So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
The black man in America is blind
Don't know who he is and he don't know the time
He's in the dope game with the caine and the crack, got a gat
20 sack, Benz and a Cadillac like a mack
Uhh, like a mack, uhh, like a mack
We're steady bein' pimped like a trick by the devil
And doin' it 'cause he think he can't escape from the ghetto
But if he only knew that he was a pawn in the game
Bein' use to killers, people puttin that evil in they veins
He's makin' them some money but it ain't funny, is it?
I wonder if he knows he's slangin' that cocaine for the Grand Wizard
Of the Ku Klux Klan, 'cause like we told you
And add it up, Uncle Sam don't give a damn
Sellin' you the powder, now can you tell me how tha
Hell you expect to excel
By killin' the black for the green, got the white man havin fun
Givin up the machine guns
Watchin us kill each other
Fightin' over 'Parkay', they're scared of the real butter
So don't shoot another brother today but
Point that AK at the wicked wicked USA
'Cause they the ones who put me through slavery
And now them Gz want to give them D's what they gave to me
So can you see where we're comin' from?
It's just another way to try to keep, us, blind deaf and dumb
[Chorus]
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Eastside
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Westside
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Northside
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Southside
X-N, once again, has the flow, tellin' Pharaoh
To let the so-called negro G-O
'Cause yo, we believe the way they treated us was evil
And they never should've messed with the chosen people
Now this is the time in history for the separation
Between the two nations
And they can't fade me 'cause God made me
To be a X-N-I-double G-A-Z
Lazy and crazy was the way they gave thee
Raise black babies ever since the day we
Was bought here in chains, over nine thousand miles
Our bodies stacked and packed in big black piles
They broke us down in the Caribbean
We knew sometin' wasn't right about that pale-faced European
Livin' anyway in sophisticated bondage
Dyin' everyday over nothin' but nonsense
It's gettin' worse and I don't know if it'll ever stop
Mo' brothers gettin' peeled, mo' brothers gettin' popped
It ain't hard to tell, yeah
That a white man's heaven is a black man's hell
So can you see where we're comin' from
It's just another way to keep us all, blind, deaf and dumb
[Chorus]
Now to the blind brothers without the power of sight
The rhyme shines bright in your mind with divine light
Deaf are the rhymes, can't hear because they fear
The sound of two X, records in they ears
And they lack the power of speech
And each time they greet or teach, they words can't reach
The gang bangers, or the drug dealers
So we grill the real deal wit skill until they feel us
Droppin' this line, like bombs
From Elijah, Mohammed and Farrakhan
The enemies want to flex but can't win
They scared of the skin of a million black, men
In black suits and bow ties
Boots gotta spit shine, on the front line and organized
Next to us, a million black women
Soldiers, the battle ain't over, it's just beginning
No time for laughter in the last chapter
Just told of disaster of the slave master
And now we have to pay
For the masquerade, and the track we lay
For every slave, back in the days, his wicked ways
Kept us in a mental grave and in amazement
But now it's a brand new day and time
And black people gotta brand new frame of mind
So can you see where we're comin' from?
It's just another way to try to keep us all, blind deaf and dumb
[Chorus]
Don't know who he is and he don't know the time
He's in the dope game with the caine and the crack, got a gat
20 sack, Benz and a Cadillac like a mack
Uhh, like a mack, uhh, like a mack
We're steady bein' pimped like a trick by the devil
And doin' it 'cause he think he can't escape from the ghetto
But if he only knew that he was a pawn in the game
Bein' use to killers, people puttin that evil in they veins
He's makin' them some money but it ain't funny, is it?
I wonder if he knows he's slangin' that cocaine for the Grand Wizard
Of the Ku Klux Klan, 'cause like we told you
And add it up, Uncle Sam don't give a damn
Sellin' you the powder, now can you tell me how tha
Hell you expect to excel
By killin' the black for the green, got the white man havin fun
Givin up the machine guns
Watchin us kill each other
Fightin' over 'Parkay', they're scared of the real butter
So don't shoot another brother today but
Point that AK at the wicked wicked USA
'Cause they the ones who put me through slavery
And now them Gz want to give them D's what they gave to me
So can you see where we're comin' from?
It's just another way to try to keep, us, blind deaf and dumb
[Chorus]
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Eastside
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Westside
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Northside
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up to the Southside
X-N, once again, has the flow, tellin' Pharaoh
To let the so-called negro G-O
'Cause yo, we believe the way they treated us was evil
And they never should've messed with the chosen people
Now this is the time in history for the separation
Between the two nations
And they can't fade me 'cause God made me
To be a X-N-I-double G-A-Z
Lazy and crazy was the way they gave thee
Raise black babies ever since the day we
Was bought here in chains, over nine thousand miles
Our bodies stacked and packed in big black piles
They broke us down in the Caribbean
We knew sometin' wasn't right about that pale-faced European
Livin' anyway in sophisticated bondage
Dyin' everyday over nothin' but nonsense
It's gettin' worse and I don't know if it'll ever stop
Mo' brothers gettin' peeled, mo' brothers gettin' popped
It ain't hard to tell, yeah
That a white man's heaven is a black man's hell
So can you see where we're comin' from
It's just another way to keep us all, blind, deaf and dumb
[Chorus]
Now to the blind brothers without the power of sight
The rhyme shines bright in your mind with divine light
Deaf are the rhymes, can't hear because they fear
The sound of two X, records in they ears
And they lack the power of speech
And each time they greet or teach, they words can't reach
The gang bangers, or the drug dealers
So we grill the real deal wit skill until they feel us
Droppin' this line, like bombs
From Elijah, Mohammed and Farrakhan
The enemies want to flex but can't win
They scared of the skin of a million black, men
In black suits and bow ties
Boots gotta spit shine, on the front line and organized
Next to us, a million black women
Soldiers, the battle ain't over, it's just beginning
No time for laughter in the last chapter
Just told of disaster of the slave master
And now we have to pay
For the masquerade, and the track we lay
For every slave, back in the days, his wicked ways
Kept us in a mental grave and in amazement
But now it's a brand new day and time
And black people gotta brand new frame of mind
So can you see where we're comin' from?
It's just another way to try to keep us all, blind deaf and dumb
[Chorus]
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Wake Up Lyrics as written by Leon Shearman Andy Shearman
Lyrics © O/B/O DistroKid, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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