Paroles: Quincy Jones. Back On The Block.

(feat. Big Daddy Kane, Ice-T, Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel)

[all]
Back
Back on the block
Back
Back on the block

Back, on the block, so we can rock
With the soul, rhythm, blues, be bop and hip hop

Back on the block
Back on the block

[VERSE 1: Ice-T]
Ice-T, let me kick my credentials
A young player, bred in South Central
L.A., home of the bodybag
You wanna die, wear the wrong color rag
I used to walk in stores and yell: "Lay down!"
You flinch an inch - AK spray down
But I was lucky cause I never caught the hard time
I was blessed with the skill to bust a dope rhyme
All my homies died or caught the penzo
Lost their diamonds, cops towed their Benzos
Livin that life that we thought was it
Fast lanin, but the car flipped
I'm not gonna lie to ya, cause I don't lie
I just kick thick game, some people say: why?
Cause I'm back on the block, I got my life back
So I school the fools about the fast track
I get static from the style of my technique
Profanity, the blatant way in which I speak
But the Dude knows the streets ain't no kiddie game
You don't know the Dude? Quincy's his first name
He told me: "Ice, keep doin what you're doin, man
Don't give a damn if the squares don't understand
You let em tell you what to say and what to write
Your whole career'll be over by tomorrow night
Rap from your heart, and your heart's with the street
Rap on my record, man, Kimiko, send Ice the beat"
The Dude is def no doubt, what can I say?
The man can roll with Ice-T or Michael J

[all]
Back
Back on the block
Back
Back on the block

Back, on the block, so we can rock
With the soul, rhythm, blues, be bop and hip hop

Back on the block
Back on the block

[VERSE 2: Melle Mel]
I'm back, on the block, on the screen
I'm on the wax, I'm on the stage, I'm on the scene
I'm on the case, just like an attorney
The Dude took me on a magic journey
To dance in France, alone in Rome
On the farmlands of Nebraska, the cold of Alaska
The heat of the motherland
To be with my brotherman
On top of a snowcapped mountain I'm scoutin
What another man saw in a race of people
To see him give his life for the price of equal
The highest wisdoms, the richest kingdoms
The Song of Songs we heard David sing them
He showed me me when I was young and hung out
He showed me makin love, even showed me strung out
He showed me poppin nines, standin on a rock
But tears came to my eyes when he showed me my block

[Tevin Campbell (& Andrae Crouch Singers)]
Stokie's just Stokie, mama
(Stokie's Stokie)
And one by one each woman he kiss
(He kiss her and she gon' fall in love)
Stokie's just Stokie, you know?
(Stokie's Stokie)
Till someone shows that they care enough
(Ain't nothin gonna bother Stokie much)
Some say they can't take it no more
(Comin here, comin here startin stuff)
But Dude is back on duty fo' sho'
(Back on the block to stay)
They say he ain't gonna be with it
(Comin back, comin back to the street)
But Dude he know you'll never forget it
(Back on the block to stay)

[VERSE 3: Big Daddy Kane]
Back up and give the brother room
To let poetry bloom to whom
It may concern or consume
As I reminisce before this
The bliss that exist
But now we brought about a twist
Cause I remember of my people bleedin
Put through slavery and killed for bravery
We shoulda got our freedom much sooner
You never seen a blackman on _The Honeymooners_
But now somehow we've learned to earn, to grow, to show
The elevation of a people built is so
Jesse Jackson, Miss America a black one
No more livin for just a small fraction
I was once told by the Dude that knowledge is a food
To nourish, so to conclude
This from an Asiatic descendant, Big Daddy is shocked
Yo Q, we back on the block

[all]
Back
Back on the block
Back
Back on the block

Back, on the block, so we can rock
With the soul, rhythm, blues, be bop and hip hop

Back on the block
Back on the block

[VERSE 4: Kool Moe Dee]
An everlasting omnipresence is my present
State of being, seeing the unpleasant
Sight of righteous souls live like peasants
The mind stunts growth in adolescence
My insight enables me to enlight
The weakest of minds, and I put em in flight
As I transcend, a-scend or de-scend
Re-create, re-incarnate and re-send
The powerful spirits of our ancestors
For those that don't know how God blessed us
Because man messed up, the media dressed up
Lies perpetrated as truth, and it left us
Confused, but I've seen it all before
From Babylon to the Third World War
I'm more than a man, I'm more like an entity
Back on the block, and this time my identity
Is the Dude

Ba-ba-ba-back on the
Ba-back on
Ba-ba-back on the block
Ba-ba-back on
Ba-ba-back on the block

[Tevin Campbell (& Andrae Crouch Singers)]
Stoki, ke Stoki, mai-bo
(Stoki, Stoki)
Wam babma, wam bamb'u mandisa
(Wahm bamba wahm bamboo mandisa)
(Stoki ke Stoki, mai-bo)
(Stoki, Stoki)
Wam babma, wam bamb'u mandisa
(Wahm bamba wahm bamboo mandisa)
M'yeke, yeke, yeke, wena
(Kha'mye, kha'myeke wena)
Yo khala, khala, khala, u mama
(Yo khal'u mama khe)
M'yeke, yeke, yeke, wena
(Kha'mye, kha'myeke, wena)
Yo khala, kha, 'yok 'shaya u baba
(Yok shaya u baba khe)

[Rev. Jesse Jackson]
(Now I would - I would contend that ah -
The rappers - rap is here to stay