Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks that knocked down New York City’s World Trade Center, as well as the Pentagon, and claimed the lives of thousands of innocent victims. In addition, the actions on that fateful day forever changed the course of our country. The attacks led us into two wars in the Middle East, impacted several customs, laws, and our approach to freedom and privacy. It’s almost hard to remember life before 9/11. I wanted to put something up on the site to commemorate this day and pay respects to the victims as well as the survivors, NYC police and firemen, volunteers and others. I tried to think of the music that came out as a result of the terrorist attacks, and the events following. A lot of what comes to mind are songs of pride and protest. I also remember Clear Channel banning certain songs in the wake of the attacks, and artists on both sides of the political spectrum speaking out. One song stands out as most memorable to me though, and it’s “Makeshift Patriot” by Sage Francis.
I downloaded this song off Napster.. Or maybe it was audiogalaxy, I don’t know which filesharing site was still running at this point. But there weren’t really any blogs back then, and music was sent around much differently. As a 19 year-old, and a psych/sociology student, this song was somewhat of a magnet as Sage Francis paid proper respect to the victims and the tragedy of what happened, but at the same time spoke critically about his worries that the tragedy would be exploited for political gain. He also questioned the idea of “blind pride”, and emphasized the importance to examine the events and attitudes that led up to 9/11. “We taught that dog to squat, how dare he do that ish in our own backyard,” he rapped in the song’s 3rd verse, before ending with, “even if we with this tug of war, and even the score, humanity struggles, there’s a need for blood for what’s been uncovered under the rubble, some of them dug for answers in the mess, but the rest were looking for trouble.”
He also has a soundbite in between the song’s 2nd and 3rd verses in which he takes on the role of a leader and announces, “There is a new price on freedom, so buy into it while supplies last. Changes neeed to be made. No more curbside baggage. 7PM curfew. Racial profiling will continue with less bitching. We’ve unified over who to kill, so until I find more relevant scripture to quote, remember our God is bigger, stronger, smarter, and much wealthier, so wave those flags with pride… especially the white part.”
I liked the song back then, and rewinding and listening to it again today, I feel like it still rings true. Download it below.
[audio: http://rubyhornet.com/media/rh/music/sage_francis_make_shift_patriot.mp3|width=180]