Shad - Get Up

When people ask my what my beliefs are, whats important in life to me, or my cultural influences I have but one answer for them; Hip-Hop. In a society that appears to be plagued with piss poor excuses for morality it's rather refreshing to see something different. Hip-Hop gives me hope. Artists expressing their discontent with how things are and their unadulterated desire to make a positive change literally puts a tear to me eye.

In this song Shad expresses his deepest desire to never give up and in turn "get up" in the face of a "passionless nation." I have felt down-trotted, beaten, even lost at times by peoples inability to feel compassion for other human beings. When you are in a society that idolizes every sweet syllable spoken by slutty celebrities like Kim Kardashian or the fact the news of Tiger Woods appears to be more important than the BP Oil spill you have a serious fucking problem. When I hear realness like this to music I can totally relate to it does nothing less than bring smiles to my face.

Lyrics Shad - Get Up

Before I take a mic

Take a break beat or a break to write

Break me down lord please and shape my life

We need leaders

These elitists got nothing to teach us

By they strength, our children need to see jesus in their weakness

And keep seekin where

Free speech is rare

And realness gets kept less frequent than these secrets

Share a couple stories

Like a townhome or brownstone

Over loud phones about my hang ups and dial tones

Swim in heaven and at worst you get drowned toe’d down

To the place where the clouds roam

So we get up

All my ppl feeling bored and strange

If you don’t feel at home in this conformist state

Don’t ignore the pain

That’s the lord that’s sayin

To you stand up King you were born to reign

That’s the war that’s waged

And the important thang

Aint what youd die for

Its what you live for today

Get up even if they knock us down

They cant cant stop us

Smile right back at em laugh and then get up

Actions speak louder than a thousands talkers

So make em blast that in their walkmans (x2)

Its hard to stand in a nation where the masses sit

Idle and passionless

Politics is polls

In the papers all the facts are skipped

Cant ascertain so the scholars place an asterix

And stories on the stars to dumb down

And distract us with

We cant help but feel detached from this

Capitalist confusin communion of coportate sponsors and advocates

Where every actor is an activist

But a movie cast wont fix these broken homes full of fractured kids

Aren’t broken bones you can wrap up quick

Folks trying to master this game that I call money for masochists

Where if you wanna make a cut

Gotta match their risk

Dig in your pockets, not for cash

But to slash your wrists

And fashion’s just a game of who can follow fads fastest wish

Some kind of miraculous world change can happen quick

But these problems don’t take seconds to solve

And getting mad aint the same thing as getting involved

We need to get up

(chorus x2)

Get a mic

Get skill

Get ice

Get bills

Get the life

That you always wanted and then get killed

Get slain

Cuz the rappers that do

Get fame

Its insane

All they talk about is who should get blamed

Young brothers get steel

Before they get aim

And they wanna get it pulled

Before they get trained

Cuz they wanna get respect

Get cheques

Get dames

Things we all wanna get

But end up getting drained trying to get em

We get stressed and we get strained

We don’t all get the ghetto

But we all get pain

Before I get to the refrain

I hope you get what im sayin

Its messed, but we just might get some change if we get up

(chorusX2)