Role Model

I wanna take half the people I meet
and slap em silly
They don't know what's coming out of their mouths;
like Milli Vanilli
You know the ones, reciting garbage they hear on
the street
It's like putting a propaganda record on repeat:
You hear what they want you to hear, nothing else
No intelligent, original thoughts up here,
just a dusty shelf.
It starts out with these little kids,
who get their ideas from us
Think a life of crime and hustling
is better than getting on the school bus
Hold up, you say, it's not my fault.
Well, you may not articulate
But they imitate what you do, and from there it escalates
And you've got a whole community of kids who don't
want to wait for their riches
And you hear one call a group of women his "bitches."
And they start trading drugs on the street
And you can no longer blame it on the beat
Don't concede defeat; just rise to your feet
Own up to how they've been brought up,
and start walking
You knew all along they were listening,
so start talking
Tell them -- hell, tell us, we're better than that
So we need to stop spouting all this
ridiculous crap
Cause we're all role models when we're at home
or in the neighborhood
So when we say, "I should start acting like one,"
I wish we would.