This track covers crazy ground with the topics they're spittin about! Its kinda old now, but until it shuffled up on my ipod today I forgot how damn good it is. For me it easily one of the best tracks of this new decade when it comes to the lyrics. Lupe talks about the shallowness of being materialistic, Kanye acknowledges stories of fame that are rarely spoken about in mainstream hiphop; all the people that almost make it to star status but never quite shine as bright as the musical guests on SNL or get stalked by TMZ, and then Pharrell just takes to it to another level! He compares a kitchen chemist cooking up crack to major pharmaceutical and chemical companies, discusses the intelligence of the new young and rich, talks about the Virgina Tech shooting as well as the general craziness of these times, and he does it all in one verse! Now thats LOCO! (Lyrics are here).
I really hope the album rumors about these guys are true!
Also, heres a classic track from Dead Prez where they say what they think about the public school system in the U.S. They're straight up about their Black Panther-style politics and militant roots, so if your easily offended by some hardcore revolutionary music...listen to this because it gets you thinking a lot more than most bubblegum rap. Theres a music video for this track on youtube as well but the audio and picture quality isnt that great so I put up this one.
Pretty interesting things in this post. I'm really loving the Lupe, Kanye, Pharrell and Thom Yorke one, I thought the video was also pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe Dead Prez song is definitely thought provoking. It is great to hear music that pertains to relevant issues in today's society. I can see the controversies in the education system that he talks about, school vs prison, racial and class division. However, being educated outside of north america for most of my life has allowed me to see variations of the education system.
Some schools are exactly what Dead Prez describes a great divide between teacher and student in terms of such things as race and class. In the Caribbean I believe that because it is so cosmopolitan in certain countries that there is less of a divide in certain schools with student teacher relationship as well as the curriculum. We learn about different cultures and societies on a global level because of our history of colonisation. We are aware of how we came to be, what was done to us, how those who colonised the Caribbean, were once victims of slavery themselves, etc. It is in my opinion most effective when teachers encourage discussion between students so that the opinions they form based off their experiences in life and what they are taught in school whether they are for or against the system can be expressed towards others. Students are then teaching each other about issues that the education system does not include. Education to me therefore needs to be encouraged by the teacher to go beyond what the system itself provides more as a guide and the students must begin to educate each other. I agree that some teachers are incapable of doing this and in fact discourage thought and opinion but I think it is the challenge of an individual student to speak about it and that is what Dead Prez is doing.
I have too many things to say about this song and the education system haha so I will stop here. Good post!