[Intro: Jody McIntyre]
Australia is a black country, so is America
So The Superpower warn us of a black terror
It’s not theft if it’s yours and you take it back
Just a correction of an inaccurate fact
So I’m not afraid at the thought of immigrants
More ashamed of my quarter of English-ness
The Scots and the Irish don’t want to take this
Being occupied by a state that is racist
Black history is a story of Revolution and Resistance
A salute to all our brothers from now to Maurice Bishop
[Chorus]
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Verse 1: Logic]
See, Cozzie, I am not a n***a
No mistake made cause that’s the word the slavemaster used to call the slave
And brothers killing other brothers trying to get the papes
The way they move I bet Rosa Parks would turn in her grave
Think of what she stood for and how she would feel
Think of Steve Biko and think of Emmett Till
And eight bars ain’t enough time on the beat
But go and Google every name, Black History
[Verse 2: Big Ben]
Imagine Adam was as black as a [?]
And his descendants built guided by stars’ patterns
Pyramids, with just the knowledge of the atom
They might not tell you in your class but that’s what really happened
Before the kidnap, chains, rotting in the cabins
Your family tree is from a root greater than you fathom
There’s real power in that blood the guns are out splashing
There's real power when the people start to take action
[Verse 3: Jaja Soze]
You can’t hide the truth from me, you’re only fooling you
My blood is of a slave, shout out to Shaka Zulu
No n***a monkey round here bruv, monkey who?
I’m medicating youths just like I’m supposed to do
You should be a king, instead of trying to shot a Q
I’m speaking to my people just like Malcolm X would do
And don’t make who you are be a mystery
Just educate yourself and learn the black history
[Verse 4: Big Cakes]
This is black history, this is our history
The pyramids in Africa and stars are in symmetry
Big dog you ain’t a n***a or a nig-nog
A black man made the first clock tick-tock
You got a watch? Big up Benjamin Banneker
My brothers got ripped and shipped up from Mother Africa
Hip-hop story lines out of rhymes tell you how a black man made clocks out of time
[Chorus]
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Verse 5: Genesis Elijah]
Black magic, black clouds, black hearted
Black beauty, black balled on black markets
That black comedy is tragic
That black-ard did nothing they still parred him called him a "black bastard"
Ain’t nothing new black, they used to call it "black music"
No black supremacy, just equality
The news is Black’s the new Black
I rep that Black Panther movement
Teach black history, speak black future
[Verse 6: MC D]
Blacks used to get sold in auctions like Christys
But to suppress the knowledge is too risky
So instead of that the Feds want to frisk me
And handle me like they did the blacks in the 60s
But I’m a king like Tut and Shaka Zulu
I gain knowledge and I learn what we been through
Wisdom is more than the colour of your skin
True, and when you’re wise you'll realise you’re a king too
[Verse 7: Cerose]
I am Kunta, not Toby
Free thinker, you’ll never control me
Go further, Nat Turner
The mass a got shot by his own burner
"By any means" like Malcolm
They never hear me when I talk so I’m shouting
"Back to Africa" like Garvey
"One Love" like the brother Bob Marley
[Verse 8: Big Frizzle]
Yeah, listen to the saga
Mamadu Diallo fathered little Aminata
Taught her in the ways of the Qu’ran no drama
Eleven years old she was taken from her mother
The hardest journey ever across that great river
Three moons in that giant canoe
Now they deliver back-to-back, blacks-on-blacks
Look how she shivers, you want to know how she grows?
Well, learn more when you read The Book of Negroes
[Chorus]
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Verse 9: Wordplay]
Yo, I went and picked up a book
Took an hour to read through
Learnt about a party that’s empowering the people
About Huey P. and Bobby Seale, the Panthers
Not the media spin, I’m reading Howard's
How they try discredit these guys’ names
FBI, CoIntelPro, the CIA
But I never forget my man them, brothers like Fred Hampton
Died for the rights of my people, I’d like to thank them
[Verse 10: Haze]
Fuckery and misery, black history
Legacies never told, young'un come and sit with me
Take the fag out the zoot, burn a spliff with me
Listen to my thoughts, find that epiphany
Yeah, we are kings, genetically and spiritually
From the start to the end, I mean literally
Marcus Garvey, 2Pac and Malcolm X
Only up above, Lord knows who’s coming next
[Verse 11: U.S.G]
The way they [?] ain’t fair bro
That’s why we’re killing each other on these roads
They don’t want to see our black seeds-them grow
They wanna see us living broke in a ghetto
That’s why I got the rifle by the window
"By any means necessary," using Malcolm’s lingo
And they try and put my flag at half-mast, labelled me a mongrel, I’m black not half caste
Us fellas here with no fear like Mandela. So they’d rather see us rot in the damn cellar
But you pricks can’t harm me cause I’m black and I’m proud like Marcus Garvey
Can’t leave my people in the field, nah, I love them. I lead the way like I’m Harriet Tubman
And they can’t say we’re fighting for something ancestors legendary, nothing above them
[Chorus]
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
This is black history
The school system made it a mystery
But it laid the foundation for you and me
So we put it in our music for you to see
[Verse 12: Rodney P]
I’m a bald black brother like Khalid Muhammed
Saying hail up the dread as we roam the planet
In step with Imhotep, I follow the lead
Intellect like Menelik, I follow the creed
And I wanna believe, although I don’t go church
I just carry God with me know say this is God’s work
I know my livity I’m trying to achieve and the youth them have to know so that they warrior breed
[Verse 13: Akala]
Celebrating our history is not a favour
Correcting the myths that still persist to justify behaviour
Showing civilisation before colonisation
Some would rather say the pyramids were built by aliens, than accept that a bunch of Coons ever taught a thing ever in human history, [?] people with lighter skin. Diop set 'em straight, intelligent debate at the Cairo Symposium, still they want to negate
But we can’t change a thing, if we don’t want to face our very education conditions us to the Myth of Race
So you probably never learned about the Moors in Spain, Benin or Loango in 1668, Lalibela or the Citadel
Our truths they hid it well
If we knew ourselves would so many sit in a cell? When Europe has the influence in African affairs
That Africa has in Europe, we can talk about a world that’s fair
