May you live as long as you want,
But never want as long as you live... babay
While living in a world of freedom,
Because intelligence... is, uh... is so expensive...
(Expensive, expensive, expensive)
While building a smarter planet, is legal,
Yeah... One crime at a time... someone just mugged the Eagle...
(the eagle, the eagle, the eagle...)
We got to be careful what the words that we use...
If we choose to be wounded healers,
Rather than wounded hurters,
We need words of encouragement,
Words of gentleness...
Words of kindness...
Words of ennoblement...
Yeah, we want these sisters and brothers of all colors
To broaden their horizons...
Connect the three dimensions of time,
Your past, your present and your future...
You got to respect yourself,
Have confidence in yourself...
Who told you to doubt yourself!
Who told you, you can't soar like an Eagle...
Who told you that you are to demean yourselves...
Straighten your back up,
When you straighten your back up, you're going somewhere,
'Cause folks can't ride your back unless it's bent!...
STAND the way Sly Stone said... stand...
(If you want to be free...)
You say you got a smart phone
(then you can't be dumb...)
But you're still making dumb decisions...
(If you want to be free...)
Your acting like your full grown,
(then you got to get on the one)
When you still need your Mama's permission.
Always have a deep sense of connection to the past,
A subversive memory that constitutes wind at your back...
You are who you are because somebody loved you,
Somebody cared for you... somebody attended to you,
Make sure that love flows through you,
That's what it means to keep love on the one...
Young soul,
We love you...
We know you can be grander than you are...
And we know that the funk means
It's not just about the funk,
But the "K", and the "K" is about knowledge,
And knowledge is about courage,
And the courage is about service,
And the service is about sacrifice...
(If you want to be free...)
You know yesterday's trash,
(then you can't be dumb...)
Could very well be tomorrows fuel...
(If you want to be free...)
And yesterday's prisons...
(Then you got to get on the one)
Ah, could very well be tomorrow's schools...
(I gotta get a witness...)
Let us never forget the words of the great Martin Luther King Jr.
Who said that "Love is the key that unlocks the door to ultimate reality"
Let us understand the words of James Baldwin, when he said,
"Love forces us to take off the mask we know we cannot live within,
But fear we cannot live without".
That's the kind of love "on the one" we talking about,
We want to firm one another. We want to encourage one another...
We want to uplift one another...
That's why James Brown, George Clinton,
That's why Aretha Franklin, that's why Theodore Pendergrass,
That's why basic colors is only ONE...
(If you want to be free...)
Whooaah yeah bub...
(You can't be dumb)
And if you're on a ship of fools,
(If you want to be free...)
Let it be said that you are not the captain, babay...
(then you got to get on the One...)