Superstar Quamallah - Kunta Kente lyrics

[Verse 1] You see, they tried to take my name away And through that, take our power base Can't trace back the place that we came from in the motherland Climbing through your fire escape window like I'm Brother-man From the Sudan, I can be from, my long features Make me look Ethiopian, or Eritrean The kids (?) be asking when I'm gonna teach again They went that knowledge of self, the meaning of wealth The fifth element to hip-hop (?) If we left it to the schools, then we wouldn't no nada Acting like that black kid on "Welcome Back Kotter" It's a damn shame, can't even tell you what's my last name Maybe it's Nkrumah, Ali, or Kente Or possibly (?), running horse The power of my ancestors flows through my voice So it's my choice to take a stand, don't call me John I'm an African, Carolina Cherokee, rock rock on [Hook] That was the worst part of slavery They took our name And with that, they took our heritage Physical abuse was momentary But the name, that lasts forever But we got it back Rock, rock on [Verse 2] You can never take my name away Don't call me John, call me Kwame I changed my name in 11th grade at Crenshaw High You wanna know why? Well I grew up a shy guy Quiet in cla**, that's why I pa**ed But my soul was too bold to let that last I took off my mask Showed my true self, learned about myself in the cla** While Roy Thomas, but then Dr. Clark pa**ed They taught me how to honor my past, now I teach my own cla** See I was raised by an all-star cast Muhammad Ali was my first hero Because he wouldn't go to war in Vietnam, Malcolm X was next Because he stood like Dr. King, not a pawn or a politician Their envision was for unity Marcus Garvey should've had immunity Nothing you can do to me, I'm a teacher in my community And honestly see the last of a dying breed A Cherokee warrior plus an African prince I want to get paid like Jay-Z but I got common sense Cause when the money's gone homie, you got old and lonely And if we all don't look good, then Quam don't look good If we all can't get in, then ain't no even going What happened to that slogan? What happened to that slogan?