Lupe Fiasco – Lasers
Asalam aleykum, my brothers and sisters.
I finally got a hold of this album, and if you’ve been following my posts over the years, I consider Lupe Fiasco to be one of the most brilliant rappers out there. I have every mixtape and now album too, that he’s every released, and I can’t dare tell you, he gave any less in one.
He’s the most consistent rapper I know. I’m also a huge fan of Akrobatic & Blu (from Blu & Exile), but Blu released this weird album and left me wondering, “What was I thinking”. But for real, have a listen, I guarantee, you will not be disappointed.
PS. My favorite track is Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey. He takes the words right out of my mouth. For a download, check out Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers
Militant out.
There’s A War Going On For Your Mind
Asalam aleykum, my brothers and sisters.
I was listening to Flobots when I came across this song, and the words just spoke to me. Have a read/listen:
Media mavens mount surgical strikes from trapper keeper collages and online magazine racks
Cover girl cutouts throw up pop-up ads
Infecting victims with silicone shrapnel
Worldwide passenger pigeons deploy paratroopers
Now it’s raining pornography
Lovers take shelter
Post-production debutantes pursue you in Nascar chariots
They construct ransom letters from biblical passages and bleed mascara into the holy water
supplies
There’s a war going on for your mind
Industry insiders slang test tube babies to corporate crack heads
They flash logos and blast ghettos
Their embroidered neckties say “Stop Stitching”
Conscious rappers and whistle blowers get stitches made of acupuncture needles and marionette
strings
There is a war going on for your mind
Professional wrestlers and vice presidents want you to believe them
The desert sky is their blue screen
They superimpose explosions
They shout at you
“Pay no attention to the men behind the barbed curtain
Nor the craters beneath the draped flags
Those hoods are there for your protection
And meteors these days are the size of corpses”
There’s a war going on for your mind
We are the insurgents
What more can I say?
Militant out.
21st Century Slavery
I'm Rich Bitch!!!
Asalam aleykum, my brothers and sisters.
I was listening to KRS-One’s Adventures In Emceein album, when I came across a track called Money, featuring Mc Lyte. No here’s a verse by Mc Lyte:
Money is funny – how a piece of paper can make or break your very existence
Quick as it come, quick as it go – you better know about the ebb and the flow
You get money in droves, trick it on cars and blow
Throw dollars at black queens ’cause, for the dough they’ll strip their clothes
And for the right amount of money
A king will pimp his queen into being a ho on a stroll
Life will always be hard when you choose to make money your god
That verse got me thinking, are we the 21st century slaves? Think about it, we’re born, we go to school, get a good education, graduate, get a good job, buy a home & retire.
They define slavery to be:
a system under which people are treated as property and are forced to work.[1] Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation.
It just feels like we’re being shoved into a cultural mindset, whereby someone gives you the impression that there’s nothing else in life for you.
What happened to taking a walk in the park & smelling the roses? Or going on a hike? Travelling the world?
Instead I have dreams about the Aston Martin DB9, & feel totally useless till the day I own a Ferrari 599. Isn’t it a bit weird that if this is the culture that the ‘powers that be want for us’, then why on earth do we see so many suicides in Japan, one of the most highly trained societies in the world, yet this individual feels like there is totally no other way out, but death.
It’s really sad. I’m honestly disturbed by how many suicides occur in Nairobi today, as compared to earlier years. Thought they’ve been for the flimsiest reasons in most cases, like the girl who killed herself because she didn’t attend the Shaggy concert, or the other guy who killed himself because of a English Premier League game….
I’m not underestimating or talking down their problems. Maybe they had good reason. All I’m saying is, in a world where we’re forced to want such silly things, we end up missing on the important things in life…
Basically I see money as a root of many things. But are we really a slave to it, or are we a slave to being a slave…? What about our nature is so vile & so evil, that we can’t just live with each other as equals? We have to find a way to make one person be better than the other. Whether it’s based on talent, colour, religion, upbringing, hieght, breast size, penis size, you know I could go on and on, but I think you get the point.
All I could say can be summarised in the following:
Young Jeezy – The Inspiration
If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make cents/sense
Words to live by, took it out of context
They say your pass is your present and your present is your cash
So I look forward to the future
Get a lil’ paper your baby momma won’t have
Part of the college so I need a forecast
Where’s the weatherman at when you need him?
A hungry nigga eat anything you feed him
A rich nigga will buy anything you sell him
And a broke nigga believe anything you fuckin tell him
So money isn’t the root of all evil, human beings are.
Militant out.
Kanji Humility
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