by Raymond Nat Turner
“Another generation of Gordon Gekkos
Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs
Funny money men, where anything goes
Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes”
Birmingham On The Hudson
by Raymond Nat Turner
Jazz Ballad Chorus
Headed for CUNY with dreams and hope
'Til gettin' swept up in Rope-and-Grope
Tuggin' down his testes on the street
Body-slammed, cursed and browbeat
Meeting N-Y's finest's fists and feets
Given blurred vision of hoods and sheets
Bruised, bloodied victim of violent scam--
The Hudson banks on Birmingham
The Hudson banks on Birmingham....
Hip Hop Feel
Bull Kelly cut fire hoses and cattle prods
For Glockmiesters runnin' in death squads
Protecting and serving corporate masters
The privilege and supremacy of alabasters
Guarding Merrill-Lynch and Killer Coke
Fighting crime's mirrors and smoke
Drivin' out the poor from dusk to dark
Like smashing Spring in Zucotti Park
After the Schultzes seized Native Land
Manhattan real estate rose in demand
They cashed the stolen land into rent
Maintained violently by the 1%
In this Age Of Metastasized Cash-ism
Wall Street's Kleptocratic Stash-ism
Mayor Bilbo's businesses blooming brisk
His real estate-driven Stop-and-Frisk
American-styled apartheid pass law
Bilbo's Gestapo's a blue cat's-paw
After the Schultzes seized Native Land
Manhattan real estate rose in demand
They cashed the stolen land into rent
Maintained violently by the 1%
Another generation of Gordon Gekkos
Parasitic, psycho, thug CEOs
Funny money men, where anything goes
Republi-crats and Demo-con echoes
Putting our lives and health at risk
Run these cons through Stop-and-Frisk
Provocateurs and pundits in cahoots
Will look hip in orange jumpsuits!
Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at Raymond (at) upsurgejazz.com.
Raymond Nat Turner (c) 2012 All Rights Reserved
"Short word problems: do the math" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
On May 30, 2026, a Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Assata Shakur was held at the Riverside Church in New York City. Dhoruba Bin Wahad, co-founder of the Black Liberation Army, wrote these words…
Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister says she backs Trump's conservatism and capitalism, and the criminal case against a hairdresser paralyzed in a police shooting shows exactly what that partnership…
Former Bolivian president Evo Morales Ayma spoke with Black Agenda Report correspondent Clau O’Brien Moscoso.
The World Cup is meant to be a celebration of global unity, not a propaganda shield for a superpower waging genocide abroad and running detention gulags on its own soil.
