Intro: traditional Lakota Sioux song
Verse 1
Imagine the Word of God without religious groupies
Imagine a savior born in a Mexican hooptie
Persecuted single mother in a modern manger
You'd crucify him again like a fuckin' stranger
Tears of the anger are worth more than diamonds or rubies
Imagine bein' locked up since juvie
Imagine changin' your life and still goin' out like Tookie
Imagine niggas talkin' shit when they never knew me
Imagine a movie that depicted the pain in your life
Like them kids in Afghanistan chasin' a kite
For most of the world, that's what it's like
Imagine if the woman you suppose to love for the rest of your life
Is set to marry someone else at the end of the night
They say you fight the greatest jihad in your heart and your mind
And fight the hardest when you start from behind
So I dream the impossible all the time
Fuck a Masonic design — America's future is mine
Repeat that to yourself, 'cause if culture's a crime
Them numbers tatted on your arm aren't too far behind
They can only conquer you after they've murdered your mind
So rise up, motherfucker, like the sign of the times
I feel my body weakenin', but my spirit is fine
Ready to go to war with devils at the drop of a dime
And fight with my rebel army until the stars are aligned
Break: Lakota
Verse 2
Nostradamus was a white man's prophet
Who predicated European supremacist logic
Because the pilgrims and Conquistador columns
Killed more innocent people than Hitler and Stalin
I guess the fortune-tellers skipped an antichrist or two
Brother, give this to the OG's doin' life with you
And pray for the problems with the Pope psychology
So the Vatican will offer an apology (for what?)
For destroyin' the people's liberation theology
Snatchin' the spirit of Jesus from people in poverty
Business decisions like keepin' people in prisons
But had the opposite effect: incarceratin' religion
That type of crooked politics imposed on a populous
Is obvious if you read the Northwood documents
Forget the compliments for what I recorded
And live for revolution instead of always dyin' for it
Remember a bullet can never stop me
My legions are led by the spirit Haile Selassie, watch me
Even if I'm shot in the chakra, I will prosper
Doppler effect, bumpin' music out a helicopter
Tellin' the Persians, "Dig up Zoroaster!"
And tell them I came back as the son of the Ahura Mazda
Fish out the Philistine Dagon from the shores of Gaza
And call Quetzalcoatl flyin' over La Raza
This is my message to the older gods
I'll sacrifice you all to the revolution, like the Romanovs
Lost in the desert like the Hebrews of Israel
The blood clot system tried to kill me like sickle-cell
But I survived, and I'm alive to fight another day
Cocooned in a coma, I can still hear my mother pray
Sister cryin' out to God, "Please let my brother stay!"
Walkin' towards the light, but somethin' is pullin' me the other way
Outro: Cornel West
Immortal Technique
Rise up, young brother!
It is not your time to die