Verse
Don't touch the dial
Don't touch that radio.
There's a story that we think
You all should know.
About a people who were taken
Far from where they belong.
About a people who keep fighting
Trying to make their way home.
That's us Africans
Still being held by this nation.
The oldest prisoners of war
Still fighting for our liberation.
So kick back relax
While we run this rap.
About another group of us
Who did strike back.
Break
In the concentration camp
They call John Hay.
There arose from the people
T.R.A.
Tenants Rights Association
What these letters stood for.
A group of sistas, and bros.
Who couldn't take it no more.
They tried marches, and petitions
To stop the persecutions.
They tried voting
But these things brung more problems
Than solutions.
So the sistas, and bros,
Continued looking for answers.
They studied Nat Turner
Harriet T., and the Panthers.
By looking at their lives
For knowledge, and truth.
It became so clear
What they must do.
Chorus
So in a place called Springfield
A criminal operation
In 1987 we continued our liberation.
It didn't come from the hilltop
It didn't come from the college
It didn't come from the middle class
They were busy buying knowledge.
It came from the projects
Where they put us all to die.
Where they treated all of us like dogs
We call it genocide.
Break
Verse
So in T.R.A.
A vote was taken.
The question was would they
Start a radio station.
A radio station!
The people said.
If the pigs find out
We'll all be dead.
The S.H.A., the S.P.D., I.D.P.A., I.D.O.C. *
A radio station we know that's heavy.
But like Huey Newton said
They're killing us already.
From the very young
To the very old.
They're waging war against us
And it must be told.
So when the vote was over
And the count was made.
It was yes! for the station
Now they needed a place.
So Dia, and Mbanna said
We got to be free.
We will raise that station
With Our Family
Chorus
So in a place called Springfield
A criminal operation
From the sista's living room
We continued our liberation.
It didn't come from the hilltop.
It didn't come from the college.
It didn't come from the middle class
They were busy buying knowledge.
It came from the projects
Where they put us all to die.
Where they treated all of us like dogs
We call it genocide.
Break
Verse
So the people came to the station
And said talk about how we live.
And you can't have that discussion
Without talking about those pigs.
They abuse us in the morning
They abuse us in the night.
and they do all this abusing
To deny our human rights.
Now the beast he got riled up
And he rose up out the cave.
And the word got to his henchmen
He was tired of T.R.A.
So he cussed, and fussed
And fussed, and cussed.
The beast he couldn't sleep
So he picked up the phone
In a frightful rage
And called the F.C.C.
Chorus
From a place they call Chicago
A criminal operation.
Came Willfred Gray with his black face
And gave them a citation.
He did come from the hilltop
He did come from the college.
He did come from the middle class
And tried to use on us his knowledge.
But the people from the projects
Who were put in there to die.
Went off the air for 11 days
Then took it back to the sky.
Break
Verse
So they emptied out the projects
Well we know that they were crowded.
But they didn't do it just in Springfield
They were carrying out Global 2000.
By waging a so called war on drugs
Which really was war on us.
But that low watt radio station
Kept reporting on all that stuff.
The pigs shot in the window
They took Dia, and her son to jail.
Though they threatened us with starvation
The broadcast it did not fail.
They say the revolution won't be televised
They said this not long ago.
But if you're ever in the place called Springfield
You can see it on the radio.
Chorus
So in a place called Springfield
A criminal operation.
In 1987 we continued our liberation.
It didn't come from the hilltop
It didn't come from the college.
It didn't come from the middle class
they were busy buying knowledge.
It came from the projects
Where they put us all to die.
Though they tore them down in every town
We're still fighting genocide.
-- December 31, 1996
* Springfiled Housing Authority, Springfield Police Department, Illinois Department of Public Assistance and Illinois Department of Corrections
