Written by John Mellencamp, Carlton Ridenhour and Kyle Jason
Hey Poppi yea ho
Hey Poppi yea ho
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Lay low proud Poppi
Lay low proud Poppi (shout it out)
He's from the deep south (shout it out)
Pass Christian Mississippi
Where the cane breaks are burnin' every night
Lay low proud Poppi (shout it out)
Chant:
Hey o
Hey o
O Poppi
Hey o
Hey o
Hey Poppi
Hey o
Hey o
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
Poppi had a wife
And she was black and Poppi was white (shout it out)
Everything was rollin' great (shout it out)
'Til some man called her race a disgrace
Oh no
Chant
Well Poppi went down to the river
To defend the honor of his wife
(somebody's killin' somebody)
Gonna drown the man in the water (shout it out)
And the water was shiny like a new knife
But Poppi stopped at the banks of the Delta
He said this sure ain't worth this man's life
Someday the wind of change
Is gonna blow on through
And put all of these jokers right
C'mon and sing now
Chant
Chuck D Rap:
Papa got a brand new bag
Delta blues got 'em dazed and confused
Came a long way crazy
Seems the abuse
Is racism's baby
It's wild
'Cause I connect the word with pain
Now some smile when they scream the name?
Funny how the times have changed
And the rhymes have changed
But some cat's frame remains the same
Agitating adjective
What gives? die n word die
But I wanna live
Known' all this
Where the word came from
I must be 3 times stupid
And stuck on dumb
If I use it and confuse it
With a term of love
Now popular culture
Can't stop 'til it gets enough
Underlined in marketing campaigns
I feel undermined
Heard the n word promotes the bottom line
Down by the river there's a great divide
Let's ride
Don't call me nigga 'cause you know I don't like it like that
Don't call me nigga 'cause you know I don't like it like that
Don't call me nigga 'cause you know I don't like it like that
Don't call me nigga 'cause you know I don't like it like that
Shout it out
Yeah Shout it out
Tell the world
Shout it out
I said
Hey o
Hey o
Hey o
Hey o
O Poppi
Hey o
Hey o
Tell the world
Yeah Yeah Yeah
Tell the world
That it ain't right
Tell the world
Don't set us back oh Poppi
Don't set us back now Poppi
Tell the world
