As a child I grew up listening to hip hop. I'm an early 80s baby who remembers Rakim, Eric B, Run DMC, LL Cool J, EPMD, KRS 1, Nas, etc. I remember thinking wow they talk about whats on my mind. It felt great it was poetic and powerful. Now hip hop feels overly corporate. You don't have popular rap songs with messages like Wu Tang's CREAM or Tupac's Dear Mama anymore. They are gone, and I almost have to agree with Nas's statement hip hop is dead.
Edit: Figured I should have the songs here that I sighted
Wu Tang: Cream
Tupac Dear Mama
However, my grown up taste in hip hop has shifted out of the mainstream. This shift took me underground. This is where the social commentary of hip hop lives. This is where the potential for education lives. And this is where my ear currently lives. I discovered this underground in the late 90s. This then led me to become more politically minded. Which then led me to registering voters, following the news, and talking to my neighbors fellow students etc.
Ok, so because it had those effects on me, I thought to myself perhaps this could be expanded. Hip hop has a certain language to it, an inner city language that can reach many many undereducated people in this country. That reach makes it a potentially magnificent tool. A tool that can teach and mobilize a relatively inactive community (in a political sense.) That inactive community being inner city black youth.
Anyways I havn't really developed this thought yet past that, but I wanted to give some background as to why I started posting Youtube vids with UG hip hop artists rapping.
Anyways here are some more ... Thanks for being here with me
Edit: figured I'd add the lyrics to the songs imbeded
- When you over in American Samoa, what...what surprised you the most?
- I guess what hit me the most is the condition of the factory that the workers were in:
The factory was surrounded by a fence and barbed wire on top and on the bottom. And they have a chain-linked fence surround the whole factory and, and dormitory compound. The gate has a...has a guard shack, where the guard sit there and control the worker movement in and out of the.. of the factory
- The factory are made of ahm.. tin panels with tin roof. It’s really hot. The temperature over there is verily ninety degrees and inside the factory or the dormitory it reaches way over a hundred degrees.
[Verse 1]:
Yeah
It’s the contemporary form of slavery, they call it slave labour
But they don’t prosecute them cuz it’s how they make paper
When you rocking that fly shit that’s made in China
By an eight year old child tryna feed his mama
He exposed to contamination and disease
And only fifty-five percent of them will get degrees
And the women have to try to placate the boss
Because it’s sex discrimination in the labour force
The slave master only let them speak in sign language
And they’re suffering from lung disease and eye damage
fourteen hour shifts, seven days a week
two shitty meals a day, very little sleep
Human life only worth three cents an hour
All human right laws loose sense of power
What did four hundred years in the grave passes?
Only the improved cleverness of slave masters.
[Chorus]:
Is life worth living if you living in hell?
When the mind is confined to a prisoner’s cell?
And the lies they devise in the system that fell?
But I expect the system to fail!
Is life worth living if you living in hell?
When the mind is confined to a prisoner’s cell?
And the lies they devise in the system that fell?
But I expect the system to fail!
- Many Chinese workers are forced to sign secret agreements, known as shadow contracts, before they leave China, severely and, in some ways, illegally restricting their activities while on American soil. Workers are forbidden to participate in any religious or political activity or to ask for a salary increase or even to fall in love or get married.
[Verse 2]:
It’s one point six million people locked in jail
They do new slave labour force trapped in hell
They generate over a billion dollars worth to power
And only getting paid twenty cents an hour
They make cloths for McDonald’s and for Apple Bee’s
And working fourteen hour shifts in prison factories
And while we sit around debating who the wack emcee is
They have to work when arthritic pain attack the knees
Slavery is not illegal, that’s a fucking lie!
It is illegal, unless it’s for conviction of a crime
The main objective is to get you in your fucking prime.
And keep the prison full and not give you a fucking dime
But they the real criminal keeping you confined
For a petty crime but they give you two-to-nine
And ain’t nobody there to protect ya
Except a bunch of incompetent human rights inspectors
[Chorus]:
Is life worth living if you living in hell?
When the mind is confined to a prisoner’s cell?
And the lies they devise in the system that fell?
But I expect the system to fail!
Is life worth living if you living in hell?
When the mind is confined to a prisoner’s cell?
And the lies they devise in the system that fell?
But I expect the system to fail!
- The sweatshop situation’s kind of cohesive and kind of take advantage on the people that are poor and at an economic disadvantage.
- This Chinese woman made T-shirts and pants at the factory until she became pregnant.
- When I told them I was pregnant, they told me to have an abortion..
- Tu Xiao Mei says she refused to have the abortion and has now been barred from entering the factory.
- To allow them to bring that on to US soil is a very deep concern. We've now documented the facts that management coerces female workers who become pregnant into having abortions.
- But human rights workers say it's common practice
- Inside that factory Chinese law applies, and Chinese law is... is supreme
- Even though it's the United States of America?
- The flag doesn't fly inside there.
-Chorus-
In the land of make believe, you are all mine
In the land of make believe, I’m doin fine
In the land of make believe, you are all mine
In the land of make believe, I’m doin fine
First Verse – Vinnie Paz
Turn the television off, cousin, that ain’t nothing for a girl to see
I’ve got a niece and best believe she mean the world to me
and she don’t need to see the shit that they think a girl should be
ninety pound skinny bitches that ain’t even girl to me
essentially this shit designed to take a hold of you
telling lies till your vision takes control of you
they finding different ways to take your fucking soul from you
a show about a model make your self esteem low for you
everything is fake trust me no one that lovely
I’ve met a lot of famous people and they fat and ugly
I ain’t any better I just think the fact is funny
that they’ll take a little girl and pimp her for the cash and money
and whats gonna become of them in like fifty years
when Hannah Montana turning into Britney spears
they chew you up and spit you out cus no one really cares
and aint nobody gonna hold you when you really scared
where the parents at cousin this is really bad
is this the motherfucking manager or really dad
is he concerned about his daughter or his silly pad
this aint gonna change nothing I jus think this is really sad
Chorus
In the land of make believe, you are all mine
In the land of make believe, I’m doin fine
In the land of make believe, you are all mine
In the land of make believe, I’m doin fine
Turn the television off, cousin, it’s a tool for them to clog the mind
Conservatism and Liberalism they divide the line
the natural feelings of a child is to be calm and kind
then they show you ads for the marines and they decide its time
so they can send you to a war behind they fog of crime
then send you homeless in a limb and not provide a dime
and the news tell you that cops is on the block for people
I’mma put it simple and plain, cops is evil
take the television show cops for example
that’s the shit that they want America to watch and sample
never showing you how dirty that they really is
and that they hide behind they badge and that they really bitch
I aint never met a pig in my life,
and I aint want to catch a body on the jig of my knife
yeah, that’s another fucking topic for another day
I’m gonna try to tell you how they get you in another way
they tell you that there’s something wrong with you, you need they drugs
but there ain’t nothing fucking wrong with you, they thieving thugs
they sell drugs and commercials at the same time
lock a motherfucker up for the same crime
Chorus
In the land of make believe, you are all mine
In the land of make believe, I’m doin fine
In the land of make believe, you are all mine
In the land of make believe, I’m doin fine
Inside the place where we hide our face
And try to fake out fate with the faith we place
Inside a world wide race where the humans chase
For more than what we're given
Nowadays people don't talk freely
We walk these streets, go home
And not be seen, we watch TV alone
Then phone in our orders for Chinese delivery
Closed in our quarters, so high we forget
That we ever knew any better than this
And now we swim in the sewage
Together in bliss and it�s a sad state of affairs
They're making us scared to even set foot outside our own houses
And now it�s like every place I look I see
Propaganda from the papers, to the books I read
And they're preparing us for a staged terrorist war
So they can centralize the power and have us scared to the core
My parents ignored, I guess it�s just too deeply imbedded in their heads
That the truth is on TV, So breathe deep and be free of all this
Civilized society or whatever you call it
Sometimes I get lost in my trips through escapism
Vision of a world free from greed, war, racism
And isn't it a gift how I'm free inside
They can steal a child�s mind but never rob him of his light
And some nights we all fall asleep feeling like hypocrites
Say you changed the world but only talked a bit of shit
We all quit on ourselves from one point or another
Suffer bouts with self doubt as we try to recover
But it all starts from thought and talk which leads to action
How far can we be pushed, till we respond with reaction?
For now I turn my back and all I wanna leave behind
This peace of mind is an illusion of the freedom I can't find
The freedom, the freedom, the freedom I can't find
The freedom, the freedom, the freedom I can't find
The freedom, the freedom, the freedom I can't find
The freedom I can't find, the freedom I can't find
Inside the place where we hide our face
And try to fake out fate with the faith we place
Inside a world wide race where the humans chase
For more than what we're given
Inside the place where we hide our face
And try to fake out fate with the faith we place
In a world wide race where the humans chase
And try to take things from the living
Why yes, Just watch who you playing
It ain't me in a way, where the odds are on my side
Count em up one three five
It ain't beyond a day
I can't even find my mind, help me out
Be my guide
It ain't beyond a day
I got no one to blame, I got nothing but shame
And it's a rainy day, I need sunshine
But I'm just one blind man
Nothing left to see and nothing left to say
But nothing left to hear and nothing left to jade
And nothing left me yesterday because I had nothing left to say
Nothing, done up and went away
When the same pain became insane
Picture in the picture frame
You big bitch to plain
Kiss your brain, this love game
Your history maintains loves smile remains
I'll take a leave of absence
With a sleeve of Abstinthe
5 grams of magic mushrooms
And I'll see what happens
And if you need me
I won't be reached
I'll be relaxing
With my feet up
Send a postcard
I'll read the caption
I don't need distractions
Coffee, weed or aspirin
Just open minds and open hearts
So come see us rapping
And when I'm done doing my thing
I won't be a has been
I'll just be done doing my thing
With my seat relaxing
And on the day I die
I can say I tried to save my tribe
Please don't cry
Away I fly where I can play by my rules
And take my time, reach those skies
And on the day I die
I can say I tried to save my tribe
Please don't cry
Away I fly where I can play by my rules
And take my time, reach those skies
Inside the place where we hide our face
And try to fake out fate with the faith we place
Inside a world wide race where the humans chase
For more than what we're given
Inside the place where we hide our face
And try to fake out fate with the faith we place
In a world wide race where the humans chase
And try to take things from the living
End Edit :-P
Please don't comment on video quality etc. A lot of these people are just trying to put their art out there etc and spread a message they consider to be important. I also share that feeling. Comment on lyrics or how you think UG hip hop could be helpful, or even constructively criticize the idea of ug hip hop being helpful. I just don't want to be flamed or anything like that. Sorry, love ya guys latas.
Comments are closed on this story.