"List of Demands (Reparations)" as written by and Saul Williams....
I want my money back. I'm down here drowning in your fat. You got me on my knees praying for everything you lack. I ain't afraid of you. I'm just a victim of your fears. You cower in your tower praying that I'll disappear, I got another plan, one that requires me to stand. On the stage or in the street, don't need no microphone or beat. And when you hear this song, if you ain't dead then sing along. Bang and strum to these here drums til you get where you belong.
I got a list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! You wanna be somebody? See somebody? Try and free somebody? I gotta list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! Hand to mouth!
I wrote a song for you today while I was sitting in my room. I jumped up on my bed today and played it on a broom. I didn't think that it would be a song that you would hear, but when I played it in my head, I made you reappear. I wrote a video for it and I acted out each part. Then I took your picture out and taped it to my heart. I've taped you to my heart dear girl, I've taped you to my heart and if you pull away from me you'll tear my life apart..
I got a list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! You wanna be somebody? See somebody? Try and free somebody? I gotta list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! Hand to mouth!
Ecstacy, suffering, Echinacea, bufferin. We aim to remember what we choose to forget. God's just a baby and her diaper is wet.
Call the police! I'm strapped to the teeth and liable to disregard your every belief. Call on the law! I'm fixin' to draw a line between what is and seems and call up a brawl. Call'em up now! 'cause it's about to go pow! I'm standing on the threshold of the ups and the downs. Call up a truce! 'cause I'm about to bust loose. Protect ya neck,'cause, son, I'm breaking out of my noose.
I got a list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! You wanna be somebody? See somebody? Try and free somebody? I gotta list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! Hand to mouth!
I got a list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! You wanna be somebody? See somebody? Try and free somebody? I gotta list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! Hand to mouth!
I wrote a song for you today while I was sitting in my room. I jumped up on my bed today and played it on a broom. I didn't think that it would be a song that you would hear, but when I played it in my head, I made you reappear. I wrote a video for it and I acted out each part. Then I took your picture out and taped it to my heart. I've taped you to my heart dear girl, I've taped you to my heart and if you pull away from me you'll tear my life apart..
I got a list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! You wanna be somebody? See somebody? Try and free somebody? I gotta list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! Hand to mouth!
Ecstacy, suffering, Echinacea, bufferin. We aim to remember what we choose to forget. God's just a baby and her diaper is wet.
Call the police! I'm strapped to the teeth and liable to disregard your every belief. Call on the law! I'm fixin' to draw a line between what is and seems and call up a brawl. Call'em up now! 'cause it's about to go pow! I'm standing on the threshold of the ups and the downs. Call up a truce! 'cause I'm about to bust loose. Protect ya neck,'cause, son, I'm breaking out of my noose.
I got a list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! You wanna be somebody? See somebody? Try and free somebody? I gotta list of demands written on the palm of my hands. I ball my fist and you're gonna know where I stand. We're living hand to mouth! Hand to mouth!
Lyrics submitted by pintsofguinness
"List of Demands (Reparations)" as written by Saul Williams
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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As much as you complain about 'corrupt corporations' do you not see your own ignorance in the fact that you rely on those corporations just as much as anyone else?
Before you respond, look at the room around you and see the proof.
Unless you drink pond water, grow your own food, and have built your own computer with parts not manufactured by anyone else but yourself so you can make posts on this site... then shut up.
Oh, and who knows what that money is going to that Saul receives from Nike (if any... the song may have been turned over to Nike by his label w/o his control).
He could if he so chooses use that money to benefit a nation of people or the poverty stricken within this country. Until you actually speak to the man, then you have no idea what the story or his motives are behind his actions.
Oh... and back to the point of the forum... good song with an excellent beat. The first verse speaks of social change or something similar, while the second verse changes to being about a girl... although it could just be metaphorical. Anyway like the song.
"I received a lot of questions from some about why I would allow my song 'List of Demands' to be used in a Nike campaign. Ironically, half of the people now reading this post never heard of me until that commercial aired. That, indeed, was one of my reasons for allowing it. A small circle of poets and conscious do-gooders are not enough to effect the change necessary to shift our planet in peril. We must enlist people from all walks of life, people not accustomed to questioning the norm, people who may simply want to dance uninterrupted without message or slogan. I see no glory in 'preaching to the converted'. Furthermore, I believe fully in the power of music and have branded my work with it's own conscientious stamp and stomp of attitude fueled to steal the show in the face of the nonsensical. Quite simply, it was clear to me that people would not be rushing to the store to buy Nikes after seeing that commercial, but rather rushing to youtube or itunes to hear or download the song. I even imagined those who would be rushing to blogs to question how I could allow this to happen and the subsequent discussion of the ethical treatment of factory workers and how new minds would be informed and enlisted in the struggle for ethical change." -- Saul Williams
let me point out saul's been doing this for over a decade now and it must be frustrating for someone on the front lines to make so little effort.
Do I care about this money? I do. Will I keep this money? Very little of it. Within the year I will have given away almost a million dollars to about 100 charities and individuals, benefiting everything from hospice care to an artist who makes sculptures from Burger King bags. And the rest will be going into publishing books through McSweeney's. Would I have been able to publish McSweeney's if I had not worked at Esquire? Probably not. Where is the $6000 from Forbes going? To a guy named Joe Polevy, who wants to write a book about the effects of radiator noise on children in New England. --Dave Eggers.
george clooney has made money from an industry that is there to eliminate sad reality and escape to violent, ad-heavy fantasy and his contributions to darfur shouldn't be dismissed because of it. tracy mcgrady and lebron james have visited darfur and work for companies like nike. i'm not justifying nike purchasing and i'm definitely not gonna diss your opinion but the world isn't black and white and good and evil. if it were it would be a whole lot easier to dismiss anyone for doing a number of things that make the world better, regardless of their resources.
The song is called "Reparations"
The first line is "I want my money back."
If he sold out with this song intentionally cynically, it's the biggest 'fuck you' possible to both the corporate building AND the street, and a brilliant artistic move.
But he didn't... he did it for the movement. And I agree with the poster that quoted The Revolution won't be Televised. Saul's words are awesome, but he won't gain any significant cred unless he practices what he preaches, and does it louder than he does now.
When He says," I'm just a victim of your fears. You cower in your tower praying that I'll disappear." I think he is trying to say that he is one of the people who is actually contributing to the world, while the people who claim to be are really just "talkers." But I think there is more than just one meaning to this song.
We've gotta live hand to mouth. If you wanna see changes, you make the changes. You don't stand about complaining and whining with the masses. Green Day's American Idiot springs to mind...
-Katie. xoxo.
Here's how the world works: You either get to be down with the struggle, or you get to promote Nike. You can't do both.