Finally some good rap music

It is not often these days to come across really good music. I’m talking here for both the lyrical sense, and the melody. Every now and then I stumble across a really great artist, and it’s usually through an online search, a reference from a friend or even searching through you tube, and never from watching MTV.

A few months ago while sitting with a bunch friends, one guy got up and played “Tell the Truth.” The song caught my attention and when I went home I searched for it on you tube. From there I searched for Immortal Technique and found a bunch of his songs. It took 30 seconds of listening to “The 4th Branch” and I was sold.

Immortal’s words are stunning. I have never heard rap sung with such passion and with such deep lyrics. I have heard lots of rap and most of it amounts to nothing but a pile of crap about sex, booze, and cars. It’s refreshing to hear some real music after being deprived for so long with the nonsense flooding the air waves.

To give you an example of Immortal Technique’s lyrics, check these excerpts from The “4^th Branch.” (Video Embedded)

The voice of racism preaching the gospel is devilish
A fake church called the prophet Muhammad a terrorist
Forgetting God is not a religion, but a spiritual bond
And Jesus is the most quoted prophet in the Qu'ran
They bombed innocent people, tryin' to murder Saddam
When you gave him those chemical weapons to go to war with Iran
This is the information that they hold back from Peter Jennings
Cause Condoleeza Rice is just a new age Sally Hemmings

….

Embedded correspondents don't tell the source of the tension
And they refuse to even mention, European intervention
Or the massacres in Jenin, the innocent screams
U.S. manufactured missles, and M-16's
Weapon contracts and corrupted American dreams
Media censorship, blocking out the video screens
A continent of oil kingdoms, bought for a bargain
Democracy is just a word, when the people are starvin'
The average citizen, made to be, blind to the reason
A desert full of genocide, where the bodies are freezin'
And the world doesn't believe that you fightin' for freedom
Cause you fucked the Middle East, and gave birth to a demon

The 4^th Branch of government is of course another name for the Media. The song ends with a harsh, but well deserved criticism of Fox News.

In “Leaving the Past” you can gain an appreciation for Technique’s metaphors.

Hell is not a place you go, if you not a Christian
it's the failure of your life's greatest ambition
It's a bad decision to blindly follow any religion
I don't see the difference in between the raw and the wrong
Soldiers emptyin' the clips at little kids and they moms

…

I hate it when they tell us how far we came to be
as if our peoples history started with slavery

…

Try to confuse you, makin' it hard to follow this:
capitalism en democracy are not synonymous
You swallow propaganda like a birth control pill
sellin' your soul to the eye on the back of the dollar bill
But that will never be me, cause I am leavin' the past
like an abused wife with the kids, leavin' your ass
Like a drug addict clean and sober, leavin' the stash
unbreakable Technique leavin' the plane crash
I'm out with the black box and I refuse to return

Many of Immortal’s songs are on You Tube, some of them with the Lyrics as well. So if you’re looking for good music to drive to, listen to, and definitely enjoy, I suggest you buy the album from Immortal Technique’s website.

With this ring I thee wed

A few years ago I posted about the Iron Ring. The Iron Ring is a ring worn on the pinkie of the working hand by all engineers in Canada since 1922. The reason for wearing it on the pinkie, is that as the engineer is doing his/her calculations, the ring will touch table making a sound, which reminds the engineer to check and re-check their work.

The tradition started as a result of the collapse of the Quebec Bridge. It is said that the first batch of Iron Rings was made from steel from the collapsed bridge.

Just today I received the following email about the Iron Ring Ceremony.

If you are graduating from an accredited Bachelor of Applied Science program or Bachelor of Software Engineering program at the University of Waterloo, you are invited to participate in The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer or, as it is otherwise referred to, The Iron Ring Ceremony. The actual Ceremony, wherein you will obligate yourself to the profession of engineering, will take place on February 15, 2008...

The Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer is a tradition that was established in 1922, and since then over 200,000 engineering graduates from coast to coast have participated. Here, at the University of Waterloo ... approximately 22,000 graduates have accepted the ceremony, the ring and the associated obligation. The Wardens of Camp 15 invite you to participate in the Ceremony wherein you will be “wedded to cold iron”.

After the ceremony a big party takes place, where the graduating class get a good excuse to get drunk before reading week. The whole day feels like some sort of cult meet-up, only ringed engineers are allowed to attend the festivities, which translates to a big party with lots of guys. Yikes!

The Power of Myth

After watching Zeitgeist, I was compelled to do some research into Part One of the documentary, which argues that Jesus is in fact the same god as Horus (the Sun God for Egyptians) and numerous other gods from other religions and myths such as Krishna, Dionysus, Mithra, Orus and Cadmus. While I was researching online I developed an interest in comparative mythology which lead me to a great documentary series called “The Power of Myth.”

In “The Power of Myth,” Joseph Campbell , a leading scholar in mythology is interviewed by Bill Moyer, who discusses deep issues with Campbell concerning the meaning of life, heaven, good, evil, and even god. Campbell draws on his extensive knowledge of mythology to answer these questions, often offering striking similarities between mythology and religion.

During one of the interviews Campbell stresses that we should not take a myth or religion as prose but rather as poetry, and that we often read the metaphors in terms of their “denotations instead of connotation,” leading to many of the issues we have today. He believes that every time has it’s myth or religion which is capable of explaining the universe, and existence in terms of the knowledge available at that specific time.

Later during the interview Campbell emotionally says that “the real horror today is what we’re seeing in Beirut, where the three great western religions (Islam, Judaism and Christianity) who have three different names for the same biblical god can’t get on together. They’re stuck with their metaphor, and don’t realize its reference.”

I truly think that if we all thought like Campbell the world would be a much better place. The first example that comes to mind is the interpretation of the “Promised Land,” which without argument has lead to one of the messiest situations in recent history.

I totally recommend watching “The Power of Myth” if not for Campbell’s deep insight, then for the great myths that he narrates during the documentary.