Festive Left Friday Blogging: A fresh can of whup-ass from Calle 13

Grab a can opener! Here comes some cool tunage from some VERY cool Puerto Ricans:

And here are the lyrics, translated (very roughly by me):

I was born looking up on the 23rd of February

After I finished school, I became a rapper

My family is big, there are eight of us at home

And the lower-middle class doesn’t get Plan 8

It’s normal that my behavior doesn’t suit them

The governor put my mother out of work

I disconnect myself when I write my frank lyrics

So I don’t end up going off in the White House

My rhymes make you tense and they give you cramps

I’m the one who brings the bacon so they don’t starve

I mix what I see with what’s melodic

I’m here to tell you what the newspapers won’t

This is the moment for independent music

My record label isn’t Sony, it’s the people

Those who follow me listen to the message

That’s why they defend me, with their fists that haven’t sold out

CHORUS:

Chill out people, ’cause here I am

What they won’t say, I will

What you feel, I feel too

Because you’re like me, and I’m like you

(repeat chorus)

What I write offends you

Your playback offends me

When you lip-synch in concert

I’m offended when you bribe the radio stations

So they play you every day

Even the Beatles didn’t have four songs

Playing at the same time on the radio

This looks almost like a “bizco”

You sell out because you buy your own records

Don’t tell me you don’t, because they offered to do that for me

Half of all artists should be in jail

I don’t care if they call me crazy for talking so much

You don’t say much because you don’t know much!

CHORUS

I use the enemy, nobody controls me

I hit the gringos hard and Coca-Cola sponsors me

In the whole barrel, I’m the only bad apple

Adidas doesn’t use me, I use Adidas

My strategy is different, I come in through the “Out” door

I infiltrate the system and exploit it from within

Everything I tell you, it’s just like Aikido

I use the enemy’s force in my own favor

So take off your suit now, your skirt and your t-shirt

Take off all your clothes, your brand names, your labels

To change the world, you have to bare your courage

Honesty has neither clothes nor makeup

Don’t talk to me about cartels or The Sopranos

The biggest mafia lives in the Vatican

With the trick of faith they screw all the people

They screw anyone who thinks differently

They won’t screw me, I believe in those who love

I believe in the people, I believe in my flag

I believe that those who point the finger at me

Are scared of me because I’m not scared

CHORUS (repeats several times)