Nas - Black Zombie Lyrics

Uh, yo, you believe when they say we ain't shit, we can't grow?
All we are is dope dealers, and gangstas and hoes?
And you believe when they be telling you lie, all on the media?
They make the world look crazy to keep you inside?
Why you listen when the teachers at school
Know you a young single parent out struggling, they think you a fool
Give your kids bad grades and put 'em in dumber classes
Killing shorty future, I wonder how do we last it?
Underground in they casket, ancestors turning
I'm learning something every day, there is no Lazarus
Words like God is Greek or Latin
So if you study Egypt, you'll see the truth written by the masters
My niggas is chilling, getting high, relaxing
Envisioning, owning shit, yo it can happen
What do we own? Not enough land, not enough homes
Not enough banks, to give my brother a loan
What do we own? The skin on our backs, we run and we ask
For reparations, then they hit us with tax
And insurance if we live to be old, what about now?
So stop being controlled, we black zombies

Walking talking dead, though we think we're living (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, following the system (black zombies)
Walking talking dead, though we think we're living (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, following the system (black zombies)

Ayo, we trapped in our own brain, fuck behind bars
We've already gone insane
We've already gave up, cut our own heads offs
Stab our own backs and dream too much
Without fulfilling reality, too greedy and
Can't have one or two chains, we need three of them
Can't have one or two guns without squeezing 'em
On our own people and, fuck black leaders
'Cause whites ain't got none leading them, the rhythm is cosmic
Nas is divinity, the deity's prophet
Let's all get down and get up
Victims walking 'round with Down's Syndrome, all stuck
Fainting, shouting, catching Holy Ghost in church
Scared to do it for ourselves 'less we see somebody doing it first
We begged, we prayed, petitioned and demonstrated
Just to make another generation, black zombies

Walking talking dead, though we think we're living (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, following the system (black zombies)
Walking talking dead, though we think we're living (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, following the system (black zombies)

You scared to be yourself, 'cause you in a trance
Feel free, hear the music and dance
If you cared what they think, why wear what they wear, just for you
Dumb niggas with long beards like they Arabs or Jews
Or from Israel, Bismillah al rahman al rahim
Islam's a beautiful thing
And Christian and Rastafari, helps us to bring
Peace against the darkness, which is ungodly
So what's the black man's true religion, who should we follow?
Use your own intuition, you are tomorrow
That's the sound of the beast
I'm a Columbia record slave, so get paid
Control your own destiny, you are a genius
Don't let it happen to you like it did to me, I was a black zombie

Walking talking dead, though we think we're living (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, following the system (black zombies)
Walking talking dead, though we think we're living (black zombies)
We just copy-cat, following the system (black zombies)

Wake up! Black zombies in a spell for more than fo'hundred years
Ghetto niggas won't have it no mo', can I get a witness?
Why listen to somebody else tell you how to do it
When you can do it yourself, it's all in you, do it, do it
Do it niggas, come on, uh, peace