Unauthorized Biography of Muhammad Ali

The unauthorized copy...
 Dedicated to The Greatest
 {I am the king of the world!}
 {Never talk about who's gonna stop me
 Cause NOBODY gonna stop me!}
 {I must be the greatest!}
 My name Shaun Boothe
 {I'm a BAD man! I STHE WORLD!}
 Born Cassius, Clay Jr
 January 17th in '42
 Louisville, Kentucky he grew up
 A little boy doing what a little boy do
 'Til somebody stole his bike
 Swearing up and down they would pay the price
 A police officer overheard
 Laughed at the child and gave advice
 Told him to take that rage to fight
 "Come to my gym and train to fight"
 Little did he know that would change his life
 Make him a star, put his name in lights
 As an amateur, he would bandage up, anyone he faced
 Due to his, tutelage, even then, you knew the kid
 Was destined to be great
 Golden child - 8 Golden Gloves
 On the road to Olympic gold, in Rome
 Everything he dreamed
 Got his ticket then his feet got cold
 Praying in the aisles on the way to the fight, he made it!
 And in that 1960 Olympics' victory
 He declared himself The Greatest
 Critics watched and frowned, at his boxing style
 Said he couldn't keep his guard up
 He wasn't pro and they still couldn't knock him down, uh!
 Hands low, damn he can dance though!
 Made em look too stiff to box
 A punch too quick to clock
 You get hit before you get from tick to tock
 Uh, and by '64 he was giving knockout predictions
 What round they would hit the floor, ridiculing his opposition
 Dismissed as the Louisville Lip, outspoken but never out-boxed
 Liston finally gave in, and Clay got his first title shot
 He even put out an album
 Threw a few Sonny poems together
 And called it "I Am the Greatest"
 Some say the first battle raps ever
 He said he'd knock him out in eight
 But nobody believed, nobody listened
 ...'Til the headlines came, "Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston"
 And after that, huge upset he upset the world
 When he announced he was a member of the Nation of Islam
 He lashed back like, "What was it I did wrong, huh?"
 And in the fashion of Malcolm X, for whom he had profound respect
 From his slave name he said, "I'm free"
 And he became young Muhammad Ali
 Then the love for him got outweighed by outrage
 And fear of his new devout faith
 To an organization perceived as only being about hate
 Years later, he refused the draft, denounced the war
 On the grounds of religious beliefs, then they hated him more
 They told him go to jail or go to Vietnam
 Then they took his title, and his boxing license
 So he took it to court and fought three years long
 Now somewhere in that time America realized the war was wrong
 And he went from, traitor to hero
 And in a year or so he was coming back strong
 Uh, moving with such grace and ease
 Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
 Hand can't hit what your eyes can't see
 Then came the fight of the century
 Ali, Joe Frasier
 As far as match-ups there were no greater
 First professional loss, but he would beat him in a rematch later
 But by then Frasier lost the belt
 To a man by the name of George Foreman
 Much stronger and younger than Ali
 Still he said, "I'm in. if you're in"
 Then came the "Rumble. in the Jungle", promoted by Don King
 In '74 they went to Zaire
 He got out the plane like What do I hear?
 They were saying {ALI, BOMA YE! ALI, BOMA YE! ALI, BOMA YE!}
 It was much more than some ego stroke
 He knew he gave the poor people hope
 Against the odds, toe to toe
 Swarming crowds, overflow
 But no matter how hard he fought
 They said Foreman would never be stopped
 But instead of going blow for blow
 He let him go for broke, punched himself out
 Later they would call it the Rope-a-dope
 And in the eighth round everything turned around!
 Ali springs from the ropes, swinging fearlessly and Foreman goes down
 And the whole crowd erupts in amazement when he can't beat the count
 And a new King is crowned, fighting for the poor and oppressed
 His victory, made history
 But it was more than just being the best
 It was character, it was charisma
 Being someone that cares for us
 You see, he redefined the word CHAMPION
 To a category that the rest can't be in
 The unauthorized biography of Muhammad Ali
 The next seven years of his legendary boxing career were not without its price
 And in the early 80s' he would go on to develop Parkinsons disease
 Presumably due to all of the punishment he had endured
 But that didn't stop Ali from what he called his true life calling
 In humanitarian endeavours
 Travelling around the world as the goodwill ambassador, to us all
 The End
 Next chapter: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama