Living in an idiocracy. Freedom fails democracy.
The emperor has no clothes, but the lone kid is comatose
The idiot rules the idiot box, his country is a tinderbox
Hey Mr. Ninety nine percent, welcome to your genocide,
Right, you’re on the wrong side, of the infamous great divide
Spoken word poetry must have had it roots in chants and stories, accompanied by rudimentary percussion, sung around primordial camp-fires. Long before we had written code or hieroglyphics to record our histories and songs down, the first rappers and story tellers were rapping their tales off, generation down generation.
I have a major case of tin ear. Because of this affliction it is usually not quartets or sonatas performed by a grand orchestra or any wailing violin that draws me in but the dance of poetry through the beats and the words. Give me a street rapper busting his soul with rhythm, rhyme and beat, that is the music that can tear through my tinpanum and bring out tears from my soul.
I met the bard of our century in a Youtube video. I was several years too late to come across this unflinchingly brutal young rapper. If you don’t know him already, please welcome, Lowkey aka Kareem Dennis, one of the most meaningful artists of our times. Born and raised in Britain, half English half Iraqi, this spoken word artist, rapper, activist and a well-deserved bearer of human conscience, Lowkey is not known much in the US. It feels criminal and a big loss to the people on this side of the Atlantic that such a great poet, artist will never be mainstream here. American media won’t play him or take him to the top of the charts, for he is not signed on by labels or brands. In his own words, “You can never top my fire in the booth, I don’t need a label I’m signed to the truth”
Here is a rapper and a genuine human being whom I can show my kids to introduce them to rap. A messenger of our true reality, who does not cuss. What?!?!!! Is he for real? How can Lowkey be a rapper without employing the essential fifth element of rap – cussing? How can he be a true rapper without demeaning women in every line and without throwing in guns, gangsters, bling and booties in every stanza for good measure?
Here are some of Lowkey’s memorable tracks with a bit of the lyrics from each. There is more from where this came from – YouTube
AHMED
Toddler lying lifeless on the beach with his back bent
Arms spread, reaching the direction that his dad went
If he made it here, would have been bullied for his accent
He was captured by the ocean, paralysed and frozen
While these parasites sat and typed, analysing clothing
Now for resources we all compete beyond the talk of war and peace
And talk of porous border there is corpses on the shore of Greece
They found a teddy next to where his body was found
The sea swallowed him, politics has swallowed him now
OBAMA NATION
Kill a man from the military, youre a weirdo
But kill a wog from the Middle East youre a hero
Your country is causing screams that are never reaching ear holes
America inflicted a million ground zeros
Follow the dollar and swallow your humanity
Soldiers committing savagery you never even have to see
Those mad at me, writing in emails angrily
Im not anti-America, America is anti-me
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Doesn't make any difference when they bomb your nation
CHILDREN OF DIASPORA
Since the middle passage either sink or you swim
Bleach the pigment of skin and pray its privilege trickling in
Are we missing the link?
Diasporas the reason MJ did to his nose what they did to the sphinx
And why Marley made the most classic of art
The reason Gabby Douglas didn't put her hand on her heart
The reason Malcolm Little changed his name to X
The reason the President's melanin remain a threat
Ahmed made a clock, they arrested him and mangled his name
But the root of the word is to thank and to praise
Racism manifests in many cancerous ways
We must rally for change in these most tragic of days
Cos Emmett Till didn't have a weapon, but they still got him
Tamir Rice never had a weapon but they still shot him
Alton Sterling never had a weapon but they still shot him
They call them first world diaspora problems
The emperor has no clothes, but the lone kid is comatose
The idiot rules the idiot box, his country is a tinderbox
Hey Mr. Ninety nine percent, welcome to your genocide,
Right, you’re on the wrong side, of the infamous great divide
Spoken word poetry must have had it roots in chants and stories, accompanied by rudimentary percussion, sung around primordial camp-fires. Long before we had written code or hieroglyphics to record our histories and songs down, the first rappers and story tellers were rapping their tales off, generation down generation.
I have a major case of tin ear. Because of this affliction it is usually not quartets or sonatas performed by a grand orchestra or any wailing violin that draws me in but the dance of poetry through the beats and the words. Give me a street rapper busting his soul with rhythm, rhyme and beat, that is the music that can tear through my tinpanum and bring out tears from my soul.
I met the bard of our century in a Youtube video. I was several years too late to come across this unflinchingly brutal young rapper. If you don’t know him already, please welcome, Lowkey aka Kareem Dennis, one of the most meaningful artists of our times. Born and raised in Britain, half English half Iraqi, this spoken word artist, rapper, activist and a well-deserved bearer of human conscience, Lowkey is not known much in the US. It feels criminal and a big loss to the people on this side of the Atlantic that such a great poet, artist will never be mainstream here. American media won’t play him or take him to the top of the charts, for he is not signed on by labels or brands. In his own words, “You can never top my fire in the booth, I don’t need a label I’m signed to the truth”
Here is a rapper and a genuine human being whom I can show my kids to introduce them to rap. A messenger of our true reality, who does not cuss. What?!?!!! Is he for real? How can Lowkey be a rapper without employing the essential fifth element of rap – cussing? How can he be a true rapper without demeaning women in every line and without throwing in guns, gangsters, bling and booties in every stanza for good measure?
Here are some of Lowkey’s memorable tracks with a bit of the lyrics from each. There is more from where this came from – YouTube
AHMED
Toddler lying lifeless on the beach with his back bent
Arms spread, reaching the direction that his dad went
If he made it here, would have been bullied for his accent
He was captured by the ocean, paralysed and frozen
While these parasites sat and typed, analysing clothing
Now for resources we all compete beyond the talk of war and peace
And talk of porous border there is corpses on the shore of Greece
They found a teddy next to where his body was found
The sea swallowed him, politics has swallowed him now
OBAMA NATION
Kill a man from the military, youre a weirdo
But kill a wog from the Middle East youre a hero
Your country is causing screams that are never reaching ear holes
America inflicted a million ground zeros
Follow the dollar and swallow your humanity
Soldiers committing savagery you never even have to see
Those mad at me, writing in emails angrily
Im not anti-America, America is anti-me
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Is it Obamas nation or an abomination?
Doesn't make any difference when they bomb your nation
CHILDREN OF DIASPORA
Since the middle passage either sink or you swim
Bleach the pigment of skin and pray its privilege trickling in
Are we missing the link?
Diasporas the reason MJ did to his nose what they did to the sphinx
And why Marley made the most classic of art
The reason Gabby Douglas didn't put her hand on her heart
The reason Malcolm Little changed his name to X
The reason the President's melanin remain a threat
Ahmed made a clock, they arrested him and mangled his name
But the root of the word is to thank and to praise
Racism manifests in many cancerous ways
We must rally for change in these most tragic of days
Cos Emmett Till didn't have a weapon, but they still got him
Tamir Rice never had a weapon but they still shot him
Alton Sterling never had a weapon but they still shot him
They call them first world diaspora problems
0 comments:
Post a Comment