We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Mud Island

from The Rebel Cell by Mud Sun

/

lyrics

Mud Island

The year is 2013
Time we got this right
We've tried all other avenues
And now
This is the one solution left
So listen

Comrades here
And those at home
Welcome to Mud Island
Where clouds don't clear
And no one comes for asylum
Where you can't grow food without a horticulture license
And licenses are only granted to corporate giants
Not the Jolly Green
They're monsters of oil and iron
Who shape government policy
And own soil and sky
And they also own the rights
To the writer's pens
So no news can find a vent
Without prior consent
And that consent doesn't come
When the news is anti-government
Or pro-Islam
Or anti-capitalism
Or about the fear that always hangs in the distance
Or the fact that every other cousin's languishing in prison
Or the lack of a living wage
That wages war on actually living
The buses are silent
We all face forward
Like the drones in 1984
Afraid to talk in case we're breaking laws
We didn't even know existed
The terror agents on the corners
Who can leave you broken wristed
With interrogation methods
Never less than vicious
And detention without charge
Is the quintessence of Englishness
The quintessence of Englishness

If we succumb to the river
It will carry us off
So raise one middle finger
To the cameras watching
Another to them acting
In the manner of Gods
They can kill us
But they can't switch humanity off

It's been this way
Since the 2012 olympics
When six thousand people died
In six terrorist hits
It was the perfect excuse
To pull the noose on civil liberty
Suddenly
The streets thronged with the military
New police with new powers
A new face for the state
And this threat that waits above us
Like a guillotine
A brand new prison camp
The pride of the Ministry
Where suspects are sent
At the Prime Minister's decree
Guantanamo mark two
Here at home in Glastonbury
Approved by referendum
Built very democratically
And the key to the core
Of the Government's terror strategy
Orange boiler suits
Water board torture and shackled feet
With capacity for more than a thousand dissidents
Housed in mesh cages and force fed food
'Til proven innocent
While the rest of us eat, sleep, shit and do business
As the advertisers sell us shampoos and conditioners
But there are many who still refuse to give into this
Struggle to uncover truth in news and statistics
Who grow our own food
And make our own kid's syllabus'
Who make our own decisions
And won't live as prisoners
There are those of us who live and love
And chat with our neighbors
Who strip back the fear
And products and shallow status
And ads and wastage
And suits and braces
'Til we're human beings
Being human standing naked
Say it
Human beings
Being human
Standing Naked
Being human
Standing Naked

If we succumb to the river
It will carry us off
Raise one middle finger
To the cameras watching
Another to them acting
In the manner of Gods
They can kill us
But they can't switch humanity off

But it's not enough to act free, stubborn, courageous
We need to deal with the causes
Of the struggles that face us
We've looked deeper than the surface wounds
And we've seen the whole system is a river of blood
And it's running in the veins of a rotted corpse
And we can't stop its course quick enough
'Cause it runs to the cups of the corporation and the state
Two drunk men, holding each other up
Feeding each others function
Why?
'Cause what's good for order is great for the capitalist
And brands are the perfect opiate for the masses
It works perfectly
A marriage of mutual bond
While the earth and the people are murdered
And brutally wronged
While now
We vow to bring it down sector by sector
Every symbol of oppression
Every pillar of its architecture
Banks that keep the wealth held by too few men
Superstores that suck communities dry
Cameras whirring and watching our every movement
Prisons that create crime and dehumanize
Arms manufacturers, security firms, media
Car manufacturers, government departments
Every symbol of our democratic servants turned "leaders"
From the modified crops they're growing in our back gardens
To the firms that profit producing polluntants
The list is here
Read it and go to it
We'll be their public nuisance
Their writing on the wall
Our revolution
Until the people dance to a new music
And it means sacrifice
And it might mean pain
But there's a duty calling on us
To be people again
No state is going to save us
No progress without us
We must realize and grow
And manifest our own powers
So I say it again
The time is now
Go to it
'Til the people on the street
Are dancing to their own music
The time is now
Go to it
Until the people on the street
Dance to their own music

If we succumb to the river
It will carry us off
Raise one middle finger
To the cameras watching
Another to them acting
In the manner of Gods
They can kill us
But they can't switch humanity off

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.

contact / help

Contact Baba Brinkman

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account