Hip Hop Agitprop

Eric Scott

These verses are an excerpt from Burr: A Hip Hop Musical

I was a hip hop agitprop, built to make to make the world stop
To pause, reflect and see, our history
Of taking over strange lands, while claiming rights of common mans
Our manifest destiny motivated the best in me

Self-proclamation of our greatness as a nation
I was raised to praise the deprecation of our station
Before I was full grown, I got to be well known
For speaking truth to power, in the tower of unknown

I spent my valuable youth, pursuing roughly the truth
Foolishly thinking I was parable sleuth
I began to calcify, which only served to amplify
Powerful feelings of the undeniable lie

How could I be an agitprop if I was just a spin top
Spinning away every time I wasn’t Aesop
A talent isn’t resolute, even when it’s not acute
But the third rail verified will always electrocute

But what I want now to understand is what can I as a white man
Do to affect change with such a short attention span
Persistence now is a given, with all this shame we are livin 
I just want to be an agitprop again
I just want to be an agitprop again
I just want to be an agitprop again
I think we all need an agitprop … again

I can still see me, the mirror looks back I see
No wrinkles, or gray hairs or gerontology
It’s like I’m wearing a mask, a backwards facing looking glass
Twisting the future to just resemble the past

I once ruled the band stage, with a microphone I could rage
Now I just argue on a random social media page 
I never thought I’d feel again, that paralyzing fear when
We wondered if any common day would be the end

Complacent complicity, is what we all seem to be
Derivation of division is the newfounded legacy
Ridiculous slogans, meme driven implosions
Couldn’t we figure how to find less corrosion

As I witness degradation, fluctuation of the station 
It doesn’t take an oracle to see the danger to our nation
But I’ve had every break, every shortcut I got to take
No glass ceiling did I ever break, even then it was opaque

But what I want now to understand is what can I as a white man
Do to affect change with such a short attention span
Persistence now is a given, with all this shame we are livin 
I just want to be an agitprop again
I just want to be an agitprop again
I just want to be an agitprop again
I think we all need an agitprop … again
I used to be a hip hop agitprop ….

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