By Saul Myhre, Alliance Intern from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities ’21
As humanity continues valuing profit over protecting our environment, people like acclaimed hip-hop artist will.i.am believe we need progress akin to a miracle to save us. Through his song S.O.S. (Mother Nature) he articulates that we’ve been blinded by “the paper chase” as the citizens have to be more focused on self-preservation than bigger planetary problems. How can we focus on the big picture when we are struggling to pay our bills and all of our products are wrapped in plastic? “The environment is fragile, and we been on the gradual.”
Hip-Hop has a deep history of questioning systems of power and its poetry is prime for pursuing change. Will.i.am calls to view our leaders critically and see how they “stimulate us with fear, manipulate us… dividing us like calculators,” while oppressing us “we can’t add it up cause calculators do the math for us.” At the same time, he exclaims “we can’t complain, because the only one to blame is us,” as “We was watching soap operas while they steady brainwashed the masses.”
S.O.S. (Mother Nature) by will.i.am
Lord come down and help us out
Send us an angel, help us out
SOS, help us out
Looking all around and I’m watching the world
People killing, people dying, people lying, people blind
People don’t see the sign, watching money all the time
Get the pennies, get the dimes, get the dollars is the mindstate
Of the human race, people on the paper chase
The environment is fragile, and we been on the gradual
Declining in a lifetime or lose the battle
Get burned by volcanoes, get blown by tornados
Cause Mother Nature signals, is trying to warn NATO
We got a new terror threat, it’s called the weather
More deadlier than chemical and nuclear together
It’s hotter in the winter, even hotter in the summer
Jesus, or Buddha, somebody come and help us out
Lord come down and help us out
Send us an angel, help us out
SOS, help us out
Looking all around and I’m watching the world
Changing
Open up your eyes, you can see things rearranging
The world is dying
And if they say it’s gonna be alright, them people are lying
People trapped behind the gates, ignorance in their state of mind
Cause they formulate a plan just to penetrate us
You see they stimulate us with fear, manipulate us
Each year, they dominate dividing us like calculators
And we can’t add it up cause calculators do the math for us
And here they come choppering down, chopping down our rainforest
Fucking up our air for us, they don’t really care for us
But we can’t complain, because the only one to blame is us
The gas is rising up but we keep on filling up
CO2 levels got the whole planet heated up
It’s blazing in the winter, even hotter in the summer
Mohammed, Jehovah, somebody come and help us out
Lord come down and help us out
Send us an angel, help us out
SOS, help us out
Looks like we ain’t gon’ figure it out
Lord come down and help us out
Send us an angel, help us out
SOS, help us out
Looking all around and I’m watching the world
Changing
Open up your eyes, you can see things rearranging
The world is ending
And if they say it’s gonna be okay, they just pretending
When the eskimo gets bit by a mosquito
Somebody in Miami will get swept by a tsunami
Rastas in Jamaica will get hit by a quake that
Registers something like eight point eight
You see it’s situations happening with our planet
Cause, twenty years ago we took it for granted
We should have took advantage, and reversed the damage
Instead of just pumping and selling and slanging the gas
And while we purchased the gas
We was watching soap operas while they steady brainwashed the masses
Cause we could make a vehicle that runs off ashes
But they own a patent for that, and that’s exactly what’s happening
Corruption and bullshit politics
The planet’s gonna die cause of bullshit politics
It’s hotter in the winter, even hotter in the summer
And ain’t nobody coming to the rescue to help the
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