michael franti

My hero. Michael Franti is the creater of Michael Franti and Spearhead, a group that blends reggae, rap, rock, folk, funk, and jazz into a spastic beauty. The music is highly politically charged. After hearing one song you want to go blow up an institution. Here is a section of the lyrics to Oh My God, a great song: (chorus) Oh my, oh my God out here mama they got us livin’ suicide singin’ oh my, oh my God out here mama they got us livin’ genocide Slam bam I come unseen but like gasoline you tell I’m in the tank like money in the bank I smell appealing, but I’m toxic, can send you reeling without an inklin’, keep ya thinkin’ ‘cause you gave cash to the feds, left your school district for dead fucked you up in the head, but still they sayin’ nothin’s wrong still believing the systems workin’ while half of my people are still out of workin’ anonymous notesleft in the pockets and coats of judges and juries from ‘Frisco and Jersey threats and protests politicians mob debts trumped up charges and phony arrests stage a lethal injection, the night before the election ‘cause he got donations from the prison guard’s union (chorus) Listen to my stethoscope on a rope internal lullabies, human cries thumps and silence, the language and violence algorithmic, cataclysmic, seismic, biorhythmic you can make a life longer, but you can’t save it you can make a clone and then you try to enslave it? stealin’ DNA samples from the unborn and then you comin’ after us ‘cause we sampled a James Brown horn? scientists who’s God is progress a four-headed sheep is their latest project the CIA runin’ like that Jones from Indiana but they still won’t talk about that Jones in Guyana this ain’t no cartoon, no one slips on bananas do you really think that that car killed Diana hell I shot Ronald Regan, I shot JFK I slept with Marilyn she sung me “Happy Birthday” singin’ (chorus) Well politicians got lipstick on the collar the whole media started to holler but I don’t give a fuck who they screwin’ in private I wanna know who they screwin’ in public robbin’, cheatin’, stealin’ white collar criminal McDonald eatin, you deserve a beatin’ send you home a weepin’, with a fat bill for your Caribbean weekend for just about anything they can bust us false advertising sayin’ “Halls of Justice” you tellin’ the youth don’t be so violent then you drop bombs on every single continent mandatory minimum sentencin’ ‘cause he got caught with a pocket full of medicine do that again another ten up in the pen I feel so mad I wanna bomb an institution singin’ (chorus) He also starred in a documentary titled I Know I'm Not Alone, something that everyone should view.