Kurtis Blow Songs - If I Ruled The World Lyrics

Kurtis Blow - If I Ruled The World

Kurtis Blow - If I Ruled The World Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Best Of Kurtis Blow
Released: 1985

If I Ruled The World Lyrics

Yes yes y'all
The best y'all, yes yes y'all
Huh, huh, huh, huh, yes y'all

If I Ruled The World, was king on the throne
I'd make peace in every culture, build the homeless a home
I'm not runnin', for Congress or the President
I'm just here, to tell the world, how my story went
You see, first it was a dream, I was livin' in Rome
And then I moved to London, bought a brand new home
And everywhere I went, I drew lots of attention
Like a stretch limousine, one of those new inventions
It took a few years 'fore the day had come
But I was ruler of the WORLD ranked number one
So I headed towards Washington to claim the crown
Let the whole world know that, the King was in town
As I, arrived, the crowd started to cheer
And then someone yelled out, "The King is here!"
So I headed toward stage, to make a speech
about the new style of living I was gonna teach, uh-huh

If I ruled the world
Huh-huh, huh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
I'd love all the girls, I love 'em love 'em baby!
Black diamonds and pearls, ooh yeah yeah
If I ruled the world

People started flowin' as they reached for my hand
I said, "Thank you for bringin' me to the Promised Land
But now I must go, say goodbye to everybody
Tonight I'll see you all at my Super Dinner Party"
And late that night, at my Super Dinner Party
I was dancin' to the beat and entertainin' La-Di-Da-Di
The music started endin', it was time for a speech
The crowd started sittin' as I rose from my feet
And this was once a dream, I explained to the crowd
But now, I rule the world, and I feel, so very proud
Excuse me please, for stoppin' this show
I just had to thank you all, huh, and me so
My first day in office, the King on the throne
I spent my first three hours on the telephone
You know with newsmen reporters, and votes too
I had so many calls, I didn't know what to do
You know out that office I continued to work
I signed so many papers, my fingers started to hurt
Then I shook off the pain, say this ain't no thing
'Cause there's nothin' in the world like bein' number one king!

If I ruled the world
Huh huh huh huh, huh-huh huh-huh
I'd love all the girls, I love 'em love 'em baby!
Black diamonds and pearls, ooh yeah yeah
If I ruled the world, whoa yeah
If I ruled the world

Now I rule the world and now, I'm on top
And I'm rollin' with folks that could never be stopped
And I'm here to let you know this is where I belong
And to you sucker emcees that sing my song
And it's a song that's strong about right and wrong
And I'm rock it to you baby baby all night long
And it's a song about love, and happiness
In a world of peace, and you know that's fresh
Now I'm the king, and I want you to know
That I'm the Master Blaster Rapper who's runnin' the show

And to all of you rappers in every country
You better stop what you're doin', and listen to me
'Cause we gotta stop war, and use unity
To fight crime and hunger and poverty
'Cause the African baby is dyin' overseas
While you sucker mission politicians bustin' out Z's
Huh, twenty million people all unemployed
While the rich man try to play Pretty Boy Floyd
While the working class just struggles hard
Try to make ends meet against all odds
While the poor man can't even deal with life
You know he tried to escape, and smoked the coke on the pipe

And it's time for a change, to a better way
'Cause the sun has gotta shine through the cloudy day
So listen up world, while I teach this class
And take heed to the message or we ain't gonna last
'Cause I know, the solution, is the contribution
Of woman and man to just join the revolution
That'll take your brain to a higher plane
And help you deal in a world that's gone insane
With the problems that I know we can stop
From the ruler of the world and the man on top
But the years went by, and time was up
And the ruler of the world had ran out of luck
And all the people at the time who said they were my friends
Didn't know me when my job had come to an end
They came up to my face, as happy as can be
He was running his mouth like, Muhammad Ali
So I shook his hand calmly as I headed to the door
On my way to the ghetto to treat once more

If I ruled the world
I'd love all the girls, I love 'em love 'em baby!
Black diamonds and pearls, ooh yeah yeah
If I ruled the world, yeah
If I ruled the world, if I ruled the world
I'd love all the girls, I'd love 'em love 'em baby!
Black diamonds and pearls, ooh yeah yeah, oh yeah yeah
If I ruled the world, whoa yeah
If I ruled the world, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah

I'd love all the girls, you know I'd love 'em love 'em baby!
Diamonds and pearls, ooh yeah yeah, oh yeah yeah
If I ruled the world, yeah yeah yeah yeah baby baby
If I ruled the world, if I ruled the world
I'd love all the girls, yes you, you, you and you
Black diamonds and pearls, where those diamonds, where those pearls?
If I ruled the world
If I ruled the world
I'd love all the girls, I'd love 'em love 'em baby

Writer/s: KURTIS WALKER, KURTIS BLOW, AARON O'BRYANT, AJ SCRATCH, DAVID REEVES, DAVY D, N. JONES, L. SMITH
Publisher: UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUB GROUP, RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

If I Ruled The World

This was the first time a sample loop was used on a Hip-Hop record. With the help of producers J.B. Moore and Robert Ford, Kurtis was the first to use a drum machine, and the first to use a sampler, which was a $250,000 Fairlight machine. For this, they used an AMS sampler and created a loop. A loop is continuous play of a section of a record, usually the break. If you have a drum loop of one bar, you can loop it to play it repeatedly so there's no pause between the loop and it sounds like a continuous drum beat.

Kurtis was the first rapper signed to a major label. With the backing of Mercury Records, he and his producers were able to afford these expensive drum machines and samplers and pioneer their use on Hip-Hip records.

The song they sampled was "Pump Me Up," which was released in 1982 by a Go-Go group from Washington, DC called Trouble Funk. They looped the percussion section that plays after the chorus of "Pump, pump, pump me up."

Kurtis: "We used this machine to sample a whole section of a record. That's how the DJs used to play, they used to take the sections of a record and repeatedly play them. You'd have 2 records of the same song and keep the break going by looping it with your turntables. You'd play the records over and over and have just the break play for 5 minutes, and that's what we used to rap over - the DJ extended the break. That whole concept evolved into the studio. When we started making records we wanted to keep that funky loop going, that funky break and that quick mix so we could rap over it."

Before drum machines, rap songs used live musicians, which limited what they could accomplish in the studio. Using these machines had drawback, however, that Kurtis explains: "Drum machines revolutionized the whole industry, but it made the music sound mechanical and electronic. There wasn't a live drummer, the soul of a live band was lost. In the '70s, when we first started with Hip-Hop, we'd have a whole band come in. Now, musicians come in and record onto a track. When that evolution happened, things got mechanical. When the sample loop came around we used to sample old records in the '70s, those breaks we used to play in Hip-Hop, that Cool Herc and all the old DJs used to play. Those breaks were live drummers and when you sampled and looped it, it made the live drummer feel come back into the music, so it brought the soul back into the music. The sample loop revolutionized the music industry once again by bringing soul back into the music with a live drummer."

This was used in the 1985 movie Krush Groove, one of the first movies based on Hip-Hop culture. Kurtis was in the movie along with Run-D.M.C., The Fat Boys, LL Cool J, New Editon and The Beastie Boys. Kurtis worked on the soundtrack to the album and was also producing The Fat Boys and working on his own album at the time. They shot the film in 3 weeks.

Nas covered this as "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" in 1996, and it became his biggest hit. Says Kurtis: "They sent me a tape of the song, I heard Lauryn Hill in the background and I knew it was her. I played it over and over, it was incredible. I knew it was going to be a mega-hit." (thanks to Kurtis for speaking with us about this song)