Little Weapon

An exert from Lupe Fiasco's "Little Weapon" - a metaphorical interpretation on video game violance.His lyrics really don't get the attention that they deserve.



"I killed another man today,
Shot him in his back as he ran away,
Then I blew up his hut with a hand grenade,
Cut his wife's throat as she put her hands to pray,
Just five more dawgs then we can get a soccer ball,
That's what my commander say,
How Old?
Well I'm like ten, eleven, been fighting since I was like six or seven,
Now I don't know much about where I'm from but I know I strike fear everywhere I come,
Government want me dead so I wear my gun, I really want the rocket launcher but I'm still too young,
This candy give me courage not to fear no one,
To fear no pain, and hear no tongue,
So I hear no screams and I shed no tear,
If I'm in your dreams then your end is near.

.............................................................


Now here comes the march of the boy brigade
A macabre Parade of the toys he made
And in Shimmer shades who looks half his age
About half the size of the flags they waved
And Camouflage suits that made to fit youths
'cause the ones of the dead soldiers hang a little loose
And AK-47's that they shooting into heaven
Like they're trying to kill the Jetson's
They struggle little recruits
Cute Smileless, Heartless, violent
Childhood destroyed, devoid of all childish ways,
Can't write their own names or read the words on their own graves
Think you gangster popped a few rounds,
These kids will come through and murder a whole town,
Then sit back and smoke and watch it burn down,
The grave gets deeper the further we go down"

Luv(Sic)

I want to introduce you to a young poet/MC known as Shing02.He is Japanese raised in the US and is one of the most popular hip-hop artists in Japan.He raps predominantly in Japanese though in the period 2004-2007 he recorded 3 interrelated tracks in English with the help of the late Nujabes - a Japanese hip-hop producer and,might I add, one of the best beatmakers the new millenia has seen.Those tracks are all called Luv(Sic) and represent an ode to life and it's beauty. I will post exerts from the lyrics of those truly exceptional pieces.

Shing02

 

Nujabes

 

Luv(Sic) pt.1

Oh how I could write a book on how you make me feel
But how about this song that I wrote for you?
What I feel like...I wanna put my trusts in these simple words
For you to feel what I'm saying, what you feel like?
Reminisce about the little episodes that we shared together
Remember the time that you told me
In the cold night, to relax when all I knew was to hold tight
Remember the time that I spoke to the crowd in a full house and
Realizes that you was my ace?
I was the joker on the stage singing the blues
All eyes on me and had nothing to prove
But yo, I thought I knew what a diamond shine like
But I felf a sharper love in the limelite
From the queen of hearts watching me quitely in the upper deck balcony
Sometimes I do suspect, I'm a actor in a well-scripted live divine comedy
When I look back at the frozen slice of time and try to defrost the feeling lost
Now enough with the metaphors, the motivation that I wrote this letter for
For you to know that the music held us carry on
Like you say a new day will bring us tomorrow...

Luv(Sic) pt.2 

Let me mention what I've been thinking
How to save the children, when the ship is sinking
So I'm singing, no lip syncing to slogans,
Political hooligans with tanks, missiles and guns!
Everything is relative when it's all in the family of man,
Understand the time has finally come to realize the great power of 1,
All formulas equalize under the Sun, Amen!

Luv(Sic) pt.3

Like a movie that you can't predict
Like a book that you can't resist
I sing along a song that's oh so sensual
bring along a sip to make it all so sexual
verbally that is, making love to the music means vibing to the beat at night
with the whole city fast asleep, out cold
true words seem to rise to the lips, take hold
of a poet in me, most powerfully
I feel free when the world doesn't owe it to me
It's so hard to find a gig that lives up to the billing,
trying to find a reason to work, god willing
I admit, my thinking is wishful
like a star upon a child gazing up to the ceiling
how far do we have to stretch the truth
to fit the lifestyles borrowed and overdue
we can take it all back to the register
and start all over from the canister
let's break it all down into pieces of bright
moments that pass by like a meteorite
throw on your favorite reel that's good to go
on the analog player watch the people glow
sit back to the breeze let the memories flow
comedy tragedy all the highs and lows


Like your moves that I can't predict
Like your look that I can't resist
The ting-a-ling feeling was oh so mutual
the lingering appeal was so unusual
herbally what is, medicine to a lone soul can become poison to some
with the whole body fast asleep, out cold
true vision seem to come to the eye, take hold
of a prophet in me most visibly
I see clear when the world doesn't show it to me
It's so hard to make sense in a cycle of billing,
trying to find a reason to quit and make a killing
I admit, our dealing is painful
like a star upon a child staring down from the ceiling
how far do we have to stretch the picture
before pixelating the human texture
we can take it all back to the register
and start all over from the canister
let's save it all up for an ultimate prize
homecoming gathering with a big surprise
throw on your favorite record that's good to go
on the analog table and it's hooked to blow
sit back with ease and hear the emcee flow
hi hat kick drum all the highs and lows

Getting Over

Another moment of briliance from one of the best poets of the present - Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, from The Root's track "How I Got Over"

"When you on the corners, there's too much drama
Livin with the police right behind ya
It's always more than a slight reminder
We livin in a war zone like Rwanda
Before I go back to the Heavenly Father
Pray for me if it ain't too much bother
Whatever don't break me will make me stronger
I feel like I can't take too much longer
It's too much lyin, and too much fightin
I'm all cried out 'cause I grew up cryin
They all got a sales pitch I ain't buyin
They tryin to convince me that I ain't tryin
We uninspired, we unadmired
And tired and sick of being sick and tired
of livin in the hood where the shots are fired
We dyin to live, so to live, we dyin"

From "Undergoing Treatment"(1997) by Duran Duran



"We are undergoing treatment
Watching others in the news
Studying our worst reviews
They say we'll get over it
Disappear like dinosaurs
To the sound of small applause
Resign to the mid-price section

We are undergoing treatment
'Til our ethic fits the scene
Laid out in Q Magazine
They crave our conformity
Mediocre to the bone
Terrified testosterone
But why do we still face the music?"

"You Can't Be Alive In No Time But NOW!"

Here I present a selection of the Lyrics from a track called "Life In Marvelous Times"-in my oppinion one of the best tracks(lyrically) to come out in 2009.The lyrics are by Mos Def - a modern master of word,not only in the context of hip-hop,Mos has for years been drawing a grim depiction of what a perverted fairy tail our world is.

"grey heavens! good grief!
hungry bellies!bright gold on they teeth!

The windows on the Ave look like sad eyes
they fix their sharp gaze on you when you pass by
and if you dare to stand, you can see em cry
you can watch em scowl
feel them prowl
while they study every inch about you
fast math measuring what you amount to.

The laughter, the screams!
the numeral, the song of Psalms
the book of dreams!

ends don't meet where the arms can't reach
mean streets.Even when its free it ain't cheap.
on going saga, terminal diagnosis,
basic survival requires super heroics.
.................................................
No space in the budget for a cape.
it's when you gotta fly by night to save the day
Crash-landings routinely happen.
Some survive, others never rise from the ashes.

from hence I come
so here we go
signs and wonders all along the road

some lies open
some lies close
some stretchers role with no lies at all.
some riders don't know what they riding for.
Hands on the wheel and their mind is gone.
Wherever you ride, whatever your lane,
this road called life is a beautiful thing.

And we are alive in amazing times .
Delicate hearts, diabolical minds.
Revelations, hatred, love and war.
and more and more and more and more
and more of less than ever before
it's just too much more for your mind to absorb

It's scary like hell, but there's no doubt
we can't be alive in no time but... NOW!!!"

Take it bothways.

Truck North in "Singing Man" by The Roots from their 2008 album "Rising Down"



"Uh, what you're witnessing is true dedication
Charged by the call and the cause of the nation
Countdown, minutes away from detonation
A lifetime of grunt work, this is the culmination
My manner, seems patient, inner rage lies
So deep, I can taste it, let's sacrifice lives
Past the first sensation, to paradise I fly
Delusions are lighting up the midday sky
The last days of mine spent in extreme secrecy
Wolves dressed like sheep occur more frequently
Too much faith to be scared, the petrified both fled
Those who live fearing death, might as well be dead
Towers of the occupiers, will soon fall
Martyr or mass murderer? That's your call
Mass transit or a mall? Who can watch them all?
In the name of the merciful, sing me a song..."

"The Confessor"

Joe Walsh from The "Confessor"

 

"If you look at your reflection in the bottom of a well,
what you see is only on the surface.
If you try to see the meaning hidden underneath,
the measure of the depth can be deceiving.
The bottom has a rocky reputation…
You can feel it in the distance, the deeper down you stare
From up above it's hard to see, but you know it when you're there.
On the bottom words are shallow,
on the surface talk is cheap,
and you can only judge the distance by the company you keep."

If you can't fix it,don't brake it!

I want to share with you this heart-breaking speech by young Severn Suzuki.She stood infront the UN in 1992 and gave a woeful,threatening warning for our arrogant ways and the abuse that our planet endures from it's most prominent children.Listen and hear.

Severn Suzuki to the delegates of the UN 

"I am the captain of my soul!"

William Earnest Henley



"Out of the night that covers me,
          Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
          For my unconquerable soul.
In the Fell clutch of circumstance
          I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
          My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
          Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years,
          Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
          How charged with the punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
          I am the captain of my soul."Are you a captain,or a first mate?

Some 100 years ago.

A great quatation from Anton Chekov,echoing a warning more than a 100 years old.

"Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day."

"I Have A Dream

Those words and their author need no introduction.And even though they are neither neglected,nor forgotten I can't pass them by and not give them their rightfull place in this developing collection.

Martin Luther King Jr., August 28, 1963, Washington D.C.

"I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

Man will prevail

An excerpt from William Faulkner's "Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech",December 10, Stockholm, Sweden. A true virtuoso of the spoken word in one of his rare blessings to the public.

"I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail."

The greatest prophet of my generation

I know that most will not agree with me but as controversial and agressive as 2pac was,time proved beyond doubt what he was really after.And now at the hheight of a crisis,both financial and spiritual,his lyrics scream an early warning for a society spinning out of control.And his words will surface again and again through this blog.

Tupac Amaru Shakur, 1996.



"We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive."

For what it's worth....

I decided to create a blog where I will post passages from various works of art,music,poetry,speeches etc. which echo through time as words of wisdom.Words that can be used as guidance in turbulent times such as those in which we now live.After all,those who forget their past and learn not from the lessons left from their forefathers,are bound to perish in oblivion.All you need to do my friends is read them and think about them

I will start this rubric with a verse from apl.de.ap from the B.E.P.,performed in their 2003 single "Where Is The Love"




"I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm gettin' older, y'all, people get colder
Most of us only care about money makin'
Selfishness got us followin' the wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema
Yo', whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness in equality
Instead of spreading love we spreading animosity
Lack of understanding, leading lives away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feelin' down
There's no wonder why sometimes I'm feelin' under
Gotta keep my faith alive till love is found"

So ask yourself!