Lyrics Immortal Technique

Immortal Technique

Harlem Renaissance

Let me welcome both of you to the show this morning

To talk about what I consider

To be a very very important topic, the Harlem Renaissance

But before we get into that

Harlem once was red line district rated

Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David

And you wonder why people don't own they homes

'Cause the racist bank wouldn't fuckin' mortgage a loan

Until after the invasion of gentrification

Eminent domain intimidation, that's not negotiation

And it's frustrating to look at every day

Like watchin' a porno on 56k

Biohazard labs instead of store rooms

What's next motherfucka', projects as dorm rooms?

You ain't foolin' nobody in this community, dude

With your little fake Manhattanville community group

Ivy league real estate firms are corrupt

That lay siege to your castle like the Moors in Europe

They treat street vendors like criminal riffraff

While politicians get the corporate kickbacks

Harlem Renaissance, a revolution betrayed

Modern day slaves thinking that the ghetto is saved

'Till they start deporting people off the property

Ethnically cleansing the hood, economically

They want to kill the real Harlem Renaissance

Tryin' to put the Virgin Mary through a early menopause

The savior is a metaphor for how we set it off

Guerrilla war against the rezoning predators

When I speak about Harlem I speak to the world

The little Afghan boy and the Bosnian girl

The African in Sudan, the people of Kurdistan

The third world American indigenous man

Palestinians, Washington Heights Dominicans

Displaced New Orleans citizens

Beach front Brazilian favelas that you livin' in

The hood is prime real estate, they want back in again

I didn't write this to talk shit, I say it because

Some of y'all forgot what the Harlem Renaissance was

We had revolution, music and artisans

But the movement was still fucked up like Parkinson's

'Cause while we were giving birth to the culture we love

Prejudice kept our own people out of the club

Only colored celebrities in the party

And left us a legacy of false superiority

W.E.B. Du Bois versus Marcus Garvey

And we ended up selling out to everybody

The Dutch soldiers and the John Gotti's banksters

Modern day gangsters, immobile army

They want to move us all out the NYC

Like they did to the Jews with the Alhambra decree

So support your own businesses and institute of knowledge

'Cause the real Harlem Renaissance is economic

Harlem Renaissance, a revolution betrayed

Modern day slaves thinking that the ghetto is saved

Till they start deporting people off the property

Ethnically cleansing the hood, economically

They want to kill the real Harlem Renaissance

Tryin' to put the Virgin Mary through a early menopause

The savior is a metaphor for how we set it off

Guerrilla war against the rezoning predators

When they were saying it is the renaissance of Harlem

They didn't mean that we had stake in that

They meant to say that they could make money out of us

They are coming in with all kind of prejudices

In Brooklyn they're doing the same thing

In Queens they're doing the same thing, the Bronx

There's hardly any place which is affordable

I mean these people are putting up condominiums

Which start from a million dollars

How many people in this community make that kind of money?

How many people have that kind of money?

People of Harlem, they are the natural allies

Of the oppressed people of the world

Whether the struggle is in Panama, in Africa, Cuba

We spend money with the wrong people

We are looking for love with people who don't love us

What's wrong with us loving each other

And making sure we are protected?