militant poetry

Rage Against The Machine Lyrics


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Intro (Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos)Zapata's Blood Hadda Be Playing On The Jukebox Fuck The Police Darkness
Clear The Lane

Live and Rare

Bullet In The Head - see page 1 Settle For Nothing - see page 1 Bombtrack - see page 1 Take The Power Back - see page 1 Freedom - see page 1 INTRO (BLACK STEEL IN THE HOUR OF CHAOS)- (intro) Zack: Hey check this out right about now.... I wanna introduce a brotha...who came all the way outta here from Long Island, New york. And he's one of the fathers of revolutionary music in our time period. He was a huge influence on us and we wanna bring him out right now. So check it out, we got a man by the name of Chuck D, from Public Enemy. Yeah. Chuck D: Wassup, wassup! Zack: Yo.... ( x5 ) Chuck D: "I got a letter from the government The other day I opened and read it It said they were suckers They wanted me for their army or whatever Picture me given' a damn - I said never Here is a land that never gave a damn About a brother like me and myself Because they never did I wasn't wit' it, but just that very minute... It occured to me The suckers had authority Cold sweatin' as I dwell in my cell How long has it been? They got me sittin' in the state pen I gotta get out - but that thought was thought before I contemplated a plan on the cell floor I'm not a fugitive on the run But a brother like me begun - to be another one Public enemy servin' time - they drew the line y'all To criticize me for some crime - never the less They could not understand that I'm a Black man And I could never be a veteran On the strength, the situation's unreal I got a raw deal, so I'm goin' for the steel" Yeah! Zapata's Blood- Like they deserve Wasn't spilt in vein So now you're pullin' the moves pullin' the moves pullin' the moves We'll wage, we'll wage we'll wage war To replace our name Some guys got blurred So now you're pullin' the moves, pullin' the moves, pullin' the moves We'll wage, we'll wage, we'll wage war To reclaim our terrain On January 1st, 1994 The indigenous farmers of Southern Mexico Declared war on an unjust and illigitimate government Of of the debt of the most wild, the most poor Came a just arm struggle for democracy, justice, and liberty And it won't stop until that 65 year old dictatorship, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party) is buried in the ground and the people's voicce is heard once again So check it out: On January 1st, they became known as the Zapatista movement And they have a saying, and I want you all to sing along with me real quick. It goes something like this It goes, everything for everyone... and nothing for ourselves. Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves. Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves. Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves. Yeah, sing that shit... Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves. Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves. Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves. Everything for everyone, and nothing for ourselves... Without A Face - see page 1 Hadda Be Playing On The Jukebox- It had to be flashin' like the daily double It had to be playin' on TV It had to be loud mouthed on the comedy hour It had to be announced over loud speakers The CIA and the Mafia are in cahoots It had to be said in old ladies' language It had to be said in American headlines Kennedy stretched and smiled and got double crossed by lowlife goons and agents Rich bankers with criminal connections Dope pushers in CIA working with dope pushers from Cuba working with a big time syndicate from Tampa, Florida And it had to be said with a big mouth It had to be moaned over factory foghorns It had to be chattered on car radio news broadcasts It had to be screamed in the kitchen It had to be yelled in the basement where uncles were fighting It had to be howled on the streets by newsboys to bus conductors It had to be foghorned into New York harbor It had to echo onto hard hats It had to turn up the volume in university ballrooms It had to be written in library books, footnoted It had to be in the headlines of the Times and Le Monde It had to be barked on TV It had to be heard in alleys through ballroom doors It had to be played on wire services It had to be bells ringing Comedians stopped dead in the middle of a joke in Las Vegas It had to be FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover and Frank Costello syndicate mouthpiece meeting in Central Park, New York weekends, reported Time magazine It had to be the Mafia and the CIA together starting war on Cuba, Bay of Pigs and poison assassination headlines It had to be dope cops in the Mafia Who sold all their heroin in America It had to be the FBI and organized crime working together in cahoots against the commies It had to be ringing on multinational cash registers A world-wide laundry for organized criminal money It had to be the CIA and the Mafia and the FBI together They were bigger than Nixon And they were bigger than war It had to be a large room full of murder It had to be a mounted ass- a solid mass of rage A red hot pen A scream in the back of the throat It had to be a kid that can breathe It had to be in Rockefellers' mouth It had to be central intelligence, the family, allofthis, the agency Mafia It had to be organized crime One big set of gangs working together in cahoots Hitmen Murderers everywhere The secret The drunk The brutal The dirty and rich On top of a slag heap of prisons Industrial cancer Plutonium smog Garbage cities Grandmas' bed soft from fathers' resentment It had to be the rulers They wanted law and order And they got rich on wanting protection for the status quo They wanted junkies They wanted Attica They wanted Kent State They wanted war in Indochina yeah It had to be the CIA and the Mafia and the FBI Multinational capitalists Strong armed squads Private detective agencies for the oh so very rich And their armies and navies and their air force bombing planes It had to be capitalism The vortex of this rage This competition Man to man The horses head in a capitalists' bed The Cuban turf It rumbles in hitmen And gang wars across oceans Bombing Cambodia settled the score when Soviet pilots manned Egyptian fighter planes Chiles' red democracy Bumped off with White House pots and pans A warning to Mediterranean governments The secret police have been embraced for decades The NKPD and CIA keep each other's secrets The OGBU and DIA never hit their own The KGB and the FBI are one mind Brute force and full of money Brute force, world-wide, and full of money Brute force, world-wide, and full of money Brute force, world-wide, and full of money Brute force, world-wide, and full of money It had to be rich and it had to be powerful They had to murder in Indonesia 500000 They had to murder in Indochina 2000000 They had to murder in Czechoslovakia They had to murder in Chile They had to murder in Russia And they had to murder in America. Yeah! Fuck The Police- Good Evening, We want to just quickly send a nice friendly message to uh, Fraternal Order of Police in Philadelphia. Here's something nice and friendly, Here's something nice and friendly, Here's something nice and friendly, and it goes something like this. Fuck tha police, Comin straight from the underground. Young nigga got it bad cuz I'm brown, And not the other color so police think, They have the authority to kill a minority. Fuck that shit, cuz I ain't tha one, For a punk mutha fucka with a badge and a gun, To be beatin on, and throwin in jail. We could go toe to toe in the middle of a cell. Fuckin with me cuz I'm a teenager, With a little bit of gold and a pager. Searchin my car, lookin for the product. Thinkin every nigga is sellin narcotics. You'd rather see me in the pen, Then me and Lorenzo chilling in the Benzo. Beat tha police outta shape, And when I'm finished, bring the yellow tape, To mark off the scene of the slaughter. No controller, bread and water. A young nigga on a warpath, And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath, Of cops, dyin in L. A. Yo, I got somethin to say. Fuck the police, Comon! Off, What? Fuck the police, Yeah! Comon! Fuck tha police, Yeah. Fuck The police, Comin straight from the underground. Young nigga got it bad cuz I'm brown, And not the other color so police think, They have the authority to kill a minority. Fuck that shit, cuz I ain't tha one, For a punk mutha fucka with a badge and a gun, To be beatin on, and throwin in jail. We could go toe to toe in the middle of a cell. Fuckin with me cuz I'm a teenager, With a little bit of gold and a pager. Searchin my car, lookin for the product. Thinkin every nigga is sellin narcotics. You'd rather see me in the pen, Then me and Lorenzo chilling in the Benzo. Beat tha police outta shape, And when I'm finished, bring the yellow tape, To mark off the scene of the slaughter. No controller, bread and water. I don't know if they fags or what, Search a nigga down and grabbin in the nuts. And on the other hand, without a gun they can't get none. But don't let it be a black and a white one. Cuz they slam ya down to the street top, Black police showin out for the white cop. Yeah, my brothas will swarm, On any mutha fucka in a blue uniform. Just cuz we in Washington D.C, punk police are afraid of me. Hey! Punk on a warpath, And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath, Of cops, dyin in L. A. Hey yo, We got somethin to say. Fuck the police, Comon, sing that shit, Right now, Comon! Comon! One more time, Here we go, here we go, Comon! One More, We gotta do it, right now, Yeah, Check it out. Darkness- Greed! Causing innocent blood to flow Entire culture, lost in the overthrow They came to seize and take whatever they please Then all they gave back was death and disease My people were left with no choice but to decide To conform to a system, responsible for genocide Responsible for genocide Responsible for genocide... Spoken: 'AIDS is killing the entire African nation And a vaccine is still supposedly under preparation But these governments they don't mind the procrastination They say "We'll kill them off, take their land and go there for vaction.' My people's culture was strong, it was pure And if not for that white greed It would've endured My people were left with no choice but to decide To conform to a system Their minds enslaved Their souls encaged I feel the rage It's brutality can never be undone But the sun is not yet set The bass and drums and microphones a threat That's when ya investigate the crimes from the inside And see that they're responsible for genocide Responsible for genocide Responsible for genocide... Ya cram ya culture down my throat Say I'm inferior when I find that I choke Ya fill my mind with a false sense of history And then you wonder why I have no identity? Well I'll strike a match and it'll catch and Spread the insight we need A tiny fire, burning bright Shedding light on the darkness of greed A yes yes y'all And ya don't stop Shedding light on the darkness of greed A yes yes y'all And ya don't stop Shedding light on the darkness of greed. Yeah! Clear The Lane- Hey yo! Let me be front This is real and not a stunt I'm comin' to the forefront Shovel for the rapper and clear the lane 'Cos this jam is like a tomahawk chop Teach ya I'll never stop droppin' topics Vocal power? (a)yes I got it On central but their trying to clamp it down Flag was waving the wrong way so I shot it...down! Get down, and at the same time... Come up...down! This is a crime that shut us up I don't give a fuck 'Cos the words and the thoughts still hit And like I said It's not a skit Jump another hit Yeah Ya know I don't need a drum kit Make 'em say awwww shit! The rebellion is true and legit Down! Get down!...and clear the lane Down! Get down!...and clear the lane Down! Get down!...and clear the land Down! Get down!...yeah! The rebel You'll never disable Defiance With the cards upon the table Pulling cards Keep the governements in check Yo! I think we need a new deck Never could trust a phillabusta' The mic is like a fist and it'll bust ya With words cold hittin' with the underground And now you're checkin' out the new sound Live hit A live pop Live rock And ya don't stop It goes on and on and on Who's a threat? C'mon, the war is on! Down! Get down!...and clear the lane Down! Get down!...and clear the lane Down! Get down!...and clear the lane Down! Get down!...and clear the lane (guitar solo) Start droppin' Our words are never safe Fighting myself 'Till I'm where I gotta be I challange, don't sweat it Now don't you forget it Check me? What? Wait You better slow down! Realize I can't confine my rhyme to a beat I need cash so when I'm cool I'm never ever weak Places are fluid and diluted and complete Check me once, calm down and take a seat Strip the chains the freedom's there but then it's gone! Ugh...clear the lane Ugh...clear the lane Ugh...clear the lane Ugh...clear the lane Defiance Rippin' up the south set Every time I'm grippin' the mic it is a sound threat Resist against the suckers that bring the bass in Timmy C Bring that bass in! Ugh...clear the lane Ugh...clear the lane Ugh...clear the lane Ugh...clear the lane

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