>Originally posted April 17, 2007.
NOV 2007 UPDATE: Click here.
The Virginia Tech Massacre.
30+ killed this time.
And still people ask the same stupid question: Why does this always happen in the United States of America – the land of the free, the biggest and best democracy in the world?
To answer this, once again I turn to rap music: one of the few genres where social realism and urban youth is allowed to collide head to head, no holds barred, free from moral restrictions (as we all know, punk and hardcore ought to be like this, but is far from it…).
Back in 1992 there was this pretty strange rap group called Consolidated. Strange because they were white, and strange because they were dealing with political issues on a higher level than most other rappers at the time. They weren’t in it for the fame. And not for the game either. They wanted world wide change. They were the white equivalent of Public Enemy, in a way, and they started already in 1989 unleashing the This is Fascism EP.
Their song Tool and Die is still as relevant today as it was back then, 15 years ago. Sadly, not much has changed. The NRA and the gun lobby are working hard for gun rights instead of gun control.
Download Tool and Die here, and get with the lyrics. Truly great stuff!
No lame bling-bling shit, this is true hardcore.
Can you deal with it?
Damn, this is madness
its the fourth consectutive week I’ve had this
reoccuring nightmare of a woman who tries to walk her child to daycare
they pass some liquor store
see an average looking kid running out the door
in a moment frozen
they watch as he reveals a handgun
terror in her voice, no sound,
he unloads a round, her son goes down
then I wake up screaming but am I dreaming
cause its just another day
so many killings repeated until people have no feeling
when every two years guns take more
american lives than the whole vietnam war
Six teens and children die every day in gun homicides
and the NRA lobby fool
pay athletes to tell kids to stay in school
whoever said that must be joking
go tell that to the kids in Oakland,
DC. Detroit and Newark
and you wonder why kids don’t do their homework
the school is a warzone
teachers and students alike are afraid to leave home
hallways are an innocence tomb
the principal’s office a grieving room
this is a malignant cancer
guards and metal detectors won’t be the answer
hundreds of thousands of students say
they carry guns to school daily
growing up with fear and panic.
Bang – Nine – Automatic!
It’s genocide
America has the most homicides
Society devouring its own young
Take away the guns we need gun control
How can we stop the violence
when everywhere we look is the image of gun death
the Rodney King explosion is just one result of inner city erosion
take away all hope and kids will turn to robbery and dealing dope
you don’t care about elections
what urban youth want is protection
from a life of war
could be the Iraqi war or war in the Filmore
There is no more tragic sight
than a heavily armed youth with no respect for life
The leading cause of death in African American males under thirty five
at the funeral the friends will cry
but on the streets they tool and die
and Hollywood has done
more than anyone to glamorize the gun
movies, music and TV.
Its Genocide…can’t you see…
Got to take the profit out of crime
stop glamorizing death on primetime
Cities are the only places
where kids are waging arms races
in suburbs and rural areas
Across the country kids are carrying
three more hours and another teenage youth will have committed suicide
while his mothers crying
gun advocates are on TV lying
to the public
about how people are the ones who kill and guns don’t
until we have gun control
we can’t stop these ten year olds
from going in their father’s closet
were the gun was left unlocked and loaded
Where does it end?
When everyone gets their own piece, dividend
Driving down Guerrero
cut off a psycho kid looked like Sendero
Luminoso, words were froze so
I don’t start talking shit or acting macho
you could get popped in a minute
this is the wild, wild west and we’re in it
and my kids don’t want to play
when they have to worry about ducking spray
or two drunks having an argument
in front of our apartment
when I hear that sound
I yell: Everyone get inside and get down!