I’m fightin’ on until my life is gone,
even when my version of health insurance
is orange juice and tiger balm,
even when my attention is so divided
between rappin’ and writin’ and activism and survivin’
And at any given time, so many of us are new to this,
but you ain’t got to stop listenin’ to Ludacris
And you ain’t got to dress a certain way,
ride your bike in wintertime,
shop at the co-op or ever turn away
from who you really are; this movement doesn’t need perfect
it just needs us to start workin’
“Radical” means you have hope,
and sometimes you vote for it,
most of the time, though, you don’t
So this is for the ballot, the bullet, the bulletin and the boycott,
for the hand-to-hand, and the door to door
More and more, it’s growin’ in popularity;
we don’t say “peace,” we say “solidarity”

With this many hands we could start a fire
With this many hands we could start a war
With this many hands we could build something beautiful
With this many hands we could do much more

I got a friend who ran for city council and he got elected
I got a friend who ran for school board and got rejected,
but in the process, learned about the process,
wrote a couple grants, now she runs a non-profit
I got a friend who never went to college,
but knows the first and last names
of everyone in his housing project
It starts with the basics;
I got another friend who throws parties in his basement
And basically, that’s just the baseline:
Power is a hundred people in the same place at the same time
Right? But what you are going to do with it?
I got a friend who knows what the revolution is,
and knows that though the music is beautiful,
it’s the people that it brings together who are better,
and the senators and representatives will only bend
to the will of the real changemakers: my friends

With this many hands we could start a fire
With this many hands we could start a war
With this many hands we could build something beautiful
With this many hands we could do much more

Shout to Howard Zinn
Have you ever seen the world through a bomb sight?
Have you ever prayed through a darkness beyond night?
This song might be a bunker-buster, daisy-cutter,
thermobaric American, crazy proletarian
But when you boil in the belly of the beast it’s scary,
so hack out by any means necessary
They’re going to call it “terrorism” either way,
so you can run for the clear, or give ‘em something to fear
C’mon, and I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout bombs
I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout Bibles, Torahs or Qurans
I’m talkin’ ‘bout the god that lives in your feet
when you’re walking,
the god that lives on your lips while you’re talking,
the god that lives in your fist when you fight for
something worth fighting for
This whole life is war, and the first step to victory:
like Toki Wright said: “know the history”
An injury to one is an injury to all, understand me
They step up to your cousin, you run and go get your family
So when they step to you on some realness,
you got the whole city risin’ up, climbin’ up that double helix
Your job is to protect your family; and your family is everyone
Power to the people: give it a chance
‘cause it’ll work; it’s the only thing that ever has