Harlem Renaissance

"Let me welcome both of you

uh, to the show this morning to talk about what I consider

to be a very very important topic, uh, the Harlem Renaissance

But before we get into that..."

[Immortal Technique]

Yeah, Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)

Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David

And you wonder why, people don't own they homes (why?)

Cause the racist bank wouldn't fuckin mortgage a loan

Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)

Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David

And you wonder why, people don't own they homes (why?)

Cause the racist bank wouldn't fuckin mortgage a loan {WAKE UP!}

Harlem once was red line district rated (uhh)

Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David

And you wonder why, people don't own they homes (why?)

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 frustratin to look at, every day

Like watchin a porno, on 56-K

Biohazard labs instead of store rooms

What's next motherfucker, projects as dorm rooms?

You ain't fool nobody in this community duke

With your little fake Manhattanville community group

Ivy league, real estate firms are corrupt

I lay siege to your castle like the Moors in Europe

They treat street vendors like criminal riff-raff

While politicians get the corporate kickbacks (snakes)

[Chorus: Immortal Technique]

Harlem Renaissance, a revolution betrayed

Modern day slaves thinkin that the ghetto is saved

'Til they start deportin people off the property

Ethnically cleansin the hood, economically

They wanna 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 re-zoning predators

[Immortal Technique]

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

Beachfront Brazilian favelas that you livin in

The hood is prime real estate, they want back in again (fuck outta here)

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 givin birth to the culture we love

Prejudice, kept our own people out of the club

Only colored celebrities in the party (fake nigga!)

And left us a legacy of false superiority

W.E.B. Du Bois versus Marcus Garvey

And we ended up, sellin out to everybody

The Dutch {?} and the John Gotti's

Banksters, modern day gangsters, immobile army

They wanna move us all out the N.Y.C.

Like they did to the Jews with the Alhambra decree

So support your own businesses and do the knowledge

Cause the real Harlem Renaissance is economic (yeah)

[Chorus]

{"Green Lantern... The Evil Genius!"}

"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, um, 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 that we are protected?"