Listen: Lauryn Hill’s “Black Rage (Sketch)” Dedicated To Ferguson

Back in 2012 Lauryn Hill debuted this song called “Black Rage” during her "Life Is Good" tour, but given the current events of a Ferguson police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager called Michael Brown, Hill has decided to share the demo track as dedication that she recorded in her living room. 

It’s a re-working of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic track “My Favorite Things,” that she turns into a political driven track:  “Black rage is founded on two-thirds of a person, rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens, black human packages tied up in strings, black rage can come from all these kinds of things.” 

You can listen to the song and read the lyrics below.

"Black rage is founded on two-thirds a person
Rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens,
Black human packages tied up with strings
Black rage can come from all these kinds of things.
Black rage is founded on blatant denial
Squeezed economics, subsistence survival
Deafening silence and social control
Black rage is founded on wounds in the soul!
When the dogs bite, when the beatings,
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember all these kinds of things
And then I don’t fear so bad…
Black rage is founded: who fed us self hatred
Lies and abuse while we waited and waited?
Spiritual treason
This grid and its cages
Black rage was founded on these kinds of things
Black rage is founded on draining and draining
Threatening your freedom to stop your complaining
Poisoning your water while they say it's raining
Then call you mad for complaining, complaining
Old time bureaucracy drugging the youth
Black rage is founded on blocking the truth!
Murder and crime, compromise and distortion
Sacrifice, sacrifice
Who makes this fortune?
Greed, falsely called progress,
Such human contortion,
Black rage is founded on these kinds of things
So when the dog bites
And the ceilings,
And I’m feeling mad
I simply remember all these kinds of things
And then I don’t fear so bad
Free enterprise, is it myth or illusion
Forcing you back into purposed confusion.
Black human trafficking or blood transfusion?
Black rage is founded on these kinds of things.
Victims of violence
Both psyche and body
Life out of context IS living ungodly
Politics, politics
Greed falsely called wealth
Black rage is founded on denying of self.
Black human packages
Tied and subsistence
Having to justify very existence
Try if you must
But you can’t have my soul
Black rage is founded on ungodly control
So when the dog bites
And the beatings
And I’m feeling so sad
I simply remember all these kinds of things
And then I don’t feel so bad"

0 Comments

Before you comment remember...
1. Don't be rude!
2. Stay on topic of the post. If you don't stay on topic, either state "off-topic" or your comment will be deleted.
3. If you want to ask an off-topic question and don't see the proper post for it, please e-mail me about it.
4. Don't spam or promote your blog or service. Please e-mail me if you'd like an add to my blog list or need for me to update your blog's URL. If your blog is similar in subject to mine, you will be added to the list.