Drum
by Langston Hughes
Bear in mind
That death is a drum
Beating forever
Till the last worms come
To answer its call,
Till the last stars fall,
Until the last atom
Is no atom at all,
Until time is lost
And there is no air
And space itself
Is nothing nowhere,
Death is a drum,
A signal drum,
Calling life
To come!
Come!
Come!
The Orthus-like Death is a struggle, the constant adversary and the pilferer of hope that the abused and exploited must battle against. The use of sensory images, such as the drum beat, allows one to comprehend the never ending drudgery of the life of a slave. As mortality and despair relentlessly call to the living, the opressed must find within themselves the strength to cripple social malaise. Langston Hughes embodies the cry of defiance that has led his successors to fight against the steady drum that drowns out the muffled voices of the African American population.
I, Too
by Langston Hughes
Question of Faith
Where Was Heaven?
by Wu-Tang Clan
Know what I'm saying
my peeps put me on
For real ... shit's fucked up yo
You know what I'm saying
religion's all good
But where was heaven? Yo....
For real though,
Always look for that place call heaven,
It's never there,
I seen my man's an' 'em gets..
just get blasted on the block,
Know what I'm saying?
I go in the crib
I got stains all over my shirt
Know what I'm saying?
And my mom's knew the type of shit I was going through
Cause I was a project kid
Goodbye Christ
by Langston Hughes
Listen, Christ,
You did alright in your day, I reckon—
But that day's gone now.
They ghosted you up a swell story, too,
Called it Bible—
But it's dead now,
The popes and the preachers've
Made too much money from it.
They've sold you to too many
NBC apologized for lack-of-censorship, as musical artist Kanye questioned the administration.
According to FREEMUSE: Reverend Al Sharpton, an American politician and civil rights leader, chastised NBC for censoring West. "If he got on there calling women names, they wouldn't have censored him. If he got on there saying something derogatory, they wouldn't have censored him. For him to stand up for his own people, they censor. I think they should let Kanye say what needs to be said and let the president defend it if he wants to."
Connecting the Past:
Freedom's Plow
by Langston Hughes
With billowing sails the galleons came
Bringing men and dreams, women and dreams.
In little bands together,
Heart reaching out to heart,
Hand reaching out to hand,
They began to build our land.
Some were free hands
Seeking a greater freedom,
Some were indentured hands
Hoping to find their freedom,
Some were slave hands
Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,
But the word was there always:
Freedom.
The message of these next excerpts is one of hope for the underpriviledged and over-looked. The "children" are not just minors, but the ancestral line of African-Americans facing adversity in the United States.
Wu-Revolution
by Wu-Tang Clan
If You Take One Step
I Will Take One With You
Through The Stormy Vein
Swim The Deepest Sea, With You My Brother
I Know, You Got To Be Strong
Gotta Hold On
Now The Story Is About To Close
It Was A Hundred Percent Of Us
Save The Children
That Came On The Slave Ships
Eighty Five Percent Of Our Future
They´re Our Future
Was Uncivilized
Poison Animal Eaters
They´re Slaves Of The Mental Powers
Save The Children
Harlem Renaissance
by Immortal Technique
Harlem Renaissance, a revolution of trade,
Modern day slaves, thinkin that the ghetto is saved,
So they start deporting people off the property,
Ethnically cleansing the hood, economically.
They wanna kill the real Harlem Renaissance,
Tryna put the virgin Marry through her early menapours,
The savior is a metaphor, for how we set it off,
Guerrilla war against the beasts only predators"
Felipe Coronel, better known as Immortal Technique is a rap artist and political activist. He is of Afro-Peruvian and Indigenous Peruvian descent and was raised in Harlem, New York. In stark contrast to Langston Hughe's imagery of a Harlem owned by the triumphant african-american culture, Immortal Technique emphasizes the gentrification of Harlem and the loss of properties by their original owners.
