Proper Propaganda

By Dilated Peoples

On Expansion Team

Released on October 23, 2001

8K Views

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[Intro: Harry Allen]

We're coming to you live from the Scottish Rite Temple

Near the intersection of Crenshaw and Wiltshire

Where, as you can see in the background

Military personnel are mobilized and waiting orders

Despite the quiet and the deceptive calm, tension is still

Thick in the air after last night's concert and rebellion

The incident was allegedly sparked by police officers trying

To shut down a reportedly peaceful concert by hip-hop artists Dilated Peoples

We'll keep you updated with any new developments

For Triclops Media Watch, this is Harry Allen

Hip-hop activist and media assassin

And now, Proper Propaganda


[Verse 1 - Rakaa Iriscience]

We handle it, these brothers are fabulous

Dilated's showing you what rhyme travel is

Words spitoon from sunlight to moon

Busting on stage like gunfights in saloons

Click-clack, pull my mic back, you like that

Journalists, we're journalists too, we could strike back

Hardcore reporters with orders from headquarters

Behind enemy lines, sidestepping the borders

Repressed caps, we bring it to you as it happens

The streets love my crew from music to rapping

Street commander slash beat expander

Here to fight the slander with the proper propaganda

What's happening, you got a question then ask it

The news is just a TV show, get past it

And this from a quiet wartime journalist

Headlines, wake up, refuse and resist

Resist, like this, like this

Like thi-thi-thi-thi-thi-thi-thi-this, y'all


[Hook]

We kick finance action, and scores of sports

Politics, new fashion and war reports

Entertainment, when we come to perform

Watch, the illest weatherman in the biz with the storm watch

Triclops Media, record, tape and TV, Net radio, CD or DVD

Iriscience, write rhymes on picket signs

This is why Babu is scratching and keeping time


[Verse 2 - Rakaa Iriscience]

The pen is mightier than the sword

Cause the pen gives the word sending swords to war

They twisted it when he pulled Mao Tse-Tung

And said political power comes from the barrel of a gun

The officer meets his fate, .44 by .38

It was a dirty deed, but that don't mean a dirty case

Witnesses against the state are shushed

Facts overlooked so the judge can throw the book

Perhaps for politicians with something to prove

In the city where they blew the roof off of M.O.V.E

Questions when answered leads to more questions

Why it take months to deliver a confession

The principles are the same even without the name

But I still say M-U-M-I-A

I have to fight, it could easily be me

But just being the thinker than speaking it freely

Although I use my brain before using a fist

Don't push it, wake up, refuse and resist


[Hook]