THE REVOLUTION WAS COMMERCIALIZED (2026)

Few remember
How hip hop began
When lyrics were first laid
Over tracks way back when

Spoken word artists
Like Gill Scott Heron and the Last Poets
Spoke to major issues of the day
So people would know it

Was time
To rise up struggle to get free
Not hiding and residing
In mental slavery

The tide of resistance was high
The movement was thick
The people were tired
Of being poor fired and sick

It was no trick
Our communities weren’t in chaos back then
The spirit of revolutionary change
Was on the wind

But then
In a few generations this was all erased
Conscious lyrics were replaced
Our music became a disgrace

Community survival was forgotten
No Panthers in residence
The aim of rap game became
Became dead presidents

Instead of fighting
To get ourselves free
Performers’ aims became
Chasing shopping sprees

Or to see
Not artistic dancing just booty shaking
Studio actors aping rich whites
And gangsta faking

The major labels corrupted
The culture we created
Causing it to be commercialized gangsterized
Expropriated

Even during later battle rap days
The game was still
Based on youth who took pride
In displaying skill

It was then still
A real lyrical art form
Education and entertainment
Wrapped up in one

But the major record labels
Saw a potential market
In coopting our music
Our hoods the target

So hip hop ceased to be
About authentic skill
Conscious lyrics replaced
By ideals to deal steal and kill

The empire struck back
Against our culture of people’s pride
Replaced this with values
Promoting our genocide

Rewarding those willing
To lay down such tracks
With big money deals
Major label contracts

But it’s a fact
The game was a double-edged sword
Those who thought they came up big
Never really scored

The money and fame they sold out for
Lasted only a brief while
As they consumed their incomes
Living lavish lifestyles

Meanwhile they poisoned
The minds of the young
Teaching them to become
Predators womanizers and dumb

A culture that went from
Love of self and standing proud
To self hatred glamorized
Lyrical garbage spit loud

Should’ve known it was a trap
When rap was commercialized
Gill Scott warned us long ago
The revolution will not be televised