Last week, when I watched events unfold on the floor of the U.S. Senate, I was hit with a sudden case of deja vu, when I witnessed his very important Iraq amendment get relegated to the night shift. That coupled with the NONSTOP pummelling of the Senator by media outlets far and wide made me realize that the Bush Administration and all of D.C. view him as the public enemy to their grand plans. I sifted through my old cassette tapes, and listened to an old classic hip hop tune from the '80s, and it was like listening to an oldtime gospel.
Don't believe the hype - its a sequel
As an equal, can I get this through to you
My 98's boomin' with a trunk of funk
All the jealous punks can't stop the dunk
Comin' from the school of hard knocks
Some perpetrate, they drink Clorox
Attack the black, cause I know they lack exact
The cold facts, and still they try to Xerox
Leader of the new school, uncool
Never played the fool, just made the rules
Remember there's a need to get alarmed
Again I said I was a timebomb
This was Chuck D rapping for Public Enemy about how he was absolutely lampooned in the media for everything under the sun. One caveat here: he raps favorably about Farrakhan, for which most of us would agree spoke one too many anti-semitic remarks. But, that doesn't mean we should chuck this ingenius poetry about our shitty media, which now just doesn't go after hip hop artists, but anyone who would dare question the ENTIRE premise of the Bush administration's actions, and ask that they be reversed.
Here's where Chuck D talks about how P.E. was relegated to nighttime radio on the R&B stations, not unlike the leadership's plan to schedule Kerry for a time so late that he wouldn't be heard by any of the evening news programs:
In the daytime the radio's scared of me
'Cause I'm mad, plus I'm the enemy
They can't c'mon and play with me in primetime
'Cause I know the time, plus I'm gettin' mine
I get on the mix late in the night
They know I'm livin' right, so here go the mike, sike
Before I let it go, don't rush my show
You try to reach and grab and get elbowed
Word to herb, yo if you can't swing this
Learn the words, you might sing this
Just a little bit of the taste of the bass for you
As you get up and dance at the LQ
When some deny it, defy if I swing bolos
Then they clear the lane I go solo
The meaning of all of that
Some media is the whack
You believe it's true, it blows me through the roof
And now something for the absolute scumbags of the media landscape -- R. Emmett Tyrrell and those SOBs at CNN who gave him a platform to spread his lies like a virus:
Suckers, liars get me a shovel
Some writers I know are damn devils
For them I say don't believe the hype
Yo Chuck, they must be on a pipe, right?
Their pens and pads I'll snatch
'Cause I've had it
I'm not an addict fiendin' for static
I'll see their tape recorder and grab it
No, you can't have it back silly rabbit
I'm going' to my media assassin
Harry Allen, I gotta ask him
Yo Harry, you're a writer, are we that type?
Don't believe the hype
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/public-enemy/dont-believe-the-hype.html"Don't Believe the Hype" by Public Enemy 1988
In case you're wondering what Chuck D's been up to since, that would be raising money for groups to defeat George W. Bush in 2004:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6487639/voices_for_change/Voices for Change
From Bruce Springsteen to Jadakiss, artists speak out about John Kerry, George Bush and what's at stake on Election Day
As the election approaches, some of rock & roll's biggest artists are embarking on a tour with an unprecedented message: Vote for change. While musicians have played benefits for candidates in the past, nothing on this scale has ever been attempted: a nine-day tour of Ohio, Florida and seven other swing states, culminating on October 11th in a historic concert in Washington, D.C. Spearheaded by Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Dixie Chicks and R.E.M., the tour is expected to raise $10 million to mobilize voters. On the eve of this ambitious undertaking, ROLLING STONE asked twenty-six artists to discuss why they're voting - and why this election is so important.
snip
Chuck D
PUBLIC ENEMY
Today is the first day of school for my kids. I got one in eleventh grade and another in fifth grade. The older one looks upon this election almost like it's pop culture. One day she asked me about Fahrenheit 9/11, and she was talking about it like it was the latest Usher concert. You know, it's gonna be her world. And when a bunch of fifty- and sixty-year-olds fuck it up for them, that's not a cool thing. Sending these twenty- and thirty-year-olds overseas to fight and die, what the hell is that all about? The real axis of evil is Bush and Cheney. They have detached America from the rest of the planet by invading Iraq. Whenever people start saying God anointed them to do something, it's a turnoff, because I don't think anyone has God's beeper number.
As gratifying as it is to read those lyrics above, try listening to the tune. Totally AWESOME and good for the soul . . .
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