Sunday, December 11, 2016

v 2.0

I submitted my acapella rap to a production going on in Asbury this winter called THE AMERICAN FLAG: TRUMPED. Why not?! I revised it a bit so that it isn't so specific to the time and place it was born. Wanted to share it with you guys, since I'm not at open mics every Tuesday, and it was burning a hole in my pocket. 

The difference is basically more cursing, more anger at the election post-mortems, and my admittance that I never did like Thomas Jefferson. (Listening to the Hamilton soundtrack has only reminded me of my first impression and confirmed my distaste.)


Hamilton State of Mind

My baby cousin’s
got this Hamilton-
non-fiction-
Rapping play on replay.
Michelle Obama,
Music Drama,
And it's on All day...

But we all got that upset-
Trump threat,
PTS - D OD.
It's liberal hell-
Can Lin-Manuel
Take all of this
pain away?

It's just a little hip hop,
Some say,
But they’d be wrong-
ALL Day.

Cuz we all know
That words matter.
The pen shatters
the sword-
Paper smothers the rock-
A bill could kill the glock!

Stronger
together?
There's still time-
Si se puede
Don't be shy.

Putin’s coming
for our democratic government.
The keys to our kingdom
Went to a capitalistic internet.
Wall Street’s getting richer,
While the poor die in the street.
Obamacare can’t save you-
“Live free or die” – Preach!

You think this is all the Davos Man?
Motherfuckin C’MON MAN.
You can’t kid yourself now.
You just thank me later--
Imma tell you how
This shit’s much, much plainer.

It’s so simple that you missed it.
You’re too close,
And now you’re twisted.
It’s that sado-misogynistic-
All-men-created-equal
Thomas Jefferson
hypocrite shit.

It’s ridiculous!
Can’t you see it?
America’s a dream!
So sobeit!

But there’s no rest for the wicked.
And without it, you don’t last.
Guess who invented “this too shall pass.”
Do you have land, for the taking?
Free labor from a chain gang?
Resources for the grist mill?
And/or a reproductive system?

Turn down your white noise,
Forget the Founding Fathers--
It’s that mythic City on the Hill shit,
That when it’s built,
you gotta build a wall around it.

Don’t play stupid with me-
And we’re way past denial,
And whatever you do –
Don’t you tell me to smile.
I’ll come for you softly
Like a hot knife through butter,
I don’t have time for fools,
I’m a full-time working mother.

And I’m done listening to other people
Hollering,
Hogging all the air in the room,
I stopped bothering,
Putting myself in the conversation.
So that’s it! This is my revelation.
I see now, you depend on my participation.

But who am I to say?
And what am I to do?
I’m just gonna to have to be me.
And you’re just gonna to have to be you.

And we’re going to Hamilton
the hell out of this,
And when we look back,
we’ll know we wrote for justice.
We were the voice of welfare,
and the blessings of liberty,
And it was done by little you’s
and little me’s,
From sea to sea to shining sea.


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