« previous | TPM CAFÉ READER POSTS HOME | next »
Nas I salute you.....
As a Hip/Hop rap music fan. I just have to post this for those who are open minded and care enough to listen. I'm from the 90's when rappers were not all about the mighty dollar and did care to tell the truth about whats really going on in America. I don't listen to Rap music as much as I used to just the usual suspects Jay-z, Nas, Kanye, and a few others. Here are the lyrics of the new single by Nas and the link to listen if you are open to it. If not, this is not meant to offend anyone please save any and all negative comments:
I posted the lyrics under another topic and am not flooding the boards with it, sorry for the double post.
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/audio/id.4991/title.nas-black-president
They forgot us on the block
Got us in the box
Solitary confinement
How violent are these cops?
They need an early retirement
How many rallies will I watch?
I ain't got it in me to march
I got a semi to spark
The game's in a drought
Public housing, projects
Cooking up in the Pyrex
My set, my click
Either getting money
Or running from homicide trial
That's if they ain't died yet
Trying to be rich
Still I'm pledging allegiance
A predicate felon, a ghetto leader
Lending my poetical genius
To whoever may need it
I bleed this from Queensbridge
Now living with my feet up
Never defeated
So a president's needed
Y'know these colored folks and Negroes
Hate to see one of their own succeeding
America, suprise us
And let a black man guide us
Whats the black pres thinkin on election night
Is it how can I protect my life?
Protect my wife? Protect my rights?
Every other president was nottin' less than white
'Cept Thoman Jefferson and mixed indian blood
and calvin coolers
KKK is like 'what the fuck', loadin' they guns up
Im loadin' mine too, Ready to ride
Cause im ridin with my crew
He dies - we die too
But on a positive side, I think Obama provides
Hope - and challenges minds
Of all races and colours to erase the hate
And try and love one another, so many political snakes
We in need of a break, Im thinkin' I can trust this brotha
But will he keep it way real ?
Every innocent n!gga in jail - gets out on appeal
When he wins - will he really care still?
I feel
Say a prayer for "do we have to?"
You ain't right, Jeremiah Wrong pastor
In love with a slave master
Sincerely yours
USA most brave rapper
Jesse car-jacker
Uncle Tom-kidnapper
Ask around
Bentley Coupe off the richter
B!tch-called-life, I pimped her
What?
Politics, politricks
Klan-shooter
Deacon for defense
Progress-producer
Nothing on the stove
Your survival-booster
Gotta do what we gotta do
We ain't got no governors coming through - to help
Anything we need done, we gotta do for self
New-improved JFK on the way
It ain't the 60's again
Niqqas ain't hippies again
We ain't falling for the same traps
Standing on the balconies
Where they shot the King at
McCain got apologies
Ain't nobody hearing that
People need honesty
Comments (13)
I like your style, Sean.
Nas isn't usually my thing, but I like the lyrics. Also like seeing people sing about something real.
Do the lyrics capture your mindset?
June 15, 2008 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks Via,
Do the lyrics capture my mindset....yes, for the most part. I have a problem with the bitch called life I pimped her comment and only because I know that will be taken out of context by victims. That said yes pretty much my mindsett if comming from a hip hop forum...but Im much deeper. He commented on another song I think hero's or Im a n-i-g-g-e-r' that blacks dont trust politicians which is pretty much true of the black hip hop community....I find my self arguing with them on that because my take is nothing is 100%. Anyhow, appreciate that comment ViaTerra. To end, starting with the dixie chicks, there was a movement to end artists from commenting on politics and or the state of america. Most of the artists shut up, and given that alot of my friends are trying to make it in the business I would voice my concern that the rap game was punked like everyone else. They didnt like that too much, but they knew that the Ice Cubes and Nas's had been silent and the Chuck D's were not getting the air time.
June 15, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love raw and honest lyrics.
Not to take off in a new direction, but I can't help it: Last night I was watching a late-night special on PBS 13 about The Clash. I was into Duran Duran back in the 1980's and didn't pay much attention to the scruffy-looking punkers known as The Clash until "Rock the Casbah" came out. Even then, I found their music somewhat hard to listen to and never gave their lyrics any thought.
I guess I've really changed over the years, because now I have four songs by The Clash on my iPod, and none by Duran Duran. I hand it to Joe Strummer (former lead singer, rhythm guitarist and lyricist for The Clash, who passed away in 2002) for having been so political back in the day.
Thanks, Sean, for offering up even more political lyrics for me to get into.
June 15, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Lis....I miss you Mrs B....:)....
Dont mention it. I wish I could comment on Duran Duran, even though I grew up in off and on in the suburbs of Houston Tx, My rock knowlege is a little bit off.....Thank you for your contribution....
Also, "Hero" on this same album from Nas is great....
Chain gleaming
Switching lanes
Two-seating
Hate him or love him
For the same reason
Can't leave it
The games needs him
Plus the people need someone to believe in
So in God's Son we trust
'Cause they know I'm gonna give 'em what they want
They looking for . . . a hero
I guess that makes me . . . a hero
Another chapter of the cleanest rapper
Distinguished gentlemen
Crooks and castle on his back
Maybach-er, exotic lady eye-catcher
Holla at'cha, call me the chiropractor
Working like Muay Thai class
Get perspire out ya
And of course I've been the boss since back when
Rocking D Boy, Fila, velour in 190 black Benz
Now they shut down the stores when I'm shopping
Used to be train robbing, face covered in stocking
I'm him
Rubber-grip-holder, reloader
Come at me I'ma rip your soliders in half
Silverback ape, nickle-plated mag
Young, rich, and flashy
Young, b!tch, I'm nasty
All black clothes til ice lay on me so classy
And every time I close my lids
I can still see the borough, I can still see the Bridge
I can still see the dreams that my niqqas ain't never lived to see
Tell them angels open the door for me
From nine berettas and moving raw
To chilling in wine cellars
Sticks and humidors
That's what I call mature
That's what I call a g
That's what I call a pimp
That's what I call a gangsta
To the fullest, sh!t
I try to make more cream
By every September 14th, that's my dream
So I can be more clean, as I grow yearly
I can see things more clearly
That's why they fear me
[Hero Lyrics On http://www.elyricsworld.com/ ]
This universal apartheid
I'm hog-tied, the corporate side
Blocking y'all from going to stores and buying it
First L.A. and Doug Morris was riding wit it
But Newsweek article startled big wigs
They said, Nas, why is he trying it?
My lawyers only see the Billboard charts as winning
Forgetting - Nas the only true rebel since the beginning
Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow
Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel
They can't sing what's in their soul
So untitled it is
I never change nothin'
But people remember this
If Nas can't say it, think about these talented kids
With new ideas being told what they can and can't spit
I can't sit and watch it
So, sh!t, I'ma drop it
Like it or not
You ain't gotta cop it
I'm a hustler in the studio
Cups of Don Julio
No matter what the CD called
I'm unbeatable, y'all
I love this because he speaks about the young artists who are being told what not to talk about and how he is going to talk about it. He said screw it, he will.
June 15, 2008 4:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/audio/id.4997/title.nas-f-keri-hilson-hero
June 15, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, Sean, it's The Clash I was praising, instead of Duran Duran, but what with the way I sometimes explain myself, your confusion is completely understandable.
Look up "London Calling" and "Clampdown" for some really angry and smart lyrics from Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of The Clash. Paul Simonon, the bassist, also wrote some good ones, such as "The Guns of Brixton".
June 15, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lisb forgive me, Im an Idiot....:)
I looked up the Guns of Brixton.....vicious.
I see the rock game is keeping it real.
Its not necessarily anger Im looking for from my Rappers...just honesty about what we whitnessed over the last 8 years. I miss the truth that Tupac and Ice Cube used to tell...but Nas has it correct....They are being told to stay away from it, because Bill Board charts is all they should care about. To me, the Dixie Chicks because they bucked that logic, are more gangster than most of them. Nas is comming around, I also here Ice Cube is, with Gangster Wrap made me do it and his new album Raw Footage....
June 15, 2008 5:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
True. It's not the anger. It's the point that rockers, rappers, and even the Dixie Chicks choose to use their voices to make important statements.
Actors, actresses too. Look at John Cusack.
June 15, 2008 7:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Random comment - musicovery.com is kind of a fun site to play around on.
June 15, 2008 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, rather odd site. I could play around all day in there. Today I tried "dark" and slightly "energized". Found some stuff that works for me, and found some stuff I've never heard before.
It reminds me of my "recommended" songs at Apple iTunes. These poor folks at Apple don't know what to make of me. They hand me a folksong album from the 60's, a Broadway musical album from the 50's, Alanis Morrissette, the Sex Pistols, and Al Green, based on all of my past choices so far.
June 15, 2008 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
cheers sean. thanks for the nas tips. you said, "there was a movement to end artists from commenting on politics and or the state of america. Most of the artists shut up, and... I would voice my concern that the rap game was punked like everyone else." yep. the industry plays an old game. they played it - hard - on the punks too, late 70's, early 80's. the clash. the pistols. cause they got frightened half to death when white kids started getting angry, looking angry, talking straight. here's johnny r. from the pistols -
When there's no future
How can there be sin?
We're the flowers in the dustbin
We're the poison in the human machine
We're the future, your future.
But just listen to him at the start of this - "god save the queen." - where he says, "you don't write 'god save the queen' because you hate the english race. you write a song like that because you LOVE them. and you're fed up with them being mistreated."
from johnny rotten and joe strummer to chuck d and nas.
keep it comin'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6X1fVmneWs
June 15, 2008 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
You left out Bob Dylan, for one. But YES!! Keep it comin'!!!
June 15, 2008 11:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cheers quinn esq...and I ageee....
June 16, 2008 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Post a Comment