Lupe Fiasco's American Terrorist Analysis

Yeah, that's the best video I could get, so just listen to the words.

This is MY analysis for Lupe Fiasco's American Terrorist. It's of his debut album Food & Liquor. I will first begin by showing the lyrics.

Lyrics:

"American Terrorist"

Close your mind
Close your eyes, see with your heart
How do you forgive the murderer of your father?
The ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr

We came through the storm,
Nooses on our necks and a smallpox blanket to keep us warm,
On a 747 on the pentagon lawn,
Wake up the alarm clock is connected to a bomb
Anthrax lab on a w. Virginia farm
Shorty ain't learned to walk already heavily armed
Civilians and little children is especially harmed
Camouflaged Torahs, Bibles and glorious qurans
The books that take you to heaven and let you meet the Lord there
Have become misinterpreted, reasons for warfare
We read 'em with blind eyes I guarantee you there's more there
The rich must be blind because they didn't see the poor there, yeah,
Need to open up a park, just close 10 schools, we don't need 'em
Can you please call the fire department they're down here marching for freedom
Burn down their TV's, turn their TV's on to teach 'em

[CHORUS:]
The more money that they make
The more money that they make
The better and better they live
Whatever they wanna take
Whatever they wanna take
Whatever whatever it is
The more that you wanna learn
The more that you try to learn
The better and better it gets
American Terrorist
(Terror)

Now the poor Klu Klux Man see that we're all brothers,
Not because things are the same because we lack the same color,
That's green, now that's mean
Cant burn his cross cause he can't afford the gasoline
Now if a Muslim woman strapped with a bomb on a bus
with the seconds running give you the jitters?
Just imagine an American-based Christian organization
Planning to poison water supplies to bring the second-coming quicker,nigga,
They ain't living properly
Break 'em off a little democracy
Turn their whole culture to a mockery
Give 'em Coca-Cola for their property
Give 'em gum, give 'em guns, get 'em young, give 'em fun
if they ain't giving it up, then they ain't getting none
And don't give 'em all naw, man, just give 'em some its the paper,
Some of these cops must be al-qaeda

[CHORUS (2X)]

It's like,
Don't give the black man food, give red man liquor
Red man fool, black man nigga
Give yellow man tool, make him railroad boulder
Also give him pan, make him pull gold from river,
Give black man crack, glocks and things,
Give red man craps, slot machines...
Now bring it back, bring it back, bring it back, bring it back,
Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back, bring it back.

Analysis:

At first, this song seems confusing especially because of the title, but after listening to it and picking out different lines, you can tell that Lupe is trying to, in a way, make you see that "America" is itself a terrorist organization, well kind of. He himself is a Muslim and it seems that this song was sparked by what was happening in the U.S. to Arabs and Muslims after the September 11th attacks. Hopefully you know about it and I don't need to go into much detail but basically, most Americans would attack and classify them as terrorists. It seems like he really wanted to drive his point because even the instrumental itself is very "ethnic".
He starts of the song by trying to make you think and be open.

"Close your mind
Close your eyes,
See with your heart
How do you forgive the murderer of your father?
The ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr"

I think that those four lines are usually overlooked because I myself used to overlook them. He doesn't want you to come into the song already on one side or the other, he just wants you to be open, to close you eyes (not literally of course) and see with you heart. Put away the prejudices and be indifferent.

With the first verse, he tries to build his point and show how the American Terrorist started. When he says "We" on the first line, he is talking about the whole of America. Blacks, Whites, Asians, Arabs, Irish whatever, and tries to include them very briefly. Nooses to symbolize blacks and one could also say coloreds, and a 747 plane to GENERALLY include Arabs and Asians. He then breaks his speech abruptly to tell you, "by the way, there is an anthrax lab here in the U.S. (that is run by the American Terrorist) so keep that in mind."

The 6th and 7th line I didn't quite understand and the best I could come up with is that "we" are trained at a young age to be violent and the outcome is that the civilians and young ones loose the most out of it. So that translates to mean that The American Terrorist doesn't loose much if anything. (But I feel there is more to that line than that)

So the rest of the verse from that point talks about how books such as the Bible, Quran etcetra, that are considered to have been written with great wisdom, are not deciphered correctly and the outcome can be violence. He persuades you, again, to open up your mind and see that there is more to these books than what you might see.

He then finishes of the first verse by showing one way that the American Terrorist can oppress. It is pretty self explanatory, "call the fire department they're down here marching for freedom."

The chorus then becomes easy to translate once you get a basic idea of the song,

"The more money that they make, the better and better they live
Whatever they wanna take Whatever whatever it is
The more that you wanna learn The better and better it gets
American Terrorist"

He's saying that the American Terrorist is making money and it's the reason of peoples misery, and whatever the American Terrorist wants he'll have it, and the more that YOU know about it, the better it gets for YOU.


In the second verse, he goes over how the American Terrorist has terrorized, in the past and present, the two things he is; Black and Muslim. The first line takes a different approach though opposed to a really common basic one. Instead of just saying the KKK man hates blacks, he puts a twist into it and instead says that the KKK man will only tolerate me not because he thinks that we are both equals but because we are both broke. Therefore, he can't burn his cross on my lawn because he can't afford the gasoline for the fire. Cross burning, for those who don't know what it actually means, was used by the KKK to tell minorities that if they don't leave they property where they lived, they would be back to kill them.

He then goes into comparing this idea of American Terrorism, to what Americans consider Terrorism. He takes the idea of a Muslim woman on a bus with a bomb and provokes you to compare it to religious extremists that try to bring the second coming of God by poisoning water and killing people. On top of that, he also connects it to a part in the first verse.

"The books that take you to heaven and let you meet the Lord there
Have become misinterpreted, reasons for warfare"

Muslims with Jihad, the idea holy war and Christians, with the example he just gave.

On another note, in the past, Christians would go around on crusades spreading the word of God and killing those who opposed it.

He then continues the 2nd half of the verse speaking as the American Terrorists saying that "they" (used to label other 3rd world countries, in my opinion Iraq more specifically) aren't living properly, according to OUR standards, so lets teach them democracy and show them that what they believe isn't what we believe and is therefore a joke, a mockery. He throws in Coca-Cola as a play on how it’s the most known word in the world thank to the U.S. On top of all that, let’s introduce them to gum, these guns (violence), and let’s especially get them as young as possible and show them what fun is, and if they reject it, give them nothing and take everything from them.

This line can also be very confusing unless read correctly;

"and don't give 'em all naw, man, just give 'em some, it’s the paper"

He is saying that WE (the American Terrorist) give THEM little Paper, which is a slang word for money. So give them little money to support themselves after we just turned they're world upside down.

Again, it's important to know that the second half of the last verse he is speaking as an "American Terrorist"

The last little hook should be very self explanatory. He clearly states how the American Terrorist has shown his terrorism.

Speaking as the American Terrorist, The black man goes hungry and I call him nigger to degrade him. The red man (American Indians) is a fool and I will introduce him to liquor, take his land and call it Manifest Destiny. As for the yellow man (Asians, specifically Chinese), I'll make him build a railroad and make him mine for gold that all that I will profit from.

He finishes the hook by saying that the American Terrorist is responsible for crack and guns in the ghetto and the Red man having to rely on Casino's.


There is also a funny skit from the Chappelle show that somewhat tips into Lupe's point but Dave Chappelle goes even father by showing that all races have their own prejudices;


Chapelle Show Airplane

Q8DeMoN MySpace Video


Closing:

This is what I got from the song. I have come to find that with Lupe Fiasco's songs, you have to keep listening to it over and over to discover what he is talking about and that you have never always understood ALL and EXACTLY what he is trying to convey, and that there is a lot more to his music. If there is anything that you feel I missed or you think I misinterpreted incorrectly, go ahead and let me know, I will take a look at it and see if I agree or not, and if I don't I'll give you a reason why.

Thanks for reading!