The Last Poets
Black And Strong (Homesick)
[Intro]
I'm coming home were I belong
I'm coming home, real, Black and strong

Write graffittis on the walls of Wall Street
Colours so loud they let the walls speak
As one, Black & Strong
Like the stories of the peoples of a small streets
Give it up, as they all speak, as one
Be black & strong

Write graffittis on the walls of Wall Street
Colours so loud that when the walls speak
As one,Be black & strong
Write graffittis on the walls of Wall Street
Colours so loud that when the walls speak
As one,Be black & strong
Like the stories from the peoples on small streets
Give it up, as they all speak, as one
Black & strong

Like the stories of people of a small street
Different but the same as when they all speak
As one,Be black & strong

[Verse 1: Grandmaster Melle Mel]
I see a slave that's on a ship, in fact it's getting gripped
The great, great, great grandson that's a trip, he's equipped
A broken man in tattered rags, a one way ticket
A color was his name, the chain was his claim
The game was a four hundred year reign
Tote that bar, lift that bail,you ran for
The country,you were for jail
He was sold to his master to the highestBidder
Three cows,two horses & a healthy n***a
Bred like they had a burnt face,lost in space
Born to loose,the perfect race,doomed to loose
Doomed to dilapidate in the great United States
The land of the free & the land of the Indian Brave
And plantation for a twentieth century slave
[Chorus]
I'm coming home.where I belong
I'm coming back Real black & strong
I'm coming home.Real black & strong
I'm coming back where I belong
I'm coming home..............
Real black & strong..........

I'm coming home.where I belong
I'm coming back Real black & strong
I'm coming home.where I belong
I'm coming back Real black & strong
I'm coming home..............
Like a Jones

[Verse 2: Umar Bin Hassan]
The screams,the lands screaming,women
And children screaming,mens dignity and
Respect screaming,the screams inside
Seperate the emotions,pushing us over
The edge,into self-hatred for the success
And happiness,of large tribes,small tribes
The ancestors all connected by chains linked to their past insecurities
Deja vu
Your mother was once my mother, your father was once my father
My house,was your place to rest and restore
In the war,in luxuriant & extravagant
Whole houses,I've been hearing off mothers
And sisters smiles and only this guide we trust
The one who consumes are very manhood
The bastard and illegitimate ideas wrapped up
In some green & putrid religion
Time is money, money is time
Down to the docks,back in,be in
Thrown in,even the ships have no mercy
They speak to us of coming evils,subtle
Subtle pleasures & general decadence
General Motors and the Peelberry Doughboy,you will become
The sleazy and slimey characters is someone elses
Mind,you will become the kindness that is truly
A weakness,the Ocean is a hears this assault upon our being
It becomes our friend,it shoes it's compassion
Jah,Jah come to me,the waters become a deep and
Dark red,the Sharks feast on our desire to be free
Bodies,bodies floating in there own after thoughts
Children,children clinging to dead mothers
In their inability to death,men searching the waters
For famalies,men searching the water for one last memory of their
Famalies looking Africans dieing searchng for that
Final gasp of air,tears now become the dreams
Of finally standing still,torn and broken bodies
Betrays the very esscence of God
Write graffittis on the walls of Wall Street
Colours so loud they let the walls speak
As one, Black & Strong

Like the stories of people of a small street
Different but the same as when they all speak
As one,Be black & strong

[Verse 3: Grandmaster Melle Mel]
From the African Kings and Queens, to the a drug kingpin
Knowing the streets of Hollis, Queens
Still a monarch will stop cause a chain is still a chain
Like the chains of a child in school learning how
The British rule,like the rubber belonged to you
Like the chains of the Cops undercover faking the
War on Drugs,doing a war on a soul brother life time
Bid on a place called Earth,where the 'Heads' turn last
And the 'Addicts' first,if the bricks say master
Took us on this trip,our asses whipped
From Malcolm King to Marvin,they fear an ass whoopin'
But the school of one,one out of school of many
Bang,bang another niggers going to jail


The screams,the blood,the land,becoming free
We'll make you free
Because every man just screams for blood
The blood
The land
Becoming free,becomes every man
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
I'm coming home.Real black & strong
I'm coming home.where I belong
I'm coming back Real black & strong
I'm coming home.where I belong
I'm coming back Real black & strong
I'm coming home.Yeh..........
Real black & strong

Write graffittis on the walls of Wall Street
Colours so loud that when the walls speak
As one,Be black & strong

Like the stories from the peoples on small streets
Give it up, as they all speak, as one
Be black & strong

Look here.Yeh,oh.........
Coming home

Write graffittis on the walls of Wall Street
Colours so loud they let the walls speak
As one, Black
Strong

Bench warrents
Bench warrents snatch away hans on bonds
Hoping,the Criminal Justice System is going
Plea bargain away your imagination while
Speaking in dead tongues
Hand-cuffed to the dollar signs
And speaking the hollow words "Get out of the car
You under arrest",take that word insane
And make it work for you
Take that word 'Crazy' and make it poet
Take that word 'Suicidal' and make it
Live in some kind and living expression
For those that cannot raise there heads
Above the sirens,bcause of the Automatic
Weapons,we owe no explanation,we owe
No apologies,ours has been a battle of
Gun battles and bullets, whizzing past
Our sensitivity,all mixed up in drugs and alcohol
Climb out of your bottles,climb out of the vapours
Climb out of the centuries of being left in the thought
You really wanted to share
Row into the journey of the Sun breaking
Into the clouds,the simplicity and the beauty
Of 'Good Morning' to your smile

We used to feel these things
We used to feel these things

We used to be sacred to each others thoughts & expressions
We were true artists,not afraid of giving too much
Too soon and looking foolish
We were there at the beginning,we had trust and faith
Behind closed doors
We used to speak to each other and the song told of the rainbow
Through the rivers mistCooling the passion and warmth
And passing of time
One thing for us,to come home
[Fade Out]