Chuck D on Katrina

Chuck D, legendary emcee for Public Enemy, is the first to put into song some of the anguish and rage of the twin atrocities of Hurricane Katrina and the state's abandonment of working-class African Americans. Here are the lyrics:

“Hell No We Ain’t Alright”

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night

Hell No We Ain’t Alright

Now all these press conferences breaking news alerts

This just in while your government looks for a war to win

Flames from the blame game, names? Where do I begin?

Walls closing in get some help to my kin

Who cares?While the rest of the Bushnation stares

As the drama unfolds as we the people under the stairs

50% of this Son of a Bush nation

Is like hatin’ on Haiti

And setting up assassinations

Ask Pat Robertson- quiz him.... smells like terrorism.

Racism in the news/ still one-sided news

Saying whites find food/

prey for the national guard ready to shoot

‘Cause them blacks loot

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night

Hell No We Ain’t Alright

Fires, earthquakes, tsunamis

I don’t mean to scare/ Wasn’t this written somewhere?

Disgraces all I see is black faces moved out to all these places

Emergency state, corpses, alligators and snakes

Big difference between this haze and them diamonds on the VMA’s

We better look/ what’s really important

Under this sun especially if you over 21

This ain’t no TV show/ this ain’t no video

This is really real/ beyond them same ole “keep it real”

Quotes from them TV stars drivin’ big rim cars

'Streets be floodin,’ B/ no matter where you at, no gas

Driving is a luxury

Urgency

State of emergency

Shows somebody’s government

Is far from reality....

New Orleans in the morning, afternoon, and night

Hell No We Ain’t Alright

I see here we be the new faces of refugees

Who ain’t even overseas but here on our knees

Forget the plasma TV-ain’t no electricity

New worlds upside down-and out of order

Shelter? Food? Wasssup, wheres the water?

No answers from disaster/ them masses hurtin’

So who the f**k we call?--Halliburton?

Son of a Bush, how you gonna trust that cat?

To fix s**t when help is stuck in Iraq?

Making war plans takin’ more stands

In Afghanistan 2000 soldiers dyin’ in the sand

But that’s over there, right?

Now what's over here is a noise so loud

That some can’t hear but on TV I can see

Bunches of people lookin’ just like me…