From childhood to maybe my mid-thirties, I never paid attention to lyrics, even my favorite songs. I was embarrassed because I couldn't decipher what was being sung. Take Madonna's Girls Just Want to Have Fun. I love that song! But what happens, exactly, after the refrain?
I struggled to hear lines from movies, which resulted in a lot of self-consciousness at the theater when I went with my cousins. I dreaded the ends of films because I knew my older cousin would go on about who said what and why with glee. My ego dies when I recall our viewing of Back to the Future. That stupid Biff joke: Make like a tree and leave. I had no idea what she was talking about.
It was an ex-boyfriend who turned me on to lyrics. His love for bands like Hüsker Dü, Morphine, The Clash, and many many more was largely due to lyrics, the messages songs send through words. Some of it really is poetry. Some of it isn't, but when you combine lyrics with music, it's magic. You're there. So I'm grateful to him for that!
Between the two, music draws me in first. Here's one of my favorite songs: The Coup: My Favorite Mutiny. Take a listen!
I may not know what the hell they're saying, but the beat totally moves me. When I'm stressed out, I turn to songs like this and let loose.
And after all these years of no knowing the words, I finally looked them up. And I found a story about anger, violence, war, suppression, racism. It's a poem — brutally honest — and a beautiful one.
I know it's long, but read it. You deserve to know:
Move, if you got the nerve Lash out for your just desserts It's not just the worth Some of y'all heads up in the clouds I'ma bring y'all back to earth
It's Black back to burn Bullshit y'all talkin' 'bout Out ya mouth, I'm not concerned 'Cause y'all got to learn It's y'all turn like Detroit Red When his head had a Ultra Perm
The long walk'll burn your bare heels So throw on your boots The game camouflaged like army suits But I can see it more clear 'Cause I came with The Coup in here Ring the alarm and form the troops
Send 'em out into the world Go to war in a fluke Eye to eye with the enemy you sworn to shoot Now comin' at ya neck sick o' hearin' Something wrong with me Motherfucker somethin' wrong with you
When the chief just way too smart to question The enemy the brothers of a dark complexion The governments of the world is shark infested They heavy on weaponry like Charlton Heston
Man, yeah it gets low here uh, real low Know what I'm talkin' 'bout?
I ain't rockin' with you, so what what you goin do? It's my favorite mutiny I ain't rockin' with you, your logic does not compute It's my favorite mutiny
Death to the pigs is my basic statement I spit street stories 'til I taste the pavement Tryin' to stay out the pen where we face enslavement Had a foolproof hustle 'til they traced the payments
I was grippin' my palm around some shitty rum Tryin' to find psalm number 151 To forget what I'm owed, as I clutch the commode I read "Put down the bottle and come get the gun"
Let's get off the chain like Kunta Kinte with a MAC-10 They want us gone like a dollar in a crack den Steadily subtractin' seeds & stems Mind cloudy through the wheeze and phlegm
Numbin' my brain off of that and the Jesus hymns If we waiting for the time to fight, these is thems Tellin' us to relax while they ease it in We gettin greased again The truth I write is so cold, it'd freeze my pen
I'm Boots Riley it's a pleasure to meet you Never let they punk ass ever defeat you They got us on the corner wearin pleather and see thru All y'all's gold mines, they wanna deplete you
I ain't just finna rap on the track, I finna clap on 'em back And it's been stackin' to that 500 years before Iceberg Ever leaned back in the 'lac Before they told Rosa "Black in the back"
Before the CIA told Ricky Ross to put crack in a sack And Gil Scott traded rappin' for smack This beat alone should get platinum plaques I'd rather see a million of us ecstatic to scrap 'Cause if we bappin' 'em back we automatically stack
I ain't rockin' with you, so what what you goin do? It's my favorite mutiny I ain't rockin' with you, your logic does not compute It's my favorite mutiny
This the cut like truancy Riq, Boots and me Activatin' the community Up in the bay like Huey P, they sucka free It remind me of the BK, it's love for me
But beast got it twisted I'll untangle it Black mind intertwined like the ropes they used to hang us with This is my favorite shit I came in the game with a new way to spit That got questionin' who you bangin' with?
Take it back to Imhotep I'll go a step deeper like a poor righteous teacher with holy intellect Killer flow for all my real niggaz left But inform the family of a jiggaboo that there's been a death
Once again you can feel hip-hop Underground, still about my guap Gangsta like, fuck the cops Talib Kweli revolutionary mc And that ain't about to stop
I ain't rockin' with you, so what what you goin do? It's my favorite mutiny I ain't rockin' with you, your logic does not compute It's my favorite mutiny
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