"Preachin' To The Quiet" lyrics - PUBLIC ENEMY

Celebrity the new drug
In America
Gotta have it
Gotta be it
So the young ones can see it
Watch out now
Looka here now
In these rich or die tryin times
Y'all see the greed that I see
Got these cats
Whipped by TV
3 generations of fatherless women
We drownin instead of swimmin
This ain't what y'all asked for
That's what they locked ya ass up for
And they closed the door
Beyond these streets
These kids, they be always watchin
See it ain't been the same
Since Teen Summit left the game
Off the air, who cares?
Now kids get programmed
Ask their peoples
Who buy them almost everything the stars wear
People see, people do
Y'all see the new pied pipers
They got a hold on you
Back to the boogaloo
Get a shot
So you don't catch the flu
Don't get shot
And get a hole in you

(Can I get an amen?)
Maybe I'm
Preachin' to the quiet

You see, I'm talkin advanced
But goin back at the same time
Rewind
So what, some of this song don't rhyme
Like I said
Most of us get ghetto at the wrong time
Fear
So leave a little room for god
Up in here
Back in the day
Even real pimps, hustlers, players
Told young cats
C'mon get your lives on track
These raps you hear today
Is a bad ass act
I'm here to tell it
Like it ought to be
It ain't no kids fault to me
35 years old
Actin 16
Know what I mean
You don't work, mean you don't eat
You need more than a ball
And some bomb ass beats
New kicks on your feet
Need your mind in these times
To compete
Make your world complete
Sweet not sour
That's what I call fightin the power

Here it is, no fable
I put it all on the table
Spendin my time
Identifyin who behind
Some of these labels
Who profit off the spit
Some of the same way same cats
That owned them ships
Yes
It's a business
But slavery was too
Prison industrial complex
New slavery lookin
To own you
Ownin the labels, stations, jails and cemeteries
Thug life
Turnin hip hop into a one stop shop
Somebody behind
Makin up your own damn mind
Signed, sealed delivered
In a nigger package
So dumb you can't hear
The ignorance protected
By the backpacker
Who co-signed the say so
Claimin they dug the flow
Filled wit Jim Crow
Return of the old negro
How you gonna say no to drugs
If you don't say no to thugs
See the government
Sweep it deeper
Under the rug

Maybe
Maybe I'm
Preachin' to the quiet

Talk the talk
Walk the walk

I'm preachin' to the quiet