Lupe Fiasco

Posts: 2699

Conflict Diamonds

Quote:

Diamonds are forever,
they wont leave in the night i've no fear that they might.
Desert me!!

Diamonds are forever

Yeah, ya no what im saying
I figure, I feel like i should just, ya no
Show people the other side that wonder where, ya no wat im sayin, that are presently unaware.
They dont know about it, ya no wat im sayin, ya no jus show em theres another side to this thing right here,
its called bling!

[Verse 1:]
Allow me to break down the game,
behind the bracelets, earrings, chains, watches and rings.
The bling,

the crystal incrusted, princess flooded, canary studded, blue coloured and blood stained.
Yeah the older brother of the drug game,
that give her a fame, then take away her lane.
the empowerer of the kings that came to claims and disease
believe wat the native people were saying.
Believe, my engagement ring received and flossed at the cost of a bondage child minus pain.
Long ago kings use to wear em in their armour, when they fought other armies, because it use to scare em.
If you wasn't rich couldn't wear em.
Witches use to marry, and they'd shoot you before they share em.
The gift and the curse, the venom and the serum.
Most hated ladies best friend get murked for a clip.

[Chorus]

[Verse 2:]
Sissero so old and genocide,
until the countryside just to get his shine on!
I fear what the beards and his peers use to do before the world really knew just to get they mind on!
Making paper from slave labour and hittin little kids with life time bids making em cut and shine stones.
Inflating the price and making em look nice and i wasnt thinking twice when i was putting mine on.
About a young shorty in Sierra Leone or other conflict countries that people call home.
I figured i would never go to Angola so it never did affect me that made me indirectly.
That my neck leash was funding a rebellion or a military coo,
started by malicious that dont believe in following none of Genevas rules.
I was brushing of the haters, trying to be cool.
Didnt have a clue that the rapper was helping the rapers, raiders of the villagers, pillagers of the schools.
Shooters of the innocent, torturers of the witnesses, burners of the binerses
At my birth there was the few.
Uhh, i aint pushing an agenda homie,
im jus pushing the facts, sexual intercourse Bush!
Cuz theres people doin worse on this earth and there black,
i took it for years now let me bring it back,
We all know on foreign shores that they finance wars, but asks yourself do they finance yours.
When i first got mine i took em out on tour, they only lost half the value when i took em out the store.
Or it was full of moistened nikes and cubics but the jeweller knew i was stupid and that i couldnt prove it.
Feeling like i need it because i do music, to impress the groupies and the interviewers.
So i didnt praise nor did i loop it, even gave em to my girl thinkin i was cupid.
Homies were all hating hoping they could make me lose it, creeping through my own hood knew i had to remove it.
I see the Russian Mafia, the Jewish Mobsters, the undercover terrorists and the traps for the hustlers.
Homie its a rap for the nonsense rhyming, props to Kanye i call this Conflict Diamonds.

[Chorus]

Last edited by edisme on Fri Jan 18, 2008 8:34 pm; edited 1 time in total

Posts: 8249

Here's a whole other take on this:

http://offtherack.people.com/2007/03/lakisha_jones.html wrote:

Lakisha Jones's performance of the Shirley Bassey classic "Diamonds Are Forever" may not have blown away the judges on last night's American Idol, but her million dollars' worth of Kwiat diamonds certainly did. Paula Adbul called Lakisha a "smart girl" for knowing that singing about diamonds means someone will loan you the real thing. And the real thing they were! Kwiat provided the singer with a $150,000 26-carat diamond necklace, a $250,000 diamond brooch worn in her hair, a three-carat ring worth $10,000 and those multiple bracelets with almost 100 carats of diamonds! Whew. And Lakisha should get used to it: It's just a taste of the borrowed red-carpet bling she'll surely be wearing someday.

Last edited by madthumbs on Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:10 pm; edited 1 time in total

Posts: 8249

The Diamond Empire: Oppenheimer family's cartel, Artificial scarcity (1994)

	Quote:
	De Beers is able to create an artificial scarcity of diamonds through its wholly-owned Central Selling Organization (CSO), thus keeping ... all » prices high.

Posts: 8249

BLING: Consequences and Repercussions

Posts: 2699

http://www.sohh.com/articles/article.php/13391

Quote:

Daily Hip-Hop News:
Lupe Fiasco & Rhymefest Battle Over Barack Obama
written by Brandi Hopper
Tuesday - January 8, 2008
Lupe Fiasco

While so many rappers' casual disagreements quickly become beef on wax, two of Chicago's most respected emcees recently had their own meeting of the minds on an internet message board over some comments Lupe Fiasco made in an exclusive interview with SOHH.com.

As it turns out, Lupe and Rhymefest, somewhat surprisingly, have very different political views.

In our interview, Lupe told SOHH he doesn't vote, but even if he did, he wouldn't support the junior United States Senator from his home state of Illinois, Barack Obama. He'd vote for Hillary Clinton.

"Obama doesn't really impress me like that," Lupe said. "It's not a shot at him but some of his agendas, the bombing of Iran and all that stuff."

The SOHH exclusive sparked a heated internet debate between The Cool emcee and Fest, who responded via his MySpace blog and the Okay Player message boards.

Fest kicked it off, responding to Lupe's incendiary interview with a MySpace blog entitled "Don't Let Your Arrogance Fuel Your Ignorance (SUPPORT BARACK!)" in which he challenged Lupe's facts. [Read here]

As SOHH pointed out in an editor's note, neither Clinton or Obama have advocated bombing Iran. As a result of Lupe's take on Obama's Iran position, the comment began a dissertation-long, type-written exchange between the two artists.

When someone on the board asked Lupe if he planned on responding to Fest's claims, Lupe first said, "not in public ... that's wack ... I'll call him tomorrow..."

But Fest decided to continue the conversation on the board, saying Lupe didn't even have his number.

Before assuring Lupe, "I'm not dissing or coming at you on any level," Fest went right in.

"As a brother, all I'm asking you to do is tell the people that you really don't know what Barack Obama's position is on Iran, or at least not when you did the SOHH interview," he wrote.

But Lupe stood by his claim in his response citing his own experiences growing up with "a pro-active, Black Panther party promoting, revolutionary father and a very intellectual damn near anarchist mother" as education enough to take a stance Fest called cynical.

Lupe did say though, that he's not so much disappointed with Obama as he is the entire democratic process. A system that he said "has shi**ed on us for over 400 years using principles that our precious politicians and candidates still hold dear to this very day ... a contract of social equality written by slave owners...that deserves so many 'f--k outta here's' it ain't even funny.

"I have no faith in it...never have, never will...," Lupe wrote.

But a seemingly more optimistic Fest said he has seen change.

"Our recent successes, and Barack's recent success in Iowa, is proof that with faith, all things are possible," he responded.

Lupe rounded out the conversation, saying his faith isn't invested in Barack or Hillary, but "the people."