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New World Water Lyrics
[Mos Def]
There's nothing more refreshing (that cool refreshing drink)
Than a cool, crisp, clean glass of water
On a warm summer's day (That cool refreshing drink)
Try it with your friends
New World Water make the tide rise high
Come inland and make your house go "Bye" (My house!)
Fools done upset the Old Man River
Made him carry slave ships and fed him dead nigga
Now his belly full and he about to flood somethin
So I'ma throw a rope that ain't tied to nothin
Tell your crew use the H2 in wise amounts since
it's the New World Water; and every drop counts
You can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna
But it don't rain for four weeks some summers
And it's about to get real wild in the half
You be buying Evian just to take a fuckin bath
Heads is acting wild, sippin poor, puffin dank
Competin with the next man for higher playin rank
See I ain't got time try to be Big Hank,
Fuck a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank
Cause while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin they goods
The sun is sitting in the treetops burnin the woods
And as the flames from the blaze get higher and higher
They say, "Don't drink the water! We need it for the fire!"
New York is drinkin it (New World Water)
Now all of California is drinkin it (New World Water)
Way up north and down south is drinkin it (New World Water)
Used to have minerals and zinc in it (New World Water)
Now they say it got lead and stink in it (New World Water)
Fluorocarbons and monoxide
Push the water table lopside
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause oil tankers spill they load as they roam cross the sea
Man, you gotta cook with it, bathe and clean with it (That's right)
When it's hot, summertime you fiend for it (Let em know)
You gotta put it in the iron you steamin with (That's right)
It's what they dress wounds and treat diseases with (Shout it out)
The rich and poor, black and white got need for it (That's right)
And everybody in the world can agree with this (Let em know)
Consumption promotes health and easiness (That's right)
Go too long without it on this earth and you leavin it (Shout it out)
Americans wastin it on some leisure shit (Say word?)
And other nations be desperately seekin it (Let em know)
Bacteria washing up on they beaches (Say word?)
Don't drink the water, son they can't wash they feet with it (Let em know)
Young babies in perpetual neediness (Say word?)
Epidemics hopppin up off the petri dish (Let em know)
Control centers try to play it all secretive (Say word?)
To avoid public panic and freakiness (Let em know)
There are places where TB is common as TV
Cause foreign-based companies go and get greedy
The type of cats who pollute the whole shore line
Have it purified, sell it for a dollar twenty-five
Now the world is drinkin it
Your moms, wife, and baby girl is drinkin it
Up north and down south is drinkin it
You should just have to go to your sink for it
The cash registers is goin "cha-chink!" for it
Fluorocarbons and monoxide
Got the fish lookin cockeyed
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause it's all about gettin that cash (Money)
Said it's all about gettin that cash (Money) (x9)
Johny cash (Money)
Roseland cash (Money)
Give me cash (Money)
Cold cash (Money)
(Repeat to fade)
Cash rules everything around me,
Move!
There's nothing more refreshing (that cool refreshing drink)
Than a cool, crisp, clean glass of water
On a warm summer's day (That cool refreshing drink)
Try it with your friends
Come inland and make your house go "Bye" (My house!)
Fools done upset the Old Man River
Made him carry slave ships and fed him dead nigga
Now his belly full and he about to flood somethin
So I'ma throw a rope that ain't tied to nothin
Tell your crew use the H2 in wise amounts since
it's the New World Water; and every drop counts
You can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna
But it don't rain for four weeks some summers
And it's about to get real wild in the half
You be buying Evian just to take a fuckin bath
Heads is acting wild, sippin poor, puffin dank
Competin with the next man for higher playin rank
See I ain't got time try to be Big Hank,
Fuck a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank
Cause while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin they goods
The sun is sitting in the treetops burnin the woods
And as the flames from the blaze get higher and higher
They say, "Don't drink the water! We need it for the fire!"
New York is drinkin it (New World Water)
Now all of California is drinkin it (New World Water)
Way up north and down south is drinkin it (New World Water)
Used to have minerals and zinc in it (New World Water)
Now they say it got lead and stink in it (New World Water)
Fluorocarbons and monoxide
Push the water table lopside
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause oil tankers spill they load as they roam cross the sea
Man, you gotta cook with it, bathe and clean with it (That's right)
When it's hot, summertime you fiend for it (Let em know)
You gotta put it in the iron you steamin with (That's right)
It's what they dress wounds and treat diseases with (Shout it out)
The rich and poor, black and white got need for it (That's right)
And everybody in the world can agree with this (Let em know)
Consumption promotes health and easiness (That's right)
Go too long without it on this earth and you leavin it (Shout it out)
Americans wastin it on some leisure shit (Say word?)
And other nations be desperately seekin it (Let em know)
Bacteria washing up on they beaches (Say word?)
Don't drink the water, son they can't wash they feet with it (Let em know)
Young babies in perpetual neediness (Say word?)
Epidemics hopppin up off the petri dish (Let em know)
Control centers try to play it all secretive (Say word?)
To avoid public panic and freakiness (Let em know)
There are places where TB is common as TV
Cause foreign-based companies go and get greedy
The type of cats who pollute the whole shore line
Have it purified, sell it for a dollar twenty-five
Now the world is drinkin it
Your moms, wife, and baby girl is drinkin it
Up north and down south is drinkin it
You should just have to go to your sink for it
The cash registers is goin "cha-chink!" for it
Fluorocarbons and monoxide
Got the fish lookin cockeyed
Used to be free now it cost you a fee
Cause it's all about gettin that cash (Money)
Johny cash (Money)
Roseland cash (Money)
Give me cash (Money)
Cold cash (Money)
(Repeat to fade)
Move!
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I think srvhendrix is missing the point. New world water is a takeover from the regular style of water we have (or had) now. New World Water is when corporations come into a foreign country and force the country to privitize the water supply, making even rain water illegal (as they've done in countries in South America before rebellion forced them to give it back to the public). It is also talking about how the pollution has made it so that every public source of drinking water except the shit supplied to you by corporations is virtually undrinkable. They pollute your water, then sell it back to you. I think the pivotal lines in this song are, "There are places where TB is common as TV / Cause foreign-based companies go and get greedy / The type of cats who pollute the whole shore line / Have it purified, sell it for a dollar twenty-five"
It is about how we waste water and that we are slowly moving to the point when we will regret our wastfeulness. My favorite line..."You be buying Evian just to take a fuckin bath" We will regret it because of how much it will cost us. Mos Def is on of my favorite MCs. Him and Talib Kweli, so lyrical.
One may also interpret the song as entirely metaphorical, the "water" representing the dangerous direction the world is heading towards. Mos Def uses the concept of "new world" water to describe the negative way that humans are tampering with the natural order. When he explains that "Heads is acting wild, sippin poor, puffin dank/Competin with the next man for higher playin rank/See I ain't got time try to be Big Hank,/Fuck a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank he criticizes the overcompetitive dog-eat-dog world for ignoring the big picture: that we are destroying the world we are living in with pollution, crime, greed and hatred. He warns that soon we will be forced to pay our repercussions, that "while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin they goods, the sun is sitting in the treetops burnin the woods". Greed seems to be his major concern, perhaps because he believes that all the problems caused by civilization are rooted in our intrinsic nature to constantly desire for more. He explains that "it's all about gettin that cash (Money)".
My comment originally was much longer but my pc crashed so: New world water is a reference to the term 'New World Order' (notice the similarity in pronounciation of water/order) as introduced by Woodrow Wilson. It also reflects upon the merits of United Nations, WTO, the Bretton Woods system and the subsequently proposed New International Economic Order (as proposed by developing countries). In essence it refers to the abuse of both human "capital" and natural resources as tradeable commodities, whose worths are determined by supply and demand rather than their 'intrinsic' values. This is also reflected in the proposal of mechanisms to counter carbon emissions under the Kyoto protocol. (Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_International_Economic_Order, it supports buckwilder's claim)