“Words I Never Said,” Lupe Fiasco
On “Words I Never Said,” Lupe Fiasco used his gift of lyricism to speak about his feelings regarding “the system.”
The evils of the system, a complicated web that includes everything from public education, mass incarceration and government foreign policy, have proved to be justification for his not voting – at least in general elections.
“I really think the War on Terror is a bunch of bullshit … Just a poor excuse for you to use up all your bullets … How much money does it take to really make a full clip? 9/11, building 7, did they really pull it? Uh, And a bunch of other coverups … Your child’s future was the first to go with budget cuts … If you think that hurts, then wait, here comes the uppercut … The school was garbage in the first place, that’s on the up and up … Keep you at the bottom but tease you with the upper crust … You get it, then they move it, so you never keeping up enough … If you turn on TV, all you see’s a bunch of “what the fucks … Dude is dating so and so, blabbering ’bout such and such … And that ain’t Jersey Shore, homey, that’s the news … And these the same people supposedly telling us the truth.”
In “Words …,” the Chicago born rapper also calls for people of color to look to ourselves for solution, asserting to depend on outside-help is meaningless, since it is the outside-help that is doing everything to maintain systemic oppression.