The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Bass! How low can you go?
Death row, what a brother knows
Once again, back is the incredible
The rhyme animal
The uncannable D, Public Enemy Number One
Five-O said, "Freeze!" and I got numb
Can I tell 'em that I never really had a gun?
But it's the wax that the Terminator X spun
Now they got me in a cell cause my records, they sell
Cause a brother like me said, "Well
Farrakhan's a prophet and I think you ought to listen to
What he can say to you, what you wanna do is follow for now"
Power of the people, say
"Make a miracle, D, pump the lyrical"
Black is back, all in, we're gonna win
Check it out, yeah y'all, here we go again
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Never badder than bad cause the brother is madder than mad
At the fact that's corrupt as a senator
Soul on a roll, but you treat it like soap on a rope
Cause the beats and the lines are so dope
Listen for lessons I'm saying inside
Music that the critics are blasting me for
They'll never care for the brothers and sisters
Mow, cause the country has us up for the war
We got to demonstrate, come on now, they're gonna have to wait
Till we get it right
Radio stations I question their blackness
They call themselves black, but we'll see if they'll play this
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Get from in front of me, the crowd runs to me
My deejay is warm, he's X, I call him Norm, ya know
He can cut a record from side to side
So what, the ride, the glide should be much safer than a suicide
Soul control, beat is the father of your rock'n'roll
Music for whatcha, for whichin', you call a band, man
Making a music, abuse it, but you can't do it, ya know
You call 'em demos, but we ride limos, too
Whatcha gonna do? Rap is not afraid of you
Beat is for Sonny Bono, beat is for Yoko Ono
Run-DMC first said a deejay could be a band
Stand on its feet, get you out your seat
Beat is for Eric B. and LL as well, hell
Wax is for Anthrax, still it can rock bells
Ever forever, universal, it will sell
Time for me to exit, Terminator X-it
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
From coast to coast, so you can stop being like a comatose
"Stand, my man? The beat's the same with a boast toast"
Rock with some pizzazz, it will last. Why you ask?
Roll with the rock stars, still never get accepted as
We got to plead the Fifth, we can investigate
Don't need to wait, get the record straight
Hey, posse's in effect, got the Flavor, Terminator
X to sign checks, play to get paid
We got to check it out down on the avenue
A magazine or two is dissing me and dissing you
Yeah, I'm telling you
Death row, what a brother knows
Once again, back is the incredible
The rhyme animal
The uncannable D, Public Enemy Number One
Five-O said, "Freeze!" and I got numb
Can I tell 'em that I never really had a gun?
But it's the wax that the Terminator X spun
Now they got me in a cell cause my records, they sell
Cause a brother like me said, "Well
Farrakhan's a prophet and I think you ought to listen to
What he can say to you, what you wanna do is follow for now"
Power of the people, say
"Make a miracle, D, pump the lyrical"
Black is back, all in, we're gonna win
Check it out, yeah y'all, here we go again
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Never badder than bad cause the brother is madder than mad
At the fact that's corrupt as a senator
Soul on a roll, but you treat it like soap on a rope
Cause the beats and the lines are so dope
Listen for lessons I'm saying inside
Music that the critics are blasting me for
They'll never care for the brothers and sisters
Mow, cause the country has us up for the war
We got to demonstrate, come on now, they're gonna have to wait
Till we get it right
Radio stations I question their blackness
They call themselves black, but we'll see if they'll play this
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Get from in front of me, the crowd runs to me
My deejay is warm, he's X, I call him Norm, ya know
He can cut a record from side to side
So what, the ride, the glide should be much safer than a suicide
Soul control, beat is the father of your rock'n'roll
Music for whatcha, for whichin', you call a band, man
Making a music, abuse it, but you can't do it, ya know
You call 'em demos, but we ride limos, too
Whatcha gonna do? Rap is not afraid of you
Beat is for Sonny Bono, beat is for Yoko Ono
Run-DMC first said a deejay could be a band
Stand on its feet, get you out your seat
Beat is for Eric B. and LL as well, hell
Wax is for Anthrax, still it can rock bells
Ever forever, universal, it will sell
Time for me to exit, Terminator X-it
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
Turn it up! Bring the noise!
From coast to coast, so you can stop being like a comatose
"Stand, my man? The beat's the same with a boast toast"
Rock with some pizzazz, it will last. Why you ask?
Roll with the rock stars, still never get accepted as
We got to plead the Fifth, we can investigate
Don't need to wait, get the record straight
Hey, posse's in effect, got the Flavor, Terminator
X to sign checks, play to get paid
We got to check it out down on the avenue
A magazine or two is dissing me and dissing you
Yeah, I'm telling you
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