Aside from the obviously controversial lyrics that reference Rastafari, Jah and Marcus Garvey, there is even more troubling imagery, in the form of conflict, foreign script, and indecipherable hand signals.
And I seh Ini promote to di highest level
(you better know)
So lets burn dis evil concept
cah we ah seh dis is a destruction to di humanity
so we ah seh
(you better know)
Wanna watch out now
oy
check dis Jah!
[Chorus:]
Jah Jah city, Jah Jah town
dem waan fi turn it in'a cow bwoy town now
unno look yah now
Jah Jah city, Jah Jah town
dem waan fi turn in'a dead man town now
unno look yah now
[Verse 1]
Well Mr. John Crow draw coffin John Brown
we nuh waan no more dead ina town
Mr. Happy got so lucky trigger happy yow
we no waan no more dead body
well Mr. Joe kill quick, we nuh waan no more hit
we nuh waan no more grave an we waan no more casket
well life we promote which is righteousness
Sadam get a lick!
Unno look yah now!
[Repeat Chorus]
[Verse 2]
Dem ah tell me how dem cold
Big forty five
fi shoot down dem brother mold
nuff ah dem seh dem cold like a body north pole
so dem shoot down di young, shoot down di old
shoot down di puss an di dog an di fool
Every weekend dem tek a next payroll
out of man pocket dem shoot out billfold
Dis Marcus Garvey nuff a head haffi go roll
look yah now
[Repeat Chorus]
[Verse 3]
Dem think dem reach di ultimate, yow
but dem reach nowhere yet, oy
dem get caught in in a internet
and society a tell dem dem a intellect
dem promote too much dead
Unno look yah now
[Repeat Chorus]
Ten miles outta di city oy
it ah go get too shitty
warn Mr. John and me go warn Ms. Mitty
warn all di shottah an me go warn all die hitty
nuff a dem seh kill man without pity
Wrong kind of sip me all ah ketch dem ah sippy
True dem licky licky, dem sicky
Rastafari judgement will slew all, yo!
[Repeat Chorus]
Ayyyy...
Send me go trod down ina di east
tell dem fi hold di peace
we nuh waan no more coffin, we nuh waan no more hit
Well life we ah promote fi mek de ghetto youth see't
Life is wha we wish
Unno watch out now
[Repeat Chorus]
Bloody, Bloody....
Amidst the confounding controversy appears a recurrent Capleton intonation, one made only once per song: JUDGMENT!
Alas, this is actually where this narrative begins... with Judgement, not Capleton's in particular but Bao Gong's. You see, in The Yang Zhu first edition there wasn't even any Bao Gong.
Bao who? or maybe I should say, "Bao whom?" to just sound more proper. It's the sound, just ask "George and I" to make sure. Here's Bao Gong's wikki. I first learned of Bao Gong watching TV in Beijing. He's the only Beijing Opera character that I can positively identify, besides the the obviously adorned Monkey King.
Anyway, the link between Capleton and Bao Gong seems remote but for the association being currently spun, and the image of Bao Gong placed high upon the wall behind the pc that regularly plays Capleton. Bao Gong stands forebodingly in resplendent black and gold brocade, with his right arm extended as if to say through a forest of black whiskers: JUDGMENT!
The title of this entry is Clearing Bao Gong. It would have never occurred to me to clear him, but for the very interesting energy treatments I'm currently receiving called Body Talk.
Body Talk is an energy balancing technique that is vast in its clearing scope, much vaster than anything I've learned to incorporate in Chinese medicine. In fact, it seems that a tenet of the technique is that diagnosis is futile and that the best approach to healing is through direct querying of the body through muscle testing.
One of the areas of query is environmental, and it was in this realm that my practitioner asked me about something in the living room that I needed balancing with. I guessed computer (no, cleared that last week), fountain, and then Bao Gong.
I've tapped on Bao Gong in the past. This was not for purposes of tapping him out but rather tapping him in, as an emblem of unwavering courage. At the same time, upon reflection, I can't say that the judgment aspect of Bao Gong was serving me. I knew this on some deep level, but it hadn't occurred to me to clear it. The great thing is that Body Talk turns up a lot of stuff you wouldn't otherwise think about clearing.
This isn't to say I haven't been thinking about judging and engaging in a fair amount of it too. Nina Simone has her views too...
Of course this song speaks to me and would no doubt be a selection from the Church Music chapter of The New Classic of Music (Xin Yue Jing).
It's easy to listen to a song like this and think of easy targets "out there," villains like Hugo Chavez, Slobodan Milosovic, and Mahathir Mohammed, but the real power comes from after clearing all the "out theres" and looks within. That may not be as comfortable as looking "out there" (Didn't Jesus say something about specks in the eyes of others and planks in one's own?), but the benefits to one's conscious awareness will be great.
The yin to the yang of judgment it seems is forgiveness. Instantly, I think of a conversation with a client who spoke of the Christian conflict between Christ the forgiver and God the father (i.e., punisher). The Chinese configuration gives us Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy and Bao Gong, a deified personification of judgment. The homophonic nature of Chinese is worth appreciating here because guan yin can also mean "caring for yin," which would be caring for that which juxtaposes yang.
Instead of making flat pronouncements about either judgment or mercy, for each possesses yin and yang aspects depending on the context, tapping through on the feelings, concepts, and images that emerge can be liberating. It doesn't mater whether your judge be the "Lord" of Simone's song and/or Bao Gong. Getting real with negative impressions inhering in one's consciousness is useful because it allows us to recognize how the stuff "out there" that we consistently see is ultimately a projection of our own awareness.
