In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Diamonds are forever,
they wont leave in the night i've no fear that they might.
Desert me!!
Uhh, F and F, uhh
Diamonds are forever
Yeah, ya no what im saying
I figure, I feel like i should just, ya no
Show people the other side that wonder where,
ya no wat im sayin, that are presently unaware.
They dont know about it, ya no wat im sayin,
ya no jus show em theres another side to this thing right here,
its called bling!
[Verse 1:]
Allow me to break down the game,
behind the bracelets, earrings, chains, watches and rings.
The bling,
the crystal incrusted, princess flooded,
canary studded, blue coloured and blood stained.
Yeah the older brother of the drug game,
that give her a fame, then take away her lane.
the empowerer of the kings that came to claims and disease
believe wat the native people were saying.
Believe, my engagement ring received and flossed at
the cost of a bondage child minus pain.
Long ago kings use to wear em in their armour,
when they fought other armies, because it use to scare em.
If you wasn't rich couldn't wear em.
Witches use to marry, and they'd shoot you before they share em.
The gift and the curse, the venom and the serum.
Most hated ladies best friend get murked for a clip.
[Chorus]
Diamonds are forever...
[Verse 2:]
Cecil Rhodes sold war and genocide
To the countryside just to get his shine on!
I fear what De Beers and his peers use to do,
before the world really knew, just to get their "mine" on!
Making paper with slave labour and hittin little kids
with life time bids making em cut and shine stones.
Inflating the price and making em look nice and i wasnt
thinking twice when i was putting mine on.
About a young shorty in Sierra Leone or other conflict
countries that people call home.
I figured i would never go to Angola so it never did
affect me that maybe indirectly.
That my neckleash was funding a rebellion or a military coup,
Started by militias that dont believe in following none of Geneva's rules.
I was brushing off the haters, trying to be cool.
Didnt have a clue that the rapper was helping the rapers,
raiders of the villagers, pillagers of the schools.
Shooters of the innocent, torturers of the witnesses,
burners of the businesses
And my bracelet was the fuel.
Uhh, i aint pushing an agenda homie,
Im just pushing the facts, Fuck Bush!
Cuz theres people doin worse on this earth and there black,
I took it for years now let me bring it back,
We all know on foreign shores that they finance wars,
but asks yourself do they finance yours.
When i first got mine i took em out on tour,
they only lost half the value when i took em out the store.
Or it was full of moissanites and cubics but the jeweller
knew i was stupid and that i couldnt prove it.
Feeling like i need it because i do music,
to impress the groupies and the interviewers.
So i didnt appraise it, nor did i loop it,
even gave em to my girl, thinkin i was cupid.
Homies was all hate hoping they could make me lose
it, creeping through my own hood knew i had to remove it.
I see the Russian Mafia, the Jewish Mobsters,
the undercover terrorists and the traps for the hustlers.
Homie its a wrap for the nonsense rhyming,
props to Kanye i call this Conflict Diamonds.
[Chorus]
they wont leave in the night i've no fear that they might.
Desert me!!
Uhh, F and F, uhh
Diamonds are forever
Yeah, ya no what im saying
I figure, I feel like i should just, ya no
Show people the other side that wonder where,
ya no wat im sayin, that are presently unaware.
They dont know about it, ya no wat im sayin,
ya no jus show em theres another side to this thing right here,
its called bling!
[Verse 1:]
Allow me to break down the game,
behind the bracelets, earrings, chains, watches and rings.
The bling,
the crystal incrusted, princess flooded,
canary studded, blue coloured and blood stained.
Yeah the older brother of the drug game,
that give her a fame, then take away her lane.
the empowerer of the kings that came to claims and disease
believe wat the native people were saying.
Believe, my engagement ring received and flossed at
the cost of a bondage child minus pain.
Long ago kings use to wear em in their armour,
when they fought other armies, because it use to scare em.
If you wasn't rich couldn't wear em.
Witches use to marry, and they'd shoot you before they share em.
The gift and the curse, the venom and the serum.
Most hated ladies best friend get murked for a clip.
[Chorus]
Diamonds are forever...
[Verse 2:]
Cecil Rhodes sold war and genocide
To the countryside just to get his shine on!
I fear what De Beers and his peers use to do,
before the world really knew, just to get their "mine" on!
Making paper with slave labour and hittin little kids
with life time bids making em cut and shine stones.
Inflating the price and making em look nice and i wasnt
thinking twice when i was putting mine on.
About a young shorty in Sierra Leone or other conflict
countries that people call home.
I figured i would never go to Angola so it never did
affect me that maybe indirectly.
That my neckleash was funding a rebellion or a military coup,
Started by militias that dont believe in following none of Geneva's rules.
I was brushing off the haters, trying to be cool.
Didnt have a clue that the rapper was helping the rapers,
raiders of the villagers, pillagers of the schools.
Shooters of the innocent, torturers of the witnesses,
burners of the businesses
And my bracelet was the fuel.
Uhh, i aint pushing an agenda homie,
Im just pushing the facts, Fuck Bush!
Cuz theres people doin worse on this earth and there black,
I took it for years now let me bring it back,
We all know on foreign shores that they finance wars,
but asks yourself do they finance yours.
When i first got mine i took em out on tour,
they only lost half the value when i took em out the store.
Or it was full of moissanites and cubics but the jeweller
knew i was stupid and that i couldnt prove it.
Feeling like i need it because i do music,
to impress the groupies and the interviewers.
So i didnt appraise it, nor did i loop it,
even gave em to my girl, thinkin i was cupid.
Homies was all hate hoping they could make me lose
it, creeping through my own hood knew i had to remove it.
I see the Russian Mafia, the Jewish Mobsters,
the undercover terrorists and the traps for the hustlers.
Homie its a wrap for the nonsense rhyming,
props to Kanye i call this Conflict Diamonds.
[Chorus]
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Yea, other than not hearing of Cecil Rhodes and De Beers before, some of the misreadings are really bad.
corrected "came with claims And disease to leave where the native peoples were staying"
corrected "Most hated lady's best friend, get merked for a clear one."
corrected
"Cecil Rhodes sold woe and genocide into the countryside just to get his shine on I fear what De Beers and his peers used to do before the world really knew, just to get they mine on"
That my necklace was funding a rebellion or a military coo, [coup]
At my birth there was the few.
And my bracelet was the fuel
i took it for years now let me bring it back, [I took it to 'Ye]
they only lost half the value when i took em out the store. [I didn't know they lost half their value]