1. |
Famine
01:52
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This is the America of fable, the land of Cain & Abel,
where you’re stuck with the check, but still no seat at the table.
And this is as American as fences & walls, as American as, ”do the crime, let someone else take the fall.”
It’s as American as taking from your neighbor. Pledged to the flag of stolen land, stolen labor.
This is as American as turning the screw, as American as, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
When head hits wall, and I feel like I’m not getting through
I remind myself that these words are American, too.
I’m not staring at my feet,
I’ll look you right in the eye.
My heart is not a closed fist, it’s an open sky.
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2. |
Dominion
02:05
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Stuck between the carrot and stick, we stay sick. You let the prey bait the trap, that's a pretty cruel trick.
Our heresy's expired, time to renew it. You said that hell was underneath, but I'd swear we're walking through it.
And this is what you missed while you were on your knees praying:
Stone in sling, giant-slaying, disobeying.
It’s not the noise,
it's the silence that offends.
Make amends.
It's just as well, wearing that halo you'll rot in hell.
You’ve common cause with the cancer cell, colonizing the ground where the angels fell.
They say, "Your fear ends
where your faith begins,"
but fear is the only thing I have faith in.
On your knees, you would say anything to save your skin.
I'd shout, "fire in the hole," and pull the fucking pin.
"Hell is empty. All the devils are here." - Shakespeare; The Tempest
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3. |
Safe
01:52
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Tell me,
how do you keep the peace
showing up with your sword drawn?
Throw shade
like a king,
but you’re just another pawn.
Vision polarized
Skin criminalized
I wish we could feel safe
but flesh bruises, bones break.
I wish we could feel safe
but bullets eviscerate.
I wish we could feel safe.
Windpipe compressed, asphyxiate.
Not everyone is free,
and that doesn’t feel safe to me.
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4. |
Exploitation Period
02:47
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The Cult of “I,”
truth-seekers need not apply.
What we owe one another, you conspire to deny.
Flat earth disciples washed in with the tide.
Better scroll up before we’re all covered in flies.
Wandering the graveyard of ideas, we collide. Sleepwalking through the marketplace, anesthetized, because it serves the hand of power when we sever our ties, when we can’t tell a truth from a lie.
Instead of, “Harder They Fall,” now it’s, “winner take all.” Got you sussed, on your hands and knees learning to crawl.Caught you sleeping on the job, when it’s our burden to haul.Checked out, but it’s too close to call.
Two One Five
Despised, stay alive.
Amazed daily, raised babies, stayed tending the hive.
When the flames rise, lock doors, huddle inside. There’s no peace when so many deprived.
I admit that some days survival meant closing my eyes.
and I’mchasing that dopamine hit, no surprise.
Your fucking walls won’t keep us safe, no we will not abide. Build what we need, scatter seeds, hands untied.
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5. |
Serf City, U.S.A.
00:34
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You think it's lonely at the top?
Just try the fucking bottom.
Dead End
Keep us at eachother’s throats, fighting for scraps,
so we don’t notice the foundation’s on the verge of collapse
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6. |
The Unreasonable Silence
02:32
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We will love as we please,
and build immunity to your disease.
We will not try to appease
You have no control
To the jailers holding the keys,
this is a song for all the detainees.
We are no longer at ease.
You have no control.
No matter what you do.
No matter what you do.
No matter what you do.
Try to blame, try to shame, but the shame is on you.
I see the armor, see the shield
and I felt the anger, what it concealed.
Dig deeper,
I dare you to risk
Underneath the anger what might we miss?
It’s a cold world
The iron fist in the velvet glove
In self-defense, we fight hate with love.
I'm sick to death of dragging that chain, watching what's human in me circle the drain.
But it's mine to unlearn, instead of waiting our turn, imagine if we say,
"get out of our way,”
and watch it burn
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7. |
Namesake
02:46
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(for Judah Adar)
This is a love song,
a prayer for patience.
Sent from a place between exhaustion and elation.
You are a vice grip,
a battering ram.
You are the Lion, I am the lamb.
An avalanche, and you were the first stone.
Stitches neat and tight, but I came unsewn.
Home to mother, son & daughter
is breath returning to the lung after being underwater.
There will be days as dark as the space between the stars, but there is light for us to navigate the map made of our scars.
Lost, love is a compass. It will encompass, absolute.
Far from home, love knows no border. It is the seed, it is the root.
Can we look back a generation and retrace our steps? Some paths diverge, some intercept.
Your namesake crossed a sea to set himself free.
Empire City bound, in the Bronx he ran aground.
He built things with his hands in a shop downtown.
His body was an anchor,gold turned into lead,
but his heart and his mind were always soaring overhead.
Books and records were his wings.
They’re my wings too,
and this is what we’re passing on to you.
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8. |
City Of The Dead
02:08
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We split atoms.
Induce spasm when we abandon canon
to sing for angels with clipped wings; songs for decapitating cannibals and kings.
Aligned against that lock-step, slumber, complacent. Since those Hub City days making magic in the basement. We knew convention was sedation.
Fast forward to chest constriction, & slightly modified convictions.
I watched my father draw his last breath, mine is a similar affliction.
These days they get it gift-wrapped. But when the battery’s dead we can still read the map.
I’m facing time.
Is it mine?
Are you still disinclined
to fall in line?
And no matter where my people make their beds, we’re still broadcasting live from the City of the Dead.
You’ve got us surrounded, so what else is new?
Stick around and find out who’s really turning the screw.
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