when I look across the world as it is now I find
it’s no longer capitalism that draws my ire
It’s the complete and total death
of colonialism that I desire
this is a form of blues that was taken up by whites
called talking blues and as you can hear it isn’t rap
I could say that it’s a Victorian style recitative
but over a twelve bar blues bass line
who’s going to buy that crap
May I at this time point out that settlers really should not
imitate the folks who make the money
they earned the right to rap like that
and when we do it it just isn’t funny
or topical or edgy or forward facing or cool
it’s something called appropriation
holy shit that’s exactly like
what happened in the founding of our nation
(Millenium Falcon dying noise unavailable for copyright reasons)
without all the death of course
(Bass line starts up again)
when I look across the world as it is now I find
it’s no longer capitalism that draws my ire
It’s the complete and total death
of colonialism that I desire
so that long after your ancestors
stole all that land and wealth
you seize the speech of oppressed peoples
and hug it to yourself (and your coterie of cool friends)
Theft becomes a habit that is really hard to break
lift up, restore and sing resolve not denigrate and take
when I look across the world as it is now I find
it’s no longer capitalism that draws my ire
It’s the complete and total death
of colonialism that I desire
I’m white for what it’s worth and I’m telling you it’s our job
Our unpaid job, our emotional labour
to quit thinking the world’s a shithole
and we don’t need to take care of our neighbours
to quit spending all our social capital
on the golden fucking age of tv
to kiss farewell the tensile promise of me me me
on a geologic scale we know not many of us will likely make it through
but I hope that temporarily someone will and I’m hoping that it’s you
you the people who will seize the peace in whatever form it takes
and lead who’s left to a better world before physics hits the brakes
when I look across the world as it is now I find
it’s no longer capitalism that draws my ire
It’s the complete and total death
of colonialism that I desire