LOVE+REVOLUTION
New full length CD  (Uprising Records, 2004) 
All songs written performed and produced by Ricanstruction

Love + Revolution
Born in the bottom of sodom another slingshot
dropped in the rot and forgot blessed as a have not
beat by the street bitter sweet love isn't lost
just damaged and damned in defeat by the above cost
slum seed sacrifice still had to think twice
rolling the dice in this life you'll pay a price
so follow assata i said in recollection
ghetto and god will provide you with protection

outside children dying politicians lying
cutthroat corporation gang land generation
X and king forgotten Huey newton shot and
arms and evolution love and revolution

born in the horror of harlem hell and a hard knock
life full of strife got a knofe behind a padlock
war at the door ever sure only a stones throw
jesus will cheat us or lead us straight out of death row
saviors and graveyard and guns no time for romance
baby just maybe just one more second chance
go follow assata i said a resurection
ghetto and god will provide a new direction

outside youth uprising soldiers strategizing
police in positions radical religions
confrontation camps and flowers for fred hampton
arms and evolution love and revolution

cara cuerpo corazon en la cuna de babylon
amor es un conspiracion y tu y you revolucion
la arma disarma la guerra se carma
amor es un choke que suena alarma
perfume de madre poder de mi padre
luchamos ganamos y nos encontramos amor

born in the bottom of sodom another black dot
dropped in the rot and forgot blessed as a have not
beat by the street bitter sweet love isn't lost
just damaged and damned in defeat still incomplete
I say follow assata i say follow assata i say follow assata
i pray
 
 

It's all bullshit
todo lo que to sabes es mentira
todo lo que te andicho no es verda
todo lo que tu escuchado es embuste
too es una mierda

koka kola khristians on a mission from khrist
with a kounter kulture karma at a con-venient price
and a multi-plex mcdonaldsmarketing magazine
selling tele-supervision from a fascist machine
full of fabricated fashions for the radical rich
and an advertised anarcho abercrombie and fitch
selling pseudo social science to the lowest of bids
with commercials to remind us politricks are for kids
 

everything that you believe - it's all bullshit
everything that you achieve - it's all bullshit
i know it's hard to concieve - it's all bullshit
even the air that you breath

pepsi kola preachers wearing platinum nikes
while the radio republicrats are rocking the mics
and the cattle channel catalogues are dealing the crap
and your government in sponsored by the guerrilla gap
with a mega-million military marketing team
and an anti-freez establishment american dream
pushing product placement punkrock out to yesterdays youth
with hallucination hip hop that's afraid of the truth

everything that you believe - it's all bullshit
everything that you recieve - it's all bullshit
even your adam and eve - it's all bullshit
nothing but tricks up there sleeve - it's all bullshit
everything that you unlearn - it's all bullshit
all of the books that you burn - it's all bullshit
all of the things that you yearn - it's all bullshit
all of the money you earn

you are not what you own
i'm  not your stepping stone
you are not what they sell
so send em straight to hell
 

51st State
Motherfucker i don't want to be like you
i don't give a damn if your six is nine
mister money monger don't misconstrue
shuffle off to your own decline

climbing the ladder colonial chatter
a star strangled banner of mind over matter
of fact into fiction absorbed in addiction
submerged in submission default definition
a killed generation columbus creation
cultural constipation equals education
imperial island inferior i am imperial island inferior

break all the laws beat the system just because
mister i don't wanna be like you
break all the chains cuz there's nothing left to gain
mister i don't wanna be like you

i don't wanna live your fucking life
i don't wanna give your sacrifice
i don't wanna give your stress and strife
i don't wanna live your fucking life

break all the ties kill the master you despise
because i don't wanna be like you

clawing the nipple colonial cripple
the dollar will double and taxes triple
a cruel corporation assault assimilation
assigned afirmation it's time to say basta ya!

confused generation devout discrimination
self determination denied humiliation anestetized nation
push emancipation aside
 

Loaded Question
he made a split decision 19 and 41
tupac on television another native son
john wayne ejaculation straight off the silver screen
rambo and race relations and the presence of things unseen

a critical condition a ghetto and a gun
a cultural collision run nigga nigga run

he made a quick connection reason without a rhyme
under police protection mistake and not a crime
clint eastwood masturbation straight off a tv show
abner in animation amadou diallo

a physical discription written in black and white
cultural cruci-fiction a nigga nazerite
aimed and armed with an addiction soldier suburbanite
political prediction who's gonna die tonight?

he made a quick revision 19 or 41
bad boys and bad decisions a wallet or a gun

big man with a loaded gun

you made a split decision now look at what you've done
big man with a gun, look at you've done
 

Nigga in the machine
love liberation and a radio station
brothers in a box tryna free the nation
with sold out no doubt slavery songs
and a mass market media mao tse tung
ten point panther master plan
signed sealed and secondhand from the man
korporate kop out kerosene
gonna throw a new nigga wrench in the machine

fuck your radio steal the station
damn your dollars and disinformation
fuck your radio steal the station

rude boy radicals realize
that it's time to get out and organize
need a real revolution that breaks the ties
not the same old sold out pack of lies
not a used excuse that justifies
any korporate kapitalist alibis
if you ain't getten down with the I and I
than it's time to get up and testify

give us something that we can use
education information or the right to choose
from the projects and the prophets and the same old shit
arms and ammunition not another hit
sell us something that we can save
food shelter clothing or an early grave

we will not be silent silence ain't no cure

give us something that we can feel
liberation reparations or a way to heal
from the junkies and the jackers and the second rate
to the bankers and their backers and the police state
tell us something that we don't know
how to free us why mumia is still on death row?
 

Love + rage
Love is rage
Break the cage
burn the page
modern age
fuck this shit
up in here
love is fear
say your queer
end is near
sweat and spit
over time
love is crime
cruel is kind
justice blind
match is lit
love is pain
corporate gain
make it plain

love is faith
you relate
propagate
not too late
fuck this shit
up and down
love is found
underground
sight and sound
this is it
love is real
beg or steal
what you feel
the ideal
still can’t quit
love is now
just allow
plant and plow
show you how
stand or sit

love is hate
police state 
the g8
demonstrate
fuck this shit
love is war
rich and poor
nothing more

now will love decide to point the way
and lead our lives to better days
or will we find we’ve had enough
and just decide to fuck shit up

love is war
rich or poor
just a whore
and nothing more
fuck this shit

love is peace
and release
questions cease

love decide, point the way
lead our lives to better days
this life is tough and I’ve had enough
is it time to fuck shit up

choosing a side crash or collide
suicide
damn and devide preach or provide
homicide
go for the ride swallow your pride
genocide

peace war indecision
free thought or religion
unity or division
love hate it’s a mission/intermission
 

Love on battlefields
We can make love on battlefields
Because our lives are battlefields
a generation born between cointelpro and the contras
manufactured misery and military mantras
broken batista blades and police state raids
ghetto styles fbi files and terrorist trials
we can make love in war zones because we are slum starvation skin and bones
from battle zones and broken homes caught between c4 cannisters and cancer
still waiting for arms or another answer the return of the panthers
to counter night riders with guns gods and guitar licks 
we can make love behind enemy lines because we are zapatista signs of tings and times
rude bwoys reciting rebel ryhms and guerrila girls lobbing land mines
sewage survivors and revelation refugees salvaged from the wreckage of global instability
with reality razors pocketed in our cheek second hand soldiers beginnig to speak
we can make love on the run because we are the children of a revolution that's already begun
slum sistas and native sons brandishing made in amerika guns and gathering up our discarded toungues
we child commandos are harvesting ammunition as the nutrition for our heart sedition
we can make love because our lives are war in shanties and inner cities CDs 
and cemetaries bunkers and barrios bomb shelters and stereos sabotage scratches 
and cultural cables broken language like a bumped turntable politically 
unstable but readt willing and able
 

Illegalize it
Sitting around on the street with my sistren
Strumming the sound of the slum on a six string
The hour black power dread and disorder
And rumblings for bread inside the slave quarter
We lit up a spliff to shift down the shitstem
The revolution is I and I sistren
She said that the smoke would rise like the people
And burn down the churches right up to the steeple

We wrote rebel words to show we could still sing
And smoked sacred herb to stem our suffering
Tomorrow is sorrow strife and starvation
Tonight is the chalice and contemplation
We went to the weed to start the iration
And planted a seed for I and I nation
She said that from the very day of arrival
Everyday has been black survival
Every way is our black survival

Standing outside on the street with my sistren
Shouting the signs of defeat to the shitstem
The hour is now of our rebelation
Survival is sacramental salvation
 

Borinquena
This is dedicate demonstrated consecrated to celebrate and elevate the other 
half of the sky
Underrated denigrated dominated separated love and hated by the i and the eye
Cornerstone hearth and home ore than prone wisdom shone freedom poem like 
Lolita Lebron
Overstand either man lends a hand or the mother daughter sister gotta do it 
alone

Caught in a coffin of colonial confusion
Can’t see the revolution in the revolution
Within a land of labor love and liberation
Woman and man will see the rebirth of a nation

En mi corazon companera un cancion de revolucion
Hermana para mi to eres un poema un pais y una estrella
Arma y amor  guerillera luchador por liberacion
Ballas y valor resistencia su color nuestra bandera
En mi opinion es un manifestacion de revelacion
Mi hija me dijo que el camino del senor es una sorpresa
Flores del pintor  por mi madre es el sol de la salvacion
Arma y honor sentimineto y dolor por una promesa

This is demonstrated syncopated designated to relate and recreate the other 
half of the sky
Emancipated liberated appreciated reinstated delegated to free I over I
Right or wrong weak or strong won’t be long on and on siren song straight 
from dylcia pagan 
We demand take a stand lend a hand or the super soldier sista make a plan of 
her own
 Oye borinquena como yo to quero, oye borinquena como yo te quero
Por mi madre juro que sin ti me muedo, por mi madre juro que sin ti me muedo
 

Fight
We the ghetto people if we really want it equal gotta fight
Without hesitation gonna find our destination in the street
From the highest steeple we the holy and the peaceful gonna riot
Our congregation condemnation and a crust of bread to eat
We will not be silenced by your institutional violence

And so we the ghetto dwellers gonna rise out of the cellers and unite
Love and liberation elevation of the nation of the free
Nothing you can tell us steal or sell us if this hell is our birthright
Arms and agitation affirmation and then what will be will be

We the ghetto people if we really want it equal gotta fight
Twenty million children is a lot of angry enemies to feed
From humiliation and frustration comes elevation and insight
Batter bruise and beat us cheat us we thus will take only what we need
 

Guerrilla girl
She’d never pay for anything she could steal
Ghetto guerrilla livn’ life on the real
Robbin’ the rich and givin it to the poor
Fightin the power like assata shakur
Broke nearly every law the law would abide
Strolled arm in arm with arms and harm on our side
No CIAgent and no FB or I could ever sever cointelpro the tie

Guerrilla girl ­ this is not a love song
Guerrilla girl ­ this is not a love 

She’d never stay for anything she had done
Ghetto  guerrilla livin life on the run
Slammin the shitstem with a sling and stone
Rockin a rhythm just like nina simone
Stealin from dealers at the drop of a dime
Breakin the banks with just a brick at a time
Taught me to fight and then my left from my right
And black from white and how the people unite 
Spoke revolution in a language or more
And every dialect/dialectic tactic of war
Knew when to run and when the police would come
Gave me Guevara and the way of the gun
Guerrilla girl ­ this is not a love song
Guerrilla girl ­ this is not a love song
 

The violence of love
Emma said to ask for work than ask for bread and then take bread
Start the revolution until all are fed or ‘till we’re dead
Make a resolution and then never quite stand and don’t sit
Strike a new solution ‘till the match is lit fuck up this shit

In the name of love break the chains that bind you
In the name of love smash what they assign you
In the name of love burn a path behind you now

Destroy the masters that are relegating us to slaves
Subvert the system ‘till it’s dead and buried in it’s grave
Blow up the prisons until every one of us is free
Within the chaos there is beauty and harmony

No masters, no slaves
 

Love + happiness
We will feed all that need
Plant a seed no more greed
None will bleed or exceed
All will lead all are freed
We will fight for what is right
And unite black and white
And invite the knock at night
And incite love and light

Your hand in mine will seize the time
Your hand in mine will be the sign

We will stand, overstand
Hand in hand woman and man
And demand free the land
And disband their command
We will try by and by
To kiss the sky the most high
Never die and never lie
Eye to eye I and I

Your hand in mine will seize the time
Your hand in mine will be the sign
Water to wine a love divine

Liberation Day (CBGB Records, 1998)
All songs written performed and produced by Ricanstruction

Pedro's Grave
Pedro’s got a pipe bomb set for the fourth of July a detonator slow boom Loisaida high demolition  dope fiends toking tompkins square take the world in hand and… fuck it When Pedro died the people cried and Hiram and Elias tried as Ponce bled Jayuya spread and Oscar and Grisello fled with dreams and dignity a people could be free through selfless sacrifice a nation could rise Pedros got a pipe bomb but the fuse is on loan broken english hype dreams sleep in skin and bone consecrated crack heads sucking strangled tongues take your world in hand and… kick it When Pedro died the sanctified Lolita and Boriqua pride as Lares screamed Utuada dreamed and presidents and preachers schemed of land and liberty and country tis of thee the selfish satisfied a nation would rise.

Jihad Seeds
War is death, peace is life plant the seeds of stress and strife draw a line in the sand shoot him down where he stands some will fight and live to tell some will die in mercies war is hells darkest hour a ringing bell from babels tower ring the chime holy man march in line holy lamb some will fight and live to tell some will die in mercies hell some will fight and live to see some will die to be free.

Mad Like Farrakhan
This is the story of your brief history a walk on part at the start of the slave drive a work of art a directional chart a manifesto from the heart that they target as too live funkin’ to the fusion from Fanon to Farrakhan the message mars the mall on the wall you’re writin’ on Malcolm said too Black is too strong a deeper definition to burn down Babylon This is a memory of myth and misery define a sign of the fire the next time a simple line the rise and decline too complicated to define as a Black on Black rhyme grow up, slow up a Sly Stone throw up a Jim Crow flow and a Bad Brains blow up Break the chain of shame and pain and blame like a famed refrain from Colon or Coltrane sing a simple song, try to write the wrong in this foreign land that never gave a damn.

Dream in Porto Rican
Dream in Porto Rican freakin’ dreaming a nightmare of evil institutions wielding weapons as welfare of sacred soldier cemetery slave to the system of sabotage survivors never knowing what hit ‘em the scribbled bible drivel of a barrio breakdown the SIDA sucker swivel of societal shakedown like lucky loteria losers liven for a last chance we’ll  dance and romance and pretend that it’s only a Dream in Porto Rican freakin’ dreaming of death camps of suicidal supermarket saviors and foodstamps of project pimps and pushers peddling pain in the playground of poverty perico and breakdown of medicine manteca and the mercy of markdowns of prison politicians police pumping the last round of Pentecostal preachers teaching coffins and Cristo estoy listo ya …

No Money Down
Beggars and bastards and budget hounds bartering flesh by the pound misers and maggots and money clowns marketing silence and sound billboards and bargains and businessmen borrowing what you believe masters and mobsters and money lend martyrs with tricks up their sleeves forming tracks that trivialize we number those who have tried and failed greed born of crap you criticize another show that is not for sale lawyers and loaners and lotteries living for no money down mongers and major monopolies mortgaging the underground cut-throat and credit commodities cashing in what you conceive rebating rapist realities refunding what you receive… we will not be bought and sold…

Abu Jamal
Freedom is bound in the underground in his martyrs rags and his thorny crown and the stinking hell of a death row cell where the loudest voice never makes a sound and he’s waiting indecision in a Pennsylvania prison and he’s wailing through the silence where corruption speaks through the tunge of violence Mumia Abu Jamal coming to you alive from death row Freedom sits on the precipice as injustice chews and dishonor spits in the rotting shell of the liberty bell where the law consumes and his honor shits still the voiceless screaming stop it never  kill another prophet pick your choice of constitutions you can die this way or begin revolution…

Liberation day
Settin’ it off like I’m droppin’ bombs  like another Rastafari  freedom song like shoot and loot and demonstrate and burn and learn and agitate  like Ho Chi Minn I’ll take what’s mine like brothers working over time like Lenin, Marx, and Mao Tse Tung and freedom from a loaded gun now to your ddismay, here in play by play I’ll decide the way to Liberation day Settin’ it off like a firing squad like Judas and the Lamb of God like spic and span and contragate and Ku Klux Klan assassinate Albizu and the Shining Path Guevara and Chiapas wrath Like kings and kops and write and wrong and can’t we all just get along

Breakfast in Amerika
Soldiers sectioned off the street while I was sleeping something ‘bout the company that I was keeping crashing through the bedroom door one early morning mashing me onto the floor without a warning Sons of bitches wanted I to give them an answer meddlers were to my surprise government gangsters didn’t they know that I was just sleeping? Barrio in barricades without a reason round up in a midnight raid and shot for treason mothers, daughters, fathers, sons placed in detention bullets, beatings, torture, guns, too cruel to mention sons of bitches wanted I to tell them my mission jury declared that I should die for sedition didn’t they know that I was just sleeping?

Foreign Currencies
Freedom came in with the force of a fist with a gun to your head and the cuffs on your wrist ‘nother clear cut case for the legal defense brother wetback hanging from a barbed wire fence like a rat in a cage or a dog on a leash crucified by the kops and the kourts and the kreeps numero 187 in a prison cell say the white mans heaven is the black mans hell freedom came in or so it would seem picking strange fruit south of the Amerikan dream never worth what you’re paid never paid what you’re worth ‘nother battered body burned by the bitter earth and the sun is pounding, the guns are hounding, the drums are sounding a bitter fruit is the life of the sufferah…

Shithouse Serenade
This is where I wanna be drowning in my misery smelling stink of shit and shame here is we’re I’ll make my name body bag bodega blues sacrificial slum lord shoes overboard and under paid singing shithouse serenades here is where I wanna live breathing in the negative fasting on the food for thought and feasting on the lessons taught junky Jesus genocide crazy horse and cyanide bastardize and botanize plant a seed and I will rise here is where I wanna die housing project contact high shooting smack and smoking weed one too many jone’s to feed unemployed and underground three feet wide and six feet down police pusher patricide plant a seed and I will rise…

Bullets
Weapons as words like a gun as a verb like the one that you heard that they said you deserve though the can’t understand like a word from a man or the back of his hand like a bullet to the head of the crowd say you’re talking too loud like a woman too proud as if you were allowed to be fondled and kissed or be easily dismissed by a word or a fist or another little bullet like a tongue as a sword more than they can afford ‘cuz he said he was bored and he needed to score and they said you come cheap and emotions run deep and he just couldn’t sleep with a bullet to the head of the line ‘cuz he said you were fine and he thought you were blind cuz you could’ve been mine he admired your shape and you couldn’t escape but it wasn’t quite rape just another little bullet to the head…

Pigs
Pigs and swine get in line now’s your force feeding time 96 in the shade prancing pigs on parade bulging badge bleeding gun city sins on the run one mans work’s never done murder for fun Pigs and swine on the march uniformed shit and starch shooting spics in the head pumping pigs full of lead bloody badge grieving gun just one more mothers son just one more spic that died on more pig lied.