[Intro]
"But he like so many other White leaders appears to have missed the point"
"Once the riot started, it went like a forest fire. It started in a lot of different places at pretty much the same time"

[Intro: Chuck D]
Five hundred FBI agents comin' after us with a license to kill
Thirty mil, claimin' it's just a drug bust

[Ad-lib]
They thinkin' they making a fly switch
Replace the devil for a witch, dirty *****

[Chorus]
Reach uppity reach gotta reach
Power to the people and the beats
(Oh yes)

[Verse 1]
Some people accuse some people of crimes
Some people get away with losin' my rhyme (Uh!)
They don't like where I'm comin' from, so they play dumb
Dumb-diggety-dumb-diggety-dumb
But I'm tellin' you what they do, everybody plays a fool
While the real thief cools in a pool (Yeah!)
He who got the finger on the war button
Talkin' loud and sayin' nothin'
TV got 'em bigger than life
(Oh yes) All he needs is a knife
Who the criminal?

[Verse 2]
Blind, deaf and dumb, hard to see 'em comin', but they come, here they come
Don't be dumb-diggety-dumb
Politickin' write bad checks, still they gettin' wrecked
Going for a ***** neck (Uh!)
Rolling in a blue and white gang
Ready to bang-biggety-bang
Hanging 'round the hangin' rope
(Nope, nope, nope!) N-O-P-E
I ain't bendin' for the soap (Yeah!)
Never understood why the 'hood half a who's in the joint
Now they got me losin' my point
Gotta have it goin' on
Born criminal, born

[Verse 3]
Take a piece of America back, but who had it first?
Hear the Indian curse (Uh!)
Robbed and stole so many so much, it ain't funny
Now who got 'em face on money?
Politician passin' a bill, paid in full
C-note rockin' in a pocket, how they livin'
Making sure they lockin' us up, I got a feelin' I'm (In a minute)
When it come to somethin' we say
What they don't like is a brother like me on the mic in fact
To the gritty, ain't none of us wack
Noriega had back (Yeah!)
Jeffrey Dahmer enters the room without cuffs
How the hell do we get stuffed
In the back of a cell on a isle, ain't it wild?
What's criminal?

[Chorus]
Power to the people and the beats

[Verse 4]
Only if I had one more
Time to kick the rhythm that keep rippin' down the door
So the real criminals get exposed behind the clothes
Doors and the suits that make and break the law
Lookin' for my own 'cause I had enough bull
I can't understand it, must been the crooked way they planned it
Police 'posed to keep the peace
But I can't trust 'em, so I keep my piece
Loaded and cocked 'cause I don't miss the block
Talk about the ones who don't get chained to the rock
Those who got away with the dirt and the grime
While we go away for the neighborhood crime
Never liked what I saw in the law
Indiana trees hanging us instead of leaves (Yeah!)
We hanging from the roof (Yeah!)
By real criminals

[Ad-lib]
They thinkin' they making a fly switch
Replace the devil for a witch, dirty *****

[Chorus]
Reach uppity reach gotta reach
Power to the people and the beats
Reach uppity reach gotta reach
Power to the people and the beats
Reach uppity reach gotta reach
Power to the people and the beats
Reach uppity reach gotta reach
Power to the people and the beats

[Outro]
Power to the people and the beats
Power to the people and the beats