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lirik lagu m.w.a – griot b

let me paint a little picture
come on let me take you to a river
niger. soft “g” like the “j” in pajama
below the sahel, we are in the savanna
okay this is where we’ll start
with the blacksmithing
iron smelting people called the nok
not spear chuckers
nope they had daggers, plows, and swords
efficient tools led to surplus grains stored
less time farming more time to make
weaving and sculptures that they could trade
up and down the niger it’s like an interstate
so they joined villages to protect themselves from raids
squad up, raiders don’t want drama
this unity eventually led to the kingdom ghana
who controls the trade of gold
from the mines of w-ngara
with the meat preserving salt
from the sahara town taghaza
kings regulated trade of gold by owning all gold harder
than the gold dust which was used like their dollar
soldiers hired to protect and to expand the border
governors ran the cities, monarch hired scholars
to collect a tax
on every single thing in kingdom bartered
court was held every day to maintain the order
an organized kingdom
of officials, traders, gold and warriors
does this sound like the africa that you have heard of?

medieval west africa: ghana, mali, songhai
the truth is coming at ya
everything you thought is wrong right?
all you heard was dirt poor people in huts
they built castles and had more gold than king tut
medieval west africa: ghana, mali, songhai
the truth is coming at ya
everything you thought is wrong right?
all you heard was slaves and doing voodoo
they built colleges and libraries in timbuktu

okay, lets talk about mali
1240 k-mbi was taken by the mande
who controls the trade of gold ghana’s rule is declining
thanks to umayyad mali’s religion – islamic
mali’s famous king mansa musa
made sure every soul in his land stayed true to
the teachings of the prophet, so islamic knowledge
required and taught to all people by tutors (imams)
mansa musa so devout he took the hajj, but not alone
he brought along a caravan
of servants, camels, that’s not all
he got to egypt with his crew july of 1324
he stole the show, he had in tow, 30,000 pounds of gold
people were in awe they saw
this regal man as black as coal
jaws dropped to the floor
when mansa musa starts to throw
gold to the people didn’t make it rain he made it snow
did you know about this dope mali king on his throne?

our journey brings us to the songhai
i know you learned a lot from this song right
if you like learning, let’s roll like parkour
to timbuktu’s university of sankore
what you need, to learn about surgery or disease?
how about math or astronomy?
songhai had the world’s largest library
muslims from overseas, traveled to learn from the
imams which were muslim teachers
songhai had islamic features
thanks to trans saharan trade
which encouraged muslim preachers
this religion influences architecture, and the law
so they use shari’ah and ever city had a mosque
you learned columbus found america
by accident on boat
west africans saw america two hundred years before
their history wasn’t written down
so you take this as a joke
but how can you doubt the spoken word of a griot
griot
griot
how can you doubt the spoken word of a griot?

what you thought, what they taught was all true?
your history books and the tv lied to you
west africa is more than slaves and ebola
listen to the griot ‘cus he told ya

why’d you think i do this? what do you think i really do?
you think i’m here rapping just to entertain you
i’m a griot, that’s a teacher for the african people
when it comes to telling stories, i have no equal
advisor to the king, historian, a sage fellow
anansi with the tongue, aesop with the fables
that’s griot. flow bomb like torpedo
the “t” is silent, d in django, and i put the “g” in angle
‘cus i’m coming at this rapping different
vicious how i mangle, every beat i’m on
i kick it heavy footed like some cankles
that griot. “g” is for golden
“r” is for rule
‘i” as in i will
“o” only do to you what i want you to do to me
and therein lies the “t”, ‘cus i will only give you truth
so don’t you ever lie to me!
and that is the basis of relationships
but basic ain’t for “b.” no
“b” is for that bread that’s that truth on which you feed
sometimes that bread is sour, i ain’t talking about dough
sometimes that bead is bitter
like that burnt and blackened toast
but black ain’t bad, black is beautiful to me
and that the purpose of this opus
and the reason that i teach
griot b is here to teach about you some black history
griot b is here to teach you
that we came from kings and queens
that we came from kings and queens!

- griot b

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