Massive attack
Judged by its own definition of terrorism America is a terrorist state: "The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature". Between the years of 1945 and 2000 the United States attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments and to crush over 30 populist grassroots movements struggling against corrupt regimes. Several million people died as a consequence. The war in Iraq is a continuation of these policies, designed to serve US corporate and strategic interests abroad. This is pretty much the starting point for Virtuoso's war torn opus "Evolution of the Torturer". It goes on to tackle the machinations of the political classes as they led us into a war with Iraq, the manipulation of the public mind to serve the interest of an elite few at the expense of the many and the sense of impotence many feel at this moment in time.
There is a widely held view that music and politics make bad bedfellows which is ironic considering the links between the major record companies and military corporations. AOL Time Warner for example holds a stake in Direct TV, and between them they founded Hughes Electronics which merged with Raytheon to form Raytheon Industries. Raytheon Ind. manufacture those delightful munitions called cluster bombs, which consist of hundreds of brightly coloured tiny bomblets that very often lay unexploded. Children tend to have this habit of picking up brightly coloured objects.
The rhetorical nature of rap music lends itself well to confront these issues head-on, and in the last 4 years there has been a resurgence of politically engaged discourse coming from the hip hop community. Of course this doesn't always make it into the mainstream for obvious reasons, record companies prefer to concentrate on and market the bling, booty and guns side of things, thus helping to nullify what was originally seen as a dangerous voice from the street and a threat to civil order. You only have to think back to the incendiary lyrics of Public Enemy's Chuck D and their subsequent monitoring by the FBI to confirm this. You can hardly envisage 50 Cent causing the FBI the same concern with his philosophy of "get rich or die tryin".
"Dream in" leads the way with orchestral string stabs and the opening line "Dreams! Things aren't all that they seem", setting the scene for what's to come. Later : "I've grown my own body from dirt and grime, it blows my damn mind, like my brain was a landmine and I cant find a path out of this nightmare, does it end right here or extend for light years". Being a politically engaged rapper comes with consequences: "DJs won't play me though, unless I line their bank account with crazy dough and even corporate labels deep into debt, through spending in deficit bootlegging and internet"
"Military Intelligence" sees Akrobatik join Virtuoso on the mike. Using news clips from the build up to the Iraq war with fierce military drumming and foreboding string backing it permeates tension with no small help from the lyrics: "what kind of holy war has devils on both sides who spend money on missiles not medical supplies instead of stealth bombers if you spent the wealth on hospitals maybe then every nation wouldn't want to take a shot at you." Elsewhere the connection between the war machine and corporate interests is made: "we're making expansion to the shores that are foreign we're going to war in the name of J.P Morgan, Gates and Rockerfeller"
"Two" features Ali Bey and Hashim Misah and is a missive aimed against crooked world leaders who corrupt democracy by lining their own pockets and not representing their populace: "I'm out for presidents to represent me
and I ain't talking bout Bush, he got paper cause his family is crooks,
man they push more weight then Jay-Z off the books".
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is Michael Moore's Documentary put to music. A plaintive violin with bass heavy beats accompany the charged lyrics, as everyone from the Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld gang to the complacent media feel the force of Virtuoso's ire.
"Dream out" sees Virtuoso dreaming he's under a podium as George Bush makes a speech taking America to war, Bush looks down at him and says: "even if you kill me I'll still be in your fuckin' dreams.". It's not the kind of material that'll be embraced by MTV.
On the non-political tracks, "Devilish Lyrics" charts the road from childhood innocence to weary adulthood, "The Reaper" is a treatise on mortality and "On the road" concerns itself with a life lived on the run and features Del the Funkee Homosapien and Jaz-O.
Politically inflammatory to some and uncompromising, Evolution of the Torturer is important in that it raises issues that rarely get an airing in the US mainstream media. As the young working classes become more and more disenfranchised from the political process it's important that they have an outlet to express their views and to debate. Rap serves this function and presents a counterweight to the recent fragmentation and isolation of communities, which only serves to reinforce the structures of power that are currently in place. Virtuoso's efforts here will hopefully go some small way in inspiring and galvanizing people into engaging with subjects that really matter in their lives rather than the false media constructed issues that keep peoples minds away from what's really going on in the world at the moment.