“Impeach the President,” Immortal Technique featuring Saigon, Just Blaze and Dead Prez
Immortal Technique, Saigon, Just Blaze and Dead Prez took dead aim at George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States of America in the song, “Impeach the President.”
The conscious community within rap music stood up on this one, unloading their lyrical ammunition to a familiar Hip-Hop track. While the listener understood the old school flow in their rhyme pattern and felt relationship with the message, this hodge podge of artistry joined forces with a brand new message.
Saigon breaks down the cyclic way that systemic racism in manifested in Black people’s everyday life, while addressing events like 9/11 and its (possible) causes, the hunt for both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, and the callousness with which that administration sent men and women to fight a battle. He rapped:
“… We can start with the church … You’re politicizing religion, you and your father’s the worst … And um, next: Ya’ll took welfare cheques … Give us diseases and then collect health care debts? (Whatever, what else?) … You only think about yourself … You sendin’ niggas to war while your rifle is on the shelf … George, you’re something else … Osama, could be 10,000 times worser than you … Find him your fucking self … And why act like you care about the troops in Iraq? Cause if you did, you would let them fly back … It’s because of you that those planes got hijacked … You’re also the reason Katrina victims had to die like that.”
M1 takes a different approach. He actually envisioned a new White House, before the Obama administration, where he and his partner Stic-man lead the country.
“How many times do I gotta state my position … Before ya’ll say ‘This lip service, he’s wishin’.’ I been organizing, I’ve got a thousand petitions … Been up before sunrise, writing. I’m on a mission … If I could be president, I would lower the rent … And make stic.man my secretary of defense … My whole cabinet would be niggas who ain’t havin’ it … You think it’s fucked up now? Just watch how bad it gets.”
Just Blaze, usually the beatmaker, notes that George Bush is only a figure head.
“I’ll push Bush off the White House roof … Calling chickens coming home to roost, it’s overdue … N*ggas taken advantage of, taken for granted … For the hungry, for the ‘hood, for the good of the planet … But not to get it twisted, Bush is only a figurehead … It’s bigger yet. The whole system needs to be put to death … If I was president, then I’d get rid of the whole office … Pimp the system out and make the people the bosses.”
IT anchors the song with an extraordinary level of raw disgust.
“Either stand him, wear the rifle or reach him … Or some bitch give him a blow job so we can impeach him … Teach the motherfucker about the drama I bring … And cut Dick Cheney’s hands off for pulling the strings … This is for all my niggas locked in the P … That’ll never see the sun until the revolution is bring …”
“Al-Qaeda and America been doin’ business well … They’re tighter than Interscope and XXL … From the patriot act to rape in Iraq to … Russia’s war with Afghanistan taking it back to Texas … Governor, your state is the most polluted … And you had the most niggas executed.”