Lyrics:

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