Killer Mike, Okayplayer - Martin Luther King Jr The Revolutionary lyrics

Martin Luther King, Jr was a Revolutionary
Simple and plain he did not get to live a
Regular life and have an 86th Bornday he died
A murder victim because he had
The audacity to challenge
A war machine bent on
Keeping people impoverished
And men and woman dying for an illegal war
Martin was more than
A speech-giving, marching
De-segregationist he was a human being
That dared to call out the
Hypocrisy of asking young people
To refrain from violent protest
On the one hand
While on the other allowing them to be cogs
In a war machine that was making
Vietnam a hell on earth for natives of
That country and American soldiers alike

Martin was a young father who at the threat


Of death dared to push forward on
Behalf of all humanity against
The global reign
Of America and her allies’ evil
Perpetrated through war he was a
Man of conscience who valued
The life of all humans
He believed the philosophy
Of Jesus in a deeper way
Than just anti-homosexual rhetoric
And conservative right-wing dogma he
Was disgusted with
The government and it's use of
Power to oppress in
The same way Christ had been he defended
The principle of all humanity
Having value and being
Equal–like his savior he was not a
Flower-giving, other-cheek turning sucker he
Was a fiery preacher
Returning from the mountaintop with
A message that
Would turn the world as people knew it on
It's ear like his messiah Jesus Christ
He was a revolutionary

He proposed that the poor have value
He was against all war
He saw the value in all
Humanity he plotted, planned, organized
Strategized and mobilized for a
Movement that was bigger than
Simply ensuring blacks
Had rights martin died with his
"dream" unfinished his dream was to expose
The link between poverty, pain
Prison and global war he saw US foreign
Policy as one arm of global oppression
That needed to be called out he saw
The acceptance of poverty as simply
A part of other lives as a sin
A sin that he was called to
Rally against–as well as
The corporations that
Helped keep that condition in place

So on the celebration of
What would have marked
MLK Jr’s 86th year on earth I
Ask: What do we do next? What do
We do besides: take a day
Party and watch a march on TV?
Will you continue where Martin left
Off? Will you join other protestors
In the streets to end
Police policy that targets and kills blacks
And darker people globally? Will
You fight to make sure Africa
Controls her own fate–both as
A continent and as separate states?
Will you call out your
Current "black" POTUS for continuing
To land US troops
On foreign soil and engaging in
More illegal wars? Will
You take to the streets and feed the
Hungry, defend the poor and march
On public buildings calling
Out the incompetent men and
Woman we call leaders?
See, those things are the way
To honor a revolutionary
The question is: are you, like MLK was
A revolutionary?

Be more than an American
That simply enjoys the
Fruit's of his labor by taking a day
Off be a keeper of
His challenge to government
Be a source of agitation to policy
Makers be an ally to those
Young people in the streets
Fighting against corrupt police
Departments be
A friend to the poor and to prisoners
Be more like Martin, Malcolm, Che, Hampton
Assata be willing to fight–with your life
If need be–for the freedom
Justice and liberation of all against
Tyranny and the war machine
That these countries and corporations
Force upon us and
Call ‘normal’ we don’t need
More depictions of Martin
As anything other than what he was–and
What we have to become to ever realize
His dream of the
Eradication poverty, miseducation
Inequality and war we have to
Be revolutionaries and nothing less