Public Enemy – Anti-Nigger Machine Lyrics

Track 8 on Fear Of A Black Planet
7. Pollywanacraka 9. Burn Hollywood Burn
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*begins with 2 minutes of samples and instrumental*

When I'm talkin' rhyme time
To blow your mind time some say
It's nothing worse than a verse
To hear some nigger curse
They call me rude some dudes fiery attitude
Claimin' I boast and smoke
And sometimes sing the blues
I twang metal and settle
Try to never back pedal
From the power some got
To get a nigger shot
The null and void I avoid
I test the paranoid
Never had to be bad
My mama raised me mad
So what I got is hot
I love my life a lot
I'm never sad just glad
That's why I thank my dad
Once they never gave a fuck about
What I said
Now they listen and they want my head

This is what I mean a anti-nigger machine

Instead of peace the police
Just wanna wreck and flex
On the kid
What I did was try to be the best
So they fingered the trigger
Figured I was a bigger nigger
And started to search
And so I headed West
Went to Cali a rally
Was for a brothers death
It was the fuzz who shot him
And not the blood or cuzz
I wondered why it was like
So I just held my mic
But in my mind I was blind
So I just tried to find
A reason we was quick
Just the way that we was
So I just stayed in the crib
Until I got a buzz...
Track 8 on Fear Of A Black Planet
7. Pollywanacraka 9. Burn Hollywood Burn
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About Anti-Nigger Machine

Off of Fear of a Black Planet, this song deals with America’s wish to censor music.

The song also deals with the word ‘nigger’ outside of its place as common hip-hop vernacular (i.e. not ‘nigga’ but deliberately ‘nigger’), analysing the place in early-90s society of the original epithet which was intended to denote racial inferiority, not self-empowerment or brotherhood. For this reason the song is an important analytical article of black culture in the pre-gangsta era, as well as an indictment of broader ignorance expressed towards it.

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