M.I Abaga
Do You Know Who You Are? Take Some Time and Meditate On You
Do you know who you are?
What is your name?
[Hook: Tay Iwar]
Sometime you wonder why?
And wonder how?
Don't be alarmed, just stay calm
Cos' even if you choose or not to find
Through all the bullshit
With no dirty shoes
Finding the truth Is not hard
To figure out your life
Take your time and let it rain on you
Blessings from mother earth are always
Always true
Take your time and meditate on you
(do you know who you are?)
(what is your name? what is your worth?)
[Verse 1: M.I Abaga]
My child recite the words of this ancient mythology
The wisdom I disperse in this verse, no apology
Memorise to keep you from evil theology
For you that I can hear you're denied your equality
See for generations we perpetrated psychology
Divide and conquer each other, Willie Lynch policy
You cannot build each other up?
How would you build economy
How you think is how you are
Its just basic neurology
So please recite the words of this ancient mythology
The wisdom I disperse in this verse, no apology
Do you realise the Negros a hunted commodity?
Look around you n***a, observe your ecology
See they gon try to tell you it's in your biology
They gon tell you n***as ain't good at technology
That's why we have to re-write our anthropology
Until they acknowledge me n***a follow me into knowledge, gee
[Hook: Tay Iwar]
Take your time and let it rain on you
Blessings from mother earth are always
Always true
Take your time and meditate on you
(Do you know who you are?)
(What is your name? What is your worth?)
[Verse 2: M.I Abaga]
Yeah, tell me the value of a free born Nubian
In all his habitation death will keep pursuing him
Black is beautiful is truism or is it?
Generation raised just to ruin em, revisit
Shipped across the seas or be conquered, the options
Labour in the mind or be shackled for auction
Whatever path you take, your existence is function
Centuries later things will still be the same with caution
Blackman meditate on your pain
Hesitate in the rain
Let it wash you of the curse
And immerse in the hurt
Let your words be rebirth
Have a thirst for the truth
Find protection for youth
N***as open your wings
Let your woman be king
Let your children be dreams
Then you find em the means
Give em reasons to smile
Maybe last for a while
As I bequeath you a better future my child
[Hook: Tay Iwar]
Take your time and let it rain on you
Blessings from mother earth are always
Always true
Take your time and meditate on you
[Interlude]
We got two major issues
An identity crisis and psychological homelessness
We hate our Africanity
Even within the Black consciousness community we are still anti-African because deep down within our subconscious; we were all conditioned by the same superstructure that made us feel that Africa wasn't anything worth claiming
Our problem is totally mental, we are a trillion dollar people. We got all the degrees we need, all the expertise but you know what we're lacking? That cultural commitment to ourselves
Until we hate racism, more than we hate eachother; nothing is going to change
[Outro: M.I Abaga & Caryn Solomon]
It was a learning process for me to understand that the world does (hate you!?) yes
The world discriminates, the world is full of prejudice and bigotry and racism and hatred, it's real. I completely agree with you and that's the sorta explicit world against you, there's a more insidious world against you which I think is to do with socialisation process. The expectation of men to be the strong one is a hell of an expectation, it's actually terrible; because what do you do with all the real human vulnerability? and then it goes back to what we started off talking about, you have to become the superhero. The big muscle man and you aren't, you're just a person. Some of you are strong and some of you are weak, you're just a person and a full person has all the vulnerability in the world. We need men's liberation, to liberate men from the shackles of having to be a warrior and perfect and a soldier and a killer and a big strong muscle man; to just be a person