Listen, stream, buy, mp3 download and read the lyrics to the “Be Like Water” song by RZA.
Rza Be Like Water
RZA just dropped a new song, “Be Like Water,” inspired by ESPN’s upcoming 30 for 30 documentary, Be Water, about the late martial arts icon, Bruce Lee. It’s no secret that Lee and his films were instrumental to the creation of the Wu Tang Clan, so it’s only right that the hip hop group’s de facto leader would pay tribute to the fighting legend through music.
“Bruce Lee’s teachings extended beyond physical martial arts,” RZA said in a press release for the song. “He was full of philosophy and mindfulness. His quote ‘Be Water my friend’ is profound and multi-tiered in definition. It inspires the idea that in adapting to life situations, sometimes we have to flow smoothly as a stream, while other times we have to crash like a Tsunami.”
The title of the song and the documentary comes from one of Lee’s most famous quotes: “Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
RZA also released some accompanying visuals to “Be Like Water” as a tribute to Lee.
Be Water premieres on ESPN on Sunday, June 7th at 9:00pm EST.
RZA – Be Like Water
Lyrics
[Intro: Bruce Lee]
Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water
[Verse 1]
Boundless, yet when it’s surrounded, it appears to be bounded
It takes the shape of that which bounded it
Then imprints it’s old shape and [?] and move on
Leaving a new landscape behind it
So we’re reminded
Be like water, don’t be bonded
Sometimes we gotta dig deep into our inner selves
Our own hurt to find it
Intercept the fist, cheek and [?]
[?] even blow
Even though that it sounds like a lethal blow
We should know [?] to simplify the best version of yourself
In light then, synthesize all days into one
We all one, under the same sun
So why you gotta fight against him and he gotta fight against Dun?
Be like water, water crosses over every border
From the mud of the Yangtze River to the sand beaches of Florida
My mental caught up
Turn my brain storm into a Range storm
You know if it’s uninspired then, here’s the new Wu-Tang song
[Refrain]
(Be like water)
(Be like water)
[Interlude]
[?] begins to realise what it is he actually has to offer
There was more to Bruce Lee than they’d originally imagined
Bruce comes on to the screen, he ignites it
His very presence on screen is a protest
[Refrain]
(Be like water)
(Be like water)
[Verse 2]
Adaptations to situations
Before evaporating back to vapor
Then return back through precipriation
Cascading and pervading, existing as a mist
The one-inch punch is being drawn from the formless
I use that same Chi style to perform this
To understand the fury inside of Bruce Lee’s first
Be like water (Water, water, water)
[Outro]
Be like water
Be like water
Be like water (Water, water, water)
