Beat Street (12" Single Version)

Beat Street Breakdown, rah

Hit me

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, uh

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 color 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, huh

I never knew art till 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 hands

Then serenades of blue and red

And the beauty of the rainbow fills your head

Crescendo colors play 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, death must die

And the tears 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

Tryna 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, and concrete

The ladies on the corner are selling that body

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 classroom, 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 a eye

Some people gotta die just to be free

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, huh

Still life, urban masterpiece

Your trademark was written on trains and walls

A million dollar gift only God released, huh

And yet you got killed 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 to the top where we belong

'Cause the age of the Beat Street wave is here

Everybody let's sing along, now come on and say, "Ho" (Ho)

And say, "Ho" (Ho)

And to let me know I'm rocking the microphone

Everybody say, Ramon! Ramon! (Ramon! Ramon!)

A newspaper burns in the sand and the headlines say, "Man destroys man"

Extra, extra, read all the bad news

On 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

The sight unseen and voices unheard

And finally the bomb gets the last word

Christians killed Muslims, and Germans killed 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 death 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, rah (Oh, yeah)

Beat Street Breakdown, rah

Hit me