Lyrics
Would you lay down your life for what you knew was right?
Stand on the side of the just whether Black or white?
Would you surrender your honor or continue to fight?
Would you stay strong to the cause of the common man's plight?
Blind man, better listen 'fore you lose your sight.
People cheating one another for a better chance at life.
But if you buy the shit they sell, you gonna lose the light
And you're another dealer of the dirty power brokers' blight.
Paint by numbers every summer, when we crazy with the heat.
People come together, marching, stomping up and down the street.
But when it's colder, freedom soldiers stay at home warming they feet.
Or in the club drop-poppin' to the latest ghetto beat.
Marley said, "Get up, Stand up" but you'd rather keep your seat.
Gandhi almost died of hunger 'cause his people couldn't eat.
Malcolm made us ask the questions, now we cower in retreat.
I'm ashamed to tell our fathers that we revel in defeat.
Chorus
Get up/ stand up/ throw your hands up
Ev’rybody get up/ stand up move
Get up/ stand up/ throw your hands up
Ev’rybody get up/ stand up move
Get up/ stand up/ throw your hands up
Ev’rybody get up/ stand up move
Do something/ be something
Get up/ stand up/ Ev’rybody move
My suspicion is their mission is to sell into submission every miss and every mister to commission with prescriptions the fruition of the fission of the sister and the brother from the mother. They don't bother with the father (obsolete). And so their feat is to defeat what makes us weep when we can see we're on our knees and so they keep the world diseased so all we see are doctors' fees. And we're so weak children can't eat while we compete through the fatigue and then repeat don't make a peep and live like sheep.
And so they sell us, but don't tell us, the "Americana" dream
And so we buy it and we try it - but every day it seems
We're running faster after laughter chasing after the machine
And so my stream of consciousness - a dream
And all the while pedophiles roaming 'round the Congress floor
Are passing bills on how to kill while they continue to implore
They're making sure we have to buy more things we really can't afford.
We stay in debt so we'll forget the whores of wars are making bets.
Chorus
Now I know you see injustice when it flashes on TV.
And I know you are outraged at crimes against humanity
And I know you must be tired of their skewed morality
Preaching abstinence while selling sex to children purposely
And I hope you are offended by the music industry
Though they try to fill your headphones up with mediocrity
They tryin' hard to make sure y'all don't hear from men like me
And the thousands more like me who dream of how the world could be.
Let's not forget that Martin dreamt about uniting humankind
A dreams a dream but I'm a dreamer and I'm willing y'all to try
And I am no less of a man because I'm not ashamed to cry
I know the task is overwhelming, but you've got to draw the line.
Now, I ain't claiming to be Jesus turnin' water into wine,
Just a humble human being not afraid to speak my mind.
We all lookin' for the ladder; don't nobody wanna climb.
Window's closing every moment, y'all. We runnin' out of time.
Chorus