Community Song Post

Dead Prez - They Schools

Why haven't you learned anything? 

Man that school sh** a joke 

The same people who control the school system control 

The prison system, and the whole social system 

Ever since slavery, nawsayin? 

[verse 1] 

I went to school with some redneck cra***** 

Right around the time 3rd bass dropped the cactus album 

But I was readin malcolm 

I changed my name in '89 cleaning parts of my brain 

Like a baby nine 

I took a history class serious 

Front row, every day of the week, 3rd period 

fu**** with the teachers had, callin em racist 

I tried to show them cra***** some light, they couldn't face it 

I got my diploma from a school called rickers 

Full of, teenage mothers, and drug dealin nig*** 

In the hallways, the popo was always present 

Searchin through ni**** possessions 

Lookin for, dope and weapons, get your lessons 

That's why my moms kept stressin 

I tried to pay attention but they classes wasn't interestin 

They seemed to only glorify the europeans 

Claimin africans were only three-fifths a human being 

Hook: 

They schools can't teach us sh*

My people need freedom, we tryin to get all we can get 

All my high school teachers can suck my di** 

Tellin me white man lies straight bull**** (echoes) 

They schools ain't teachin us, what we need to know to survive 

(say what, say what) 

They schools don't educate, all they teach the people is lies 

You see dog, you see how quick these *******e 

Be tellin ni**** get a diploma so you can get a job 

Know what im sayin but they don't never tell you how the job 

Gonna exploit you every time knowwhatimsayin that's why I be like 

Fu** they schools! 

[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dead+prez/they+schools_20038339.html ] 

[verse 2]
School is like a 12 step brainwash camp
They make you think if you drop out you ain't got a chance
To advance in life, they try to make you pull your pants up
Students fight the teachers and get took away in handcuffs
And if that wasn't enough, then they expel y'all
Your peoples understand it but to them, you a failure
Observation and participation, my favorite teachers
When they beat us in the head with them books, it don't reach us
Whether you breakdance or rock suede addidas
Or be in the bathroom with your clique, smokin reefer
Then you know they math class ain't important 'less you addin up cash
In multiples, unemployment ain't rewardin
They may as well teach us extortion
You either get paid or locked up, the principal is like a warden
In a four year sentence, mad ni**** never finish
But that doesn't mean I couldn't be a doctor or a dentist

Hook(first part of hook twice)
'cause for real, a mind is a terrible thing to waste
And all y'all high class ni**** with y'all nose up
'cause we droppin this shit on this joint, fu** y'all
We gon speak for ourselves
Knowhatimsayin? 'cause see the schools ain't teachin us nothin
They ain't teachin us nothin but how to be slaves and hardworkers
For white people to build up they sh**
Make they businesses successful while it's exploitin us
Knowhatimsayin? and they ain't teachin us nothin related to
Solvin our own problems, knowhatimsayin?
Aint teachin us how to get crack out the ghetto
They ain't teachin us how to stop the police from murdering us
And brutalizing us, they ain't teachin us how to get our rent paid
Knowhatimsayin? they ain't teachin our families how to interact
Better with each other, knowhatimsayin? they just teachin us
How to build they sh** up, knowhatimsayin? that's why my nig**
Got a problem with this sh**, that's why niggas be droppin out that
Sh** 'cause it don't relate, you go to school the fuc*** police
Searchin you you walkin in your shit like this a military compound
Knowhatimsayin? so school don't even relate to us
Until we have some shit where we control the fu**** school system
Where we reflect how we gon solve our own problems
Them ni**** ain't gon relate to school, shit that just how it is
Knowhatimsayin? and I love education, knowhatimsayin?
But if education ain't elevatin me, then you knowhatimsayin it aint
Takin me where I need to go on some bull****, then fu** education
Knowhatimsayin? at least they sh**, matter of fact my ni***
This whole school system can suck my d***

Dead Prez's approach to the community is rather very negative, he raps about the lies they are told and useless knowledge the students are taught. Dead Prez clearly supports the idea of the community having to change because it is corrupt in a sense but not teaching and giving what they need to survive. The community he describes is violent and criminal based, full of authority figures who are racist and command them all, this place he speaks of are the very schools that him and his neighbors have to go to. He certainly believes education is good as said "and I love education, knowhatimsayin?" but he just feels him his people and the other minorities are learning what they need to.