Harlem Renaissance Lyrics - Immortal Technique

Harlem once was red line district rated 

Designated ghetto like the yellow star of David 

And you wonder why people don't own their homes 

'Cause the racist bank wouldn't fuckin' mortgage a loan 

Until after the invasion of gentrification 

Eminent domain intimidation 

That's not negotiation 

And it's frustrating to look at every day 

Like watching a porno on 56K 

Biohazard labs instead of storerooms 

What's next motherfucker projects as dorm rooms 

You ain't fooling nobody in this community dude 

With your little fake Manhattanville community group 

Ivy league real estate firms are corrupt 

They lay siege to your castle like the Moors in Europe 

They treat street vendors like criminal riff raff 

While politicians get the corporate kickbacks 

[Chorus: ] 

Harlem Renaissance a revolution betrayed 

Modern day slaves thinking that the ghetto is saved 

'Til they start deporting people off the property 

Ethnically cleaning the hood, economically 

They want to kill the real Harlem Renaissance 

Trying to put the Virgin Mary through an early menopause 

The Savior is a metaphor for how we set it off 

Guerilla war against the rezoning predators 

When I speak about Harlem, I speak to the world 

The little Afghan boy and the Bosnian girl 

The African in Sudan, the people of Kurdistan 

The third world American indigenous man 

Palestinians, Washington Heights, Dominicans 

Displaced New Orleans citizens 

Beachfront Brazilian favelas that you livin' in 

The hood is prime real estate they want back in again 

I didn't write this to talk shit, I say it because 

Some of y'all forgot what the Harlem Renaissance was 

We had revolution, music and artisans 

But the movement was still fucked up like Parkinson's 

'Cause while we were giving birth to the culture we love 

Prejudice kept our own people out of the club 

Only colored celebrities in the party 

And left us a legacy of false superiority 

W.E.B. Du Bois verses Marcus Garvey 

And we ended up selling out to everybody 

The Dutch soldiers and the John Gotti's 

Bankers ? modern day gangsters, a mobile army 

They want to move us all out the NYC 

Like they did to the Jews with the Alhambra Decree 

So support your own businesses and do the knowledge 

'Cause the real Harlem Renaissance is economic