Grandmaster Melle Mel - Beat Street lyrics

Beat Street Breakdown, Raah! Hip Hop! Beat Street The king of the beat You see him rocking that beat from across the street And Huh Huh! Beat Street is a lesson too, because you can't let the Streets beat you! Well a picture can express a thousand words to describe all the beauty of life you give And if the world was yours to do over, I know you'd paint a better place to live Where the colours would swirl and the boys and girls can grow in peace and harmony And where murals stand on walls so grand as far as the eyes are able to see, Ha! I never knew art til I saw your face and there'll never be one to take your place 'Cause each and every time you touch the spray paint can Michelangelo's soul controls your hand Then serenades of blue and red and the beauty of the rainbow fills your head Crescendo of colours hang in tune, Man why oh why d'ya have to die so soon? Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, where the good die young it's all thy must 'Cause as life must live, d**h must die and the tear shall fall from the living eye, Huh! The teardrops fall for the state of mind of the beautiful lady that you left behind In love and alone, but now you're dead, and she still can't get you out of her head, Huh! More tears fall for all you've done, trying to be a good father to your only son But now who's gonna make sure that he's fed, put a shirt on his back and a roof overhead? Tell me who's gonna dream the impossible dream of the beautiful cities in the islands genes? When your works of art brought into being all that the ghetto stopped you from seeing Bums on the sidewalk, garbage in the streets, abandoned buildings, bricks of concrete The ladies on the corner are selling their bodies, and everybody wants a part in that party I'm hanging out tough, rocking late at night, running wild in the town of the neon light You either play some ball or stand in the hall Huh! You gotta make something outta nothing at all I'm sitting in the cla**room learning the rules and it says you can't do graffiti in school They can't be wrong in the hallowed hall, so my notebook turned into a brick wall The heart of a lion and the courage of three, and the mind of a man much wiser than me You're the soul of the brother who won't come back Who died in my arms on the railroad track 'Cause I'm caught in the rat race, looking for my own space There's gotta be a better place for you and me There's pie in the sky, and an eye for an eye Some people gotta die just to be free You search for justice and what do you find? You find just us on the unemployment line You find just us sweating from dawn to dusk There's no justice, there's Huh, just us, Ha! Still life urban masterpiece, your trademark was written on trains and walls A million dollar gift only God released, and yet you got k**ed for nothing at all So after this there'll be no more hard times, no more bad times and no more pain No more chump change, none of that bull Just movies, museums and the hall of fame So all you Hip Hops get on up, and let's take it to the top where we belong 'Cause the age of the Beat Street wave is here Everybody let's sing along, now c'mon, say 'Ho!' ('Ho!'), Say 'Ho!' ('Ho!') And to let me know I'm rocking the microphone everybody say 'Ramo!' ('Ramo!') 'Ramo!' ('Ramo!') Raah! A newspaper burns in the sand, and the headlines say 'Man destroys Man!' Extra! Extra! Read all the bad news on the war for peace that everybody would lose The rise and fall, the last great empire, the sound of the whole world caught on fire The ruthless struggle, the desperate gamble The game that left the whole world in shambles The cheats, the lies, the alibis And the foolish attempt to conquer the skies Lost in space, and what is it worth, huh? The president just forgot about Earth Spending multi billions, and maybe even trillions The cost of weapons ran into zillions There's gold in the street, and diamonds under feet And the children in Africa don't even eat Flies on their faces, they're living like mice And the houses even make the ghetto look nice, Huh! The water tastes funny, it's forever too sunny And they work all month and don't make no money A fight for power, a nuclear shower And people shout out in the darkest hour Of sights unseen and voices unheard And finally the bomb gets the last word Christians k**ed m**ms, and Germans k**ed Jews And everybody's bodies are used and abused, Huh! Minds are poisoned and souls are polluted Superiority complex is deep rooted Leeches and lice's, and people got prices Egomaniacs control the self-righteous Nothing is sacred and nothing is pure So the revelation of d**h is our cure Hitler and Caesar, Custer and Reagan Napoleon, Castro, Mussolini and Begin Ghengis Khan and the Shah of Iran Mixed with the blood of the weaker man The peoples in terror, the leaders made the error And now they can't even look in the mirror 'Cause we gotta suffer while things get rougher And that's the reason why we got to get tougher To learn from the past and work for the future And don't be a slave to no computer 'Cause the Children of Man inherits the land And the future of the world is in your hands So just throw your hands in the air And wave 'em like you just don't care And if you believe that you're the future Scream it out and say 'Oh yeah!' ('Oh yeah!') 'Oh yeah!' ('Oh yeah!') Raah! Beat Street Breakdown Raah! Hip Hop!