Read these lyrics: "Coinsequences" by Chuck D

[Bonobo]

Is it a, coincidence that we ain't taught truth
A, coincidence that they target the youth
A, coincidence everything is the same
That a message in the music ain't a part of the game
A, coincidence that we livin a lie
A, coincidence that we only get by
A, coincidence that so many are lost
And do prison time 'fore we notice the cost


It really ain't difficult to break the mold
And take a close look at the lies we're told
Wipe away the facade, see we got to know
See the plot to control and to rot the soul
You can make anybody that don't read believe
anything that they see on the TV screen
That a lie is reality, the sky is green
That there's weapons in Iraq, and the President's clean
When it's on, thinkin you can trust police
Every black is a beast and our women are cheap
And that brothers gettin murdered is the way of the streets
That it's normal to die when we still in our teens
And that's the way it is, what's the use to try
That school is a motherfuckin waste of time
Slang yay, die young, maybe get rich rhymin
And prison if you black is just a part of life
And that all of America support the Pres'
Religion is the way, and we all full of sin
That it's better after death if we suffer and pray
Even though they fuck us off in this life today
And that white Jesus hangin on the wall in church
ain't a part of a lie to keep a brother subservient
And that the whole world need the word "Amen"
Got troops overseas gettin murdered for free
If you buy that shit, I got a bridge to sell
Like I said I'm a rebel, so I must re-bel
And lies be the truth now, war is peace
Like corporations don't dictate the streets
Like brothers don't die for the diamond or bling
Like brothers don't die over songs we sing
Like patri-ots act like the Patriot Act
While we swing on this bitch 'til we break it in half




You guilty if arrested and niggaz are thugs
Only good for welfare, murder and drugs
The media is true, with no bias at all
And Fox News ain't on the President's balls
That Lacey and O.J. and Kobe and Mike
ain't bullshit and really do matter in life
That you shouldn't be insulted they give 'em the time
but never talk about all this corporate crime
That they generatin news stay loose with facts
Relate fake views that'll keep us attracted
like sheep so we don't think, never react
Never question authority, never suspect
Never trip off of why what matters to us
always seem unimportant, and never get love
Why it's never any money for the school support
But it's fallin out the sky for these corporate wars




They never give real shit space to shine
Just donkey-ass niggaz on assembly line
Cookie cutter pop-slutter make music designed
to pedal Coca-Cola, Motorola and Sprite
No love for the Enemy with video play
But they give Flav a show to take the focus away
from the realest group ever made, whaddya say
when to them it's Eminem that's goin down as the greatest?
When the plan is a shame like we makin a choice
Understand it's a scam who get handed a voice
And it's only a few and they decide in advance
Like votin for the President and both of them fam
All that "God bless America, and nobody else"
But I can smell racism, however it's dealt
Know the real shit never miss, see how it's felt
All around the world, hear the people cryin for help




A, coincidence ex-cons can't vote
A, coincidence they can't get no work
A, coincidence that they can't hold heat
Now they know that they enemy don't look like me
A, coincidence that we shit out of luck
The consequence of coincidences all add up
When you never know the reason and you're set up to suffer
The offense is coincidence is never the cause

[marmar]

1. Chuck D is still a poet and a prophet...

Those lyrics are better than just about all the political punditry I've heard.

[Deja Q]

2. Great lyrics. Also look up most of the songs in their 1990 album

"Fear of a Black Planet".

Most of them fit today even more than they did back then. :(


Nice to know Chuck D has the chutzpah to speak his mind. :thumbsup:

[yellerpup]

3. Chuck D rocks

"When the plan is a shame like we makin a choice
Understand it's a scam who get handed a voice"

Glad he's putting his voice to very effective use.

Edited to add quotation marks

[msongs]

4. this guys makes a lot of money from his hypocrisy or is it hip-hop

pocracy?

him and his crowd perpetuate the myth that black women are ho's(it makes him $$)
him and his crowd perpetuate the myth that black men are thugs (it makes him $$)
him and his crowd sell out to corporations (it makes him $$)
him and his crowd shout out racism then practice it (it makes him $$)

Like a lot of music corporate multi-millionaires, the true parts of his speil, and much of what he says is valid, would be better served if he wasn't such a purveyor of what he criticizes most.

well, like the song could easily say, "he works hard for the money."

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[MrPrax]

9. Good point...

If Chuck D and his ilk had an effective political strategy we would have seen it bear fruits by now...but his rap is the same dumbing down of political debate that is characteristic of most pop culture that treats the 'left' as a fashion statement and a lifestyle -- people like him seem to think that dissent is confrontation and polemics. They never understood the issues and then in their old age, they turn rightwing and then claim, "I was a leftwinger once..."

Nobody who calls women whores in song, or advocates the theraputic value of violence as a solution, or makes apologies for self-interested criminal activity, or the constant bravado of shallow materialistic values...is left or Progressive or anything...he's an entertainer like Rush Limbaugh that fills a profit motive.

Is he in the same tradition as Gil Scott Heron...not even close

[whatelseisnew]

10. You are confusing Chuck with some corporate gangsta rap

what are you reading?

[MrPrax]

14. I got two old Public Enemy

disks on vinyl? ( I got offered 35 bucks for 'Takes a Nation...) Yeah and Chuck hangs with Jello Biafra...yeah so what...I used to drum in a punk band.

So OK...it's not OG, it's not just Rap, it's not Gangsta Rap, it's not hip-hop, but might be, he's not Christian rap, but it's definitely not all that other corporate gangsta rap...it's indy rap, fuck whatever...

We can play this game with metal, techno or punk as well -- just because fans think something about individual artists, doesn't necessarily mean that the genre is any good.

It's like folk music -- most of the people who follow that 'genre' seem to be taken aback when you point out that a lot of folk-ie stuff is kinda traditional conservative values where the politico stuff is a small marginalized element of a MUCH LARGER marketing scheme.

If anything those marginalized independent elements legitimize the worst excess of the whole genre. How to separate out what 'System of a Down' is trying to get across in a sea of reactionary metalhead NOISE? Sounds the same to most ears -- but it's the fans that will surely point out the difference, largely for their own credibilty.

[whatelseisnew]

15. So P.E. topped the charts not because of their political message?

But because their fans thought it sounded like gangsta rap?

You first agree with a 'drive by' poster's false accusations about p.e. lyrics, and then you say the problem is

whole genre?

P.E. was one of the driving acts that propelled hip-hop to prominence in the 80's and their message was always political.

Corporate consolidation in radio in the late 80's thru 90's coincided with the elimination of much political music from the airwaves.


I still don't get where you are coming from.

thank you for responding

[MrPrax]

16. That's interesting...

I'm a white guy from Canada...so what do I know.

But if I recall, the people who were really into PE, were also NWA and Dr. Dre and then when 2LiveCrew pop up, they were there too. They were chart toppers...then? I know that song they did with Anthrax was wildly popular and a chart topper...and I actually got to see them, when they opened for U2.

Corporate consolidation in radio in the late 80's thru 90's coincided with the elimination of much political music from the airwaves.

BS...I can't think of an era when any political music was ever welcomed on the radio. The industry has sold packaged fake dissent since Elvis -- that just young people revisionism.

Besides, in all honesty, it seemed out of all the five decades, the the 80s was the watermark for 'political music'...big name artists from Billy Joel ('Allentown') to Don Henley (Dirty Laundry) to even the Rolling Stones (Undercover of the Night) had some pretty political stuff in response to the Reagan era. '99 Luftballoons' was a huge hit...'Two Tribes go to War' was also huge...etc etc

So actually I disagree...if simply going by popular standards...the 80s had quite a bit of politics. Even an obscure Canadian artist like Bruce Cockburn had a minor hit with a song called, "If I had a Rocket Launcher.."
I would put that righteous rap up against wimpy 60s 'Universal Soldier' any day. In fact I would put most of those songs ahead of the Chuck D's repetitive drivel, as posted, which is a depressingly bad cliche riddled POS from a guy who has presumeably been doing it for nearly thirty years. Not much growth for this artist I am afraid.

So if that poster I replied to can't distinguish one shitty, but political correct rap song from another shitty, but political incorrect rap song...I don't think it's his fault.

[whatelseisnew]

17. Well I grew up without records or tapes so all I heard was radio

I don't know where I got the impression that there was political music in the late 60's early 70's
,
If you re-read my post I said "...late 80's thru 90's"

I feel like I'm pissing you off, and I'm not looking for a flame fest, so thanks for your thoughts.

[MrPrax]

19. Apologies...

I don't necessarily dispute the substance of what your saying...

I am certainly not flaming you...your opinion is intelligent and to the point. Your deserve respect, if my response what taken the wrong way, then I apologize unconditionally.

I am suggesting a different approach to looking at music, the industry and dissent and make the point that you'll find that corps have never really appreciated anytime of music with political content -- the advertisers don't like it for one thing and music is generally selected to appeal to advertisers first and listeners second.

But I think we might agree that what is happening on Top 40 radio these days, might well go down as perhaps the worst single decade in music, with very little sign of change.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. LOL.

Listen to a lot of rap, do you?

[whatelseisnew]

13. for example?

please back it up with something

[Hard_Work]

18. wow, how ignorant...

You obviously know nothing of Chuck or his politics. He has never perpetuated the "Black man as thug/Black woman as ho" image. I can't think of a more anti corporate person than Chuck. PE left a pretty good deal on the table when they left Def Jam. The reason they left? Def Jam forced them to pull a remix album off their website because they were offering it to fans free.

As far as the 'racism' you allude to, I can only assume you are referring to the Professor Griff statements regarding the Jewish role in the slave trade that he made in, what, 1991? Griff was asked to leave the group almost immediately, although he has since been allowed to rejoin.

Generalizations when you have no knowledge of the subject is not a good thing.

Oh, btw, although those lyrics are from the new PE album Rebirth of a Nation, they were written and performed by Paris, another very political rapper, who produced and wrote the majority of the album.
Which, by the way, is a very good, politically charged album that quite a few here would enjoy.

[Homer Wells]

5. I imagine it was a typo

and am not pointing it out for correction-BUT_The term "coinsequences" has a definite ring to it.
Sort of a combination of consequences and coincidences-makes for an interesting concept!
:think:

[Karenina]

8. If "Coinsequences"

is NOT a typo it is a brilliant word coinage that has yet a third meaning. ;-)

[whatelseisnew]

11. a quick net search with any engine would have shown you

[Karenina]

20. Well, tra-la-la...

I had other matters to deal with today. Like being personally affected by the current violence. LECK MICH AM ARSCH.

[slay]

6. Great lyrics

I've always dug Chuck and Public Enemy. Fight the power and bring the noise! :)

[itzamirakul]

7. K & R nt