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Significations des paroles

Ecrit par: Peter le 09-05-2008

Evil Empire

[7-2-1] "People of the Sun"

[7-2-1-1] "Since 1516, minds attacked and overseen"

1516, the year that the Spaniards took hold in Central America and
began their systematic destruction of the indigenous culture and
religion. They did not leave until several hundred years later.

[7-2-1-2] "Blood drenched, get offensive like Tet"

Tet is the Vietnamese New Year. During the Vietnam War, US military
officials decided to give the troops a rest, figuring that the
North Vietnamese would be celebrating the holiday. They were wrong,
and the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong took that opportunity to
attack 22 major U.S installations. This is what is now known as
the Tet offensive. The U.S. beat back all of the attacks, but a
physical victory was never the goal of the VC and NVA. Their
goal, which was met, was to turn US public opinion against the war.
This was due in a large part to the fact that US journalists got
caught in some close quarters fighting and had plenty to say about
the ordeal. The film "Full Metal Jacket" by Stanley Kubrick has
an excellent account of this series of battles (though it is not
the focus of the movie).

[7-2-1-3] "When the fifth sun sets, get back, reclaim"

The Aztecs believed that 4 worlds existed before the present
universe (worlds = suns). Each one was ruled by a different god of
a different element, and we are currently in the fifth sun.

[7-2-1-4] "Spirit of Cuahtemoc, alive and untamed"

Cuahtemoc was the leader of the Aztec empire during the Spanish siege
of Technochtitlan, in 1521. After the city's fall, he was captured,
deceived, tortured, and killed by the Spaniards. This lyric does
NOT refer to the mayor of Mexico City, Cuahtemoc Cardenas. This man
was simply named after the Aztec leader.

[7-2-1-5] "I'm the Marlboro man"

Marlboro brand cigarettes, whose primary advertising technique is a
handsome cowboy on the range smoking a cigarette. He is known as
the Marlboro Man. The original Marlboro Man recently died of lung
cancer.

[7-2-1-6] "City of Angels does tha ethnic cleanse"

Nickname for Los Angeles, California. California's Proposition
187's goal was to eliminate and deny all federal assistance to
anyone not able to prove residency, primarily immigrant Latinos.

[7-2-2] "Bulls on Parade"

[7-2-2-2] "Either drop the hits like De la O..."

De la O was a dynamite/explosives expert who was a great asset to
Emiliano Zapata in the Mexican war for Independence. Some notable
actions were blowing up trains and making a particularly critical
arms cache accessible to the rebels at one point in the conflict.

[7-2-2-2] "...or get tha fuck off tha commode"

A "commode" is a euphemism for a toilet in the United States.

[7-2-2-3] "That five sided fist-a-gon"

A twisting of the name Pentagon. The Pentagon is in Washington,
D.C., and is the headquarters of the Department of Defense of the
United States. The "fist" indicates the force often exercised by
the military.

[7-2-3] "Vietnow"

[7-2-3-1] Introduction (Rather subjective. By the author.)

This song is one huge reference to the extremely popular, and
extremely right-wing, radio shows hosted by such people as Rush
Limbaugh, Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy, and son of Ronald
Reagan, Michael Reagan. They all put forth similar reactionary
agendas over the US airwaves.

[7-2-3-2] "Crosses and kerosene"

See section [7-1-2-1].

[7-2-3-3] "The same one that ran around Managua wit a sword"

During the Iran-Contra affair in the mid 1980's, Oliver North
(see [7-2-3-4]) and company funded the counterrevolutionaries in
Nicaragua, based in Managua.

[7-2-3-4] "Check out tha new style that Ollie found"

Oliver North, whose conviction in the Iran-Contra scandal of the
1980's was overturned on a technicality, now hosts an extremely
right-wing radio talk show and has run for Senate.

[7-2-3-5] "Comin' down like bats from Stacy Coon"

Former Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Stacey Coon was one of the
four LAPD policemen videotaped beating black motorist Rodney King in
the early 90's. He was the only one to be convicted. The 1992 LA
riots followed the trial (and acquittals).

[7-2-4] "Tire Me"

[7-2-4-1] "Colorful words for the Laos frontiersmen"

The "Laos Frontiersmen" are the Hmong tribe from Laos, which the CIA
used and then set about to destroy once their objectives were
achieved. The CIA used the Hmong region as a big airstrip in which
to drop supplies for the Hmong rebels. When the helicopters and
aircraft left Laos to return from whence they came, they carried
poppies and refined heroin to other regions where they were able to
sell it, thus funding their covert operations.

[7-2-4-2] "I wanna be Jackie Onassis"

Jackie Onassis was the wife of assassinated US President John F.
Kennedy and, later, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. She was
the symbol of glamour and "good" for many people of her generation.
Zack gets this lyric from the Boston band Human Sexual Response, who
had a song called "Jackie Onassis."

[7-2-5] "Down Rodeo"

[7-2-5-1] "Funk tha track my verbs fly like tha family stone"

Sly and the Family Stone, a funk band from the 1960's and '70's.
They were critically important influences toward the development of
rap as a musical style, as well as the establishment of funk itself.

[7-2-5-2] "Rollin' down Rodeo with a shotgun"

Rodeo Drive, in Beverly Hills, California is one of the most
expensive streets in the world, where retailers sell such things as
three thousand dollar purses. The stereotype of Rodeo Drive's
patronage is that it is predominately white and wealthy.

[7-2-5-3] "Plead the Fifth 'cause you can't plead the first"

In the US Constitution, the 5th Amendment gives trial witnesses the
right to refuse to testify on the grounds that what they say might
incriminate themselves. The 1st Amendment to the US Constitution
guarantees the right to free speech, assembly, and press.

[7-2-5-4] "My man Fred Hampton"

A member of the militant Black Panthers, Hampton was a 20-year-old
Illinois state leader. He was gunned down in his bed with fellow
Panther Mark Clarke in an early morning raid of the group's Chicago
headquarters on Dec. 4, 1969. The attack, aided by the help of an
informant/spy, was masterminded by the city's police force and the
FBI's powerful counterintelligence program (COINTEL-PRO).

[7-2-5-5] "Fuck tha G ride"

A "G-ride" is a euphemism for a fashionable car, especially in
hip-hop culture.

[7-2-5-6] "We hungry but them belly full"

This line is a quote, from Bob Marley's "Them Belly Full
(But We Hungry)."

[7-2-6] "Without a Face"

[7-2-6-1] "Jack for Similac, fuck a Cadillac"

To "jack" is to get something through whatever means necessary.
Similac is a popular brand of baby formula, sold in powdered form
(just add water). A Cadillac is a luxury car, made by Chevrolet,
and only affordable to the wealthy.

[7-2-6-2] "'Por Vida'"

"For Life," literally, in Spanish, "Por Vida" is a
phrase used most often in a cultural manner, as in "La Raza Por
Vida," which means, roughly, "the Latino race and culture for life."

[7-2-6-3] "Mais [maize], was all we needed to sustain"

Maize is the strain of corn grown in most of South America. "Mais"
is also the Spanish word for corn in general.

[7-2-6-4] "Ya down with DDT"

DDT is a banned pesticide, widely used prior to the "discovery" that
it is a class-A carcinogen (cancer-causing agent). The wipeout of
hundreds of species can be attributed to its use, which still occurs
in less developed regions such as Central and South America. It was
recently internationally banned, but use continues where options are
not viable. The phrase as a whole is a play on the hit song
"O.P.P.", by Naughty by Nature. The chorus was "Ya down with O.P.P.,
yeah you know me."

[7-2-6-5] "Path is Luminoso"

"Sendero Luminoso" means "Shining Path" in Spanish and is the name
of one of the leftist revolutionary guerilla groups in Peru. It was
close to capturing the country at one time, but was put down by the
new US-backed Peruvian government under Alberto Fujimori. It is
treated as a terrorist organization instead of a political party by
the governments of most countries.

[7-2-6-6] "Headin' north like my name was Kid Cisco"

The Cisco Kid is a fictional Latino who, with his sidekick Poncho,
was a cowboy in a series of old American western movies.

[7-2-6-7] "Wilson's hand around my throat"

Pete Wilson, Republican ex-governor of California, campaigned almost
entirely on an anti-immigration platform and was a leading proponent
of such measures as Proposition 187, which aimed to cut all benefits
to illegal immigrants. Prop 187 was eventually struck down by
California courts as unconstitutional.

[7-2-6-8] "Another SS curtain call"

The Schutzstaffel, known as the SS, was the secret police for the
Nazi political party and Hitler's personal guard when he came to
power in the 30's through to Germany's defeat in World War II.

[7-2-7] "Wind Below"

[7-2-7-1] The "Wind Below"

The "Wind Below" refers to a book called _Chiapas: The Southeast in
Two Winds a Storm and a Prophecy_, by Subcommandante Marcos. Marcos
is the unofficial spokesperson of the EZLN in Mexico and the second
section of the book is entitled "The Second Wind: The Wind From
Below." The line "We in wit tha wind below," is a reference to the
whole of the Zapatista movement itself.

[7-2-7-2] "NAFTA comin' with tha new disaster"

The North American Free Trade Agreement, which was hotly contested
in the United States political scene, allows for free trade between
Canada, the US, and Mexico. Opponents of the proposal said US
businesses would ship all their manufacturing to Mexico because
of the virtual slave labor available there, and it is one of the
primary programs known as "Neo-liberalism" and regarded as a new
form of US imperialism.

[7-2-7-3] "Tha Plan de Ayala's kin"

The Plan de Ayala was a plan made by Emiliano Zapata prior to the
Chiapas rebellion. Its main idea was to give land to the
landworkers. The slogan of the plan is "Tierra y Libertad" (Land and
Freedom).

[7-2-7-3] "IMF shifts and poison lips"

The IMF is the Internation Monetary Fund, which is associated with
the World Bank and the United Nations and controls much capital
around the world. It is reported that the IMF has sent military
equipment, weapons and the like to the Chiapas area to assist the
Mexican army in fighting the Zapatistas (see Section [6-1]).

[7-2-7-3] "Tha fincas overseers"

In the jungles of Mexico, a finca is a form of ranch house or a
plantation-style farm, where the workers are essentially slaves to
the owners of the land. The meaning of this word has shifted quite
a bit, and now can also be considered just a big house as well as
the more traditional plantation meaning.

[7-2-7-4] "She is Chol, Tzotzil, Tojolobal, Tzeltal"

Indigenous Central American Mayan tribes, nearly wiped out during
the Spanish invasion 500 years ago, and relegated to second-class
status in Mexican society ever since.

[7-2-7-5] "Ejidos and Ovaries"

An "ejido" is a communal farm formed when the "campesinos" in
Mexico, especially in the Chiapas region, take over a farm to form
a collective. Basically, it is a Mexican communal farm owned by no
one and worked by everyone.

[7-2-7-5] "GE... NBC... Disney... ABC..."

Major multinational American corporations and broadcasting
conglomerates. GE owns NBC (among many, many other things), and
Disney owns ABC (also among many, many other things). The Disney
merger likely happened after the lyrics were written, and is
therefore an interesting coincidence. GE has owned NBC for years.
See Section [1-5] for information regarding the censorship of Rage
Against the Machine by NBC on their program "Saturday Night Live."

[7-2-8] "Roll Right"

[7-2-8-1] "Shock ya like Ellison"

Ralph Ellison wrote "Invisible Man," in 1952. A fictional account
of a black man in a white world, it is now regarded as a classic and
widely read in the US school system. In its time it caused a great
disruption because of the harsh truthfulness and the power of
Ellison's prose.

[7-2-8-2] "Gaza to Tiananmen"

The Gaza Strip is a narrow band of desertlike land along the western
Mediterranean coast. It has been fought over by Israelites and
Palestinians for many years and is a continuing territorial dispute.
Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, China, was the site of a massacre of
demonstrating pro-democracy students in June of 1989.

[7-2-8-3] "Sickest stilo"

"Sick" is a word used to mean "cool" or "good" in the hip-hop
culture. "Stilo" is Spanish for "style."

[7-2-8-4] "Take 'em to, the 7th level"

The 7th level (sphere) of hell, as according to Dante's Inferno. It
was reserved for the warmakers and usurers.

[7-2-9] "Year of tha Boomerang"

[7-2-9-1] The "Year of the Boomerang"

See Section [7-2-9-3].

[7-2-9-2] "Dark now in Dachau"

Dachau was a Nazi-run concentration camp in World War II. It was the
primary site for the grotesque medical experiments performed on
prisoner Jews, twins, Gypsies, and so on.

[7-2-9-3] "Grip tha cannon like Fanon"

Frantz Fanon wrote such works as Wretched of the Earth, wherein he
denounced the third-world colonization practiced by prosperous
nations. One of Fanon's most famous speeches was called the "Year
of the Boomerang." In the speech he talked about the oppressor's
force boomeranging back to destroy him in the form of colonial
revolutions. He was referring to the Algerian War, specifically.

[7-2-9-4] "Goin' out heavy sorta like Mount Tai"

Mount Tai, or Tai Shan, is part of the Tien Shan mountain range. It
is the section that lies in China near the village where the ancient
Chinese philosopher Confucius was born. It is 5000 ft. (1,500 m.)
high. In the "Little Red Book" of quotations of Chairman Mao
Tse-Tung, Mao utilizes an ancient Chinese proverb to say that to
die for the people is "as heavy as Mount Tai" and to die for the
imperialists is "as light as a feather." This is in the section of
the book titled "Serving The People."

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