Common, dead prez, The Last Poets - Panthers lyrics

I used to run with a clan that was militant
Preparing for war we studied
Strategies with diligence
The revolution was our real intent
We had to theory to work so we
Could find out what it really meant

The place where the most
Black Panthers were destroyed
You either pushed dope, locked down
Or unemployed hearing shots late at night
Keeping the people paranoid
In the heart of the South Side
Countless died gangsters

From the outside
We could be deceived it’s all pretty
When you travel the streets
Projects be small cities
Where the beast at the gate change
The guard at each hour
The older generation sing songs
Of Black Power and me
Well I was reading Fanon and Chairman Mao
So I could change the situation
I’m in right now
Listen close to my people who
Could really show me how
To organize with my n put the system on trial
But the streets kept calling my name
You know the song even though I’m a solider
Took my oath to stay strong
Life goes on, some things take too long
Sometimes you don’t recognize what you
Got until it’s gone

Black fists, afros, kufis, and black gloves
Five Point Programs, rifles, and black love
Black Panthers
Holding it tight like black hugs
All the black ears who calling what black was

I read it when I was sixteen
And it freed my mind
Coming up on the dirty south
Floor of the roads
Being exposed to the Panther code
Make me a soldier a child of the Ten Point
Platform and rap form
Word to this Huey P tatted on my left arm
It’s fo’ life
Cuz if it wasn’t for the Panthers
The real OGs like Akua and Fred Hampton
And comrades on the West Coast
Side out in Watts
East Coast be LA returning shots at cops
It wouldn’t be no free school lunches
It was Mutulu Shakur that gave us
Acupuncture to clear the junkies
The real walkers
Up early feeding the children
Punk police would drive by
And spray the buildings
Who was holding it down when
Rap Brown got locked down if you love Tupac
His pops still in the box now
This is how the Panther cubs growl
Black Power thug style RBGs up

Black fists, afros, kufis, and black gloves
Five Point Programs, rifles, and black love
Black Panthers
Holding it tight like black hugs
All the black ears who calling what black was