My people ponder and wonder and work
to seek and search
to see where I am
and Damn!...
they’re out of luck
cuz with my chin up in the air...
Man, I don’t care. Man, I don’t give a fuck
cuz I’ve lost my culture
to melting pot vultures.
My fierce Filipino blood
has ‘bout turned to mud;
Not a word not one
is spoken in my native tongue.
I am looked on like a leper and severed from the whole.
Am I American? And if so,
I am not a model American.
Call me an arrogant punk
whose values have sunk
past the point of no return.
I'll hear 'em say, “Check the side burns
and the knotted hair
and the clothes he dares wear.
Huh! He obviously doesn’t care.”
And I don’t! I won’t and I refuse to lose or retreat. I don’t flee or forfeit.
Fuck you and your whole crew; I can’t take no more of it.
You’re so swift to sell me out.
What’s it all about?
God damn! Make me want to shout!
And yes, yes, yes...
God bless.
Take a peek and please look hard
and tell me what about God?
Do you look at His plan
or just take what you can and run.
Shallow, selfish, def , dumb and blind;
your crime is the runnin’ of lying politics.
I’m so sick of it -
...what all you hypocrites do.
You shouldn't be dismissin' the mission that you're missin'.
It's the lesson you ought to listen to.
And now you'll ask me, "What is it? Who is it and What is next?
And I ask you, "Am I the man whose clan is... Generation X? -
...these doom destined derelicts.
Are there no fans, no followin’, no admirin’
of these products of the environment?
No... we’re lone rangers.
We’re strangers and an endangered breed.
Lost and nowhere in sight.
Loungin’ in laxness, right?
Living in limbo. Listenin’ to the wind blow outside my window and when I get up to see what’s up,
What do I look at? What do I see? Nothin’ but my reflection staring right back at me.
I gaze into my eyes and My, my, my.
I said I stare into my eyes and say My, my, my.
Just look into my eyes and then stop....(sigh).
Cuz it makes me wanna cry.
But there ain’t no time in
for cries or whinin.
No! I strive! - I’m pushin for the prize.
I’m here to wise up then rise up.
And what’s scary is what’s contrary to popular belief.
And it’ll be no relief for you to know that I’m no lazy onlooker waitin’ on some delivery;
I’m not a reader but the writer of the book yer livin’ see.
I’m new and improved, groovin’ to move, fierce and I’m fueled, fuelin’ to duel,
I am demanding new rules,
I am ready and able; There ain’t a shackle that can stable me -
let alone a word that label me, man.
You wanna know what I am?
Do you really wanna know!?.. just how far I’m takin’?
And what my plans are? No fakin’.

I am the real, the real, the real.
I am the storming of the Bastille.
I am the newest scare.
I am Tiananmen Square.
I am the psychedelic solution.
I am the Russian Revolution.
I just am... God dammit about to jam it as far as we can go.
What do you know!...
What do you say? Hey... Ho!
I keep it movin’ and don’t stop, no!
So isn’t this a nation whose foundation is liberation and doesn’t that mean independence?
And didn't it make sense that a single soul in some big, brave breath
should say, “Give liberty or give me death?”
Well I say that starting today...
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
And yes we will make way
for Freedom and her funky children
with a brand new day
to lead ‘em; a new niche to be filled in but until then -
Brothers and Sisters, Take care and beware.
All stagnants, y'all stay clear.
Cuz there is something happening ....here.
Behold This Breath of Fresh Air

"behold this breath of fresh air"
Rec. 5/16/97 in front of free fred hampton jr. rally on market and powell, sf...1700.