I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
[Black Thought]
Move, if you got the nerve
Lash out for your just desserts
It's not just the worth
Some of y'all heads up in the clouds
I'ma bring y'all back to earth
It's black back to birth
Bullshit y'all talkin' 'bout
Out ya mouth, I'm not concerned
Cause y'all got the nerve
It's y'all turn like Detroit red
When he said he had an ultra perm
The long walk to burn your bare heels
So they worn your boots
The game camouflage like army suits
But I can see it more clear cause I came with the coup in here
Ring the alarm and form the troops
Send 'em out into the world, go to war in a fluke
Eye to eye with the enemy you sworn to shoot
Now comin' at ya neck sick ya hand, something wrong with me
Motherfucker somethin's wrong with you
When you cheat just way to smart to question
The enemy the brothers of a dark complexion
The governments of the world is shark infested
They heavy on weaponry like Charelton Heston
Man yeah it gets low here uh, real low
Know what I'm talkin' 'bout?
[Chorus]
I ain't rockin' with you, so what what you goin do? (it's my favorite mutiny)
I ain't rockin' with you, you're logic does not compute (it's my favorite mutiny)
[Boots]
Death to the pigs is my basic statement
I spit street stories 'til I taste the pavement
Tryin' to stay out the pen while we face enslavement
Had a foolproof hustle 'til they traced the payments
I was grippin' my palm around some shitty rum
Tryin' to find psalm number 151
To forget what I'm owed, as I clutch the commode
Alright, put down the bottle and come get the guns
I get off the chain like Kunta Kinte with a MAC-10
They want us gone like a dollar in a crack den
Said at least a track then, seeds & stems
Mind cloudy through the wheeze and phlegm
I'm get my brain off of that and the Jesus hymns
If we waiting for the time to fight, these is thems
Tellin' us to relax while they ease it in. We gettin greased again
The truth I write is so cold, It'd freeze my pen
I'm Boots Riley it's a pleasure to meet you
Never let they punk ass ever defeat you
They got us on the corner wearin pleather and see through
All y'all's gold mines they wanna deplete you
I ain't just fin to rap on the track, I fin to clap on the back
And it's been stackin' to that
Been a hundred years before iceberg ever lean back in the 'lac
Before they told Rosa black in the back
Before the CIA told Ricky Ross to put crack in the sack
And Gil-Scott tradin' rappin for smack
This beat alone should get platinum plaques
I'd rather see a million of us ecstatic to scrack
'Cause if we bappin' 'em back we automatically stack
[Chorus]
[Talib Kweli]
This the guy like Truman C[e1]
Riq, Boots and me
Activate in the community
Up in the bay like Huey P
It's like a free, it remind me of the be Kder's love for me
But beats got it twisted, I'll untangle it
Black mind is entwined like the ropes they used to hang us with
This is my favorite shit, I came in the game with any way to spit
Ya got a questionnaire, who you bangin' with?
Take it back to M hotel
Throw a step deeper like a poor righteous teacher with holy intellect
Killer flow form a real niggaz laughin'
And forni fairly at a jigabou at a penitent (???)
Once again you can feel hip-hop
Underground, still about McGruff
Gangsta like, fuck the cops
Talib Kweli revolutionary mc, and that ain't about stuff
[Chorus]
Move, if you got the nerve
Lash out for your just desserts
It's not just the worth
Some of y'all heads up in the clouds
I'ma bring y'all back to earth
It's black back to birth
Bullshit y'all talkin' 'bout
Out ya mouth, I'm not concerned
Cause y'all got the nerve
It's y'all turn like Detroit red
When he said he had an ultra perm
The long walk to burn your bare heels
So they worn your boots
The game camouflage like army suits
But I can see it more clear cause I came with the coup in here
Ring the alarm and form the troops
Send 'em out into the world, go to war in a fluke
Eye to eye with the enemy you sworn to shoot
Now comin' at ya neck sick ya hand, something wrong with me
Motherfucker somethin's wrong with you
When you cheat just way to smart to question
The enemy the brothers of a dark complexion
The governments of the world is shark infested
They heavy on weaponry like Charelton Heston
Man yeah it gets low here uh, real low
Know what I'm talkin' 'bout?
[Chorus]
I ain't rockin' with you, so what what you goin do? (it's my favorite mutiny)
I ain't rockin' with you, you're logic does not compute (it's my favorite mutiny)
[Boots]
Death to the pigs is my basic statement
I spit street stories 'til I taste the pavement
Tryin' to stay out the pen while we face enslavement
Had a foolproof hustle 'til they traced the payments
I was grippin' my palm around some shitty rum
Tryin' to find psalm number 151
To forget what I'm owed, as I clutch the commode
Alright, put down the bottle and come get the guns
I get off the chain like Kunta Kinte with a MAC-10
They want us gone like a dollar in a crack den
Said at least a track then, seeds & stems
Mind cloudy through the wheeze and phlegm
I'm get my brain off of that and the Jesus hymns
If we waiting for the time to fight, these is thems
Tellin' us to relax while they ease it in. We gettin greased again
The truth I write is so cold, It'd freeze my pen
I'm Boots Riley it's a pleasure to meet you
Never let they punk ass ever defeat you
They got us on the corner wearin pleather and see through
All y'all's gold mines they wanna deplete you
I ain't just fin to rap on the track, I fin to clap on the back
And it's been stackin' to that
Been a hundred years before iceberg ever lean back in the 'lac
Before they told Rosa black in the back
Before the CIA told Ricky Ross to put crack in the sack
And Gil-Scott tradin' rappin for smack
This beat alone should get platinum plaques
I'd rather see a million of us ecstatic to scrack
'Cause if we bappin' 'em back we automatically stack
[Chorus]
[Talib Kweli]
This the guy like Truman C[e1]
Riq, Boots and me
Activate in the community
Up in the bay like Huey P
It's like a free, it remind me of the be Kder's love for me
But beats got it twisted, I'll untangle it
Black mind is entwined like the ropes they used to hang us with
This is my favorite shit, I came in the game with any way to spit
Ya got a questionnaire, who you bangin' with?
Take it back to M hotel
Throw a step deeper like a poor righteous teacher with holy intellect
Killer flow form a real niggaz laughin'
And forni fairly at a jigabou at a penitent (???)
Once again you can feel hip-hop
Underground, still about McGruff
Gangsta like, fuck the cops
Talib Kweli revolutionary mc, and that ain't about stuff
[Chorus]
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Thanks for all the corrections / suggestions. I made most of them (a few I didn't agree with or there were conflicting corrections). I also think some of ambiguity is interesting. Like the beast (beats) I'll untangle it. It reminds me of the first coup album where Boots used a lot of double entendres such as.Mao Zedung (mouth say tongue) which I think was a deliberate ambiguous play on these homophones.
This is one of my favorite songs on the album. I like the double entrendre on psalm 151 both looking for a revolution like David slaying Goliath and looking for A namebrand rum (to replace the shitty rum). Just some great Boot lyrics.