#rodstarz

[thenixkat]

Which Side Are You On? (remix by Rebel Diaz, dead prez, Rakaa Iriscience)

Lyrics:

[Intro: Pete Seeger] Which side are you on, boy? Which side are you on? Which side are you on, boy? Which side are you on?

[Verse 1: G1] See before I draw the line, I gotta welcome you close To all the folks who knew Obama sold the people a hoax Gave the money to suckas while our community's still poor Withdrew the troops but started another war Colonized and terrorized and created an oil crisis So they could make a killin' on food and gas prices Prisons is fillin', they tryna lock up the future Militarize borders and control of computers While the stupid bumping music that ain't healthy for the shawties Povertize the schools and policeman in the hallways Can't be dormant, I've awoken, rise up, be ready Brought the family with us and we hold the machete

[Verse 2: M-1] Ridin' the fence, ridin' the fence Too many people be ridin' the fence Yeah you say you're ready for war but are you convinced? I'm not convinced If you're a writer, freedom fighter, crime exciter, then let's do this We can make one big united middle finger to the U.S Gimme the bravest and the truest, fuck the hippest and the coolest We're gonna spark this revolution and cross this off our to-do list Put your foot down if you look down on this criminal system Put your book down and get shook down like my niggas in prison Don't be condemning and condoning they actions in one sentence Now keep in mind, you decide Is you a patriot or a menace to society? So riot or sit by quietly But don't pull out your flag and try to say you gon' ride with me You flip-flopping like hip-hop, I don't get locked in that trick box Get got like Big and Pac, shit's got to stop "I am the people, not the pig," I repeat after Fred So please blow my brains out if I ever forget

[Verse 3: stic.man] I'm with the independent thinkers, I'm down with the movers and the shakers And the ex-Henny drinkers, the non-smokers The health advocates, the non-voters The young bloods in the hood trainin' like soldiers I'm on the side of the tracks with the hood gardens With the little child that don't color inside the margins I don't ride the fence, I cultivate my strength 'Cause if it ain't about power, it don't make sense I've been down with Boogie Down since BDP and Brown Pride And black power make RBG a OG An OG told me choose your battles wisely In the struggle, don't forget about your children and your wifey If you don't see me on the podium, preachin' it Every day, I hope my every action is teaching it 'Cause revolution is a process, it's not a speech or a panel Don't bite off more than you can handle

[Chorus: Pete Seeger & RodStarz] Which side are you on, boy? Which side are you on? Which side are you on, boy? Which side are you on? Chi City, Palastina, Venezuela Which side are you on, boy? Which side are you on? Which side are you on, boy? To South Bronx baby! Which side are you on?

[Verse 4: RodStarz] Ay, I still rock hard like slingshots in Palestina Con todos los estudiantes por educación gratuita I'm with workers uprising and the right to unionize We ain't crossed the border, so you better legalize I'm with la Penã del Bronx, I'm still with Victor Toro 'Cause gentrification is pollutin' my borough Sold bro never, South Bronx forever Decolonize the block, make your neighborhood better I ain't down with the rich, I'm more Richie Perez Don't talk to grand juries or cooperate with feds I'm with students, doctors, janitors, teachers We need living wages but they don't believe us Manida, Baretto, Spofford, Hunts Point My point, my hood I love, we join, forces Forming RDAC-BX Taking over buildings, Rebel Diaz for the children

[Verse 5: Rakaa Iriscience] Politics the sickness, streets express symptoms Caught up with a quickness, big business pimps 'em Scholars play the simpleton, fools play with wisdom Who will stand and fight back, who will play the victim? Trials and tribulations, here's your generations Stolen history and outsourced innovation Babel tower fell, tribes are at war The battle story not represented in the score The game's fixed, most of the faces and names switched Credit stolen for art, science, religion, language Technology, philosophy, and the strangest They paid in Haitian for the knowledge of the ancients Power in words, actions, guns swords Ain't Paris, Brown Berets, young lords, pick a side One sickness, one cure, one love One blood, one world, one war

[Chorus: Pete Seeger] Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on? Which side are you on?

[Outro: Pete Seeger] Come all of you good workers Good news to you I'll tell Of how the good ol' union Has come in here to dwell

[jcdamc]

Rodstarz- Like Joe

THIS HERE! Speak on it, fam!

[jcdamc]

Rodstarz- Chi Town 95

Chi Town Stand Up!! My cuz repping to this day!

Respect. 

J. 

[warrenbritt]

He snatched the mic from #Rodstarz like “Wanna Battle?” It look like a 2-1 debatable, but you can clearly see the winner. (at Mothers On the Move)

[adifferentuniverse]

All I Want Is You (People's Remix) - Rodstarz of Rebel Diaz and Baron of Red Clay

I'm digging this song so hard at the moment. Check it! 

[hiphopeducation]

Salute to the CTU (Chicago Teachers Union) FREE DOWNLOAD: http://rebeldiaz.bandcamp.com/track/chicago-teacher  Performed By: Rodstarz and G1 of Rebel Diaz Produced By: DJ Illanoiz of Rebel Diaz www.RebelDiaz.com www.RDACBX.org @RebelDiaz @Rodrigostarz @G1nderful  @illanoiz  Dir: Dayv Cino  www.MALAandMENTAL.com

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

A funny thing happened in Charlotte, NC at the Wall St South protest this last weekend. The RDACBX had been invited to perform at The FestivaLiberacion on Sat Sept 1st and after the March on Sunday Sept.2nd. The RDACBX is The Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, the autonomous community Hip Hop collective that 4 yrs ago turned an abandoned candy factory in The South Bronx into a 5000 square foot community center.

There was 11 of us and we wanted to make sure we didnt get lost. One of our members owns an independent clothing company called MalaAndMental. We decided to go to the march in uniform as The RDACBX usually does at big marches. The choice for this march was the new Fidel Castro tshirt that MalaAndMental came out with. We figured the bright yellow colors would make us stand out and make it easier for us not to get lost.

The logic behind the Castro tshirt was that we view Fidel as a true champion of the people, a man who started and continues to represent the views of revolution merely 90 miles south of the imperialist monster we call home. At RDACBX our political line is clear, we are about People Power. We decided if asked about the shirt we would symbolically say that we were campaigning for a Castro/ Chavez 2012 ticket. ...

When we put on the Fidel tshirts we expected to get attention, but never expected to get attacked the way we did by anti Cuban journalist Rafael Prieto Zartha, who at the sight of us went ballistic. His approach wasn't that of a journalist. A true journalist tries to get to the bottom of a story, tries to to find out information and asks questions. This guy was a raging lunatic, foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog at the sight of young people repping for Fidel Castro. His first statement was that we were ruining it for the immigration movement by wearing the tshirts. If he did anykind of research he would have seen us performing our song "Im An Alien" for the Undocubus riders. ...

Two days later this journalist writes a crazy article that comes out in El Diario, in the Huffington Post, The Miami Herald etc... in which he talks about our encounter, but completely twists the story as if we were the aggressors.

Viva Fidel! Viva Rebel Diaz! Lest we forget, the Huffington Post is anything but a legitimate progressive media outlet.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

By RodStarz of Rebel Diaz

Out of curiosity we visited with the RDACBX team after a meeting and the result wasnt the greatest. Besides being stared at and looked at as if we were invading their space, the predominantly young, white and liberal Occupiers sent over one of the few African American men over to talk to us. When we asked them why they didnt approach us themselves and build with us, they replied that "they thought we would get mad because they were white."

The situation was pretty bizarre as a woman started ranting incoherently about Nazi symbols being seen over the skies of California, and another man from the Media Team repeatedly offering us the chance to perform if we spoke to the Arts and Culture team. He didnt seem to get that we werent there to perform, rather we were there just to build. After being mean mugged for taking a free slice of Pizza, we decided it was time to leave the hippie fest.

Our intention is not to dismiss it as just this, but the gut feeling was that there is a serious disconnect down there. We left with mad questions! Where was the hood? Where was the poorest congressional district in the USA, from The South Bronx at? Like we say in Hip Hop, where Brooklyn at? Could it be that perhaps the working class couldnt afford to just leave work and the responsibility of bills and family survival to camp out in a city park? Did folks from our communities not know about this? If people of color were occupying Wall St would we have lasted this long?

All in all the questions remain, yet with time and reflection , we refuse to just dismiss it. Its a historic time in the world in which general assemblies are starting to happen all over, as cities across the US are also now having "occupations". Our analysis on whats going in Wall Street is that its very similar to the Syntagma Square uprisings in Greece, and other city squares like the ones in Madrid. In these movements, there is no central leadership, its about something, but then again not really, because the demands arent clear. What is clear is the identification of the common enemy : the greedy banks.

#OccupyWallStreet seems to be a new phenomenon in that we are witnessing a first generation in which massive numbers of young white people are no longer experiencing the economic benefits of the capitalist system. Their working class parents have had their homes foreclosed, their school loans cant be paid because they too now are unemployed or underpaid in the shrinking job market. Their reality has gotten closer to what black and brown folks have lived for many many years. There is a blatant economic inequality in this country and it is a result of corporate Wall St greed. The middle class is almost extinct as most people nowadays are working merely to survive and pay bills.

We encourage folks to support the occupations and see them for themselves. Perhaps the topless nude activists, or the drum circle may not be for you, but the idea of having a national dialogue sparked about these greedy bankers and their abuse of the people is important and needed. We plan on going back with more people!!