I still remember when I bought this Coolio cd. It was 1994, and I lived in Curacao, one of the former Dutch Caribbean Islands. I didn’t listen much to radio back then, but I often went to one of the few record stores and just browsed through de cd’s and picked the ones that spoke to me to listen to in the store, that way, I had a nice couple of hours of listening to unknown music and with some luck some new music to take home for keeps.
I never had a specific taste for rap music, but I started listening to Ice-T and Ice Cube around that same time because of the seriousness of their lyrics and what they tried to tell. They sometimes fooled around also, but this Coolio cd was for sure more lighthearted. I still listen to it every now and then, that’s why I keep my cd player around and all the CDs I ever bought, I am a sentimental guy, and these old CDs bring me back to those day’s like little time machines in a box.
I have not followed his career or life, but I hope he had a good life and a peaceful way of leaving us all…
The number you can listen to and read the lyrics from is his most famous song “Gangsta’s paradise, it has some good lyrics, and as a part-time philosopher, I can pick and appreciate some lines that are, for me, timeless in the describing the world we still live in.
I have all kinds of music on my phone, but besides Alanis Morissette, I have only all the albums of Eminem on it. I don’t exactly know why I like his music; it is not his lyrics; he often goes so fast that it is hard to follow for me, it is probably his energy. I like watching YouTube videos where they react to and explain his music, which gives me another appreciation and understanding of why he is praised so highly. I think he has a lot of talent, and he found a lucrative outlet for that; but he is still the tortured artist he’s always been, but he also stayed true to himself and his art.
I am listening to eighties music on YouTube and was thinking about my nostalgic period of the month. I guess because I was a teenager back then that that’s why I love that music so mush, even the song I didn’t like back then.
You are so mush emptier when you’re young that every sip of life makes a deeper impression then they do now, when you are older, and you are full…almost full.
When I go to bed I often hope to dream about those days, maybe my cat is doing that now.
I you think about anarchism and music you think about punk, if I think about punk I think about Crass.
The lyrics might not always be refined but they come straight from the heard and are in essence not different than a pamphlet from a revolutionary anarchist from the 19th century or more learned books from the twentieth century.
I will show here parts of some lyrics that speak to me with links to youtube if you like to listen to it.
I translated a Dutch song, for some reason I wanted to share it today. Like the stairs in this picture, the conflict described in this song is also seemingly going nowhere.
Fresku – Omgekeerde wereld (upside down world)
I hear you say, you are a citizen of the world
Why are you closing your eyes now?
Just won “Best Artist” Frisse
Better keep your eyes closed now.
What would I be worth as a famous rapper?
Even though I just do not offer any resistance?
How can people call this a war?
Gaza does not even have an army man.
How can a man take the life of a child?
How can I continue to entertain you in the meantime?
Imagine that you live in those regions.
What would you do if you wanted to live?
If we, the West, do not offer the Palestinians an army,
tell me this, how should Hamas choose for peace now?
Politics is dirty, I see how many lie
no principles, is this a war or genocide?
War or genocide, would this be the choices?
Would this be the choices, would this be my choice?
Looking forward? Dear brother, I feel helpless.
Oh dear sister, forgive me that I chickened out.
I am buried in my own fears.
Fears that you dream to ever have.
The oppressor makes your home a cage.
Which he then throws flat with his rockets.
I saw a father crying for his baby.
And his baby was not even a year.
Is that how warfare is going today?
Bombing? innocent people live there.
The British took land and lives from the Indians
Now these people call themselves Americans
Now they support Israel to do this too?
in 2012? Obama should be ashamed of himself.
Now there are deaths from both sides.
Countries watch how bodies fall.
Misled by all the lies, we become more confused.
Most of them barely understand how it is and chose to close their eyes,
because they are going crazy, as Palestinians succumb to the stress.
and are now willing to kill because of lack of hope
and to die for, with the hope to create new hope again
Open the hell and pay them back with a bunch of rockets
in the name of God. Kill people in the name of God
until hatred makes me what I hate and I break your state.
Israel, you took everything away from me.
My food, shelter, my sons just shot down
Sorry that I chose to talk like that
Words that I do not support
but I can not choose, to choose nothing, while people die
Or do you prefer that I make jokes in the meantime?
I do not want to entertain you.
Speak to you as a father
If I close my eyes to this,
consider me as a perpetrator
Of course we are hoping that things will get better
and we want peace there, everyone is against hatred
Easy talking for us, we are not at risk
meanwhile, Palestine is turning into a reservation.
They want peace but do not believe in it
and I understand that, I also value my home and family
To call civilians terrorists so you can pick them up
to then put Israeli in their homes
Believe that you count inspiration is a means
Believe that you count inspiration is a means
Believe that you count inspiration is a means
For all my people in the opposite world.
Where many parents have to bury their children
to callout their names and call for mercy for far too long
where small children are the product of hatred and anger
praying that the perpetrators pay and seek revenge with stone
however sacred your land may be, children are more holy
I am a terrorist? you are trying to hurt my child
can it still be more hypocritical? Take a good look at how I live
my population is shrinking by the day, yours is still growing
I do not want to say stupid things
but I can not live longer and bottle this up
My mind must predominate
because if I want to resist, than it is better to do something
for people with fewer rights, rather than resist me
against the perpetrators then conferm your prejudice
So you can say: “Fresku you are an angry Muslim.”
and I distract, no, I avoid that useless collision.
I prefer to turn this pain into compassion
I come into action, lovingly and chose my role tactically
all fighters, keep up hope and love, is my advice
and if that hatred can comes to you, do not go in reaction
But make a step-by-step plan
unite and make a step-by-step plan
I also doubt but hope that it is possible
be a leader for your supporters
But victims have no patience
because they always call for help
And the people who can help them have no idea
they say: “Why should I help, hell will also breaks out here.
Where two fight, two are to blame. ”
But if two dogs fight for one bone
then the third dog goes with it
Assad kills his own people and we focus on Palestine
Is there someone who now sympathizes with Syria?
And I do not want to ask anyone to have a side
but no one can lose their children and land
No one. And that is why I am on the side of love.
Because love is the only thing that destroys hatred and fear.
Destroyed. And love transcends religion.
And you can not transcend anything without love in your vision
Love transcends religion.
You can not transcend anything without love in your vision.
But make a step-by-step plan
unite and make a step-by-step plan
I also doubt but hope that it is possible
being a leader for your supporters is my train of thought
I you think about anarchism and music you think about punk, if I think about punk I think about Crass.
Nochrisis 