Uncle Usi taught me
Can't teach what you don't know
Can't lead where you don't go
Can't reap what you don't sow
Can't fool the people no more
You know me I'm a globe traveler, soul ambassador
Reporting live from a worldwide massacre
No masking the truth that animates me
See it and I speak wherever it takes me
I'm in the Republic of Iran at a conference
Talkin' 'bout the cops and their nonsense
And how they like to hunt black folk with no conscience
Now they want to preach human rights is preposterous
Request from the audience spit that Uncle Sam goddamn
Drawing out a round of applause
I was rocking acapella before this
Because I know that rapping in Iran is lawless
Ahh shit you know me though, anything for the people
The clapping kind of tapped in to my fat rapper ego
I fell into the trap plugged in my mac and let the beat go
Didn't think that anyone would hear though, here we go
Can't teach what you don't know
Can't lead where you don't go
Can't reap what you don't sow
Can't fool the people no more
Fridays we greet each other at the mosque
But here there's only one and a government preacher talks
Which struck me as odd but nothing could prepare me for
A big ass mob chanting "death to America"
It felt like somebody talking 'bout my mama, wait
It's all real but I'mma still feel some type of way
You mean the system and I'm with you on that
But you got to be more specific than that
You ain't talkin' 'bout the families getting whipped in the back
I'm trippin' cause I've never felt defensive like that
Okay so meanwhile footage of me spitting those raps
Is playing on every TV station they have
They jail people for that
The local rappers all started clapping back
Death threats in all my social media apps
I started lookin' at the people that brought me here
Like, "what the hell are y'all on man, I'm out of here"
Can't teach what you don't know
Can't lead where you don't go
Can't reap what you don't sow
Can't fool the people no more
This that international gang-banging
And my homeland hit Iran with the sanctions
And my credit cards and telephone ain't happening
But I can't imagine a better land to be stranded in
Almost everyone that sees me coming
Want to take me home and they trying to feed me something
But I took the only forty dollars that I had
And headed to the airport in a cab and there I sat
Starving cause there's only one flight a day
I can't even buy a ticket tryna find a way
Somebody seen me on TV and recognized my face
And let me write an email to my wife in the states
I'm in the airport for three days, wondering if I'm even safe
Finally got a seat on the plane
Now imagine my exhausted embarrassment
Get back to America, they interrogate me like a terrorist
Really?
Can't teach what you don't know
Can't lead where you don't go
Can't reap what you don't sow
Can't fool the people no more
---
Uncle Usi Taught Me - Brother Ali
