The Last Poets - American Sahara lyrics

[Intro: Umar Bin Ha**an] This is a story, Sad but true When the land of the blacks became very blue [Verse 1: SmCity] How the f** do you make a seed grow, with no H20 Like Cactus we adapted, you can't get close With this prickly demeanor n***a with all this sh** that we done seen we might just get even meaner n***as is dreamers Mostly bout' being Arenas, instead of being a genius or even seeing a venus Like f** a NASA, nobody looking up to the stars We was all just looking up to the stars that was f**ing them broads That were puffing cigars From the land where the hustlers are gods Where they cuffing motherf**ers man, just because Man we dealing with the toughest odds But if we knew better, than we'd do better Need a new set of rules this is too set up They let a few get up For every Obama and Hov, every prominent role There's a hundred thousand anonymous souls Thats bare foot, in the hot sand Seeing mirages, how many n***as you know dreaming of being an artist? Probably gon' end up sitting there retrieving the garbage Tell me you n***as don't see these mirages He thinking that he gon' play for the chargers And he probably gon' end facing some charges Man I'm staring in the faces of the martyrs On these posters on my wall, man I'm supposed to warn em' all Man yall supposed to wanna ball Man they'd rather have you n***as in paris Than back home with your brothers so you n***as can share it Yeah, And if you said it, then n***as would hear it Then, they would repeat it cause' n***as is parrots Yo! Yall the closest thing to a lot of these n***as's parents In this n***a sahara [Verse 2: Umar Bin Ha**an] The fall from the pyramid into the projects The same old subjects became the same old objects With one eye open and one eye closed That word n***a became super imposed A child born here, a child over there Some born dark, some born fair Some born to lead, some born to die [Verse 3: SmCity] Watching my brother walk over the sand dunes He done lost his mind, he thinking its Cancun He don't understand that this land is his doom That this sand is his tomb sh**, hallucinating like this man is on shrooms' Seeing these bad b**hes dance in a lagoon While I'm grabbing him, shaking him, screaming to think harder He's in his sand castle, thinking he's King Arthur Hands full of sand, thinking he's drinking water from a stream He's caught in between the awfullest scene and the awesomest' dream This sh** sad, n***a started to scream I drop a tear for him, the first water that Iv'e seen Hit the ground like a raindrop and started to steam I don't wanna' leave him, when I try it hurts But if I stay here with this n***a I'ma' die of thirst There's an oasis, I'm just trying to search For its location, we all racing to find it first Try to declare it home Will we share it or only take care of our own And let the rest of our brothers just perish alone This the burden that a n***a gotta' bear on the throne [Verse 4: Abiodun Oyewole] n***a Check! n***a Check! Why don't you try and be a brother and put the n***a in check Try to build something up instead of creating a wreck Recognize we need each other and we shouldn't have to fight Stop thinking its all about you and with each other lets unite The land is dry but we've got juice We'll never die and were the proof Our soul's what fertilizes earth We are the brilliant black truth from the beginning of all birth Take the wasteland and make it fertile We've got this magic to make it sow, lets help each other over these hurtles Its the only way that we can grow n***a check Check it out