American Terrorist - Lupe Fiasco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTULR-WS5Yw

For those of you unaware of Lupe Fiasco, here is the wake-up call. First, i'll give a little background on him, and then talk about the song. Lupe was born and raised in Chicago, and is from 1st and 15th (this is referenced many times in his songs when he says FnF). A subject that comes up quite often in his lyrics is Islam, or the Nation of Islam. Im not here to argue theology, but its important to recognize this, because it influences his life, and consequently, his lyrics rather substantially.

I don't want to spend too much time on background, so i'll just get into the song.

"American Terrorist" is off the album "Lupe Fiasco's Food and Liquor".

Now, the reason i brought up his religious background is because he starts the song with a well-known Hadith, attributed, to Muhammad (PBUH). "The ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times that the blood of a martyr". This Hadith is in direct response to the line before it, asking "how do you forgive the murderer of your father", this has to with the tradition of revenge within Islam, but i digress.

What follows is different examples of terrorism within the United States. For example the slave trade: we came through the storm, nooses on our neck", the spread of small-pox throughout the native population "with small-pox blankets to keep us warm", 9/11 "747 on the Whitehouse Lawn", the anthrax panic a few months after 9/11 "Anthrax Lab on a West Virginia farm", and the proliferation of arms within communities, and its effect on children "Shorty ain't learned to walk, already heavily armed".

He then comments that this has hurt even the least amongst us: children, and innocent civilians. He blames all of this on religious thought: Camouflaged Torah's, Bibles, and Glorious Qur'ans. Even though this literature is meant to help us lead a better life, it has become a scapegoat for terrorism. He attacks those that don't pay attention to what they read, and just swallow everything without thinking- this ties into the name of the album, "Food and Liquor". He says: "We read em with blind eyes, i guarantee you, there's more there". He then calls out the rich, for not helping the poor. This is because helping the poor is one of the five pillars of Islam, and if you're not a Muslim, but a Christian, look no further than the book of Luke. Now i could go deeper into this and talk about Marx, but im going to stay away from that for now. He then alludes to politicians, and how they 'need to open up a park, just close ten schools'. This idea contiunes when he, as i believe, alludes to the race riots of the 1960's: "get the fire department, they're down here marching for freedom". He finishes the verse with the governments response to all of this: Media. "Turn on the T.V. to teach em"

The chorus speaks to how money is the root of this all. "The more money that they make, the better and better they live". This greed perpetuates hate, and a lack of empathy for the poor. I've seen a couple interviews with Lupe in which he talks about equality, and that he just wants everyone to be on the same economic level . . . perhaps he's a bit idealistic here, and a bit Utopian, but its a nice thought.

This idea of money continues into the next verse when he uses a very odd reference, especially for a black rapper: "now the poor klu klux man see that we all brothers, not because things are the same, but because we lack the same colour, and that's green...". Obviously he's saying that Money (green) is what we all need, or don't need, to be equal. I think that he's saying money is the cause of racism. Again i could go into Marx, and his thoughts on private ownership, but Lupe is really echoing Marx with this idea. He then brings up more examples of terrorism, and his first example is the cliche image of a Muslim woman with a bomb strapped to her chest, but he also says that its not just Muslim's that create terror: "Just imagine a Christian-based American organization planning to poison water to bring the second-coming quicker".

The next few lines are the best in the song, in my opinion. He tackles corporate America for their terrorism of poor people, and people of other cultures. I'm not going to quote the whole section, but the examples are just haunting. He showcases the process involved in destroying a culture. Bring in democracy (because its obviously better), show them that your culture is better, buy their property (with Coca-Cola, or Gum, in this instance), then give them Guns, and do it when they're young, and teach them that guns are fun. Then sit back and watch the culture self-destruct.

Now the final verse/outro is simply rhyming genius. I just need to quote it directly because its so good:

It's like
don't give the black man food,

give red man liquor
red man fool,

black man nigga
give yellow man tool,

make him railroad builder
also give him pan, make him pull gold from river

give black man crack, glocks and things,

give red man craps, slot machines.

He follow the ABAB rhyme scheme throughout. rhyming food with fool, liquor (pronounced in the instance as liquah) with nigga, Fool with tool, builder with river, and so on. Really, he sums up the history of the United States suppression of other cultures, in one short, well rhymed, simple verse.

So, hopefully this wasn't too long for my first blog entry on this blog. Let me know what you guys think.