Stay.
Listen to the song.
I want to talk to you about the medium through which I talk to you today.
Artistic endeavour, creativity, has given me a perspective on talent that I thought I should relay.
Thought I could display,
in a meta way,
What I really ought to come and say,
It’s a better way,
To reject the fame and the riches and give message to the struggles to break free from the chains in which were fettered here today.
We all have abilities,
But you can’t place academic articles upon an instrumental.
Step inside your mental, tempt you, get inside your head through the doors your ears represent – too many people underestimate, the way in which are fates are determined by the songs that we sing. Music is inherently political, the platform you are given is a vessel and upon this you bring,
a message…
People are brought in, not simply by your lyrics but your metaphors – the voice you project,
The voice you project can connect with the minds of the audience, it isn’t simply noise, you forget that language is a tool if you see it as a vessel for your art, your art is a vessel for your words.
Yes I like a phat beat, but when I’ve heard the song a phat beat shoudn’t be all that I’ve heard.
Religion utilised the force for years, it still does, commissioned great musicians to sing praise to their gods.
Sneaking god into the people’s ears through delicious melodies which then gave way to applause.
The nation state was not too miss a trick, patriotism surged behind music as the nation evolved,
Castrati (the men without a stick) sang with voices of boys for both causes we have hitherto devolved.
Wagner was an awful individual we know but one quote of his is good to go:
“Where music can go no further, there comes the word… the word stands higher than the tone.”
“without music life would be a mistake; Nietzsche; don’t think these philosophers have nothing they can teach you.
“music is the answer to the mysteries of life: for once; Schopenhauer’s right.
The history of music is long and complex; a lot of it is lost to the withering of time; notation did not always exist; recorded playback is new and sublime.
What was mine becomes everyone’s, words and their melodies, polemic tropes of veracity,
Links to culture, class and ethnicity, stay stay, I beg you and listen see.
What is my message? my message, is that you are blessed if you’re listening, you’re blessed if you get this!
There’s people out here dispossessed and oppressed I can speak to world the world through a test.. Test.. testing.
Microphones are a privilege, amplify the voice of the voiceless if you have been given it, living your best life, making your music, if it’s apolitical you’re not really giving shit,
Everything is political, me rapping and being black is political,
that is political,
Wealthy white people playing jazz is political, that is political,
Kanye’s megalomania is political,
Tempa T smash smash smash still political,
bashment banning in the UK a travesty – enactment political, language political.
what is my mother language, my tongue maternel, c’est anglais, mais ce vrai? non actuallement, c’est faux,
pero ingles es el lingua del mundo, no confundo mi palabras, mes mots ne sont pas apprises à l’ecole,
and my language is entwined with my culture but my culture is African and my language is not.
Timba try lati so yoruba mama mi ama ko mi die die look the truth I cannot.
no sé mi lengua, no sé mi culturo, no sé mi historia, no sé mi futuro
noses are for smelling and each smell is universal but sounds can represent things that are special through this verse too.
So listen.
Femi Nylander