we own? Not enough land, not enough homes

Not enough banks, to give a brother a loan
What do we own? The skin on our backs, we run and we ask
for reperations, then they hit us with tax

And insurance if we live to be old, what about now?
So stop bein controlled, we black zombies


[Chorus: (sung)]
Walkin talkin dead, though we think we're livin (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, followin the system (black zombies)

Walkin talkin dead, though we think we're livin (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, followin the system (black zombies)


[Nas]
Aiyyo we trapped in our own brain, $#&@ behind bars
We've already gone insane

They've already gave up, cut our own heads offs
Stab our own backs and dream too much
without fulfillin reality; too greedy and

can't have one or two chains, we need three of dem
Can't have one or two guns without squeezin 'em
on our own people and, $#&@ black leaders

cause whites ain't got none leadin them, the rhythm is cosmic
Nas is divinity, the deity's prophetless
All get down and get up

Victims walkin 'round with Down's Syndrome, all stuck
Faintin, shoutin, catchin Holy Ghost in church
Scared to do it for ourselves 'less we see somebody doin it first

We begged, we prayed, petitioned and demostrated
Just to make another generation - black zombies


[Chorus]

[Nas]

You scared to be yourself, cause you in a trance
Feel free, hear the music and dance
If you cared what they think, why wear what they wear, just for you

Dumb ^!$$%z with long beards like they Arabs or Jews
or from Israel, (?)bish'meal Allah, el-rachman, el-Rahim (?)
Islam's a beautiful thing

And Christian and Rastafari, helps us to bring
peace against the darkness, which is unGodly
So what's the black man's true religion, who should we follow?

Use your own intuition, you are tommorrow
[roaring] .. that's the sound of the beast
I'm a Columbia record slave, so get paid

Control your own destiny, you are a genius
Don't let it happen to you like it did to me, I was a black zombie


[Chorus]

[Nas]

Wake up! Black zombies in a spell for more than fo'-hundred years
Ghetto ^!$$%z won't have it no mo', can I get a witness?
Why listen to somebody else tell you how to do it

when you can do it yourself; it's all in you, do it, do it
Do it ^!$$%z..