Irony. Utility. Pretext. - Algiers

They said it’s not enough

Just to shoot us down

It’s a sound that’s systematized

It’s a noise just to drown us out

But when your time is come

We’ll all be there

Just to watch you fall

And then one by one

All the parasites will just fall off

You put your vote in a ballot box

This one’s marked UNDP

Inscribe your tyrant’s name in blood

Choice is the guillotine

We’ll put our faith into Afro Pop

In a decolonized context

Espouse the aesthetes' contempt for ethos

Irony, utility, pretext

But all you can say

«Embrace primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«Destroy primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«Embrace primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«Destroy primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«With our art

We’ll transcend again»

You put your hand out to shake

Then they export you in chains

You fought for centuries for change

And they gave you more of the same

They swapped the dogs and the cross

For sublimated forestalling

They changed the names of the boss

Until you forgot who it was

Find your favorite color

So you can wash it out in your hymns

Correcting primitive cracks into straight lines

Superiority is born again

We’ll put our faith into Afro Pop

In a decolonized context

Espouse the aesthetes' contempt for ethos

Irony, utility, pretext

But all you can say is…

«Embrace primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«Destroy primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«Embrace primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«Destroy primitive man»

(La-la-la-la-la, you say)

«With our art

We’ll transcend again»