Guthrie's Machine: the Protest Music Thread

games
61

How many lives have we lost to the Maangamizi
It’s way bigger than the pain that I place on the CD
If I told you all the truth would you really believe me?
It’s the Maangamizi, It’s the Maangamizi

Maangamizi, meaning African hellacaust
Because we paid a hell of a cost
And don’t really know what was lost
And the process ain’t ever stopped
Since black civilization dropped
Through internal greed and external plot
Same ones that taught the Ancient Greeks
Greece and Rome helped to bring to their knees
Then Islam spread across Northern Africa
With slavery and massacres
Too many hurt, refused to convert
Spread South and West and people dispersed
Christianity is not alone in using
Race and religion for power to expand
Desert caravans took slaves across Sand
Where they staged a revolt of the Zanj
Enemies always invented mythologies
Curse of ham, so-called prophecy
After the migration
There was some reinstatement of autonomous nations

Then floating on the waves of the seas
Came a plague, a genocidal disease
With arms and heads, they looked like men
Really they were just dogs on two legs
When they first came some of our people said “Go!”
Most welcomed them into our homes
We didn’t know they had hearts of stone
Frozen by Western Europe’s cold
Also, there were scumbags among us
Willing to work for white conquerors honours
And with that collaboration
Began the largest forced migration
In the history of nations

How many millions dead at the bottom of the ocean?
Thrown overboard like property stolen
Or jumped overboard rather than be sold on
A mother with her baby in arms, hold on
What awaited was not just enslavement
But a genocidal impulse craving
They committed unspeakable abuses
To make a nigger from an African human
Took a woman ready to give birth
Tied her limbs to four posts held firm
In a main square made every slave watch
Covered her in raw meat
Let off a pack of dogs
If anyone watching, even a relative
Made a sound, kill them for the hell of it

This was every day, not the exception
The science of gynaecology was perfected
On black women, no anaesthetic
They said a nigger bitch couldn’t feel pain, pathetic
Hang a man from a tree cut off his penis
Force people to eat their own faeces
Put people in zoos, in a cage
Chimpanzee, black human, ape
And it was upon this here atrocity
Europe became the dominant economy

Now they play games, pretend it’s about names
It’s a scheme for unequal trade
Imagine the largest companies today
If all of their employees got no pay
For all of the centuries profit was made
Black skin was always branded slave
Even the child of the masters rape
Could be killed or sold because black blood in her veins

But the ancestors fought back, got free
Probably have not heard of Jean-Jacque Dessalines
Probably don’t know the Haitian revolution
Caused the French to sell half of America
Nor know the role that Africans played
In the Civil War for that same America
If you ain’t heard of Nanny of the Maroons or Bogle
You probably believe what they told you

But if they set Africans free
Because all of a sudden they grow a conscience
Tell me this,
Why were the slave masters given compensation,
And those that suffered not given a thing?
Why did they then invade Africa?
And make Africans slaves in their home?
With the Belgians killing 10 million
Souls in the Congo alone
Why then Jim Crow, why Apartheid?
Why did Black Wall Street burn that night?
Why collaborators will work for such evil,
Willing to be tools against their own people?
Why Africom? Imperialism for the new age
But with a brown face on it
That’s right imperialism for the new age
But with a brown face on it

Some will try their best to justify this torture
By asking you who the slaves were brought from
As if we do not know, tell them "Get the hell out
Every genocide ever has had sell outs"
And the largest wars of humans
Were fought between the people of Western Europe
So by your rationale it’s cool to kill Frenchman
They killed Germans that look like them
Absurd right? But when your skin is white
Different set of rules you can abide by

Dark suffering is not humanized
No surprise, we still see ourselves through their eyes
Darkies became legally human
During the course of our parents life
And the freedoms we have only occurred
Cos our ancestors spilled their blood to the earth
They changed that much? Are you so sure?
The world’s darker people still the most poor?
So it’s our task to put an end to this
Even those like me with our heritage mixed
If a knife is in your back 9 inches
And it’s only been pulled out six
When the wound starts healing
And we stop bleeding and bleaching
Can it begin to fix?
When the plague of self hate
Is no longer a weight so great
Push you to kill one another
When we put a stop to false charity
That gives with one hand and bombs with the other
When the IMF and World Bank, along with their puppets
No longer strangle our nations
When the invaders don’t have military bases
In so many places
When the jail cells are not packed with black backs
And the gats and the crack are no longer factors
When we celebrate true self-determination
Not a few token bit part actors
When the truth is told and there is
The dignity to remember the dead
Because as long as they are distorting the past
It means they have the intention of doing it again

62

Portland is a town that’s in the news much of the time
There are a lot of vegans and there’s very little crime
It’s a nice safe place to live, folks ride bicycles a lot
The winters aren’t so cold and the summers aren’t so hot
They build houses out of cob, they hang out in the park
Where you needn’t worry about walking after dark
There are lots of homeless people but they don’t hurt no one
Just be careful of the boys in blue playing with their guns

Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops

You can hang out with the punks with the piercings and tattoos
You can eat out at a food truck, any neighborhood you choose
You can dance to Balkan music while you drink a microbrew
Chilling in a gay bar with the mayor and his crew
But be careful what you do, be prepared to get some flack
Especially for those who may be male, young and Black
The fact is you’d do better in sweet home Alabam
You’re safer there on the old streets of Birmingham

Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops

Portland’s full of roses, there are flowers everywhere
But for others they’ve got prisons with some nice electric chairs
You can go downtown, ride the buses there for free
But you never know when you’ll get a DWB
A town full of progressives but such a rotten bunch of cops
Who knows who’ll get shot at the next routine traffic stop?
When you live in a place like Portland where they tend to act this way
You can just join the police force instead of the KKK!

Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops
Watch out for the cops

1 Like
63

Every shot that thunders
Through the nighttime don’t you wonder
What potential was extinguished
To keep the flames burning under?
Through the underworld and over world
Principles are so the same
Though we pretend they’re not as if they do not control cocaine
But you’ll find it’s connected
Every kid in the hood that’s living with a death wish
Is the same as the King who kills for the bling
But he is just much more reckless
It’s the King that I’m talking about
Though he is born with a silver spoon in his mouth
He still gonna clap for the slightest of chat
At any world leader that can’t back it
If he is sitting on the boxes
They are just oil or mineral deposits
Food he is moving fucking with our profit
So he better stop it
They say money makes the world go round, but it don’t
That is just not true
If you ain’t got guns to protect that money
I’lI regret that, Sonny, it is more fool you
Only murder further agendas that money couldn’t force
Eliminate the foes who propose
To suppose a different course, of course
A little torture is usually a big supporter
Though there’s nothing quite like killing
Good riddance to non supporters
We demonize the man on the corner
Paint him as a thug
We worship murder so much
It’s just that he ain’t killed enough
You wanna commit murder
But not end up in cuffs?
You gotta make it to the Premier League
A thousand murders plus

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn’t know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Every knife that puncture lungs of sons
Don’t make you wonder Mums?
If he was born to billionaires backed by a hundred guns
Would he be living still, drinking, sleeping, eating meals?
Instead of dead where it don’t count
We expect you to be killed
Because living as a pauper is a fate that is tainted
Acquainted with torture
We ain’t debating the rape of the daughter
If she was raised in particular borders
Place that fate made particular slaughters
No fate just particular orders
It’s the way of the world no accident
In fact it’s immaculate
You got a big gun start clapping it
Cause the language of power devour quick
Any silly biddy little pacifist or activist or challenges
Brown or black skin savages
Who inhabiting land with minerals in it
Who think for a minute that the rhetoric we spoke
Hope? Was not meant to be a joke
Don’t dream compassion will happen it won’t
Just go straight for the throat
Because any nation or races
That prove themselves incapable
Of matching modern murder machines
Make themselves enslavable
It is murder not money we desire insatiable
The thrilling of the killing it’s million dollars sensational, YES!
What you can’t do with a bribe
Can be achieved in a breeze with a gun and a knife
Because only murder further agendas that money couldn’t grind
Nothing like a couple dead kids to change a parents’ mind

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn’t know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Let’s get a little clarity
You ain’t got the capacity to internationally
Have a say in the ways things happening
You expect to collect more battering
Your arsenal it ain’t got no nukes
Armies equipped with too few troops
We’re laughing at you when you call truce
It’s part of the ritual to shoot-shoot-shoot
You got no background in colonization
Or public resource privatization
You can’t bang with the big boys, face it
But you still wanna play like Satan
You got no death squads to call your own
Or a pilot to fly your drones
Much less bulldozers for their homes
Talk gangster and you want to name Al Capone?
He was an amateur, silly little boys don’t understand
Even he went jail for tax evasion
For missing a payment in the payment plan
To the man, one with invisible hand
And a hidden fist to enforce my plan
I am just because I can more wicked than the Summer of Sam
Kick your shit and I kick mine fam
You bust your gun and I bomb your land
Only murder further agendas that money can’t control
Nothing like a massacred village to get the problem solved!

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn’t know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

64

Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees

The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact’s a fact
It belongs to them
Let’s give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent, now
To pay our share

Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In forty five degrees

The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact’s a fact
It belongs to them
Let’s give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning
How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

The time has come
To say fair’s fair
To pay the rent, now
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact’s a fact
It belongs to them
We’re gonna give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
How do we sleep while our beds are burning

2 Likes
65

Good news for beautiful people
Watching the world go by
Make love in the middle of a warzone
Hey - ya never gonna die
Don’t rock the boat - keep your head down
Just another fool in the crowd
Everybody knows - you can be a winner
C’mon - shout it out loud

On the fat of the land I been living
Now it’s only a matter of time
Sooner or later - you open your eyes
And return to the scene of the crime
Dig deep at the top of the heap
Now you’ve bitten off the hand that feeds you
You got nothin’ but your soul to sell
You got nothin’

When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one last time
When the river runs dry

You got the power I got the money
Another million miles to run
I’d cry - cry for the future
But I wouldn’t get anything done
Relax - abandon ship
Turn your back on Mother Nature
Blind luck - destiny - do me a favour

When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs… Dry

Good news for beautiful people
Watching the world go by
Make love in the middle of a war zone
All of God’s children
Never gonna die

You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs

I’m going home to where the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
It’s only a matter of time
Only a matter of time
When the river runs dry

1 Like
66

They were digging a new foudation in Manhattan
And they discovered a slave cemetary there
May their souls rest easy
Now that lynching is frowned upon
And we’ve moved on to the electric chair
And I wonder who’s gonna be president, tweedle dum or tweedle dumber?
And who’s gonna have the big blockbuster box office this summer?
How about we put up a wall between houses and the highway
And you can go your way, and I can go my way

Except all the radios agree with all the tvs
And all the magazines agree with all the radios
And I keep hearing that same damn song everywhere I go
Maybe I should put a bucket over my head
And a marshmallow in each ear
And stumble around for
Another dumb-numb waiting for another hit song to appear

People used to make records
As in a record of an event
The event of people playing music in a room
Now everything is cross-marketing
Its about sunglasses and shoes
Or guns and drugs
You choose
We got it rehashed
We got it half-assed
We’re digging up all the graves
And we’re spitting on the past
And you can choose between the colors
Of the lipstick on the whores
Cause we know the difference between
The font of 20% more
And the font of teriyaki
You tell me
How does it… make you feel?

You tell me
What’s … real?
And they say that alcoholics are always alcoholics
Even when they’re as dry as my lips for years
Even when they’re stranded on a small desert island
With no place within 2,000 miles to buy beer
And I wonder
Is he different?
Is he different?
Has he changed? what’s he about?..
Or is he just a liar with nothing to lie about?

Am I headed for the same brick wall
Is there anything I can do about
Anything at all?
Except go back to that corner in Manhattan
And dig deeper, dig deeper this time
Down beneath the impossible pain of our history
Beneath unknown bones
Beneath the bedrock of the mystery
Beneath the sewage systems and the PATH train
Beneath the cobblestones and the water mains
Beneath the traffic of friendships and street deals
Beneath the screeching of kamikaze cab wheels
Beneath everything I can think of to think about
Beneath it all, beneath all get out
Beneath the good and the kind and the stupid and the cruel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel

There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel
There’s a fire just waiting for fuel

1 Like
67

It was a global fight then, it’s a global fight now.

There’s a great and a bloody fight 'round this whole world tonight
And the battle, the bombs and shrapnel reign
Hitler told the world around he would tear our union down
But our union’s gonna break them slavery chains
Our union’s gonna break them slavery chains

I walked up on a mountain in the middle of the sky
Could see every farm and every town
I could see all the people in this whole wide world
That’s the union that’ll tear the fascists down, down, down
That’s the union that’ll tear the fascists down

When I think of the men and the ships going down
While the Russians fight on across the Don
There’s London in ruins and Paris in chains
Good people, what are we waiting on?
Good people, what are we waiting on?

So, I thank the Soviets and the mighty Chinese vets
The Allies the whole wide world around
To the battling British, thanks, you can have ten million Yanks
If it takes them to tear the fascists down, down, down
If it takes them to tear the fascists down

But when I think of the ships and the men going down
And the Russians fight on across the Don
There’s London in ruins and Paris in chains
Good people, what are we waiting on?
Good people, what are we waiting on?

So I thank the Soviets and the mighty Chinese vets
The Allies the whole wide world around
To the battling British, thanks, you can have ten million Yanks
If it takes them to tear the fascists down, down, down
If it takes them to tear the fascists down

68

Not really protest songs, but there’s so much American history and politics saturating these that they still belong here.

When the iceberg hit
Oh, they must have known
God moves on the water
Like Casey Jones

So I walked downtown
On my telephone
And took a lazy turn
Through the redeye zone

Was a five-band bill
A two-dollar show
I saw the van out in front
From Idaho

And the girl passed out
In the backseat trash
There were no way they’d make
Even a half a tank of gas

They looked sick and stoned
And strangely dressed
No one showed
From the local press

But I watched them walk
Through bottom land
And I wished I played
In a rock ‘n’ roll band

Hey, hey
It was the fourteenth day of April

Well, they closed it down
With the sales in rags
And I swept up the fags
And the local rags

I threw the plastic cups
In the plastic bags
And the cooks cleaned the kitchen
With the staggers and the jags

Ruination day
And the sky was red
I went back to work
And back to bed

And the iceberg broke
And the Okies fled
And the great emancipator
Took a bullet in the back of the head

And the great barge sank.
And the Okies fled.
And the great emancipator
took a bullet in the head.

in the head…
took a bullet in the back of the head.

It was not December.
Was not in May.
Was the 14th of April.
That is ruination day.

That’s the day…
The day that is ruination day.

They were one.
They were two.
They were three.
They were four.
They were five hundred miles from their home.

From their home…
They were five hundred miles from their home.

When the iceberg hit
well they must have known
that God moves on the water Casey Jones.

Casey Jones…
God moves on the water Casey Jones

69

They haven’t even started cleaning up the mess
How many souls departed is anybody’s guess
They’re already proposing that they turn it up a notch
It’s time they were imposing an ever tighter watch

Terrorists everywhere, by which they do not mean
Norwegians with blond hair or American Marines
The fighter planes, all of those who die
When the bombs rain from way up in the sky

If you bomb somebody, they might just bomb you back

The pundits on the TV will talk of integration
Most of them will agree there’s too much immigration
They’ll talk of social policies, things they should’ve done before
Whatever you say, please, don’t mention the war

If you bomb somebody, they might just bomb you back

They’ll cry out for more cops and laws against encryption
Time to pull out all the stops of every description
Time to torture suspects, send them back from where they came
And life goes as you’d expect in the imperial game

They’ll say that now we must strengthen our will
We mustn’t bow to those we kill
To those we maim, to the countries lost
Don’t mention their names, or the cost

If you bomb somebody, they might just bomb you back

70
2 Likes
71

A new star is born in the stillness of morning
The edge of the universe time is expanding
It’s endless as love infinitely small
Lights in the darkness, no reason at all

Billions of years away half moons are sharing
Glasses of wine with asteroids passing
A galaxy wakes on the wrong side of space
Gravity laughs in reality’s face

Somewhere there, like dust in the air
A sphere is drifting too slowly to bear
And clinging on tightly to rocks and stones
A parasite’s calling this dust its home

Another second of another day
In this corner of space
In this dark, cold universe

This world that I’m living in makes no sense to me
I’m still dreaming about the man who fell to earth

A baby is born in the stillness of morning
Ten minutes past five they declared him alive
As tears roll down his mother’s cheeks
And a midwife breathes a sigh of relief

While just down the road the last of the drunks
Make their way home to pass out on the bus
While the first of the businessmen in shirts and ties
Get ready to sell some more of their lies

In the newspaper offices lights still on
They’ve been up all night waiting for things to go wrong
And nobody saw as the wheels came down
A young man silently fall to the ground

In the houses they’re turning on lights
Putting blindfolds over their eyes
Getting ready for another day at work

This illusion that I’m living in makes no sense to me
I’m still dreaming about the man who fell to earth

A body is found in the stillness of morning
A priest in the street calls out a warning
Somewhere above London an air hostess stands
A 747 is coming in to land

A farmer has started her work for the day
Somehow she knows that something has changed
Out in the fields she dreams of her son
Back to the day when his journey begun

An eagle is searching for food in the spring
A sperm whale sleeps while a hummingbird sings
A lover is waiting for news by the phone
Out in the fields a cold wind blows

Cross the world there’s flashes of light
They’ve been bombing the city all night
In the end, what’s it all worth?

This simulation that I’m living in makes no sense to me
I’m still dreaming about the man who fell to earth
I’m still dreaming about the man who fell to earth

A tear is traveling across some skin
Molecules of water in sodium spin
Atoms are shaking so infinitely small
Just lights in the darkness, no reason at all

72

i have a pretty odd mix rn basically just collected from friends:
Boikot - X Aniversario
Ryan Harvey - Thin Blue Border
Joe Glazer - My Darling Party Line
Come Out Ye Black and Tans
Go On Home British Soldiers
anything by Grup Yorum - they have a cool version of Hasta Siempre

73

https://youtu.be/2rFfvszgDCo

Peace is on the way
Peace is on the way
By the sword they say

After this, this last blow, last chop
Last drop
Peace is on the way

After this, this last scream, last shout, last trample of boot
Just one more, one last rubble wreck where once were dreams housed
Last plane, last flame, last sky

Peace is on the way

Just one more naked Vietnamese girl
Be she Russian, Israeli, Palestinian or Great Great, Great, Really Great British

Just one more placard wielding warrior and this last sword-slinging gunman
Just one more song of machine-gun metal hurtling Death to outrun life

Just one more war

Then we can have peace

Then we can have peace

74

While Eminem’s new album is a mixed bag both creatively and sonically, these two songs are pretty good protest songs.

Untouchable, which is an unflinching look at racism and police violence.

Holy shit lyrics for me:

Fuck your Republican views. Pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, where the fuck are the boots?

While nowhere near as good as Untouchable, Like Home is an eviscerating of Trump:

1 Like
75

:musical_note: Yes, I grew up on the dole in a single parent family
Been through a little bit of tragedy
Yes I was around drugs and violence
Before the day that I started secondary
And that’s part of it
Not half of it
Get the picture, the rest ain’t necessary
Growin’ up, got a little caught up
But that ain’t even half of my life

I was also given the knowledge of self
That is all we actually need to survive
If you saw me aged 9, reading Malcolm just fine
Teachers still treated me stupid
Students that couldn’t speak English,
they put me in groups with
And the irony is
Some of the first man to give me schoolin’
You would call gangsters

But I already explained, we know what the truth is
They used to say ‘Don’t be like me’
Yeah I got a name and dough on the street
Night time comes, I can’t sleep
And that’s the part that rappers don’t speak
We don’t hit the road cos we are thugs
Don’t come out the womb, wanting to sell drugs
If we got the right guidance and love
Would we fight people just like us?
How could I knock the hustle to get by?
How do you think I ate as a child?

Judge no one, done many things wrong
I just don’t boast about it songs
But listen to my older bars
I was just as confused as you probably are
But you grow and you learn
Travel and fuck up,
One too many man you know get cut up
One too many man that could’ve been doctors
End up spending their whole life boxed up

You learn, if you study
Its all set out just to make them money
No cover, it’s all about getting
poor people to fight with one another
So its logical that us killing our brothers,
Dissin’ our mothers
Is right in line with the dominant philosophy of our time
But time is a cycle, not a line
Comes back around you regain your mind
You be ready for the energy I channel in my rhymes
Remedy the pedigree, the jeopardy of mine
When the world’s this fucked up, lethargy’s a crime

We can all fight with our brothers over crumbs,
Far harder to fight the one who makes guns
We can all talk shit and get two dollars
Far harder to be the one who seeks knowledge
If we understood economics
We’d know money’s nothin’
Think nothing of it
Money is a means to get wealth, not the wealth itself

Don’t get confused, I’m far from broke
All that you see me do I own
But I wont hang what I make around my neck
I know from where that the diamonds came
But I do quite literally own a library,
That definitely costs more than your chain
And businesses, and properties
Far from starvin’, I eat quite properly

And I don’t care, just said it for the kids
Who need to know that you’re not broke to listen
Don’t know an asset from a liability
They’ve never been shown or told the difference
So they don’t change situations
Richest man in Britain is Asian
That’s significant, not coincidence,
Asian people build businesses,
Not by flossin/going out shoppin’
Giving out their culture for everyone’s profit
Who run’s Bollywood? Indian people
Who owns our shit?

So we shake our arse and dance
As if racism just upped and vanished
But has it? No its right on course
You’re beaten so bad, you’re trained to ignore
Let me not just make sweeping statements
Gimme a second, I’ll explain it

For small amounts of drug possession there’s more black people
in jail in America than there is for rape and
armed robbery and murder all put together
You can say they’re just locking up thugs,
Imagine if they locked up every
middle class kid that had ever held drugs,
Oh that’s right, that’d be your kids!
Bigger than that what is going on with this,
Prison in America’s a private business
They get paid 50k per year per inmate by the State, just wait…
Also legally are allowed to use their prison inmates as slaves
Cheap slave labour, big corporations
They come out of jail, can’t get a job
So when we celebrate going to jail,
We are LITERALLY CELEBRATING ENSLAVEMENT
Add to that, that the hood that you’re livin’
Engineered social condition that breeds crime by design
Where do you think you get your nine?

You can say that they’re just black,
But I like to deal with facts
In the 1920s you would’ve found in America
Black towns,
Prospering centres of economics
and education to make you proud
But some people couldn’t bear
that the former slaves would not just lie down
So the KKK and other hate groups burnt
those towns to the ground
Killin hundreds,
If it ain’t understood,
You think you were always livin’ in the hood?
Shit it’s only been sixty years
Since they hung blacks and burned em’
And that was so cool
Day rail passes, picnic baskets
Even gave kids the day off school
To go see a lynchin’
Have a picnic
It’s fun to watch the little monkeys die(!)
Then people act a little dysfunctional
You wanna pretend that you don’t know why

If your colour means you can be killed
And you’re powerless to get justice about it
Is it difficult to figure out
how you would then end up feelin’ about it?
And that ain’t excuses,
Just dealing with the roots of abuses
that make a reality
Where a generation of young men
speak of ourselves as dirt casually

That’s America,
This Britain,
Some things are similar,
Some different,
In this country the first enslaved were the working class
What’s changed?

Worst jobs, worst conditions
Worst taxed, look where you’re livin’
You go to the pub, Friday night,
You will fight with a guy,
Don’t know what for,
But won’t fight with a guy, suit and a tie,
Who sends your kids to die in a war,
They don’t sell the kids of the rich or the politicians,
It’s your kids, the poor British
That they send to go die in a foreign land
For these wars you don’t understand,

Yeah they say that you’re British
And that lovely patriotism they feed ya
But in reality you have more in common with immigrants
Than with your leaders
I know, both side of my family
Black and white are fed ghetto mentality
Reality in this system,
Poor people are dirt regardless of shade
But with that said,
Let’s not pretend that everything is the same

When our grandparents came here to Britain
If you had a criminal record you couldn’t get in
Yet that ain’t protect them from all the stupid,
stupid abuses they would be livin’
Kicked in the teeth,
Stabbed in the street,
Many times fired bombed our houses,
Put faeces through our letter box
And of course the cops did so much about it
Daily, up to the 80s
People spittin’ into my pram cos’ I was a coon baby
But of course that has had no effect on why today we are crazy

And none of this was for any good reason
They were just dark and breathing
To ease the guilt now for all of this treatment
Constant stereotypes and needed
So if I celebrate how big that my dick is,
Bricks that I’m flippin’
Clips that I’m stickin’
Chicks that I’m hittin’
I’m playing my position
But if I teach a kid to be a mathematician,
Messin’ with the schism,
How they gonna fill a prison when materialism is no longer our religion?

What do you think we got now in Britain?
Just like America, private prisons
Prisons for profit!
That mean when your kids go jail people make money off it,
So keep environments that breed crime
Build more jails at the same time
Market badness to the kids in the rhymes
As long as rich kids ain’t dying its fine!
Get em’ to the point where some are so lost
They actually believe that
if they don’t celebrate killin’ themselves off
That it’s because they’re soft

Was Malcom soft?
Was Marley soft?
Tell me was Marcus Garvey soft?
Well? Was Mohammed Ali soft?
Nah, Nah I think not!
But they want us to think that the road is cool
Being on road is all we can do
We don’t control the wholesale productions
Who benefits from us movin’ the food?
Or thinking there’s no way out of road life
But Malcolm X used to hustle out on the roadside
When Marcus Garvey organised more than 6million people
Why is this something you cannot equal?
Shiiiiit!
One of my homeboys did a ten straight in the box in yard
Now what’s he doing?
Passin’ his doctorate
Don’t tell me that it’s too hard!

Who trained you to believe that you’re inferior?
Sungbo Eredo in Nigeria are the remains of an ancient moat,
Dug 1000 years ago
20 metres wide, 70 down,
Round the remains of an ancient town
That’s 400 square miles around
400 square miles around
Please, please don’t believe me,
It was a documentary on BBC!
But we ain’t studyin’ history,
Too busy watching MTV

And MTV said wear platinum,
Now everybody wanna go and wear platinum,
And MTV said pop magnums,
Now everybody wanna go and pop magnums
If MTV said drink prune juice
You would start hearing that in tunes soon,
‘Hey! Today I wore my Cartier,
Is it now more important what I got to say?’
Oh and I drive a Mercedes by the way
So everybody listen to what I got to say
Huh, does that make you all happy?
Ahh but shit my head’s still nappy

Think for myself, still some mad at me
But on the mic ain’t not one bad as me
All of this here’s good for the rhymes
Put us in the same place at the same time
And it’s clear to everybody that I’m out of my mind
Some of these guys are runnin’ out of their rhymes
Clear to everybody that has got ears
I’m the guy that they just might fear
They wanna get near but they can’t have a peer
Ah dear I’m hard liquor you’re just like beer
Front on the kid for another five years
Come to my shows and some cry tears

It mean that much to 'em, it’s a movement!
I don’t speak for myself but a unit,
Black, white, man, woman,
anyone that respects truth we put in
Dudes are like dinner with no puddin’
Yeah you’re sweet but no substance puddin’
You could never ever be with a level on
Our songs get out played out there in Lebanon
We speak for the people properly
Not for the old fat guys in offices
And the girls love him, it ain’t fair
He can’t even be bothered to comb his hair

Anyway that’s enough kissin’ my own arse
Back to the more important task of being so shower
I got half the hood screaming “KNOWLEDGE IS POWER”
And I ain’t saying that will change rap
But I do know this for a fact
Right now there’s a yout’ on your block
With his hands on his balls, face screwed up
Swear he don’t care, don’t give a fuck
That he won’t let nobody call his bluff
But the words go in
Open your shackles
Because once that’s happened there’s no going back
Once you start to see what is really happening
Who the enemy you should be attackin’ is

So READ, READ, READ!
Stuck on the block, READ, READ!
Sittin’ in the box, READ, READ!
Don’t let them say what you can achieve
Cos when people are enslaved
One of the first things they do is stop them reading
Cos’ it is well understood
that intelligent people will take their freedom

Cos’ if we knew our power
we would understand that we can’t be held down
If we knew our power,
we would not elevate not one of these clowns
If we knew our power,
we wouldn’t get arrogant when we get two pennies
If we knew our power,
we would see what everybody sees, that we’re rich already!

But never mind MCs go run for your mummy
I’m hungry, I run for my tummy
That’s enough back to worshipping money
I’m off, back to the study! :musical_note:

76

https://youtu.be/MTxeS50kk-0

77

https://youtu.be/bpd94Hf9myQ

[INTRO]

[Recording: Susan Bro, Heather Heyer’s Mom, Heather’s Memorial Service, 08/16/17]
They tried to kill my child to shut her up. Well guess what? You just magnified her

[Speaking: AWKWORD]
It’s me
Back
Heather Heyer, Rest In Power
Nazi Punks Fuck Off
Not My President
AWKWORD

[VERSE 1: AWKWORD]
We about to blow up, from a nuclear bomb
I’m 'bout to show up, got the right to bear arms
If we don’t all die tomorrow, I’m a come for them blondes
Tiki Torch holding motherfuckers, righting your wrongs
Nazis marching on the streets, and Nazis in charge
There’s even Nazis on these beats, and Nazis on the blogs
Questioning me? I got the motherfucking scars
And it could’ve been me, who got crushed by that car
American free? It’s white man free-for-all
And I’m a tell you the truth, I got that white skin card
I never sat back, and said, ‘oh thank God’
Oh god, I cry looking out my backyard
Should a been there too, smash Nazis for the cause
And I used to do dat, but now my kids are my job
And thanks to my wife, I got the time to spit bars
This’ll cost my paycheck, getting stalked by my boss

[HOOK: AWKWORD (2x)]
Fuck Trump, fuck the system that made him
Fuck afraid pundits and the liars who praise him
Fuck you white apologists, privilege is amazing
I know you won’t acknowledge, the world you were raised in

[VERSE 2: AWKWORD]
I didn’t hang up the weapon, it was just a hiatus
High haters! Back to speak the truth on the latest
Every single news channel, calling in the favors
Bunch a masturbaters, afraid to be the bravest
One in three black men, locked behind cages
Privileged ignoramus, posting on your pages
Come catch me — I’d love to show you what the pain is
Hide behind your hoods, you’ll know what afraid is
Masks on our faces, no difference what our race is
Only race we face is, protection from our neighbors
What global meltdown? That’s what your aim is
You won’t get, through my door, motherfucking racist
Raised fists! Shit on constitution pages
That don’t stop the cops from escorting all you babies
To get home safe; we shot, gassed and tasered
The whole world knows what our greatest mistake is

[BRIDGE: DJ Wayne Ski]
[OUTRO: Teck-Zilla (Recording: Malcolm X)]

78

Now, it’s the opening salvo
Where poet’s scope the people like Mohammad and Malvo
A sample of the battle we wagered against an animal
Made to snuff us out like the wick of a candle
And all the youth dressed in camo, we’re ready to handle
And no this war was not scripted, can’t change the channel
We canceling all subscriptions, this is the last issue
When the casket closed can’t take the cash with you
No most-mortem residuals
We individuals who
Indivisible become the most invincible
But that is not the issue at hand
We demand the simple right to question y’all people
Where the fuck is freedom at?
It’s all we ask but instead we get our asses
Assassinated fast
If they catch you talking trash
Then the first shall be last
It’s time to prepare
Black clouds, sky falling, put a hand in the air

And my people building monuments to weather the flood
I’m a leave how I came screaming covered in blood
Died once born twice both times we knuckled up
Along side our people we gon struggle with love

So struggle with love, struggle with love, struggle with love

Now this here’s for those who choose fights whose fruits might
Never not ripen until after they life
It’s not right how they martyr our leaders and target our children
Disrespect the sisters and wonder why we militant
Peace to my third world equivalent
Even if I can’t fight beside you
I write what I can
To get our fam in other lands to understand your pain
Cause your beef is mine and we one and the same
And I know about this privilege
But if you’re from where I’m from
Then you know a bigger burden comes with it
And that’s what I carry when you see me on a hustle
I talking as a walking document of our struggle
Kasamas hold me down and remember that I love you
And Johnny hold your head up if they ever take me from you
And please tell him that I tried, don’t cry
Cause no matter where you are, a struggle’s near by

And my people building monuments to weather the flood
I’m a leave how I came screaming covered in blood
Died once born twice both times we knuckled up
Along side our people we gon struggle with love

So struggle with love, struggle with love, struggle with love

Right now I want to thank God for being me
My soul won’t rest until the colony is free
1896 revolution incomplete
Silence is defeat my solution is to speak
Resurrect a legacy of martyrs I beseech
Time to choose a side it’s the might vs. the meek
My big brother Free brought the word from the East
Where the bullet in the middle of the belly of the beast

Hey

79

November 30th, 1999 . . . no sunshine

Yo, the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby somebody got shot
But parties don’t stop, and the parties don’t care
It’s a stick up: that’s why we got our hands in the air

Still demanding a share, refrigerators bare
Cause they wanna see trade get free and not fair
But we are not blind, we are not there
We don’t got time left to spare to not care
On the last day in November, swellin’ in ranks
Went to chant down the mighty IMF and World Bank
A gathering of people in peaceful assembly
Onward to Westlake to disrupt the entry
Walk along steady, riot squad ready
To protect every last dignitary’s ass
But this started when they herded us like cattle in a fence
Protesters getting restless without an exit
They threatened to arrest us, we pushed back and then
A hail of rubber bullets hit teens and old men
I admit, had to split when the first gas canisters hit
Felt it burn in my eyes, nose and lips
They try to blame it on the anarchists, garbage
I was there, I’ll tell you right now the pig started it
But they distort it in the news, talkin’ bout stompin’ down Nike town, wearin’ their shoes

But the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby somebody got shot
But parties don’t stop, and the parties don’t care
It’s a stick up: that’s why we got our hands in the air

50,000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50,000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50,000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets
50,000 deep, 50,000 deep

Yo, the body rock stopped, probably got caught by the cops
Nearby somebody got shot
But parties don’t stop in the South
So take your shoes off for you come into my house

I had to duck out cause I knew I stuck out in the crowd after many years growing up Brown in this town
Now this is what democracy looks like, not what you all had in mind for tonight
Mr. Mayor, shellshocked for five days straight
Press conference, looking constipated and pale
Tossed a homie in jail, wasn’t even protesting
Wrong place, wrong time, learned a quick lesson
But this is not a question what we did to deserve this
Rich kids went and got arrested on purpose
But was it worth it? My first inclination, globalization is the root of the pain
Made the reason that they left and the reason that we came
Catch my breath, blood pulsates my brain
And they call it a riot? Huh… I call it an uprising
And they call this a riot? But nah, I call it an uprising
And they call this a riot? Nah man, fuck that, I’ma call it an uprising

50,000 deep, and it sound like thunder when our feet pound streets

80

:musical_note: Come, get out of the way, boys
Quick, get out of the way
You’d better watch what you say, boys
Better watch what you say
We’ve rammed in your harbor and tied to your port
And our pistols are hungry and our tempers are short
So bring your daughters around to the port
'cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world

We pick and choose as please, boys
Pick and choose as please
You’d best get down on your knees, boys
Best get down on your knees
We’re hairy and horny and ready to shack
We don’t care if you’re yellow or black
Just take off your clothes and lie down on your back
'cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world

Our boots are needing a shine, boys
Boots are needing a shine
But our coca-cola is fine, boys
Coca-cola is fine
We’ve got to protect all our citizens fair
So we’ll send a battalion for everyone there
And maybe we’ll leave in a couple of years
'cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world

Dump the reds in a pile, boys
Dump the reds in a pile
You’d better wipe of that smile, boys
Better wipe off that smile
We’ll spit through the streets of the cities we wreck
We’ll find you a leader that you can’t elect
Those treaties we signed were a pain in the neck
'cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world

Clean the johns with a rag, boys
Clean the johns with a rag
If you like you can use your flag, boys
If you like you can use your flag
We’ve got too much money we’re looking for toys
And guns will be guns and boys will be boys
But we’ll gladly pay for all we destroy
'cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world

Please stay off of the grass, boys
Please stay off of the grass
Here’s a kick in the ass, boys
Here’s a kick in the ass
We’ll smash down your doors, we don’t bother to knock
We’ve done it before, so why all the shock?
We’re the biggest and toughest kids on the block
'cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world

When we butchered your son, boys
When we butchered your son
Have a stick of our gum, boys
Have a stick of our buble-gum
We own half the world, oh say can you see
The name for our profits is democracy
So, like it or not, you will have to be free
'cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world :musical_note: