Rage Against the Machine - Take the Power Back (Live at 86th Street Music Hall, Vancouver, B.C. - April 1993)

The classroom's the last room That get the truth, yeah The classroom's the last room That get the truth Bring that shit in Yeah, check this out y'all As I kick it like wicked style In the right light, study becomes insight But the system that dissed us Teaches us to read and write So called facts are fraud They want us to allege and pledge And bow down to their God Lost the culture, the culture lost Spun our minds and through time Ignorance has taken over Yo, we gotta take the power back Bam, here's the plan, motherfuck Uncle Sam Step back, I know who I am Raise your ear, I'll drop the style and clear It's the beats and the lyrics they fear The rage is relentless We need a movement with a quickness You are the witness of change And to counteract we gotta take the power back We gotta take the power back Come on, come on We gotta take the power back The present curriculum, I put my fist in 'em Eurocentric, every last one of 'em See right through the red, white and blue disguise With lecture I puncture the structure of lies Installed in our minds and attempting to hold us back We've got to take it back Holes in our spirit causin' tears and fears One sided stories for years and years and years I'm inferior? Who's inferior? Yeah, we need to check the interior of the system Who cares about only one culture And that is why we gotta take the power back We gotta take the power back Come on, come on We gotta take the power back We're gonna break shit down like this Uh, and like this Come on The teacher stands in front of the class But the lesson plan he can't recall The student's eyes don't perceive the lies Bouncing off every fucking wall His composure is well kept I guess he fears playing the fool Complacent students sit and listen to that Bullshit that he'd learned in school Europe ain't my rope to swing on Can't learn a thing from it, yet I hang from it Gotta get it, gotta get it together then Like the motherfuckin' weathermen To expose and close the doors on those who try To strangle and mangle the truth 'Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react We gotta take the power back We gotta take the power back Come on, come on We gotta take the power back No more lies, no more lies No more lies, no more lies No more lies, no more lies No more lies, no more lies, uh Yeah, take it back y'all, take it back Uh, take it back, uh, take it back y'all, come on Take it back y'all, take it back, uh, take it back Uh, take it back y'all, come on, uh, yeah