Chuck D's lyrics, RE: Katrina.. "Hell No We Ain't Alright"

[babylonsister]

I'm not into hip hop but this deserves a read; Democracy Now profiled the lyrics this a.m.

Public Enemy front man Chuck D has written a new song addressing the natural disaster in New Orleans, Alabama, Mississippi and the issues that surround the region ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. In “Hell No We Ain’t Alright,” Chuck D sends a barbed message to government officials, the media, the military and even the Hip-Hop nation. The lyrics for the song were written on Sept. 2, the same day Kanye West rapped the treatment of African Americans suffering in the catastrophe live on the NBC television network. The rapper reportedly recorded the track over Labor Day weekend and is expected to distribute it shortly. Chuck D and Public Enemy have been long running activists in the rap community. Below are the lyrics to “Hell No We Ain’t Alright,” as written by Chuck D.

“Hell No We Ain’t Alright”

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night
Hell No We Ain’t Alright

Now all these press conferences breaking news alerts

This just in while your government looks for a war to win
Flames from the blame game, names? Where do I begin?
Walls closing in get some help to my kin
Who cares?While the rest of the Bushnation stares

As the drama unfolds as we the people under the stairs
50% of this Son of a Bush nation
Is like hatin’ on Haiti

And setting up assassinations
Ask Pat Robertson- quiz him.... smells like terrorism.

Racism in the news/ still one-sided news
Saying whites find food/
prey for the national guard ready to shoot
‘Cause them blacks loot

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night
Hell No We Ain’t Alright

Fires, earthquakes, tsunamis
I don’t mean to scare/ Wasn’t this written somewhere?
Disgraces all I see is black faces moved out to all these places
Emergency state, corpses, alligators and snakes
Big difference between this haze and them diamonds on the VMA’s

We better look/ what’s really important
Under this sun especially if you over 21

This ain’t no TV show/ this ain’t no video
This is really real/ beyond them same ole “keep it real”

Quotes from them TV stars drivin’ big rim cars
'Streets be floodin,’ B/ no matter where you at, no gas
Driving is a luxury
Urgency
State of emergency
Shows somebody’s government
Is far from reality....

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night
Hell No We Ain’t Alright

I see here we be the new faces of refugees
Who ain’t even overseas but here on our knees

Forget the plasma TV-ain’t no electricity
New worlds upside down-and out of order
Shelter? Food? Wasssup, wheres the water?

No answers from disaster/ them masses hurtin’
So who the f**k we call?--Halliburton?

Son of a Bush, how you gonna trust that cat?
To fix s**t when help is stuck in Iraq?

Making war plans takin’ more stands
In Afghanistan 2000 soldiers dyin’ in the sand

But that’s over there, right?
Now what's over here is a noise so loud
That some can’t hear but on TV I can see
Bunches of people lookin’ just like me…

[Schema Thing]

1. Screw the music

Just use the words as an editorial in the NYT.

I'd say he hit all the right notes.

[babylonsister]

2. I've only heard the lyrics read; they are powerful and you're

right, an editorial would work.

[alcibiades_mystery]

3. Bring the Noise

Bush: How low can you go?
No help? What a brother know
Once again back is the incompetent
Greed elephant
It's all relevant
Bush: Public enemy numbah one
N.O. cried HELP!
But they got none
Can he tell 'em he was way out West raising funds
Eating cake, playing guitar, and plain ole havin' fun
Now the got him on a plane
Cuz his plan was insane
And his poll numbahs fallin like rain
Dubya's for profit
And he don't want you to listen to
How he be screwin' you
What ya oughtta do
is fuck 'em, for now
Turn off they fucking photo ops
Make a miracle
Fuck the imperial
Bush is back, all spin, they comin' in
Check it out: ten thousand dead
Here we go again...

(With apologies to Chuck D and Public Enemy's Bring the Noise

[gogo69]

11. Turn it up!!!

your "Bring the Noise" remake is excellent!

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. For all the years we looked like clowns

The joke is over
Smell the smoke from all around...

Chuck D Burn Hollywood Burn

[Scout1071]

5. I posted this at Kos yesterday

She was chillin' at Spamalot
while thousands died on rooftops

She was shoppin' for shoes
while the Nation sang the blues.

He was strummin' for fun
while New Orleans lived under a gun.

But We The People are comin' you see
and in 3 weeks, we'll be stormin' DC.


It may be slightly altered from my Kos post, but that's what I remember!

[mattclearing]

6. Chuck D is still a great voice. Good to see that hip-hop is taking notice

Between him, Kanye, and today Jay-Z's endorsing of Kanye's comments, I get the impression that this could really wake up some young people to the relevance of politics in America in a way that hasn't really been possible lately.

[babylonsister]

7. Yes, perhaps there's a sliver of a silver lining in a

very dark cloud. If anything, I suspect Chuck D will inspire others to get creative and even more angry at what this country (and specifically this admin) has done to the residents of the gulf coast.

[StellaBlue]

8. yep yep yep

:kick:

[babylonsister]

9. FYI: He wrote this last weekend! Kick! nt

[meganmonkey]

10. Kick and nom for Chuck D!

:patriot:

[sarcasmo]

12. This song is the shit, but it will get cut up on MS radio but not on XM

This is my favorite line of the song


No answers from disaster/ them masses hurtin’
So who the f**k we call?--Halliburton?

[Zensea]

13. I saw Public Enemy last week in New York City

Flavor Flav had us all take a minute of silence for New Orleans.
They did Welcome to the Terrordome and Fight the Power.