House on the rock rap

Lucy Moore

On your marks:

A rap version of the famous parable.

Get set:

Teach the audience the chorus that comes between each of the verses. If they're up to it, you could teach them a hand jive to go with it: 2 x 'building' movements, fist on fist, 2 'flat hands' movements one over the other, 2 thumbs over shoulders and a hand roll. For the really with it audience, you could have the women sing the 'You've got to build build build, build on the rock' part, with the men coming in deep with 'the rock, the rockety rock'.

(***) means leave a beat's rest.

Go!

You wanna hear a story? It's a-old and it's good
And it's told by a man who's a real cool dude.
So pin back your ears, stop picking your nose
And join in the rhythm, cos the rhythm goes:

You gotta build build build, build on the rock... the rock... the rockety rock.

Yeah Jesus said 'If you hear what I say
And you live your life (***) my way
You're just like the man thinking, 'Where shall I live?'
And when you ask him, here's the answer he'll give:

You gotta build build build, build on the rock... the rock...the rockety rock.

So the man sets to work and he digs down deep
And his sweat pours down from his hat to his feet
But he goes on digging till the job is through,
And if you ask why, then he'll tell you:

You gotta build, build, build, build on the rock...the rock... the rockety rock.

So he builds his house right there on the rock
Slowly, strongly, block by block
And when the storm comes with the wind and the rain
His house stands firm and he says it again:

You gotta build build build, build on the rock... the rock...the rockety rock.

But if you hear the words of God
And live your life ignoring the lot
You're just like the man who did his own thing
He just laughed when they said to him:

You gotta build build build, build on the rock... the rock... the rockety rock.

No, this man chose to build on the sand
At first it went just as he planned
The sand was soft and a-easy to dig
And in no time at all, his house grew big.

You gotta build build build, build on the rock...the rock... the rockety rock.

'What? Build on the rock when it's hard?' he said
'No thanks!' he yelled and he went to bed.
'Look at my house! It's easy and cheap
Who in their right mind wants to dig deep?'

You gotta build build build, build on the rock... the rock... the rockety rock.

But what do you know? It started to rain
And the wind it blew again and again
And the waters rose with a splosh and a splash
And the house on the sand collapsed with a great and enormous and ear- splitting CRASH!

And the first man probably sighed
and opened his door
and welcomed in the very wet and soggy silly second man
and said quietly, 'Next time...

You gotta build build build, build on the rock... the rock...the rockety rock. Yeah.