the Raptivist

hip hop project in uganda- narrated by common

A very well shot short film to promote his new album. As always, Pharoahe stands up to senseless Police violence. You’ll dig it even more if you’re a fan of The Wire, you may recognize a face…

“I’m a spit these verses cause I feel annoyed,
And I’m not gonna quit till I fill the void,
If I rhyme about home and got descriptive,
I’d make Fifty Cent look like Limp Biskit,”

A perfect example by the Somali artist extraordinaire K’Naan of how American rappers toot their own macho violence propagating horn too often for their own good. Growing up in the hood is definitely not easy, but growin up in a place like Mogadishu…you get the idea

1971, Pieces of a Man. 

You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything

Uh, and we ain’t get exploited
White man ain’t feared so he did not destroy it
We ain’t work for free, see they had to employ it
Built it up together so we equally appointed
First 400 years, see we actually enjoyed it
Constitution written by the W.E.B. Du Bois
Were no reconstructions, civil war got avoided
Little black sambo grows up to be a lawyer
Extra extra on the news stands
Black woman voted head of Ku Klux Klan
Malcolm Little dies as a old man
Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him
Followed by bill O’Reilly who read from the Quran
President bush sends condolences from Iran
Where Fox News reports live
That Ahmedinijad wins Mandela peace prize

You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything

Uh, and it ain’t no projects
Keepin’ it real is not an understood concept
Yea, complexions not a contest
Cuz racism has no context
Hip-hop ain’t got a section called conscious
Everybody rappin’ like crack never happened
Crips never occurred nor bloods to attack them
Matter a fact no hood to attack in
Somalia is a great place to relax in
Fred Astaire was the first to do a backspin
The rat pack was cool group of black men
That inspired the five white guys called the Jacksons
Eminem fitted in but then again he inspired a black rapper tryin’ to mimic him
And that’s a really rose up out of Michigan, the sign of white rapper by the name of 50 Cent

You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything

Uh, and I know it’s just a fantasy
I cordially invite you to ask why can’t it be
Now we can do nothing bout the past
But we can do something about the future that we have
We can make fast or we can make it last
Every woman queenin’ and every man a kingin’
When those color lines come we can’t seen between
We just close our eyes till its all black everything

You would never know
If you could ever be
If you never try
You would never see
Stayed in Africa
We ain’t never leave
So there were no slaves in our history
Were no slave ships, were no misery, call me crazy, or isn’t he
See I fell asleep and I had a dream, it was all black everything