This has to be the best, catchiest hook I've ever written. It started as a conversation with Phillip Morris as we were building Kinda Gangsta. I said the titular phrase and Phillip suggested (maybe half-jokingly) that I commission a beat called Republican Tears from Tha TruthTella for us to rock together, and then I basically did that.
lyrics
PHILLIP MORRIS:
Now is justice the art which gives good to friends and evil to enemies,
Or nothing else in the interest of the stronger people?
How many belligerent Republicans have read Plato's Republic?
Probably little to none of them.
The President belittles the public and gets away with it
Voting really doesn't work in these days, and it
Pains my soul to even have to say this shit
Slave in the matrix, still set upon makin a statement
And I'll never fake it until I make it,
Rather put em on blast and post it
Even though they can erase it
Niggas set up as weak, language is faded,
I got my mind organized, feng shui is amazing
Everything is in place now
Everything I write these days I'll be damned if my lovely mama ain't proud
I am often overlooked like the performance of
Ryan Reynolds in the movie Safe House.
Republican tears, cryin over less rules
When I fuckin appear, I'm cryin over Deadpool
Plus I can't respect a President with bad hair,
But go ahead and introduce him with the fanfare.
HOOK:
Music is kinda like the drugs and the beer,
It helps us to escape all our troubles and fears,
And we ain't all about that pain and suffering here,
But we love the taste of Republican tears.
Fox News steady pumpin that fear,
Spreadin lies to keep god-king Trump in the clear,
And we ain't all about that pain and suffering here,
But we love the taste of Republican tears.
TOM SWIFTY:
My social media feed is half outraged, half complacent,
And the ones without the attention span to be pissed have white faces
I ain't saying they racist, just apathetic and so defensive
Hate to admit we still benefit from a system built on human enslavement,
And even after that you can trace the path of progress
By who's finally startin to get a bit more and who has still got less
Sometimes a new system gets put in place to fill up the spot left
Rich, white men still keep slaves in the prison-industrial complex.
Some forms of change is just more of the same
Soldiers still decorate their uniforms with foreigners' brains
That's if they get close enough, most of em just push buttons,
Playing video games with other lives that don't mean nothin to them,
But if they kill a friend by accident, they might just get
A feelin that perhaps this end is classified as righteous death
Who decides your laws? Who makes your religion?
Maybe they be playin puppeteer with precision
Unoriginal philosophies say drop to ya knees for property
Hypocrisy is rampant, we stay lampin--that's a policy!
Me? I talk a big game, but need to get back to livin it
Writin a song for the cause ain't really much more than slacktivism--I admit it!
HOOK
DICK V:
I'm searching for freedom; a meaningful place
Where peaceful people lead the way and this epidemic's at bay.
We ain't got time here to waste our lives fearing
Policies monopolies and following tears.
I got a trail of my own, so let me let it be known,
I'm better sent to the hole than elected senator or president; still better than those
We sent to meddle in homes and make America great again.
I'm betting they don't.
Plus it wasn't great in the first place
Unless you love money, white people and birth rates.
It's like a date rape turned to a relationship.
I love my country but the history just makes me sick.
Fuck your pride; not just this administration.
I don't fly a flag because I understand we're not the greatest.
In fact we're subpar, unhealthy as a nation,
Playing games with people's hearts; upcharging every patient.
Better pages written after now than back then.
I refuse to live my greatest days in past tense.
Let's strike a match stick, burn them down with fact checks,
Learn them how to have respect and purge them like we have sense.
No greater time to rebuild than in this moment.
I feel the average citizen's intelligent and relevant still.
Instead of testing everyone's will;
Question the debt and the bills.
Question the threats and the kills.
Question the sentences condemning desperate men to live ill.
Question the benefits executives collect on the hill.
Live with benevolence, except when ripping limbs from the system.
Dismember the fed and put an end to politicians.
Born in Springfield, Illinois, and raised in the southern Midwest of Missouri, Ezra Stead became Tom Swifty in Minneapolis
when he began rapping live and recording quality tracks over ten years ago. Before that, they were... not so quality. Back in Minneapolis after 10 years in NYC, Swifty's latest albums prove that he's never been better....more
Chicago emcee Phillip Morris and French producer Tha TruthTella team up for one of the most endlessly replayable albums I own. Phillip's lyrics are super-clever and his delivery is crisp and flawless. Tom Swifty
My man Sean Anonymous is one of the sharpest emcees in the game right now, and he's currently blowing up in our hometown of Minneapolis. This is his debut solo effort. Tom Swifty