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Rage Against The Machine
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Rage Against The Machine – Wake Up lyrics

Come on!
Come on, although ya try to discredit
Ya still never edit
The needle, I'll thread it
Radically poetic
Standin with the fury that they had in 66
And like e-double I'm mad
Still knee-deep in the systems shit
Hoover, he was a body remover
Ill give ya a dose
But it'll never come close
To the rage built up inside of me
Fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisy

Movements come and movements go
Leaders speak, movements cease
When their heads are flown
Cause all these punks
Got bullets in their heads
Departments of police, the judges, the feds
Networks at work, keepin people calm
You know they went after king
When he spoke out on vietnam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot


Yeah, back in this...
Wit poetry, my mind I flex
Flip like wilson, vocals never lackin dat finesse
To shake ya up, to break the structure up
Cause blood still flows in the gutter
I'm like takin photos
Mad boy kicks open the shutter
Set the groove
Then stick and move like I was cassius
Rep the stutter step
Then bomb a left upon the fascists
Yea, the several federal men
Who pulled schemes on the dream
And put it to an end

Ya better beware
Of retribution with mind war
20/20 visions and murals with metaphors

Networks at work, keepin people calm
Ya know they murdered x
And tried to blame it on islam
He turned the power to the have-nots
And then came the shot

What was the price on his head?
What was the price on his head!

I think I heard a shot (5 times)
I think I heard, I think I heard a shot

Background: black nationalism
He may be a real contender for this position should he
Abandon his supposed obediance to white liberal doctrine
Of non-violence... And embrace black nationalism
Through counter-intelligence it should be possible to
Pinpoint potential trouble-makers...
And neutralise them

Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!
Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

Spoken: how long? Not long, cause
What you reap is what you sow.

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  • m
    mossman87Jun 16, 2009 at 4:22 pm
    This song is about the fbi's program cointelpro, started in the 1950s and ending in the 1970s, that was responsible for controlling and elimating "threats" to the status quo. The program originally was developed to thwart perceived Communist action, but expanded to include the rights for women movement, the anti-war movement, and the civil rights movement, as well as other "dangerous activity". The song specifically refers to the fbi's involvement in the attempted control of the movements involving Martin Luther King, Jr. And Malcolm X.
  • u
    UnregisteredSep 3, 2012 at 4:55 pm
    It's about oppression, but the kind of oppression where you distract someone with illusions, like false choices, while you devour them by consuming their energy. Energy = work done. If you work a job where the pay doesn't fuel your body to do the work then you are expending energy that is not renewable. So while you convert your vitality into something tangible (money), and collect non-existent interest from your brothers' and sisters' "principal" pool only to give it to the bank man, you are being consumed. Wake up.
  • u
    UnregisteredApr 16, 2012 at 11:42 pm
    It is a powerful piece of art that describes the events of the 60's and all the people and their ideas to step out from the shadows of the government to say it how it is. The one problem was not enough people were stepping out, therefore it was easy for the government to wipe these figures from the playing field. Zach goes on to linking these ideas and actions to the present day, he asks us all to setp out of the shadows so we can not all be silenced, he tells us we need to wake up.

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