Lupe Fiasco’s “All Black Everything.”

Got to love this song. Well no, you don’t GOT to…but at least appreciate what Lupe is trying to do in a genre where conscious rap–while it surely isn’t dead its constant balancing act between sellability and socio-political responsibility often make it a  less-than-profitable venture record labels usually shy away from.

Lupe evidently aware of this still chooses to make music that straddles the space between head banger and mind pusher (although “banger” may be notably too strong of a word) and with some success.

So Kudos, for giving me a track where I can press play and lip sync to, without the symptomatic pangs of guilt.

Some verses filleted from the track “All Black Everything:”

Uh, and we ain’t get exploited
White man ain’t feared so he did not destroy it
We ain’t work for free, see they had to employ it
Built it up together so we equally appointed

First 400 years, see we actually enjoyed it
Constitution written by the W.E.B. Du Bois
Were no reconstructions, civil war got avoided
Little black sambo grows up to be a lawyer
Extra extra on the news stands
Black woman voted head of Ku Klux Klan

Malcolm Little dies as a old man
Martin Luther King read the eulogy for him
Followed by bill O’Reilly who read from the Quran
President bush sends condolences from Iran
Where Fox News reports live
That Ahmedinijad wins Mandela peace prize

Album, The Lasers drops March 8.

Naima

Naima "Nai" Ramos-Chapman is the Associate Editor at Campus Progress, a dancer with Taurus Broadhurst Dance in D.C., and an aspiring visual artist (she doodles). Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @Naimaramchap.