Yeah

Come on, let’s go

Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where
the dollar is sacred and proud

Let’s do this shit for real, come on now

Smoke and mirrors, stripes and stars
Stolen for the cross in the name of God
Bloodshed, genocide, rape and fraud
Written to the pages of the law, good lord

The cold continent latch key child
Ran away one day and started acting foul
King of where the wild things are, daddy’s proud
Cause the roman empire done passed it down

Imported and tortured the work force
They never healed the wounds or shook the curse off
Now the grown up Goliath nation
Holdin open auditions for the part of David, can you feel?

Nothing can save you, you question the rain
You get rushed in and chained up
fists raised but I must be insane
Cause I can’t figure a single goddamn way to change it

Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

All must bow to the fat and lazy
The fuck you obey me and
why do they hate me, who me?
Only two generations away from
the World’s most despicable slavery trade

Pioneered so many ways to degrade a human being
That it can’t be changed to this day
Legacy so ingrained in the way that we think
We no longer need chains to be slaves

Lord it’s a shameful display
The overseers even got raped along the way
Cause the children can’t escape from the pain
And they’re born with the pores
and there’s hatred in their veins

Try and separate a man from his soul
You’ll only strengthen him and lose your own
Well shoot that fucker if he walk near the throne
Remind him that this is my home (now i’m gone)

Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is god

Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred

Hold up, gimme one right here, hold up

You don’t give money to the bums
On the corner with a sign, bleeding from their gums
Talkin bout, you don’t support a crackhead
Whatchu think happens to the money from yo’ taxes

Shit the government’s an addict
With a billion dollar a week kill brown people habit
And even if you ain’t on the front line
When master yell crunch time you right back at it

You ain’t look at how you hustling backwards
And the end of the year add up what they subtracted
Three outta twelve months your salary
Paid for that madness, man that’s sadness

What’s left get a big ass plasma
To see where they made Dan Rather point the damn camera
Only approved questions get answered
Now stand your ass up for that national anthem

Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

Welcome to the United Snakes
Land of the thief, home of the slave
Grand imperial guard where the dollar is sacred and power is God

[instrumental break]

Custom made, the consumer news

Keep saying we’re free
But we’re all just blue (x3)

Custom made, the consumer news
Keep saying we’re free
But we’re all just blue

(ENGLISH ONLY)
uh huh uh huh uh huh
oh this takes me home,
it makes me think about sitting outside of my old home when i was younger and singing something like

(Chorus I)

gabar yaroo subhaano (Young beautiful girl)
maro shabeelo hirato (wearing tiger-patterned)
maro qafiifa huwato (light, thin clothing.)
maga’aaga ii sheeg (Tell me your name.)
magaeygu waa sharaf (she says: My name is Sharaf)
sharaf haaji weeyan (Sharaf Haaji, it is.)
aqalada hariirta (Those beautiful houses)
dhina baan ka jooga (I live beside.)
alla ya u sheega (Somebody please tell them)
tinta u shanleeya (give them a clue)
nahoy zamzamey (of you, Zamzam,)
sabaah nuurey (who shines like the morning light)
adoo kin kin iyo (like the scales)
kaluun badaneey (of a colorful fish,)
adoo hajka jira (while you were gone on Hajj)
xasuus badaneey (had many memories.)
sahiibtaa asho ashaq baa dilay (Your friend, Aisha died of love.)
ugu dambeyntiina (at long last [I realized])
aniyo geeluba (both I and the camels)
wa u banaanbahnay (need love.)

(Chorus II)
wanagii orodnee (Remember us fleeing,)
nabad barinee (searching for peace?)
mareykan waa laga soo waayay(3x) (In America, none was found.)

There are certain things fresh,
and certain things mesh,
I got my own sound i dont sound like the rest,
and even my attire and my choice of dress,
and not long ago i don’t spoke English
my point is police pull me over a lot
they wonder what kind of rap sheet i got.
and sometimes i take a young girl out to eat,
and hold the door open oh your so sweet,
of course my affection’s super illustrated
and i like to give don’t reciprocate it
unless you could give me someone innovated
well lets cook it up we dont refrigerate it
but back to the country of the educated
where people get robbed and they celebrate it,

(Repeat Chorus II)

(MOS DEF)
Maraken,
my country tis of thee
sweet land for robberies
dos smokin SUV’s
grab me an army green
fat and frills
thrills and spills
eat and sleep
hump and kill
shop til you drop
work til you dead
get all you can
then get in the wear
outta my face
on your knees
sleep in the mansion
shut out the streets
make that cake
woop that trick
lick my swagger
suck my sick
get high get low get stcky get rich
get yo own show get down get quick
you slow you blow you broke your fix
terror dome, home swag home
terror dome, home swag home
home swag home
home swag home

(Chorus II) (America repeated)

(CHALI 2NA)

There are some things pure while certain things blur
dilute it with the lie and you believe when it occur
falsified information got my people in the stir
we have to be in search of something equal to the cure
straight out the door, i come to give you more
lay the law keep it raw, when i speak it from the core
get underneath your skin like especially with the claw
conflicted with the rich cuz i kick it with the poor
i laugh in the face of adversity
sound clashed with the bass cuz its natural to me
but if you pay attention to the past you will see
not long ago you black they’d hang your ass from a tree
certain things things change, while some stay the same
some are recluse others are lovers of the game
I’m trying to walk the lane, the serahtal mustakeen (Arabic for straight path)
instead of doing things that keep you covered in the flame.

(Repeat Chorus II) (America repeated)

Nanananana that shit was cool in English, but let me get that Somali verse.

(Chorus I)

Sources:

http://www.metrolyrics.com/america-lyrics-knaan.html

http://www.url.com/lyrics/show/2275/k-naan/america

My Somali friend, Moha Egal.

Violent ain’t what I wanna be, but this violence follows me.
Never had money for a PhD, now I get money when i make these beats.
Give to my hood, renovate these streets.
Speak from my heart, motivate my peeps.
Everyday a struggle, tryin’ to find some peace.
Never had sh*t, never be sh*t, but I keep my head up.
N**** gotta get that cheese. Livin’ the dream.
It’s alright, but it ain’t all good. We misunderstood.
So bound to repeat the same ol’ things, same ol’ ghetto.
20-inch rims on the whip, gol’ chains and a diamond ring

There’s more, but soon after that point I start being unable to transcribe the lyrics. I’m pretty bad at transcribing, so feel free to download the song and fix it up. If you do so, please send me the updated lyrics, as I’d love to have them.

Basically, these lyrics are of the type of lyrics one would see in early hip hop and the small branch of hip hop that remains from that era. This is not endorsing blood diamonds in the form of bling, it isn’t endorsing spending money on spinning 20-inch rims on the “whip”, instead it’s endorsing a change from the bottom. Not Obama’s change, I’m talking about the type of change that Malcolm X wanted and died for, the type MLK truly dreamed about not the crap we got, the type Freddy Hampton was gonna force out of America when he was assassinated by that very same America. The self-help change that arises with no external forces in a community of otherwise good people. I miss this sort of hip hop, this sort of hope, this sort of change.