[ Melle Mel ]
Beat Street Breakdown, rrrrhaa!

Beat Street, the king of the beat
You see him rockin' that beat from across the street
And huh-huh, Beat Street is a lesson, too
Because ah, 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 colors 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 till I saw your face
And there'll never be one to take your place
'Cause each and every time you touch a spraypaint can
Michaelangelo's soul controls your hands
Then serenades of blue and red
And the beauty of the rainbow fills your head
Crescendo colors playin' tunes
Man why oh why you'd have to die so soon?
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Where the good die young is all thy must
'Cause as life must live death must die
And the tears shall fall from the living eye
Huh, 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
Tried 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 over head?
Tell me who's gonna dream the impossible dream
Of the beautiful cities and the islands and streams
When your works of art brought into being
All that the ghetto stopped you from seeing
Bums on the sidewalk, garbage in the street
Abandoned buildings, bricks of concrete
The ladies on the corner are sellin' that body
And everybody wants a part in that party
I'm hangin' out tough rockin' late at night
Runnin wild in the town of the neon lights
You either play some ball or stand in the hall
Huh, you gotta make somethin' out of nothin' at all
I'm sittin' in the classroom learnin' the rules
And it says you can't do graffiti in school
That can't be wrong in the hallowed hall
So my notebook turned into a big 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 a rat race lookin' for my own space
It gotta be a better place for you and me
There's pie in the sky and a eye for a 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 sweatin' from dawn to dusk
There's no justice, it's, huh, just us
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 nothin' at all
So after this there'll be no more hard time
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 come on
And say hooo (Hooo)
Say hooo (Hooo)
And to let me know I'm rockin' the microphone
Everybody say Ramon (Ramon)
Ramon (Ramon)
Rrrrhaa!
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 alibies
And the foolish attempts to conquer the sky
Lost in space, and what is it worth?
Huh, the President just forgot about Earth
Spendin' multi-billions and maybe even trillions
The cost of weapons ran in the zillions
There's gold in the street and there's diamond under feet
And the children in Africa don't even eat
Flies on their faces, they're livin' like mice
And their 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
A people shout out in the darkest hour
Sights 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 lices, and people got prices
Egomaniacs control the self-righteous
Nothin' is sacred and nothin' is pure
So the revelation of death is our cure
Hitler and Caesar, Custer and Reagan
Napoleon, Castro, Mussolini, and Begin
Genghis Khan and the Shah of Iran
Men spill the blood of the weaker man
The peoples in terror, the leaders made a 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
So learn from the past and work for the future
And don't be a slave to no computer
'Cause the children of Man inherit 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)
Rrrrhaa!
Beat Street Breakdown, rrrrhaa!