Dead Prez is an un-apologetically political Hip-Hop group, one of the few who use the genre to advance radical ideas on social inequality and the realities of ghetto life in America. Their song "Police State" to me rings especially true. Here are the lyrics, along with a youtube link to the song.
You have the emergence in human society of this thing that's called
The State. What is the State? The State is this organized bureaucracy.
It is the police department. It is the Army the Navy. It is the prison
System the courts and what have you. This is the State it is a repressive
Organization. But the state and gee well you know you've got to have the
Police because if there were no police, look at what you'd be doing to
Yourselves -- you'd be killing each other if there were no police! But the
Reality is the police become necessary in human society only at that junction
In human society where it is split between those who have and those who ain't got.
I throw a Molotov cocktail at the precinct
You know how we think:
Organize the hood under I Ching banners,
Red, Black and Green instead of gang bandannas
FBI spying on us through the radio antennas
And them hidden cameras in the streetlight watching society
With no respect for the people's right to privacy
I'll take a slug for the cause like Huey P.
While all you fake niggas try to copy Master P
I want to be free to live
Hey, (but?) they have what I need to live
Bring the power back to the street where the people live
I'm sick of working for crumbs and filling up the prisons
Dying over money and relying on religion
For help. We do for self like ants in a colony
Organize the wealth into a socialist economy
A way of life based off the common need
And all my comrades are ready
We just spreading the seed
(Chorus:)
The average Black male
Live a third of his life in a jail cell
Cause the world is controlled by the white male
And the people don' never get justice
And the womben don' never get respected
And the problems don' never get solved
And the jobs don' never pay enough
So the rent always be late.
Can you relate?
We living in a police state
No more bondage, no more political monsters
No more secret space launchers
Government departments started it in the projects
Material objects, thousands up in the closets
Could've been invested in a future for my comrades
Battle contacts, primitive weapons out in combat
Many never come back
Pretty niggas be running with gats
Rather get shot in they back than fire back
We tired of that
Corporations hiring Blacks, denying the facts
Exploiting us all over the map
That's why I write the shit I write in my raps
It's documented, I'm in it
Every day of the week I live in it, breathing it
It's more than just fucking believing it
I'm holding in ones, rolling up my sleeves an' shit
It's (Cee-lo?) for push-ups now
Many headed for one conclusion
Niggas ain't ready for revolution
(Chorus:)
The average Black male
Live a third of his life in a jail cell
Cause the world is controlled by the white male
And the people don' never get justice
And the womben don' never get respected
And the problems don' never get solved
And the jobs don' never pay enough
So the rent always be late.
Can you relate?
We living in a police state.
[Sample of Chairman Omali Yeshitela:]
(That's right, that developed?) me: brought me here and worked me like an
Animal. Built the political economy off my stolen labor. Made them rich.
Made me poor.
(Chorus:)
The average Black male
Live a third of his life in a jail cell
Cause the world is controlled by the white male
And the people don' never get justice
And the womben don' never get respected
And the problems don' never get solved
And the jobs don' never pay enough
So the rent always be late.
Can you relate?
We living in a police state
[Sample of Chairman Omali Yeshitela:]
Why is it that Black people and everybody like us live in the kind of
Poverty and misery that we live in? Everywhere I look around me are nothing
But poverty and misery, on the one hand. And yet, what I'm seeing is that
Everywhere there's wealth and riches in the world it's in the white
Community somewhere, whether it's in europe or whether it's right cross the
Street from where I was born.
No comments:
Post a Comment