Cubic Zirconia - Fuck Work (Proper Villians & Jubilee Remix)
Cubic Zirconia - Fuck Work (Dances With White Girls Remix)
Cubic Zirconia - Fuck Work (Michael Meds Remix)

Today I woke up knowing I don’t have to go to the office again.

Well, to be exact, my fixed term contract expires in the end of the month, but now it’s time for a well-deserved holiday!

Cubic Zirconia provides the best Fuck Work anthem for today.

Saturday I went to work
but i got fired
I am unemployed
anybody need some work?
fuck work
fuck work
fuck work
fuck work

I don’t have a job, fuck work
fuck fuck fuck em hoes.

This is true manifesto hip hop: tacky, in-your-face and very inspiring. Rebel Diaz is a group that consists of bombastic rapper Lah Tere, who grew up in the Puerto Rican community of Chicago, and the two Chilean brothers RodStarz and G1 from South Bronx. They drop unbashful militant hip hop in both Spanish and English and participate actively in community organizing, not that I know what it means in their everyday lives. Here’s a noteworthy clue from their Myspace:

Rebel Diaz came together at a critical moment in U.S. history. In early 2006, as Latinos throughout America found themselves under attack with anti-immigration laws, Rebel Diaz was in the streets of The Bronx, New York, organizing the community to fight against proposed racist legislation. As a result of strong activist work throughout the United States, Rebel Diaz was invited to perform their revolutionary music at the historic immigrant rights march in New York City in front of 500,000 people, who cheered loudly as they demanded power to the people and an end to immigrant scapegoating for America’s economic ills. In the months that followed, Rebel Diaz performed in front of hundreds of thousands of people in massive protests from Chicago to Washington D.C. The opportunity to speak to the masses is a direct extension of their political work in the South Bronx as well as their experiences growing up in Chicago as the sons and daughters of revolutionaries.

In the same spirit the slogan of the group is “If Hip Hop organized, the whole world would be in trouble.” No surprise we discovered them through Dead prez.

Rebel Diaz biggest hit so far is a remake of the classical union song Which Side Are You On. The song was written by Florence Reece in 1931 in the heat of dirty repression from a mining company during a worker struggle the same year. The remake is worthy the legacy and the new lyrics worth quoting in their entirety, so I wrote them at the end of this post. And check the links added to the lyrics.

Rebel Diaz - Which Side Are You On

The production of Rebel Diaz is available on two mixtapes, Otra Guerrillera and Otro Guerrillero. Download Mixtape 1 at TPB and/or support the artists and buy nr. 1 or 2. from their blog.

Original lyrics of Which Side Are You On interpreted by Pete Seeger.

And another beautiful interpretation by Natalie Merchant.

Which Side Are You On by Rebel Diaz

See I gotta draw the line I cant take it no more
If you ain’t down with revolution what you waitin’ for
Makin’ money for suckas and our communities poor
Rippin’ flags off of coffins man this ain’t our war
Colonized and terrorized by the worlds biggest killers
the US government the biggest weapon and drug dealers
Fillin’ prisons with children incarceratin’ the future
Myspace and Facebook they got us stuck on computers
Stuck on stupid bumpin’ music that’s abusive to the shorties
And the nonsense that you spittin’ they just listen and absorb it
I’ve been dormant I’ve awoken I’m a giant I’m ready
Im with the APPO in Oaxaca and we holdin’ machetes

CHORUS:
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Chi city!!!
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
South Bronx!!!
WHICH SIDE ARE YOUON?
Oaxaca!!!
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
Palestina!!!

(RodStarz)
I rock hard like palestinian children holdin’ slingshots!!!
I’m with every single kid that’s down for hip hop
For the culture the life what it really stands for
This music is resistance it’s the voice of the poor
I’m on the side of the workers, the teachers and lunchladies,
on the streets with brown mommys raisin our brown babies,
I’m with youth organizers cleanin’ up the bronx river
I’m like Jaime Escalante when I stand and deliver
I’m with Evo Morales man he runnin’ Bolivia
distribution of the land so they could all live bigger
I’m with Hugo and Fidel, Grandmaster and Melle Mel,
with the Panthers up in Queens Justice for Sean Bell,
Im with Camacho Negron, I’m with Ojeda Rios,
freedom for Oscar Lopez time to get an appeal,
I’m with Abu Jamal im with Assata Shakur,
I’m with the Compas in Immokalee getting a penny more!!

(Lah Tere)
I’m with Elvira Arellano I’m with Rudy Lozano,
I’m for a world without borders and a better tomorrow.
I’m with Mothers on the Move, I’m with Sistas on the Rise
I’m with La Pena del Bronx, keepin’ culture alive
I’m with the kids at the Batey watchin a beat battle
Mean muggin’ all these yuppies in shorts and brown sandles
I’m with parents everywhere fightin’ for good schools
And for all these good women to find some good dudes

I’m with Salvador Allende Man I’m Super Anti Momio!
Con el pueblo en la Havana Grito, Viva Cuba Cono!
I’m for immigrants, activists, unions and freelancers
For djs mcs bombers and breakdancers
I’m with editors, engineers and indymedia
I’m with my family and my crew Rebel Diaz
I’m with Dj Disco Wiz a latino pioneer
Cuz its its dope when the elders break bread with the kids..

(G1)
I’m for tellin the truth exposing the lies
Think about the dead soldiers when you’re drivin your ride
Them people died for the oil and Daddy Bushs revenge
I’m with the widows the children and the lonely best friends
I’m with Families Stayin’ Together as ONE
I’m Not for the Raids and the Deportations!!
I’m with Victor Toro and The M.I.R.
So watch out for those snitches in that unmarked car!
And for Lil Saulito, we gonna fight for your moms..
So we gonna shout her out, twice in One song..
I’m for twelve million workers and Elvira Arellano
I’m for a world without borders and a better tomorrow

Like people at Mad Decent said: best use of Paper Planes ever!

I’m not working a nine to five job right now (and if I can help it in any way never will) but this is my modest token of solidarity to all of you who are. It’s the up and coming act Boltan from New York with the track Nine to Five, remixed by DZ from San Francisco and included on the fresh new August mix of AC Slater. This shit hit me hard.

Boltan - Nine to Five (DZ Remix)

Ngafsh - Quit Work Make Music (Remix)

Follow your dreams, quit your job.

Never heard of Ngafsh? He’s a pioneer of L.A. Underground Hip-Hop. Haven’t heard too much from these crazy projectblowedians in the last few years, but it seems they’re still around, styling and chopping it up… Here’s some L.A. Underground shit from back in the day:

Grace Jones hates the capitalist system - like we all do. I gotta admit I totally ignored her recent comeback - always thought her shit was too bizarre for my taste. Last year she put out her first album since decades - she’s like 60 years old now - and the album has this song called “Corporate Cannibal”. Just in case I’m not the only one having slept on it, here you go!

Is this just horrible, or is it tight (or both)? In any case, Grace is coming to Helsinki this summer, the Flow festival, so let’s all go see her… with red and zapatista flags of course!

Here’s a dubstepish remix of this anti-capitalist anthem…

Grace Jones - Corporate Cannibal (Dan Donovan Remix)

“Corporate cannibal, eat you like an animal” - Grace Jones

“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks” - Karl Marx

May Day is approaching. The EuroMayDay tradition that has been going on in Helsinki since 2005 seems to have come to an end. The financial crisis would require new analysis and initiatives that the EMD-network has been unable to produce. Instead a coalition of local groups are calling for several demonstrations, demanding equal subsistence and financial support for people, not banks.

The initiative is called Murrostorstai 2009 (Rupture Thursday 2009). The name refers to the huge manifestation Murrostorstai, arranged by unemployed workers in 1993 in the middle of the last depression in Finland. That time 20000 people marched to the Finnish parliament, demanding politicians to be brought to the gallows.

There’s a lot of anger and desperation going around because of the crisis. It’s not so visible in this country yet but my qualified guess is that it’s going to start erupting soon. Some of it will come from the populist and fascist right wing. And what about the left? Well come May Day and we’ll have a chance to show that the real trouble is coming from us. Here’s some tracks to get you in the mood.

Dj Manaia & Trouble! - Here Comes Trouble
TC - Where’s My Money (Caspa Remix) (Jack Beats Edit)
South Rakkas Crew - Mad Again (Emynds More On The Floor Remix)

Special thanks to Palms Out Sounds and their remix sundays. Great archive of great stuff.

This is a must see: a short movie presentation of the popular rebellion in Greece. It all started when Alexis, a 15 year old boy was shot and killed by police in central Athens. Riots went on for weeks in December 2008.

Watch Potentiality of Storming Heaven

It has lots of riot footage, but not only. What makes this worth watching is the way the people speak about the rebellion.

Why do we burn? Why do we destroy?

Because we are commodities…
And we don’t like it at all.

People wanted revenge for Alexis, but also for themselves:

For thousands of hours stolen from us at work (…)
For our dreams that have become advertisements (…)

We proceed altogether, for all reasons!
Because we deny our becoming shadows!
Because we are angry!
Because we want to change everything!

Download DVD (torrent) here.

You saw the video didn’t you? Here’s the MP3.

Cam’ron - I Hate My Job

Cam’ron ain’t the only one who raps about shit jobs…

Never heard of this Nova guy before. Neither Chosan…

But I read that Chosan comes from Sierra Leone, West Africa, from where he moved to London and later to New York City. He has an album out called The Beautiful Side Of Misery. And he has myspace.

Thug rapper Cam’ron is hating both jobs and bosses on his fresh new track “I Hate My Job”. The song was released as video on iHiphop.com yesterday and no mp3 seems to be out there yet. Disappointed as we are over this we still have to hype the song right now. Besides the strong and honest social criticism the track has a beat so fresh it get’s me going over and over again.

By the way. Cam’ron’s impressed me more than one time today. Reading some background on him I bumped into this piece of his personal history: After having his car robbed at gun point back in 2005 he stated that he would “not help the police” try to locate the shooter saying he is “not a snitch” and helping the police would probably hurt his record sales.

For all you friends left hungry for an mp3, here’s another thug boy ranting over the hell of working, spitting some seriously inspiring rhymes. This classic is from the all time hate-ur-job movie, Office Space.

Canibus - Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee (mp3)