Musical Molotovs: Rejoice in Your Revolution NicholasLeiper

The 5th song on Killer Mike’s 2011 EP, Pl3dge, is standard political tract. “Burn” seemingly parodies the idea of non-violence in the face of police repression and a post-2008 capitalist hellscape. Its message is simple enough:

“Me, I suggest you get yourself a shotgun / so when they come to evict you can make ‘em run.” It is one of many calls, literal or metaphorical, to “burn this motherfucker down.”

“Burn” is not done justice without its context. Released a few months after the cop who shot Oscar Grant got off scot free, it captures the righteous outrage felt by Black Americans and those wise masses who hate the police. It is a song written in the face of a broken system and, in my opinion, a textbook protest song. Unfortunately, that textbook is rather hard to define.

A quick flip through RadioX’s “The 50 Greatest Protest Songs” leaves us with a dizzying array of Nu Metal, Punk, Folk, Pop-rock, Rap, Funk, Pop-Punk and more. The waters are only muddied further when one reads other equivalent compilations. In a maddened stupor, I consulted the “Protest Song” entry on Wikipedia and found no satisfying answer. The unhelpful definition I have arrived at is:

A song that is written in, used during a, consumed by those who wish to, or interpreted to be in, protest of a given social or political issue.

The fact of the matter is, protest music isn’t a genre. It’s more of a human phenomenon. People are angry and generally appreciative of the organized noise we call music. Eventually, the two are bound to interact. Instead of offering anything resembling a comprehensive history, I’d invite readers to consider two brands of ‘protest song’ through this article. The first being music that epitomizes a burning car - musical fuck-yous and adagios in anarchominor The latter being those careful subversions that can unify and shape a movement.