Lyrics of '2045: Radical Man' by Prince

How can a non-musician discuss the future of music
From anything other than a consumer point of view?
These people make decisions 4 the bulk of us
Without consulting any of us
Sales and distributions of our futures, hah!
If this world were fair and right
They'd give up the car keys this very night
Damn!

(Hit it!)
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Flash 4ward, 2045
What did U stand 4 in the life of your prime
When faced with the final judgment of 2day
Who profited from the game (The game)
That U and your niggas play
Radical man - (Yeah, yeah) save a life
Come on take a stand
Give that money back
Let's make a plan
The brand new currency
Taking care of one another
U and me (Oh)

(Radical, radical)

Flash backward, 1999 (backward, 1999)
In a world shockful of viruses (Tell me)
How'd y'all stay alive? (Everyone of y'all)
Depending on this so-called man
4 everything U got comes from his hand (From his hand)
Food, water, the clothes you wear
How many of y'all niggas really care?
We don't care (We don't care)

Let's define this word: nigga (Define, define)
Someone who stays high (high)
Watching their life go by (bye bye)
Someone content with riding it behind (ride that)
Nigga
They come in all colors
White, Black, Puerto Rican
But the main niggas we speakin' 'bout
Wear suits (Say what?) and buy and sell corporations
With only one thing in mind
(Only one thing in mind)(Break it up!)
That is the destruction of the so-called radical man by 2045

(Let's get radical) {x2}

Watch me now!

Schooled in the art of digital games
When the war broke out they called your name (What's your name?)
Everyone of color put on the front line
Holocaust Avenue, 2009

Get an education, good job, who say? (Who say?)
Fool with the gold fronts drinkin' Alize (Not 2day)
They don't play by the rules makin' no sense 2day
Gotcha online, so you think it's OK (It's not OK)
(Like U're grown)
Better built cellblock, (What?) Mos Def say
"That's where you gonna stay, nigga"
(Where U gonna stay, nigga)
(Oh my God, it's the Green Mile!)

(I wonder who's the man?)(Radical man) {repeated}

What's up y'all?
What y'all wanna do? (Talkin' about a radical man)
Ain't nobody up in that crew know
How 2 really run that computer
And make it flow (Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa)
If U ain't born with it (Radical man)
U know, talkin' about the 2 and 4, hit me!

(Oh)Come on
U know way down, huh
What George say? "Fall around"
All right

We claim Miles Davis, not Michaelangelo
We playin' D-flat in the funk
U better act like U know
We don't care, what Albert Einstein did
I'd rather know, rather know (What?)
How they built the pyramid, hey!
James Brown, Chuck D. and Jimi
Turn me up louder now
I don't think y'all hear me (They don't hear ya)

2045 - We will stay alive
2045 (20.... 45) - God is on our side

The whole pop scenario is just nothin' but a dream (Nothin' but a dream)
The day U wake up is the day U get the real cream, nigga

Radical man (Radical man)
Who got the plan, who got the plan?
Radical man (Radical man)
Who got the plan, who got the plan?

This is the funk the industry most fears
All of us getting 2gether (Oh yeah)
In a locked board of directors
I don't think so
Ain't nobody runnin' this
It's all about DNA, nigga
Radical man

Where will U be in 2045?
30 million people right now are being wiped off the face of the planet
By a disease they claim has no cure
In the matter of a blinking eye, all of us right now can testify
Take a stand, radical man
Oh!