Lyrics for The Wrong Way as interpreted by aliforsale

The Wrong Way Lyrics
Wake up in a magic nigger movie
With the bright lights pointed at me
As a metaphor
Teachin' folks the score
About patience, understanding, agape babe
And sweet sweet amour

When I realized where I was
Did I stend up and testify
Oh, fist up signify
Or did I show off my soft shoe
Maybe teach 'em a boogaloo
Busy playing the whore

Oh loiterers united
Indivisible by shame
Hungry for those diamonds
Served on little severed bloody brown hands
Oh the bling drips
Oh the bling drips down
Fallin' down just like rain

I don't wanna cast pearls to swine
I don't wanna march peacefully
No no no no no no no no no
New negro politician
Is stirring
Is stirring
Is stirring inside me
No there's nothing inside me
But an angry heart beat
Can you feel this heart beat?

Oh fear we're fallin' off
Oh terror we're pained
Oh hunger we're stavin' off
Roasted vermin sustain...
This shit will have to sustain

Shootin' doves from off balconies
They wanna shackle the lame
By now you know their game

Little niņa arose
Went to stand by her payphone
Waited for her caller to ring, said
Ask me anything

I just asked for Her
I just asked for her say so
And with permission
I'm gonna take liberty
And I'm tellin' you to take it too
'Cause it's right there in front of you

Hey, desperate youth!
Oh, blood thirsty babes!
Oh your guns are pointed
Your guns are pointed the wrong way
Your guns are pointed the wrong way

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  • 12 Comments
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Empirer85
10-09-2004

Rated 0 
this song fucking blows my mind.

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bright_eyes13
05-02-2005

Rated 0 
I agree. I am amazed. I don't know why so few people have interesting in it.

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acidzombiie
03-21-2006

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Im guessing this song is a critisiscm of "black" culture, and there willingness to play the roles society has given them.

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acidzombiie
03-21-2006

Rated 0 
Im guessing this song is a critisiscm of "black" culture, and there willingness to play the roles society has given them.

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egotrippen
04-17-2006

Rated 0 
it's trying to find an identity as a black person, i think. the narrator it taking these roles one by one, the 'magic nigger' of a movie, the soulful churchgoer, a 'loiterer' hungry for bling. it's more than just criticism because, although each role is rejected, the idea of moving from one to another illustrates a searching for what defines oneself. in the end, he comes up with something stronger and more independant than any of these cookiecutter roles. faced with a culture 'shooting doves from balconies' and 'shackling the lame,' he's gonna take liberty (the permission he's asking is of niņa, a non-english word for 'girl.' the use of non-english indicates she is not white)

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Vocalities
10-18-2006

Rated 0 
This has got to be my favorite song by this band.

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brandnewentendu
12-23-2006

Rated 0 
blood diamond trade?? it's gotta be - served on severed bloody brown hands -- it's gotta be the blood diamonds

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cmhitman
01-12-2007

Rated 0 
nina, taking her liberty... maybe a reference to mexican immigrants coming to America in search of better jobs and a better way of life and taking it by being here illegally.

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auto_suggestion
02-09-2007

Rated 0 
this song is amazing. enough said.

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sammy salami
03-16-2007

Rated 0 
I think the message of this song is similar to the Mos Def album cover that has him wearing blackface. The narrator of the song wakes to find himself as not an individual, but as a black stereotype. The song lists quite a few of them, the acceptable roles for black entertainers in a white society. The narrator rejects these identities, and takes on a highly political one. However, the narrator doesn't take on a peaceful, Martin Luther King-esque political stance; he's not here to:

[Teach] folks the score
About patience, understanding, agape babe
And sweet sweet amour

Instead, he calls for a more radical stance, and tells the "desperate youths" and "bloodthirsty babes" that the energy they have could be a powerful weapon were they not destroying themselves by living within the confines of white stereotypes. He calls on them, therefore, to turn their guns the other way. The final message reminds me of a line from radical African American poet, Amiri Baraka:

'We have awaited the coming of a natural
phenomenon. Mystics and romantics, knowledgeable
workers
of the land.
But none has come.
(Repeat)
but none has come.
Will the machinegunners please step forward?"

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Alte13
12-04-2007

Rated 0 
this song is about the diamond trade. he talked about it in a radio interview in vermont that i heard.

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Alte13
12-04-2007

Rated 0 
a continuation of what i wrote above because i hit add before i had intended...
tunde is saying that it's disturbing that little black boys and girls are working in squalid conditions, and even having their hands cut off because someone thinks they are stealing diamonds; all the while, black men and women are out flaunting how many diamonds they have. to him, it goes beyond irony. he says, "Once you see a picture of some kid who is working in one of these places with no hand, you realize that the hand got cut off for the same diamonds that this person in Long Island is wearing, like eighteen of the on a chain? you can't juxtapose those two images. And, also, for me, put into account the fact that both of these people are black. That messes with me on an even deeper level."

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