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The greatest thing about Hip-Hop, apart from the culture’s diverse catalog of timeless music, is its ability to encourage thought, conversation and action.
Music aficionados can turn to Hip-Hop no matter the mood or state of mind. There are rap songs that talk about poverty, the drug trade, and education; records that delve into the paradigms of parenthood and family matters. There are tunes that even the romantics and in love can rock to. But no genre does a better job of analyzing the politics of warfare.
For better or worse, these songs are rooted in the military mind. Some advocate strapping on your boots and going to combat (both literally and figuratively), while others recount a tale of battle. In light of Memorial Day, here are 13 military-themed rap songs. These ought to remind us that conflict, off and on home soil, is real.
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Photo: YouTube
Canibus Ft. Free & Pras – “Patriots”
“Free be the one rocking sh*t, special operatives/ Specializing in weapons diagnostics/ My survival tactics be drastic like Rambo/ I’m straggling n*ggas with my bow and arrow elastic”
2Pac – “Military Minds”
“My live mind got me survivin’ five rounds/ My forty-five got my fortified with live rounds/ When sh*t’s thick we plot hits, when our Glock spits/ All hail, out on bail, raps the 2Pacalypse”
Eminem – “Mosh”
“Maybe we can reach Al’Qaeda through my speech/ Let the President answer a higher anarchy/ Strap him with an AK-47, let him go/ Fight his own war, let him impress daddy that way”
Lupe Fiasco – “Little Weapon”
“I killed another man today/ Shot him in his back as he ran away/ Then I blew up his hut with a hand grenade/ Cut his wife throat as she put her hands to pray”
D Block – “Mighty D Block”
“Yo, I don’t give a f*ck about pull out, cock back/ Spin a motherf*cker out, empty his chest/ Leave your motherf*cking whip a mess/ All over the dashboard, in backseat pieces of flesh”
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony – “Souljahs Marching”
“Now who gon’ be the last two soldiers standing/ Doing back to back holding the cannons/ Another episode of my bloodish/ On hit with the low blow”
Master P Ft. Fiend, Mystikal, Silkk & Snoop Dogg – “War Wounds”
“It’s real, sh*t’s real check my war wounds/ This here real life, ain’t no f*ckin’ cartoons/ I’m the Saudi Arabian death killin’ veteran on the tube”
Eminem – “Like Toy Soldiers”
“Step by step, heart to heart/ Left right left, we all fall down like toy soldiers/ Bit by bit, torn apart/ We never win, but the battle wages on for toy soldiers”
Sheek Louch – “Ten Hut”
“Big A.K. tied to the ski rack, brick a 100 pack/ Sold off sheet rock, 2 gunz up b*tch that’s D-Block/ My flow pretty like a peacock/ My n*gga locked up, but yea they still on P cock.”
Immortal Technique – “Bin Laden”
“They say the rebels in Iraq still fight for Saddam/ But that’s bullsh*t, I’ll show you why it’s totally wrong/ Cuz if another country invaded the hood tonight/ It’d be warfare through Harlem/ And Washington Heights”
Young Buck Ft. 50 Cent – “I’m A Soldier”
“Police pull out, hop out but they can’t catch us/ They never even get a chance to say “Drop your weapons”/ Liquor stores never close, the whole hood high/ N*ggas know when it’s war the whole hood ride”
Jay Z – “Ballad of Fallen Soldier”
“You lost him mama, the war’s callin him/ Feel it’s his duty to fall in line with all of them/ He’s a soldier/ Rose through the ranks as the head of your household/ Now its time to provide bank, like he’s supposed ta/ Now just remember why he’s gone ’til November”
Jedi Mind Tricks – “Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story”
“I don’t know why I’m over here, this job is evil/ They sent me here to Vietnam to kill innocent people/ My mother always said, the President he doesn’t care/ He’s trying to leave the footprints of America there”
Eric B & Rakim – “Casualties Of War”
“But I hear warfare scream through the air/Back to the battlegrounds, it’s war they declare/A Desert Storm: let’s see who reigns supreme/Something like Monopoly: a government scheme”
Geto Boys – “F*ck a War”
“In Vietnam a lot of n*ggas died young/P.O.W.’s got hung/What the f*ck do I know about a grenade/All I know is the couch and my 12 gauge”
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Photo: Getty
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