Just like I told you, you must learn      It's calm yet wild the style that I speak   Just filled with facts and you will never get weak in the heart   In fact you'll start to illuminate, knowledge to others in a song   Let me demonstrate the force of knowledge   Knowledge reigned supreme   The ignorant is ripped to smithereens   What do you mean when you say I'm rebellious   'Cause I don't accept everything that you're telling us   What are you selling us the creator dwellin' us   I sit in your unknown class while you're failing' us   I failed your class 'cause I ain't with your reasoning   You're tryin' make me you by seasoning   Up my mind with see Jane run, see John walk in a hardcore New York   It doesn't exist no way, no how   It seems to me that in a school that's ebony   African history should be pumped up steadily, but it's not   And this has got to stop, See Spot run, run get Spot   Insulting to a Black mentality, a Black way of life   Or a jet Black family, so I include with one concern, that   You must learn      Just like I told you, you must learn      Just like I told you, you must learn      I believe that if you're teaching history   Filled with straight up facts no mystery   Teach the student what needs to be taught   'Cause Black and White kids both take shorts   When one doesn't know about the other ones' culture   Ignorance swoops down like a vulture   'Cause you don't know that you ain't just a janitor   No one told you about Benjamin Banneker   A brilliant Black man that invented the almanac   Can't you see where KRS is coming at   With Elie Whitney, Holly Selosy, Grand Bill Woods   Made the walky-talky      Lewis Latterman improved on Edison   Charles Drew did a lot for medicine   Garrett Morgan made the traffic lights   Harriet Tubman freed the slaves at night   Madame CJ Walker made a straightin' comb   But you won't know this is you weren't shown   The point I'm gettin' at it might be harsh   'Cause we're just walkin' around brainwashed   So what I'm sayin' is not to diss a man   We need the 89 school system   One that caters to a Black return because   You must learn      Just like I told you, you must learn