Nekz – London’s Burning *Free Download* by Nekz Music

Excellent, insightful lyrics from my bro Nekz, an up-and-coming hip-hop artist from West London.

I liked it so much I typed the lyrics up.

The system’s fucked and the yout dem are rioting
Running round the city mad hyped on the violent ting
Look how dyou think it got to this, they lost a whole generation
Police is what I’m hating
Screaming burn the fuckin stations
I don’t care, let the p**syholes come for me
The city burned while you holidayed in Tuscany
And we don’t know luxury
Look can’t you see the poverty
I’m speaking for the unheard
Licence to kill, the pigs are quick to let their gun burst
RIP Mark D, Smiley Culture and everyone killed by police
And peaceful protest just don’t work
But it’s a shame a petrol bomb will get your voice heard
The situation’s getting worse
Youts need a help but who disowned and left them on the kerb
Think about it for a sec before you point and curse
The feeling’s so worthless
No jobs, so many futures are uncertain
And education doesn’t help
When you’re cutting EMA it’s like you wanna fail
9k for uni, I’m a hit the road and risk the jail
Is the mindset of most, the ones that need the help
To grow, to evolve into a fine man
People lets not harm our own
Spare the local shops and homes
Soldiers aim for the throne
Fight for the people bro
They wanna see us lose and they paint themselves as innocent
I swear they make 50 gs from the prisoners
I mean prisoner, that’s each one, do the sums
They slashed the throat of the slums when they made the cuts
But they don’t give a fuck
So I ain’t giving up
Cos one day we will rise and now they see it cuz
But they don’t give a fuck
So I ain’t giving up
Cos one day we will rise and now they see it cuz
They had them all running scared
Cos the feds were all unprepared
Stereotype the clothes I wear
Goes and causes fear
But so does the black and whites in their riot gear
Don’t be a slave to the system and the news you hear
They had them all running scared
Cos the feds were all unprepared
Stereotype the clothes I wear
Goes and causes fear
But so does the black and whites in their riot gear
Don’t be a slave to the system and the news you hear

Follow Nekz on Twitter

Thanks to whoever ripped this from the Charlie Sloth show last week! Inspiring lyrics from up-and-coming artist Cashtastic. Someone needs to play this to all the eedyats that are saying UK rap is the cause of the riots.

My little brother’s 10, I feel like I’m slacking
He shouldn’t be hearing me rap about gun-clapping
…
There’s bare mums crying round ‘ere
Cos there’s bare sons dying round ‘ere
If you think I lie, watch the news then
Every other week another ghetto yout’s dead
And I can guarantee that as I wrote this song
Another ghetto yout bled
Ghetto people, it’s time for us to rise up
And open up our eyes, cos our eyes shut
And we don’t seem to educate our minds much
Cos we’re too busy throwing gang signs up
Putting knife workin or gun blastin
We’re all pissed while the government’s laughing
Little man pay attention when I’m talkin
You don’t want your mummy paying for a coffin
Little girl stay in school, keep grafting
Allow the baggaman ting this ain’t Sparta

Follow Cashtastic on Twitter

Mark Duggan

This is a dubstep instrumental I made as a tribute to Mark Duggan, the young father-of-four recently killed in Tottenham by the Metropolitan Police.

The track is a reworking of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s classic ‘Reggae Fi Peach’. The LKJ original was made as a tribute to teacher and activist Blair Peach, who was killed by police at an anti-fascist demonstration in Southall in 1979.

Rappers: feel free to download the beat, spit on it and upload to Youtube/Soundcloud. Just let me know about it (preferably via Twitter: @agent_of_change).

Agent of Change – Dubstep Fi Duggan by agentofchange

Download the 320kbps MP3

View on Soundcloud

How the fuck you gonna have a peace settlement
When people want a piece of your land to build settlements?

I guess some Americans just don’t remember
There’s a slave graveyard under the World Trade Centre

Stop the criticism of Iranian nuclear fission
Until mutual nuclear disarmament’s the mission

Yup, I’m late. Again. Some bangers on Kendrick Lamar’s album, but the final track, HiiiPoWeR, really stands out. The video and lyrics are full of freedom struggle imagery, and Kendrick does a great job bringing the history of the Black Power struggle to a young audience (Fred Hampton, Huey P Newton, Marcus Garvey, Bobby Seale, Malcolm X, Martin Luthur King all get a shout).

The hook makes it all simple:

Every day we fight the system
Just to make our way
We been down for too long
But that’s alright
We was built to be strong
Cause it’s our life
Every day we fight the system
We fight the system
We fight the system
Never like the system
We been down for too long

The latest leak from Lowkey’s long-anticipated album, Soundtrack to the Struggle, has a clear message about the dangers of our society’s obsession with money, asking “Do you possess money or by money are you possessed?”

In contrast to the crass materialism of modern capitalist society, the video shows vibrant images of life in Cuba, a society where money is less important than physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual well-being. The beautiful video ends with an important message from independent film-maker Pablo Navarrete about Cuba and the US blockade against it:

The US government’s blockade against Cuba was first imposed in October 1960.

It was introduced after the revolutionary government of Fidel Castro (which came to power in January 1959 after overthrowing the brutal US-backed dictator Fulencio Batista) nationalised property belonging to US citizens and corporations.

Since 1962 the blockade has been tightened further and today represents the longest blockade in history.

The cost to the Cuban economy has been catastrophic, estimated at more than 750 billion US dollars, in current prices.

The UN General Assembly has voted every year for 19 years on a resolution condemning the blockade. Every year the condemnation is virtually unanimous.

In the most recent vote in October 2010, 187 countries voted for ending the blockade. Only the US and Israel voted to continue with it.

The criminal US blockade of Cuba has for over 50 years tried to suffocate the island; to teach its people and revolution a brutal lesson for standing up to US imperialism and daring to be free.

With heroic sacrifices, Cuba continues to not only resist but to shine a light on the path to a fairer, more humane world.

Cuba resists; Cuba lives; Viva Cuba!

Another deep and important track from Lowkey. Very much looking forward to the album!

Follow Lowkey on Twitter.
Follow Pablo Navarrete on Twitter.

Another big track and video from Lowkey. Video shot on location in Cuba by the always-excellent Global Faction.

They can’t use my music to advertise for Coca-Cola
They can’t use my music to advertise for Motorola
They can’t use my music to advertise for anything
I guess that’s reason the industry won’t let me in
Refuse to be a product or a brand; I’m a human
Refuse to contribute to the gangster illusion
…
You might take my life
But you can’t take my soul
You can’t take my soul
You might take my freedom
But you can’t take my soul
You can’t take my soul

Tell ’em!

Follow Lowkey on Twitter.
Follow Global Faction on Twitter

Happy Birthday brother Mandela! So happy to hear this tribute track from UK hip-hop legend Sway on a day when so many people seem to be focusing on the compromises Mandela made with white South Africa and with the international financial institutions.

Revolution is a multi-generational process. Nelson Mandela moved it forward; our job is to pick up where he left off. Do you really think that his compromises (made to keep the country together) were more significant than his positive contribution?! Sometimes I think the only way for a revolutionary from the Third World to be ‘pure’ enough for Western liberals is to die a glorious death. Yes, Mandela made compromises; in the light of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the aggressive push of the IMF in the 1990s, it’s hardly suprising. But the destruction of legal and political apartheid is a huge step forward, the significance of which should not be downplayed, especially by people who have never experienced being second class citizens in their own countries.

Anyway, once again, big up Sway. Great track.

Check out this heavy conscious roots track from The Drop, a 9-piece new-wave reggae band from London. “Let we take over Babylon, yout-man! Let we take over Babylon, conscious man!”

Where do I sign up?!

Follow The Drop on Twitter
Check out their tracks on Bandcamp
Check out their videos on Youtube

Check out the official video to this absolute banger of a track from M1, Bonnot, General Levy and Paolo Fresu. Blazing Afrocentric lyrics built around the Bob Marley classic ‘Zimbabwe’.

M1 goes in! Check his lyrics:

Bob hit the nail
when he fell on his deathbed
the streets ran red
with blood, sweat and tears
It was too many years for liberation
colonization enslaved a whole nation
Cecil stole that called it Rhodesia
too many white folks catchin’ amnesia
How convenient! History is not an agreement
I guess it’s based on how you see it
Nas was wrong, Mugabe was right!
We gotta fight! Izwe Lethu i Afrika!
Afrika’s our Land
The future is in our hands
So here’s a list of demands
Reparations for what they stole
The People, the Land, the Diamonds, the Gold
Stop the bombing us
Neo-coons Uncle Tom-ing us
Sellin us your empty promises
Your Economist
Propagandizing what time it is
Fuck that digital shit
Back up off our nuts a lil’ bit
And let’s take it back to the futuristic
I’ll testify as a material witness
These muthafuckas is too sadistic
If you got some melanin
you can get with this
X – that, if you, hear this
That’s the bizness!!

Kwame Nkruma, Sekou Toure
Thomas Sankara
The leaders of tomorrow
The future Garveys
The future Lumumba
The future Bikos
The future heroes
Let’s celebrate a free Zimbabwe
We doin it our way
A national holiday
No more Imperialism, not today
Fuck the I.M.F., Fuck the World Bank
United States of Afrika
Not AFRICOM
Do you think I’m dumb
I know where I’m from
the Continent
I ain’t claimin’ no block
you got me bent
I meant what I said
and said what I meant
Obama ain’t my president
That’s just white power
in a black face
This is about Liberation… not race!