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

FREE DOWNLOAD: Rebel Diaz – Troy Davis Lives Forever (prod Agent of Change) by agentofchange

Check this brand new track from Rebel Diaz, produced by myself. The track takes the form of a letter to Troy Davis, and the instrumental samples Billie Holiday’s classic song ‘Strange Fruit’ (which dealt with the issue of lynchings).

Lyrics:

[Intro]
Another lynching has gone down in the US
And it’s 2011. Nothing has changed.

[Chorus]
What up Troy, I can’t believe they actually did it man
To tell the truth they ain’t never gone kill you man
You live forever in the hearts of those who fought for ya
You fought for us, you gave us strength like a true soldier

[Rodstarz verse]
I feel the pain, I feel the anger and I raise to show it
I hit the streets and spread the word so the world knows it
I’m sorry we didn’t save you
Shoulda been braver
But at times I feel alone when I’m surrounded by these strangers
2009 we first spoke, after I met Martina
I got the shirt but since then I haven’t really seen her
Been on the road with these raps just tryin a spread a message
But when I think about our talks they were such a blessing
You was in jail reading your poems on the phone
And all I did was just listen, back stage of the show
Then I heard the crazy news about a week ago
That the date had been set and they wanted you to go
11.08pm, September 21st
Never forget, my inner being still hurts
Obama stayed quiet, like he did for Oscar Grant
Clarence Thomas b**ch ass never gave you a chance
See, you was innocent, there was too much doubt
7 of 9 witnesses wanted their testimony out
They was scared, police threats, serious like cancer
But you know it wasn’t true, years later they recanted
I wish I had the answer what to do next
Gotta do more than tweet, Facebook and send texts
We need freedom, organise like Zulu
Feel the pain of injustice even tho I never knew you

[Chorus]
What up Troy, I can’t believe they actually did it man
To tell the truth they ain’t never gone kill you man
You live forever in the hearts of those who fought for ya
You fought for us, you gave us strength like a true soldier

[G1 verse]
They still lynching from plantations to the prisons
Methods changed but it’s the same system
White robes used to burn a crucifix
Now black robes sign a death sentence
Instead of Jim Crow and legal segregation
It’s yuppie condos and cuts to education
And I ain’t gotta say it Troy, you said it in your last letter
Thanking your supporters worldwide for they past efforts
More than half a million signed them petitions
The pope, the archbishop, stars and politicians
A who’s who on Twitter weighing in like Mayweather
But what happens to my bro after the storm let up
New day
Pray you in a better place
Over here we coping, tryin a channel that rage
To abolish these legal lynchings, abolish they broken system
Abolish the need for prisons, in defence of the human spirit

[Chorus]
What up Troy, I can’t believe they actually did it man
To tell the truth they ain’t never gone kill you man
You live forever in the hearts of those who fought for ya
You fought for us, you gave us strength like a true soldier

Check this must-watch 35-minute interview with Rebel Diaz by The New Significance, showing the hip-hop community centre and studio they run, talking about their new album and their ethos.

Follow Rebel Diaz on Twitter

Can’t believe Rebel Diaz ‘Warrior Wednesdays’ has been going on for four weeks and I’m only just blogging about it now!

Check out these four great conscious hip-hop tracks, all available for free download! Let us know in the comments which your favourite is (I’m going for ‘Guilty’).

All tracks can be downloaded from http://warriorwednesdayz.blogspot.com/.

Week 1: Guilty

Week 2: I Need You More

Week 3: Craazy

Week 4: Chubaca

If you’re in London, you can catch Rebel Diaz at the following events:

LATIN AMERICA RISING – film, panel discussion and performance
Thursday 16 June, 2011, 5.30-9pm
Bolivar Hall, near Warren Street tube
Facebook event page

SPEAKER’S CORNER
Friday 17 June, 2011, 9pm-5am
Brixton Jamm
Facebook event page