FolK tOLd Me EP

by Folk Told Me

/
00:00
00:00

  • Digital Album

    Immediate download of 5-track album in your choice of high-quality MP3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $5 USD

1.
(free) 03:55
lyrics
download
2.
01:39
lyrics
download
3.
03:20
lyrics
download
4.
03:31
lyrics
download
5.
04:27
lyrics
download

credits

released 15 December 2011

tags

tags: hip-hop/rap south african hip hop african diaspora afro-futurism blues experimental folk folk told me griots hip hop jazz jazz lee revolution rock south africa world music South Africa

license

all rights reserved

feeds

feeds for this album, this artist
Track Name: the Bird and the Rabbit
Tshipu orile ke lebelo
Tshipu orile ke lebelo 2x

Mohlaba wa re ke nabile
Mohlaba wa re ke nabile


Dancing in oblivion the rabbit chitter chattered
Running through the matter
That the earth had gathered
Boasting he was faster
Spinning blind disaster
Only for his ignorance to shatter
When the earth said, “you can’t outrun me”
I’m old and wide and fast
And vast, I’ll outlast you
Matter of fact
I hold more than you’ll ever know
In a tiny pebble, spec of dust, drip of water, gust of water, single stone
So grasp your humility and go
Go go go…

Little bird little bird won’t you sing
Little bird won’t you sing, heya 2x
Sing…sing…

Perched on thickness of silence
She never uttered a song stayed quiet
Despite a heart contusion erupting a riot
Internally un-rested development
Threaded melodies she desired to unravel
To unweave but there appeared to be
No speaking left in her
Chest wept sorry through her veins
Took flight without saying
Little bird speak your piece
Your voice is power in c minor arpeggio
Release your deep bellow
Just let it go let it go let it go
Sing…

Wile anamela thaba
Abagwetja babina malopo 4x

Babina malopo 16x

Translation notes: NONYANE LE MMUTLE (BIRD AND THE RABBIT)

LYRICS DURING VERSE…THIS IS A sePEDI PROVERB (both lines joined together!)!

LINE1 “TSHIPU ORILE KE LEBELO…” – (Hare/rabbit said: ‘I’m fast!”)
LINE2 “ MOHLABA WA RE KE NABILE” – ( and the earth replied: ‘I’m wide!”)

VOCAL CHORUS IN THE CARNIVAL PART

LINE3 “WILE ANAMELA THABA…ABAGWETJA BABINA MALOPO” – (she/he ascended a mountain…and found them singing Malopo)
*(she overcame her struggles by reaching the mountain top where a spiritual music (Malopo) was being sung- she attained humility.

CHANT

LINE 4 “BABINA MALOPO… - (SINGING MALOPO…)
Track Name: tRain sOng
Plantain chips on the tip of my tongue, bodega store
Same lady begging for a quarter never asking for more
Walk inside what do I buy, a coconut water
Running a Q train’s a coming
Brooklyn trails behind
And I’m on the Manhattan line
Chinatown just passed me by
Overpopulated train of confusion
The next stop is
Not where I live
But I’m gonna get off here

Gibela nasi istimela ntombi
Wasala kuchitheki’gazi lemvana
Uthunyiwe ngegama elabantu abakini
Hamba ntombi uyoslwela empini 2x

Prettiest train that I ever seen
Prettiest train that I ever seen
Prettiest train that I ever seen
Headed in the direction of my destiny 2x


Translation notes:
1. GET ON, HERE’S A TRAIN GIRL (here is a life situation or an injustice that you must tackle girl)

2. IF YOU GET LEFT BEHIND THE BLOOD OF A LAMB(think innocence!) WILL SPILL - (if you miss the opportunity, if you abandon, cower or shy away from your responsibility then a few ‘weak, vulnerable and innocent’ people will suffer)

3. YOU HAVE BEEN SENT IN THE NAME OF YOUR PEOPLE – (you have been entrusted with carrying out your people’s historical mission)

4. GO GIRL AND FIGHT FOR US AT WAR – (you are our servant and hero so go and do good for us…)
Track Name: Another Man
Iraq, Sudan, Palestine, Afghanistan, Congo, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Guatemala, Mexico, Columbia, Libya, Somalia, Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Yemen

Girila Gijima! Girila Gijima!
Girila Gijima! Girila Gijima!
Utholi’ Nkululeko
Girila Gijima! Girila Gijima! Girila Gijima!

Another man gone (Girila Gijima!)
Another man gone (Girila Gijima!)
Another man gone (Girila Gijima! Girila Gijima!)
Another man gone (Utholi’ Nkululeko)
Another man gone (Girila Gijima!)
Another man done gone (Girila Gijima!), another man done gone (Girila Gijima!), Another man done gone

I didn’t know his name (Girila Gijima!)
I didn’t know his name (Girila Gijima!)
I didn’t know his name (Girila Gijima! Girila Gijima!)
Another man gone (Utholi’ Nkululeko)
Another man gone (Girila Gijima!)
Another man done gone (Girila Gijima!), another man done gone (Girila Gijima!), Another man done gone


Niyabasaba na?!
Hai! 4x

Using violence as a means to peace I see as totally ass backwards
Torrential bloodletting release soul of a man until all life is captured
What’s a world of inorganic matter
What’s a world of lifeless matter
Scattered amongst your guns and knives and bombs conflict and lies and anger
Pitter-patter of hearts has ceased to beat
I’m asking you put down your weapons
Tell me what’s a world without weapons
Tell me why we need those weapons
The event of demise will arise if we are not guided by acts of love
Don’t speak with clenched fist cocked guns and ticking bombs

Coward government send them out to fight
In a bloody war that they know ain’t right
Recruit them boys soon as they turn 18
Give em' a gun a buzz cut to pairs of fatigues
It don’t stop there they get the women too
Leave your lives behind for mushroom clouds and boom boom
Rebel boy bandana round his lips
With eyes of fire and on machete tight grip

Translation notes:
IsiZULU CHANT IN THE VERSES
LINE1 “GIRILA GIJIMA…X3…UTHOLI’NKULULEKO – (“Guerilla run/ look out”)

Call and response before rap section
LINE2 “NIYABASABA NA?” – ( “are y’all scared of ‘em?)

Chant during rap verse at the end of each bar
LINE3 “HAI!” – (No!)
Track Name: Handwriting
Handwriting on the wall
(Siyabhala la, uzogcwala la)
Handwriting on the wall
(Siyabhala la, uzogcwala la)
I want somebody read and tell me what it says
It’s the handwriting on the wall 4x

Shackles of urban legends wedged in
Ephemeral rhythms
Slaving in fields of broken records
Looking in the land of lost tapes
Picking rhymes from many reigns ago
Tagging my escape
Scribbling in subliminal graffiti
On mental landscapes

(Xhosa RAP VERSE)

Get out your headphones cassettes boombox stereos
Phonographs and radios
Oral history no more mc now me modern griot
Get a pen and take this message yo
Make note make note make note

Handwriting on the wall
(Siyabhala la, uzogcwala la)
Handwriting on the wall
(Siyabhala la, uzogcwala la)
I want somebody read and tell me what it says
It’s the handwriting on the wall 4x


Translation Note:

VOCAL CHORUS/BACKING
LINE1 “SIYABHALA LA” (WE ARE WRITINH HERE (we’re saying something worth hearing or we’re writing something worth reading)

LINE2 “UZOGCWALA LA” (YOU GONNA DIG IT! (you gonna feel or understand our tip, you gonna relate our “shiot”
Track Name: sTaTe of EMERGEnce
Oh what a crazy world we live in
Look at all it seems to bear
I can no longer endure it
Tired of singing tired of praying
Apathy has clutched my motivation
And for others it’s done the same
Only be cause we do not carry
The burdens of earth no on wants to claim

Unomkhubulwane uyakhala, unomkhubulwane uyakhala,
Unomkhubulwane uyakhala, unomkhubulwane uyakhala…

Uyakhala, uyakhala, uyakhala, uyakhala…

Wakhala unomkhubulwane, wakhala unomkhubulwane…



The world so unstable it’s a wonder we keep our balance
As we dance in an illusion we are blind
To the decline of the universe 2x

Sekumoshekile manje
Sekumoshekile manje 8x


Don’t let it all fall let it all fall down
Don’t let it all fall let it all fall down
Don’t let it all fall let it all fall down
Don’t let if all fall let it
This is a state of emergency
We in a state of EMERGENCE!! 4x

Translation notes:

LINE1 “UNOMKHUBULWANE UYAKHALA…X4” – (Nomkhubulwane is weeping)

Nomkhubulwane is strictly speaking the Goddess of fertility but in this context we are using her particular name and figure as a general metaphor or a symbol that represents the ‘universal mother/Goddess; mother nature; mother afrika etc)

LINE2 “UYAKHALA, UYAKHALA, UYAKHALA” – (She’s weeping, she’s weeping, she’s weeping)

LINE3 “WAKHALA UNOMKHUBULWANE…WAKHALA UNOMKHUBULWANE” – (She is weeping is Nomkhubulwane, She is weeping is Nomkhubulwane)
LINE 4 SEKUMOSHEKILE MANJE, (Everything is in total chaos and utter disarray)