Erykah Badu :: Twinkle

Because her new album's coming out this week, I thought I'd transcribe my favorite part of her last one: the rant which begins around 5:22 of "Twinkle"

I don't have to tell you things aren't good; everybody knows things aren't good! We know the air's unfit to breathe, and our food is unfit to eat! Young punks are running the streets, no one knows just what to do, and there's no end to it! The dollar buys a penny's worth, banks are going under, and congress keeps a gun under the counter! But we sit watching our idiot boxes while some local anchorman tells us that today we've had 18 murders and 80 violent crimes as if that's the way things were supposed to be! We know times are bad--worse than bad! People are crazy! It's like everything everywhere is going utterly mad so we never leave our homes! We sit in our comfy abodes while the world gets smaller and we say, "Come on! At least leave us alone in our family rooms! Let me have my microwave and my flatscreen and my 20-inch wheels and I won't say anything! Just leave us alone!" Well I'm not going to leave you alone! I want you to get angry! I don't want you to riot, I don't want you to protest, and I don't want you to write your senator because I don't know what to tell you to tell him! I don't know what to do about the recession and the inflation and the crime in the street! All I know is that you've got to get mad! You've got to say, "I'm a human being, damnit! My life has value!"