Raphael Saadiq
Grown Folks
[Verse 1]
I’m talking to the whole world, and the uneducated fool
We always talk about the youth, now let’s talk about you
We all have responsibilities
Spending hundreds on throwbacks when there’s kids to feed
Sometimes you got to let the kids see, just who their father is
So they can see, we can’t always wear the cool shoes
‘Cause the kids wanna wear the cool shoes too

[Chorus]
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than these children do

[Verse 2]
The fathers are somewhat gangster, and the son is too
The mother’s a working lady, but she can’t control the rules
The daughter lost her mother, and her father and brother too
But she really wants to go to college, do what she needs to do
She knows there’s gonna be some debt with this
But she got caught up in a bad relationship
But her father was nowhere around to hold her hand
So she chose a pimp…
[Chorus]
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than these children do

[Verse 3]
You got your religion, and I got mine
Or maybe you don’t and you’re feeling just fine
We all call him different names, but we have all the same sins
You know what I’m talking about, but you needed your best friend

[Chorus]
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than the children do
Help the grown folks
They need more help than these children do
Help the grown folks (Help them Father God)
They need more help than the children do
(Father God, help these grown people)
Help the grown folks
(Sometimes these grown people act worse than their children)
They need more help than the children do
(They need more help than the children do, that’s true)
Help the grown folks (Walk your kids to school)
They need more help than the children do
(Show your kids that you can be a man)
Help the grown folks (So they know how to be children)
They need more help than the children do
(Let the kids be children while they’re children)
[Outro]
Don’t make your kid be a man or your daughter be a lady when she’s only 10-years-old
Comb your daughter’s hair, comb your son’s hair
Take your son to a baseball game, take your daughter to a basketball game
Forget about that big corporate meeting some time
Forget about that big vacation
If you’re going on a vacation, take your kids with you
Don’t leave them with that nanny
You never know what that nanny is doing to your kid
Forget about that big Beverly Hills mansion
Get into your kids
Don’t let ‘em shoot that gun, don’t let ‘em take that gun to school…