Darth Wong wrote:I don't really have the patience to listen to rap songs over and over until I can figure out all of their lyrics. Aren't they printed somewhere?
Well, I don't know about "most clever/astonishing hip-hop lines", but just a few examples that had some meaning for me:
From "
Intruder Alert", performed by Lupe Fiasco:
She said there was no love in her heart,
Cause one day a rapist attacked her and broke that all apart,
She said there was no way to fix it or to cover her scars,
Then one day a guy came along and probably could help her start,
He was sincere, made her believe it was safe for her to trust again,
Before long she was cool with giving hugs to him,
Knew that it was right, cause something was wrong,
The alarms in her mind didn't tell her he didn't belong,
There was no,
Intruder, [x4]
Alert [x4]
He said nobody else ever loved him,
That's why he'd get high enough to go touch the heavens above him,
Vividly remembers every pipe, every needle that stuck him,
Every alley he ever slept in, every purse that he snuck in,
Every level of hell he's been to and the one that he's stuck in,
The one he can't escape, even though it's of his own construction,
Maybe you can relate, maybe you're one of those that just doesn't,
Maybe he doesn't care, loves to allow these demons to come in with no,
Intruder, [x4]
Alert [x4]
Famine striking his home, landing no social standing,
In the econmic pecking order of emergency relief distribution systems,
Is in disorder, he's checking water, making sure it's safe enough for his daughter,
To float across in the boat he built, hopefully strong enough to support her,
Praying border patrols don't catch her and process and deport her,
Before she reach the shore of the land of the free, where they feed you,
Treat you like equals, decieve you, stamp you and call you illegal,
and there's an,
Intruder, [x4]
Alert [x4]
Just wanted to comment on the lyrics I emphasized: I like the sudden segue into irony.
Excerpted from "
Little Weapon", also performed by Lupe Fiasco:
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 dogs then we can get a soccerball
That's what my commander say
How old? Well im like 10, 11
Been fightin' since I was like 6, or 7
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 feel 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
Little Weapon, Little Weapon, Little Weapon, We're calling you
There's a war, if the guns are just too tall for you
We'll find you something small to use
Little Weapon, Little Weapon, Little Weapon, We need you now
Now here comes the march of the boy brigade
A macabre parade of the toys he made
Of shemaghs and shades who look half his age
About half the size of the flags they wave
And camouflage suits made to fit youths
'Cause the ones off the dead soldiers hang a little loose
With AK-47's that they shootin' into heaven
Like they tryin' to kill the Jetsons
The struggle's little recruits
Cute, smile-less, heartless, violent
Childhood destroyed, devoid of all childish
Ways, can't write they own names
Or read the words that's on they own graves
Think you gangsta, popped a few rounds?
The kids'll 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
I think that what really makes these lyrics meaningful to me is that, after reading books like Ishmael Beah's
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, I was introduced in the words of the authors of a reality for many young boys in some of the less developed countries in which the lyrics above are not just lyrics, but a description of their world.
Anyways, I'm also brought to mind of a rapper with the professional name "Immortal Technique". Here's the lyrics from his song "
The 4th Branch":
[Talking]
The new age is upon us
And yet the past refuses to rest in its shallow grave
For those who hide behind the false image of the son of man
shall stand before God!!! It has begun
The beginning of the end
Yeah..
Yeah... yeah, yeah
[Verse 1]
The voice of racism preaching the gospel is devilish
A fake church called the prophet Muhammad a terrorist
Forgetting God is not a religion, but a spiritual bond
And Jesus is the most quoted prophet in the Qu'ran
They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam
When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran
This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings
Cause Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings
I break it down with critical language and spiritual anguish
The Judas I hang with, the guilt of betraying Christ
You murdered and stole his religion, and painting him white
Translated in psychologically tainted philosophy
Conservative political right wing, ideology
Glued together sloppily, the blasphemy of a nation
Got my back to the wall, cause I'm facin' assassination
Guantanamo Bay, federal incarceration
How could this be, the land of the free, home of the brave?
Indigenous holocaust, and the home of the slaves
Corporate America, dancin' offbeat to the rhythm
You really think this country, never sponsored terrorism?
Human rights violations, we continue the saga
El Savador and the contras in Nicaragua
And on top of that, you still wanna take me to prison
Just cause I won't trade humanity for patriotism
[Hook]
It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
They wanna rearrange the whole point of view of the ghetto
The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
A bandana full of glittering, generality
Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
Read about the history of the place that we live in
And stop letting corporate news tell lies to your children
[Verse 2]
Flow like the blood of Abraham through the Jews and the Arabs
Broken apart like a woman's heart, abused in a marriage
The brink of holy war, bottled up, like a miscarriage
Embedded correspondents don't tell the source of the tension
And they refuse to even mention, European intervention
Or the massacres in Jenin, the innocent screams
U.S. manufactured missles, and M-16's
Weapon contracts and corrupted American dreams
Media censorship, blocking out the video screens
A continent of oil kingdoms, bought for a bargain
Democracy is just a word, when the people are starvin'
The average citizen, made to be, blind to the reason
A desert full of genocide, where the bodies are freezin'
And the world doesn't believe that you fightin' for freedom
Cause you fucked the Middle East, and gave birth to a demon
It's open season with the CIA, bugging my crib
Trapped in a ghetto region like a Palestinian kid
Where nobody gives a fuck whether you die or you live
I'm tryin' to give the truth, and I know the price is my life
But when I'm gone they'll sing a song about Immortal Technique
Who beheaded the President, and the princes and sheiks
You don't give a fuck about us, I can see through your facade
Like a fallen angel standing in the presence of God
Bitch niggaz scared of the truth, when it looks at you hard
[Hook]
It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain
Suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change
They wanna rearrange the whole point of view in the ghetto
The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle
A bandana full of glittering, generality
Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality?
Martial law is coming soon to the hood, to kill you
While you hanging your flag out your project window
[Talking]
Yeah..
The fourth branch of the government AKA the media
Seems to now have a retirement plan for ex-military officials
As if their opinion was at all unbiased
A machine shouldn't speak for men
So shut the fuck up you mindless drone!
And you know it's serious
When these same media outfits are spending millions of dollars on a PR campaign
To try to convince you they're fair and balanced
When they're some of the most ignorant, and racist people
Giving that type of mentality a safe haven
We act like we share in the spoils of war that they do
We die in wars, we don't get the contracts to make money off 'em afterwards!
We don't get weapons contracts, nigga!
We don't get cheap labor for our companies, nigga!
We are cheap labor, nigga!
Turn off the news and read, nigga!
Read... read... read...
"Just cause I won't trade humanity for patriotism" I really liked that line.