[Chorus - x2]
Africa must wake up, the sleeping sons of Jacob
For what tomorrow may bring, may a better day come,
Yesterday we were kings, can you tell me young ones --
Who are we today?
Yeah, now
[Verse 1 - Nas (+ Damian Marley)]
The black oasis, Ancient Africa the sacred
The sleeping giant, science, art is your creation
I dreamed that we could visit old Kemet
Your history is too complex and rigid for some Western critics
They want the whole subject diminished
But Africa's the origin of all the world's religions
We praise bridges that carried us over
The battle fronts of Sudanic soldiers, the task put before us
(Do you hear me now?)
[Chorus]
[Verse 2 - Nas]
Who are we today? The slums, diseases, AIDS
We need that all to fade, we cannot be afraid
So who are we today?
We are the morning after, the makeshift youth,
The slaveship captured, our diaspora is the final chapter
The ancestral lineage built pyramids
America's first immigrants, the kings and daughters from our waters
The first architect, the first philosophers
Astronomers, the first prophets and the doctors were us, us
[Bridge - Damian Marley]
Now can we all pray?
Each in his own way,
Teaching and learning,
We can work it out
We'll have a warm bed,
We'll have some warm bread,
Shelter from the storm dread,
And we can work it out
Mother nature feeds all,
In farming and drought
And though selfish in ways, not to share is out
What's a tree without root?
Lion without tooth?
A lie without truth?
You hear me out?
[Chorus - x2, but the second one is:
Africa must wake up,
The sleeping sons of Jacob,
What tomorrow may bring,
May some more love come,
Yesterday we were kings,
I tell ya young bloods,
The world is yours today...]
[K'naan - African verse (??)]
[Guitar/Instrumental break]
[Nas - talking]
We want to thank y'all, everybody out there
This is Nas, Damian Marley
Distant Relatives..
We're all distant relatives, no matter where you from, where you live
How near or far...
Africa, China, Japan, Afghanistan, Israel...
We're all fam, we're all distant relatives
So that's why we came together -- one of the reasons
Why myself and Damian came together,
'Cause we all come from one place, and that's Africa
That's right, you too. And you.
The whole world!
We're all family, we're just spread out all over the place
So to all my distant relatives, let's take it back home!