First Cell
from The Rebel Cell by Mud Sun
-
Digital Track
Streaming + DownloadIncludes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.Purchasable with gift card -
Buy the Full Digital Album View the Full Digital Album
-
Subscription
Subscribe now to receive all the new music Baba Brinkman creates, including 13 back-catalog releases, delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android. Learn more.Subscribe Now $30 USD/year or more
-
Full Digital Discography Full Digital Discography
Get all 22 Baba Brinkman releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Rapsode, Bright Future, See From Space, The Rap Guide to Consciousness, The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos, The Rap Guide to Religion, The Rap Guide to Medicine, The Rap Guide to Wilderness, and 14 more.
Excludes subscriber-only releases.
Purchasable with gift card$69 USD or more (40% OFF)
You own this
lyrics
First Cell
Well if it isn't the notorious D-I-Z
The only citizen here who doesn't need ID
'Cause he's on more TVs than the BNPBC
Look, I'm not part of this media fallacy
They've never been very partial to impartiality
Me, I'm just interested in your army's strategy of resistance
So your paper can sell the story
Look the government's position is totally celebratory
Like, “Terrorist Captured!”
While ignoring the other Rebel Cells that I know are still asleep
As your supporters keep shrouding you in a veil of glory
But, I think you're more than just a martyr
So, come on, tell me your side
I'll try not to tell it poorly
Why?
So you can quell your need for speaking of something worthwhile?
Your empty gestures of freedom in a medium you're servile to?
I've read your small print
It's all tinted with false sentiment
Who edits your bullshit after you sent it in?
Look, no government censors spin my words
Just editors whose job is to insure
Their writers don't end up as prisoners
You fight the system with bombs
I fight it with words
I see no reason to hit a brick wall fist first
You fight the system
Like a rat fights it's treadmill
Churning sawdust to keep the people's heads filled
A pen wielded by a puppet isn't a weapon
It's quite clear
We're at war right here
And these days a sword is mightier
Hey
You call it a treadmill, I call it an escalator
Plus it's the generator that powers your grandmother's respirator
My grandma died of cancer from two nuclear reactors
That were built in spite of her protests, with her taxes
Cancer
Well, that's another kind of "rebel cell"
You know how those rebellions end
It's never well
Equating dissidence with cancer is next level fascist
The kind of thinking that creates states that need rebel activists
I support change for the better
Whatever
Just never radically
What's wrong with running your revolution democratically?
Get some strategy, start working to registered voters
You can laugh at your opponents when the election is over
Have you looked around recently?
Democracy's died here
Along with human rights and other nice ideas
And now we've climate crisis too
The time has passed to move slow
We need a new set of codes
And new modes
Well who knows?
Maybe you'll have a chance to succeed
But only after you dish enough dirt to plant the seed
I need a scoop
And I have hungry readers to feed it to
So speak the truth
It wasn't easy getting this meeting room
That's always the difference between me and you Baba
You're as shallow as a hack
As you were as a rapper
You were in it for the money then too
That's what screwed it
We could have brought the revolution closer with our music
Back in Brighton
When I first saw you spit
I thought you had a passion
What was it fueled it?
Well if it isn't the notorious D-I-Z
The only citizen here who doesn't need ID
'Cause he's on more TVs than the BNPBC
Look, I'm not part of this media fallacy
They've never been very partial to impartiality
Me, I'm just interested in your army's strategy of resistance
So your paper can sell the story
Look the government's position is totally celebratory
Like, “Terrorist Captured!”
While ignoring the other Rebel Cells that I know are still asleep
As your supporters keep shrouding you in a veil of glory
But, I think you're more than just a martyr
So, come on, tell me your side
I'll try not to tell it poorly
Why?
So you can quell your need for speaking of something worthwhile?
Your empty gestures of freedom in a medium you're servile to?
I've read your small print
It's all tinted with false sentiment
Who edits your bullshit after you sent it in?
Look, no government censors spin my words
Just editors whose job is to insure
Their writers don't end up as prisoners
You fight the system with bombs
I fight it with words
I see no reason to hit a brick wall fist first
You fight the system
Like a rat fights it's treadmill
Churning sawdust to keep the people's heads filled
A pen wielded by a puppet isn't a weapon
It's quite clear
We're at war right here
And these days a sword is mightier
Hey
You call it a treadmill, I call it an escalator
Plus it's the generator that powers your grandmother's respirator
My grandma died of cancer from two nuclear reactors
That were built in spite of her protests, with her taxes
Cancer
Well, that's another kind of "rebel cell"
You know how those rebellions end
It's never well
Equating dissidence with cancer is next level fascist
The kind of thinking that creates states that need rebel activists
I support change for the better
Whatever
Just never radically
What's wrong with running your revolution democratically?
Get some strategy, start working to registered voters
You can laugh at your opponents when the election is over
Have you looked around recently?
Democracy's died here
Along with human rights and other nice ideas
And now we've climate crisis too
The time has passed to move slow
We need a new set of codes
And new modes
Well who knows?
Maybe you'll have a chance to succeed
But only after you dish enough dirt to plant the seed
I need a scoop
And I have hungry readers to feed it to
So speak the truth
It wasn't easy getting this meeting room
That's always the difference between me and you Baba
You're as shallow as a hack
As you were as a rapper
You were in it for the money then too
That's what screwed it
We could have brought the revolution closer with our music
Back in Brighton
When I first saw you spit
I thought you had a passion
What was it fueled it?
credits
from The Rebel Cell,
released August 1, 2008
license
all rights reserved
tags
about
Baba Brinkman New York, New York
Science rapper and inventor of several novel hip-hop variants. Canadian transplant to New York. Pathological optimist.
discography
-
May 2023 -
May 2021 -
Jul 2019 -
Apr 2018