Biak is a small island located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak is the largest island in its small archipelago, and has many atolls, reefs, and corals.
The largest population centre is at Kota Biak (Biak City) on the south coast. The rest of the island is thinly populated with small villages.
Biak is part of the Biak Islands (Kepulauan Biak).
Biak was first sighted by Europeans by the Portuguese navigator Jorge de Menezes in 1526. In his voyage from Malacca to Maluku via northern Borneo, Jorge de Menezes landed at Biak Islands, at the entrance of the Gulf, where he was forced to winter; the island is thenceforth called in Portuguese maps Ilha de Dom Jorge or Ilha onde invernou Dom Jorge, to become, finally, Ilha de S. Jorge.
The Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra sighted the island on 24 June 1528, when trying to return from Tidore to New Spain. Another sighting was later reported in 1545 by Spanish navigator Íñigo Ortiz de Retes on board of galleon San Juan when also attempting the return to New Spain
Biak (wós Vyak or "Biak language"; wós kovedi or "our language"; Bahasa Indonesia: Bahasa Biak), also known as Biak-Numfor, Noefoor, Mafoor, Mefoor, Nufoor, Mafoorsch, Myfoorsch and Noefoorsch, is an Austronesian language that has been classified as one of 41 languages of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Languages. It is spoken in Biak and Numfor and numerous small islands in this archipelago in the province of Papua, Indonesia by about 30,000 people.
There are a number of different dialects of Biak spoken on various different Islands the most well-known being Biak-Numfoor, spoken on the Island of Numfoor, these dialect differences are small and mostly slight regular sound changes. Almost all Biak speakers are also fluent in Malay, but very few have a comprehensive knowledge of formal Indonesian.
Despite the comparatively high number of speakers compared to some other Austronesian languages, Biak is still in danger of extinction. Within the main towns the generation of speakers aged between 20 and 50 have only passive knowledge of the language and rarely use the language actively, instead preferring to use Malay. Younger generations do not even generally have passive knowledge of the language. Biak is only actively used as a spoken language by members of the community over 50 years of age or so and even they regularly code switch into Malay. However, within the villages further from town there were still children who were fluent in Biak. Songs in Biak are also very popular throughout the Islands.
Yo 'Pac yo, I heard you got beat up by the police
Got a big fat lawsuit and everything
Niggaz just wanna know
if you still gon' be on some crooked-ass sheeeit
[2Pac]
Please tell me what's a nigga to do, and it's true
Ain't nuttin new, so I do, what I can to get through
Now first they had me trapped and now I'm pissed
A loaded AK-47 lay under my head so I don't trip
One motherfucker from the Underground
And Big Stretch buckin niggaz if they fuck around
Yo why I got beef with police?
Ain't that a bitch that motherfuckers got a beef with me
They make it hard for me to sleep
I wake up at the slightest peep, and my sheets are 3 feet deep
I guess it's hard for you to see
But now I'm pointin the finger at police
instead of them motherfuckers blamin me
I got the right to bear a pistol
And when the punk motherfuckers get to trippin I got shit too
And maybe then you'll see the truth (hell yeah)
But until then, I gotta do what I do
and stay a crooked nigga too
[Chorus: Raphael Saadiq]
I've got to do, what I'm gon' do
I'm gon' say what I'm gon' say
I'm gon' live how I live - how else you want a nigga to live?
I'm gon' do, what I do
I'm gon' say, what I say
I'm gon' live how I live - how do you want a nigga to live?
[2Pac]
Y'know you really can't say that ya blame niggaz
Fuck bein tame, set aflame, time to aim triggers
2Pac'll spark a revolution, fuck the Constitution
I want my bucks for restitution
This time you got a bigger problem
Time to face the niggaz from South Central, Oakland, Brooklyn and Harlem
And we ain't shootin at each other
That's my motherfuckin brother, so Dave Duke, run for cover
And all the bitches from the Klan
Come feel the wrath of a black man that doesn't smoke crack and
I don't drink St. Ides (fuck that!)
Genuine Draft, ganja ganja, and my fuckin tec-9
They know they scared to see us sober
Stop drinkin King Cobra, and niggaz'll take the world over
It's all up to you (up to you)
Blame the Korean, blame the jew, or be a crooked nigga too
[Chorus]
[2Pac]
Aiyyo! Why me? Play like Jasmine Guy and try me
I'll be damned if I die, come look at the rage in my eyes G
They got my homies in a jail cell
And it's the Rebel and the Devil, and one of us is goin to Hell
I got the whole place covered, with loc'd out brothers
And nuttin but love for each other
So motherfucker make a motion
I give a fuck, slice you up, and throw your ass in the ocean
Temperatures drop; see it's cool to shoot a nigga
but they hate it when we pop the cops
That's when they gettin petrol
You better watch your step or you'll be left on death row
But I learn to look ahead of me
Stay strapped watch your back keep your eyes on the enemy
We blowin up precincts and OOOH
You can't fuck with the crew, of crooked nigga too
[Chorus]
[Raphael Saadiq]
It's the coldest town from here to Georgia
(I'm a crooked nigga too)
It's the coldest town from here to Georgia
It's the coldest town from here to Georgia
(I'm a crooked.. crooked nigga too)
It's the coldest town from here to Georgia
Y'all gon' stop fuckin with me
[Chorus - repeat to fade]