Released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the defeat of the anti-popular US-backed coup in Venezuela, the video for Area 23’s track ‘Patriotas’ traces the history of the coup and the popular rebellion that restored Hugo Chavez to power. The song itself describes the tremendous anger felt by ordinary Venezuelans about the coup and their determination to reverse it.

In addition to the video, there is also a brand new remix by Agent of Change.

Lyrics (Spanish):

Es que no entienden la vida no es como ellos la piensan
La vida es una historia con unas ganas inmensas
La vida es lo que nace de la misma conciencia
Ahora son ocho estrellas en sintonía y frecuencia
Ahora el poder es del pueblo que no hará mas reverencia
Ahora cuando el cerro baja es que caracas tiembla
Secuestraron al líder bajo la noche y la niebla
Como dice el veneco ya nos sacaron la piedra
El líder fue secuestrado, secuestrado el vocero
Un grito desmesurado desde el 23 de enero
Desde la vega cotiza, desde petare entero
En donde hay revolución hay voluntades de acero
Una guardia de honor que enfrento a los traicioneros
Si por el televisor no se veía ese balacero
Solo se veía a estanga jugando a ser don dinero
Con una cara de panga con ínfulas de banquero
El 11 tus intereses el 13 son los del pueblo
Fascistas solo lograron dejarnos un mal recuerdo
Pero los que convocaron de sus casas no salieron
Porque aquí no importa el bando importan son los que murieron
Aquí no importa el bando importan son los que murieron.

11 de abril concentración masiva
de Chuao a Miraflores a entregar una misiva
gran movimiento de mentes confundidas
carne de cañón para el imperio genocida
usando a mi gente y colocando al frente tal vez a los mas inocentes
tomando como argumento un fantasioso encuentro chavez de dos marchas diferentes
Avenida Baralt con puente llaguno escenario presencial del deseo de algunos
Muere Tortosa y su empeño reporteril junto a los sueños de su esposa en una bala de fusil
Caos pánico y sigue muriendo gente
Medios en sincronía acusando al presidente
Pero el pueblo se dio cuenta que no estaba actuando mal
Cuando a canales del estado les tumbaron la señal.

Cayeron inocentes, civiles patriotas
Se mantuvo el guerrero teniendo puestas las botas
En la mirada tristeza esperanza en la mano
Con un fusil de conciencia llamado soberano.

Se desbordaron las calles convertidas en trincheras
El enemigo ha logrado la división desde afuera
Contrato mercenarios los puso en las azoteas
Soborno policías los dedico a la tarea
Mientras que matan al pueblo no hay informe de tele
Solo se ven comiquitas pero la sangre huele
Un olor que te grita el llanto de un inocente
Por una bala accionada por el cañón de un demente
Pero olvidaron al joven que tiene alta la frente
Que no olvida la patria siempre la lleva presente
A capa y espada con el peligro latente
Bajo desde el cerro en busca del presidente

Se derrumba un país, nos derrumban un país.
Bajo desde el cerro en busca del presidente.

Se derrumba un país un golpe ya esta en practica
Empresas en rumba atacan de forma mediática
Un nuevo presidente se levanta sin sufragio
Derrocan un comandante pero no callan al barrio
Una CTV que jode que mata trabajadores
Inocentes anteponen por vida de gente pobre
Saldrá muy caro el paro el pueblo ya lo declaro
La rebelión de los barrios aplasto tu descaro
Que paso Venezuela mataron la vocación?
Eliminaron nuestra lucha y tumban la revolución?
De madrugada militares preparan emboscadas
Revelarse al proceso será una empresa muy cara
Programación especial pa que nadie se percate
Que la gente ta en la calle y que saldrán al rescate
No se tolera un secuestro, que las voces se unan
El bravo se defiende desde un gran fuerte Tiuna
Paracaidistas libertarios que no se detuvieron
Marcharon, atacaron, rescataron nuestro cielo
Ahora con tantas voces que se oiga en el mundo entero
Venezuela no le teme a la fuerza de un imperio.

No, ya no le teme.
Venezuela no le teme a la fuerza de un imperio.
Ya no le teme.
Venezuela no le teme a la fuerza.

Follow Causa Venezuela on Twitter
Follow David Segarra (director) on Twitter
Follow Hip Hop Revolución on Twitter
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Here’s the new mixtape from revolutionary rapper Marcel Cartier, featuring classics from all three “Revolutionary Minded” projects, plus exclusives from the forthcoming album with Agent of Change (me!) and previously unreleased joints.

Pick it up for just $5 / £3.49 from OneRpm.

Follow @MarcelCartier
Follow @Agent_of_Change

Leading hip-hop activists Rebel Diaz have been a group for six years today. They’re marking the occasion by selling their entire discography for a knock-down price of $15 – just under £10.

Get it here.

Follow @RebelDiaz
Follow @Illanoiz
Follow @RDACBX

Some really dope interview and studio footage from Dead Prez, Yasiin Bey and MikeFlo, as they put together a tribute to Trayvon Martin over the classic Nas ‘Made You Look’ beat (produced by the legendary Salaam Remi).

It’s heartening to see top-level established artists coming together to make a statement, raise awareness, educate and organise.

Also be sure to check out Jasiri X’s heart-felt tribute to Trayvon, over the ‘No Church in the Wild’ beat from Watch The Throne.

On Twitter:

@M1deadprez
@MosDefOfficial
@mikeflorbg
@Jasiri_X

10 minutes of great insight from Akala, without a doubt one of the leading cultural figures in the scene. Akala exposes some of the major problems in the UK underground/black music scene, addressing in particular the issue of cultural colonialism, whereby the corporate power structure uses its economic domination to shape the music towards its own agenda.

Akala

A dope concept and track from Rebel Diaz! Check it out.

Here’s what they say about it:

New Joint! “AMERICAN SPRING” Rebel Diaz (produced by DJ Charlie Hustle)

As the NATO summit converges on Chicago, and protestors gear up for the inevitable confrontations to come, many are dubbing this moment the American Spring – a response to last year’s uprisings in the Middle East, known as the Arab Spring.

Everywhere in the world, people are demanding human dignity and an end to the neoliberal model that puts profit before people. Yet, in the Arab Spring, we have seen the corporate media co-opt the mass discontent in the Middle East, and use the chaos as an excuse to engineer regime changes favorable to the global elite.

So if the US empire used the Arab Spring as a smokescreen for a power grab of land and oil resources from Afghanistan to Africa, what will be of the American Spring?

The last few months, people have been organizing, planning for the Spring- May Day actions, protests against NATO/G8, etc. Yet the last few months also saw the passage of NDAA, and other instruments to ‘legally’ declare a police state. Could the American Spring, and the discontent of protestors across the US, be utilized as an excuse for mass incarceration and martial law? Or will we channel this energy to create an organic movement for real change and true democracy? stay tuned but for now… the “American Spring.” by Rebel Diaz

Follow Rebel Diaz on Twitter.

Big love to Nana D for creating this video for “Get Your Hands Off Africa” (by Marcel Cartier, featuring Akala and Nana D, produced by Agent of Change).

Follow Akala on Twitter – https://twitter.com/#!/akalamusic
Follow Agent of Change on Twitter
Follow Marcel Cartier on Twitter
Follow Nana D on Twitter
Check the Agent of Change Soundcloud for the download and more free high quality music.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Marcel Cartier ft Akala and Nana D – Get Your Hands Off Africa (prod Agent of Change)

Check this brand new track by Marcel Cartier, featuring Akala and Nana D, and produced by Agent of Change. A Kwanzaa gift for y’all 🙂

Lyrics:

[Marcel verse 1]

Those who do not move do not feel their chains
But the African people are aware of the pain
Aware of the game, invader deception
Black presidents who are White Man extensions
People from Cape to Cairo rebel
Cos fake independence and ongoing hell
Colonial ties still keep ’em chained
The richest continent’s getting robbed again
The IMF and World Bank criminal schemes
What about reparations? To me it seems
That every metropole from Amsterdam
To Paris and Brussels was built with the hands
Of African labour, a slave relation
Developing Europe at the expense of their nation
But Africans rebelled from the first conquest
Took back independence at last accomplished

[Nana D chorus]

You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!

[Marcel verse 2]

Look at Africom, the African Command
That’s the US and her puppets shaking each others’ hands
They went in for Libya, going for Uganda
When will we learn we can’t be sleeping any longer?
Still salivating over claiming Zimbabwe
The worst man alive to them is Robert Mugabe
But land should belong to the African masses
Not a small group of white settler bastards
My fellow Europeans wanna whine and groan
About losing what we stole, that is not our home
That is not our land, need to choose the side
Of the future of humanity, the old has expired
If you ever want peace then you better want justice
Most of the continent is far from accustomed
Sarkozy, Cameron and Africa’s son
Better know that their war can never ever be won

[Nana D chorus]

You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!

[Akala verse]

The mother continent where we all originate
Eugenics ain’t dead so it’s cool to eliminate humanity’s darker shade
Genocidal AIDS, ancient civilisations
Not a continent of slaves
In every step of the way the elites have helped pave the way
For all the madness that we’re seeing today
But that in no way excuses the centuries of rape
But if we’re gonna solve it it’s an issue we have to face
Because every brother ain’t a brother just because of their colour
Look at the hand that killed Patrice and Thomas and others
While millions murdered in the Congo it don’t make the news
But if a footballer’s wife should buy a pair of shoes
I’m supposed to give a fuck, apparently
I do not! The world’s a reflection of your block
And if you think a world that can profit from African death
And be totally cool
Thinks that you’re better cos you live here
You’re a fucking fool

[Nana D chorus]

You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!
You’d better get your hands off… AFRICA!

Follow Akala on Twitter
Follow Agent of Change on Twitter
Follow Marcel Cartier on Twitter
Follow Nana D on Twitter
Check the Agent of Change Soundcloud for more free downloads.

Some serious emotional and lyrical depth from London-based rapper Ghetts in this track. As his skills continue to grow and his subject matter diversifies, Ghetts has a real chance to establish himself as one of the very best rappers in the history of UK rap.

People are being made redundant
Some of my friends and family are amongst them
And everybody’s family depends on a lump sum
But some ain’t gonna see a salary when the month’s done
How you gonna tell a kid he aint got to rob
When the only role model he has just lost his job
Unemployed without another choice
Heading down the same path he tried to make his son avoid
Jobseekers allowance aint for everyone
We grown, there’s no power in a pellet gun
You tryna tell a n***a that’s a breadwinner
Forget dinner and he’ll do things he’s never done
It’s the story of the pauper
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
But don’t get me wrong
Three out of ten will cross the border
And be out the ends, but still it weren’t a shortcut
I understand what it took to do that
How Naomi Campbell had to look to do that
What Levi Roots had to cook to do that
The kinda weight the top shottas had to push to do that
What kinda singer Diz had to get on a hook to do that
And when you’re tryna push out of the same place you come from
Everybody has a goal, and pulling you back
So it’s bullet proof this, and bullet proof that
And I don’t expect those from outside the slums to understand this
How you gonna relate? Your mum and dad’s rich
Welcome to my ends, it’s gully
And none of us are getting no inheritance money
What’s your life like round here? I bet everything’s honey
Yeah we all got problems, but I bet yours has never been the money
Wait, I don’t know you so I shouldn’t pass judgement
Vice versa, but sometimes assets confine a person
You ain’t gotta tell me that you’re rich cos I know you are
Your life is perfect – is that why you turn your nose up at the lower class?
Or is your life just as fucked as mine behind the curtains?
But you don’t wanna show it cos you’ve got an image to uphold
I know, but when you come home, you unload, stress
Staring in the mirror like “I’m so depressed”
And now you wanna jumbo to jet, yeh I get it
Cos I feel like that six out of seven days
And that’s why a n***a be addicted to lemon haze
Listen when I’m spittin’ a system is devil-made
The government have got the nation brainwashed
A close friend of mine just left the Caribbean
When he got here he said he shoulda stayed in Barbados
I could explain but I’d rather let you read between the lines
Yo don he switched the brain on
You can’t even read the signs, where’s your brain gone?
What can I say dawg?
The truth lays beneath the lies
But it’s like I’m tryna lead the blind
And they would rather remain lost.
Forever in the rat race
Life ain’t getting no better and it’s facts mate
So I’m lighting up the lemon on a bad day
And as I let the zoot settle in my ashtray
I’m thinking of all the terrible things man-made
Things that caused this inevitable rampage
I’m hoping I ain’t got vegetables for a fanbase

Download the new Ghetts mixtape
Follow Ghetts on Twitter
Check out this classic collab from Ghetts and Akala

FREE DOWNLOAD: Rebel Diaz – Never A Prisoner (prod Agent of Change)

Check out this brand new Mumia Abu-Jamal tribute (available for free download from Soundcloud), produced by me.

Lyrics:

[Chorus]

You can lock me down but I will never be your prisoner
Victims are the ones that just obey and just give it up
Even in this world we enslaved like some prisoners
A freedom fighter fights til the world listen up

[Rodstarz verse]
Police terrorism, television showing fiction
Officer shot, them attorneys want convictions
Silencing the movements that stood up for liberation
Scared of self-defence and people’s self-determination
Terrified witnesses, forced cooperation
Thirty long years behind the walls of these racists
Hero to the youth and everyone for revolution
We need a million Mumias on the streets as a solution
Take over the media, tell the story to the people
Decolonise the streets til the cops are illegal
The world is my cell and ain’t nobody come and visit me
Went to they schools but they ain’t teaching us the history
Live from death row and I hope the world is hearing this
Malcolm in my dreams and Fidel making appearances
Salvador Allende was about popular unity
Freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and my community

[Chorus]
You can lock me down but I will never be your prisoner
Victims are the ones that just obey and just give it up
Even in this world we enslaved like some prisoners
A freedom fighter fights til the world listen up

[G1 verse]
Hear the screams of the people, millions for Mumia
We marched in 97, no fear we still here
Years later, more hearings, more appeals
They still trying to have an innocent man killed
Or locked up in a cage for the rest of his days
To suppress the power of putting a pen to a page
In the age of information, really informing us
Despite incarceration, a people’s journalist
Voice of the voiceless can’t never be silenced
Exposing the injustice of systemic state violence
They lie, they steal, they rob, they kill
Yet we the ones targetted and thrown in jail
Thirty years plus in chains and cuffs
Now what we gone do, get on that bus
To Illadelph, heed the call, free ’em all
And libertad for Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Chorus]
You can lock me down but I will never be your prisoner
Victims are the ones that just obey and just give it up
Even in this world we enslaved like some prisoners
A freedom fighter fights til the world listen up

Follow Rebel Diaz on Twitter
Follow Agent of Change on Twitter