Lyrics You Must Learn - Boogie Down Productions

Yo, Chris, what you doin' out of school?
Yo, man, they just suspended me, boo
Weren't they suspending the teacher?
Yeah man, I'm gettin' so sick at this, man, they teachin' us about nothing, man
You know what the bottom line is for black people out here, it's quite simple
You must learn

Just like I told you, you, you must learn
You, you must learn

It's calm yet wild the style that I speak
Just deal with facts and you will never get weak in the heart
In fact you'll start to illuminate, knowledge to others in a song
Let me demonstrate the force of knowledge
Knowledge reigned supreme

The ignorant is ripped to smithereens
What do you mean when you say I'm rebellious
'Cause I don't accept everything that you're telling us?
What are you selling us? The creator dwellin' us
I sit in your unknown class while you're failing us

I failed your class 'cause I ain't with your reasoning
You're tryin' make me you by seasoning
Up my mind with see Jane run, see John walk in a hardcore New York
Come on now, that's like a chocolate cow
It doesn't exist no way, no how

It seems to me that in a school that's ebony
African history should be pumped up steadily, but it's not
And this has got to stop, see Spot run, run, get Spot
Insulting to a Black mentality, a Black way of life
Or a jet Black family, so I include with one concern, that
You must learn

Just like I told you, you, you must learn
Just like I told you, you, you must learn
Just like I told you, you, you must learn
Just like I told you, you, you must learn

I believe that if you're teaching history
Filled with straight up facts, no mystery
Teach the student what needs to be taught
'Cause Black and White kids both take shorts

When one doesn't know about the other one's culture
Ignorance swoops down like a vulture
'Cause you don't know that you ain't just a janitor
No one told you about Benjamin Banneker

A brilliant Black man that invented the almanac
Can't you see where KRS is coming at?
With Eli Whitney, Haile Selassie
Granville Woods made the walkie-talkie

Lewis Latimer improved on Edison
Charles Drew did a lot for medicine
Garrett Morgan made the traffic lights
Harriet Tubman freed the slaves at night

Madam C.J. Walker made the straightening comb
But you won't know this if you weren't shown
The point I'm gettin' at, it might be harsh
Is we're just walkin' around brainwashed

See, what I'm sayin' is not to diss a man
We need the '89 school system
One that caters to a Black return because
You must learn

Just like I told you, you, you must learn
Just like I told you, you, you must learn
Just like I told you, you, you must learn
Just like I told you, you, you must learn