Whereas, breakbeats have been the missing link connecting the diasporic
community to its drum woven past
Whereas the quantised drum has allowed the whirling mathematicians to
calculate the ever changing distance between rock and stardom.
Whereas the velocity of the spinning vinyl, cross-faded, spun backwards, and
re-released at the same given moment of recorded history , yet at a
different moment in time's continuum has allowed history to catch up with
the present.

We do hereby declare reality unkempt by the changing standards of dialogue.
Statements, such as, "keep it real", especially when punctuating or
anticipating modes of ultra-violence inflicted psychologically or physically
or depicting an unchanging rule of events will hence forth be seen as
retro-active and not representative of the individually determined is.

Furthermore, as determined by the collective consciousness of this state of
being and the lessened distance between thought patterns and their secular
manifestations, the role of men as listening receptacles is to be increased
by a number no less than 70 percent of the current enlisted as vocal
aggressors.

Motherfuckers better realize, now is the time to self-actualize
We have found evidence that hip hops standard 85 rpm when increased by a
number as least half the rate of it's standard or decreased at ¾ of it's
speed may be a determining factor in heightening consciousness.

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the
unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Equate rhyme with reason, Sun with season

Our cyclical relationship to phenomenon has encouraged scholars to erase the
centers of periods, thus symbolizing the non-linear character of cause and
effect
Reject mediocrity!

Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which as been given
for you to understand.
The current standard is the equivalent of an adolescent restricted to the
diet of an infant.
The rapidly changing body would acquire dysfunctional and deformative
symptoms and could not properly mature on a diet of apple sauce and crushed
pears
Light years are interchangeable with years of living in darkness.
The role of darkness is not to be seen as, or equated with, Ignorance, but
with the unknown, and the mysteries of the unseen.

Thus, in the name of:
ROBESON, GOD'S SON, HURSTON, AHKENATON, HATHSHEPUT, BLACKFOOT, HELEN,
LENNON, KHALO, KALI, THE THREE MARIAS, TARA, LILITHE, LOURDE, WHITMAN,
BALDWIN, GINSBERG, KAUFMAN, LUMUMBA, Gandhi, GIBRAN, SHABAZZ, SIDDHARTHA,
MEDUSA, GUEVARA, GUARDSIEFF, RAND, WRIGHT, BANNEKER, TUBMAN, HAMER, HOLIDAY,
DAVIS, COLTRANE, MORRISON, JOPLIN, DUBOIS, CLARKE, SHAKESPEARE, RACHMNINOV,
ELLINGTON, CARTER, GAYE, HATHOWAY, HENDRIX, KUTL, DICKERSON, RIPPERTON,
MARY, ISIS, THERESA, PLATH, RUMI, FELLINI, MICHAUX, NOSTRADAMUS, NEFERTITI,
LA ROCK, SHIVA, GANESHA, YEMAJA, OSHUN, OBATALA, OGUN, KENNEDY, KING, FOUR
LITTLE GIRLS, HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI, KELLER, BIKO, PERONE, MARLEY, COSBY,
SHAKUR, THOSE STILL AFLAMED, AND THE COUNTLESS UNNAMED

We claim the present as the pre-sent, as the hereafter.
We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun.
We are not afraid of the darkness, we trust that the moon shall guide us.
We are determining the future at this very moment.
We now know that the heart is the philosophers' stone
Our music is our alchemy
We stand as the manifested equivalent of 3 buckets of water and a hand full
of minerals, thus realizing that those very buckets turned upside down
supply the percussion factor of forever.
If you must count to keep the beat then count.
Find you mantra and awaken your subconscious.
Curve you circles counterclockwise
Use your cipher to decipher, Coded Language, man made laws.
Climb waterfalls and trees, commune with nature, snakes and bees.
Let your children name themselves and claim themselves as the new day for
today we are determined to be the channelers of these changing frequencies
into songs, paintings, writings, dance, drama, photography, carpentry,
crafts, love, and love.
We enlist every instrument: Acoustic, electronic.
Every so-called race, gender, and sexual preference.
Every per-son as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility to
uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking World.
Any utterance will be un-aimed, will be disclaimed - two rappers slain
Any utterance will be un-aimed, will be disclaimed - two rappers slain


Lyrics submitted by CapnCannibal

Coded Language Lyrics as written by Saul Williams Kirk Thompson

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Coded Language song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

6 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment
    What does this song mean to me? Oh, I don't know if I attach any special meaning to it, I don't relate with it's message or the idea that seems to be preached here and in many other works by Saul Williams (esp. the idea of a high consciousness, etc.) but all the same, I love this mans poems.
    Hippias_Rexon June 29, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    He's saying wake up, he's saying change something. You can't relate to that, Hippias?
    farouhkon March 15, 2008   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning
    Ultimatley the message in this poem is self consciousness, to be enlightended and live in the present; "We claim the present as the pre-sent, as the hereafter." If you defer to poems written by Rumi you will see that he practiced Sufism which is a philosophy or "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits." The Divine meaning our Source; ONE GOD. This philosophy originated from Islam; however, nowadays many Muslims consider Sufism outside the sphere of Islam... God lives in every one of us and to find Him, one must look inside himself; purify yourself, see the goodness in you...Nobody was born with the evil in them; hate, envy, jelousy, anything evil is not natural, they are lingering spirits...demons...think with your heart, purify it get rid of the ego..this takes lots of practice and conditioning...some books you can read to understand the meaning of this poem are "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle...or any book by Rumi, his poems are magnificient...also, any other scholar/philosopher that he mentions in this poem...do your research and you will understand. :) I would translate this poem line by line...but it will take awhile; dictionary.com and wikipedia and good research tools. :)
    Elnaz211on June 07, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    Also, once you find that goodness in yourself, find God in you, and purify your heart...you will see the beauty and life in everything and everyone; "Climb waterfalls and trees, commune with nature, snakes and bees."
    Elnaz211on June 07, 2010   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning
    Ok there are some things you can break down in this (decode), and there are a few different versions around (a change in the face of the unchanging), similar to perfect day which people complain that it's always done badly live and changed. Saul also worked with trent reznor. The song Hurt by Trent fits quite well with 'perfect day' and to decode hurt look for the original video (with snakes and bombs etc.. in it), look at the history of the the downward spiral album (a helter skelter is a downward spiral). Then, for instance, replace the word I with the word Ego or the name of a gilled lover. Ok, so that's a bit of language decoding explained. song says, change in the face of unchanging, parallel the truth, mentions changing hip-hop beat by some amount up and down etc... This relates to the scientific process or triangulation. The thing about the future re-presenting the present, you could poetetly express as Let tomorrow be like today, Not some time to come, but a time to be. Some say the live each day as your last and a call for hedonism, but on your dying day, your dying words would you not seek to give everything away, to make amends for your sins etc.... 3 (triangulation) comes up later, as well as change. This time the reference is one of work and survival and also of servitude and bondage, dependency through labour and the change creates instruments for music and enjoyment. Also the loafs and fishes from the bible. What truth does that parallel. Although music is given in a general way as the answer later on other crafts and arts etc.. are mentioned. "today we are determined to be the channelers of these changing frequencies into songs, paintings, writings, dance, drama, photography, carpentry, crafts, love, and love." "Every per-son as beings of sound to acknowledge their responsibility to uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking World." per means of the son is child of man. person in latin means mask. to impersonate someone is to put someone in character (or in writing) a person is a legal entity that represents yourself as a company, it is the name you are given not the name you choose. It is the name and the company that laws apply to (man made laws). Your rights and duties come under common law, you natural rights as man, not a person. not the name that was given to you by your parents and exchanged for a certificate of ownership with the government. statute law is actually maritime law, the law of the sea, navel law. This may relate to the line: 'We are unraveling our navels so that we may ingest the sun' Sun could be son, with the other Christian religious references. Equate rhyme with reason, sun/son with season. could relate to Christmas and other 'Christian' festivals being seasonal. The bible says things like 'God is within you' some interpret the bible as being Christianity is to Judaism as Buddhism is to Hindu. And that Christianity is a form of social protest in coded language, saying that God is not some supernatural being, but god is metamorphic for the truth and evil for lies and those who speak with with the forked tongue of the reptile, the snake, those who lie and speak good and evil, manipulated even into eating the apple, when before it was all good and there was evening and morning and another day. There was no darkness, let the mood guide us. Anyhow, That's my partial decoding, have fun. Jesus was a baby and her dyper was wet. The lamb is the innocent the innocent beast, the mark of the best, the wolf in sheep's clothing. Let no man buy nor sell least he have that mark.
    olivertheredon February 05, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment
    In general he's talking about language and meaning in the lineage of post-structualist theories.
    jcuillieron February 27, 2013   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Somewhere Only We Know
Keane
Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following: "We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..." With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
Album art
Zombie
Cranberries, The
"Zombie" is about the ethno-political conflict in Ireland. This is obvious if you know anything of the singer (Dolores O'Riordan)'s Irish heritage and understood the "1916" Easter Rising reference. "Another head hangs lowly Child is slowly taken And the violence caused such silence Who are we mistaken - Another mother's breaking Heart is taking over" Laments the Warrington bomb attacks in which two children were fatally injured on March 23rd, 1993. Twelve year old Tim Parry was taken off life support with permission from his mother after five days in the hospital, virtually braindead. "But you see it's not me It's not my family" References how people who are not directly involved with the violence feel about it. They are "zombies" without sympathy who refuse to take action while others suffer.
Album art
Anti-Hero
Taylor Swift
I believe this is another amazingly on point and nuanced commentary on the insanity that follows emotionally abusive relationships. The abuser has no anxieties, no emotional pain, or salience/memory for that matter, so the survivor appears to be the crazy one, obsessed with the abuse and that buzzword that seems to ignite arguments about diagnosing people without a degree, etc. funny how you say the words domestic violence, abuse, abuse survivor and boom the subject changes. Anyways, I especially relate to her midnights becoming afternoons, complex PTSD often leads to this phenomenon, whether due to purposeful sleep deprivation by the abuser, or just hyper vigilance associated with the PTSD, along with the fear of facing people, especially your loved ones, who Never actually understand, even if they try, because all they see is you, on fire, screaming about the arsonist that no one ever sees, and who has been spreading lies about your alleged mental instability, deceptive personality, etc. the whole time. While the last thing survivors need is more blame, our society supports a narrative that blames the objectively innocent party because the blatantly guilty party has spent their entire lives fabricating a persona and we’re just being human, and human psychology is quite counterintuitive especially in the context of trauma. Look at Amber Heard. Vilified and not believed, regardless of what any abuse survivor could recognize as a fellow survivor instantly. But Johnny depp is a malignant narcissist, a man, and wealthy as all get out. It’s sick.
Album art
Alma Matters
Morrissey
The man has pseudo-friends who constantly criticize his actions. They moralize him, "teach" him and advise him to make a significant change in his life, because the way he is and what he does is not what they say it should be. They may find his life lame or immoral. They hold themselves up as role models. The man replies that he will make his own choices and decisions and he does not agree to unconditionally make himself under the influence of questionable quality advice. He justifies this by saying that there is always someone for whom he will be important, no matter what he does and no matter what he is. Although it is not said directly, I read it as meaning that he will always be important to himself in every way and he will always have his own support. "Everyone is different and maybe that's a good thing, but you exceeded that mark 1000 times" - I remember very well how sad the words I once heard (from my peers and it was in negative context) at school made me feel.
Album art
Mad Hatter
Avenged Sevenfold
Matt Shadows their lead singer says the song was written as per request from the developers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Watching the initial trailers for the game & looking at production sketches reminded him of the 'S-Town' podcast & its main protagonist, John B. McLemore. Matt also comments specifically on the lyrics: "I decided that the lyrics would shadow McLemore's life." In 2012, antiquarian horologist John B. McLemore sent an email to the staff of the show 'This American Life' asking them to investigate an alleged murder in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama, a place McLemore claimed to despise. After a year of exchanging emails & several months of conversation with McLemore, producer Brian Reed traveled to Woodstock to investigate. Reed investigated the crime & eventually found that no such murder took place, though he struck up a friendship with the depressed but colorful character of McLemore. He recorded conversations with McLemore & other people in Woodstock. McLemore killed himself by drinking potassium cyanide on June 22, 2015 while the podcast was still in production. In the narrative of the podcast, this occurs at the end of the second episode; subsequent episodes deal with the fallout from McLemore's death while exploring more of McLemore's life & character.