[verse 1]      Its been a long and whining road   Even though time keeps a changin   Ima bring it all back home   I been told i spit lyrics wit politics   Why wouldnt i?   Says negro on my birth certificate      Born in 1960 in a nation   Throughout / ive been a spokesperson   For a generation   Within the same ol fear of a black planet   20 years of blood sweat and no tears for fanatics      So damn it   If times is hard   Time is god   Understand it   Never took time for granted   Its all right ma   As child of the sixties   All along the watchtower   I cant bet they gonna miss me      Im only bleeding   Every grain in me   Fans if not for you   There be no pe   From the nashville skyline   Girls in south country   In this world gone wrong   So heres another love song      [verse 2]      We came a long way baby   You know whats amazin   The surprise we told these new guys   Flav has always been crazy   Hit london 87 like it was an invasion   Toured the world for 3 years   Hell with vacation   Vocation of vocalization   Especially with the impact of it takes a nation   Of millions to hold us back   You bet theres blood on them bomb squad tracks   Black steel , baseheads, party for your right to fight   Prophets of rage , bring the noise   Dont believe the hype   Cant do nuttin for you man   911 is a joke   20 years we got here by actin like common folk   Touring the world like a rolling stone   Then the nineties came   Welcomed yall to the terrordome   Some threw it away , instead of something to say   Cause the streets still ended up havin no names   Since rebel without a pause beats were never the same   And by 1998 we still had game.      [verse 3]      Only a pawn in the game   Chastised for namin names   What was said and who said it   Anti nothing so forget it   Tears of rage left a friend   Blowin in the wind   But time is god   Been back for 10 years and black again   Some of them same cats   Help usher in gangster rap   Damn our interviews were better than a lotta them acts.   Praised the gangsta   Just because it sold   While consciousness   Went from platinum to gold   Seen a nation reduce fight the power to gin and juice   Some people gave it up and turned it loose.      [verse 4]      Beethoven, bach brahms   I want some james brown   Even bruce, brian, bono, beck, yeah chuck berry   Prince stevie sly smokey johnny cash in my chevy   Heard some call me an uncle tom   Now thats petty   I'm a songwriter fool   I condense sense from right and wrong   Livin in the key of protest songs   From basement tapes   Beyond them dollars and cents   Changin of the guards spent   Where the--went   Most of their time out of mind   Hatin my mess age rhymes   Cant truss it, shut em down call it whatcha wanna   But they made a day fit for a king   By the time we got to arizona      Tommorrows a long time   We got god on our side   Over bass and drum beats hear the good rhymes ride   A poison goin on   Shelter from the storm   Hard rain gonna fall   Still the people rock on.