This song was written in response to the poor decisions made by the Geroge W Bush administration in response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. Public Enemy fundamentally associates the poor response to the disaster with the commitment of mass resources to the war going on in Iraq.
[Intro]
"People are dying, they don't have homes, they don't have jobs, the city of New Orleans will never be the same. Now let's get off your asses and let's do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country."
[Chuck D]
Guess it's gotta come down to this..
In order to see things for what they are and what they is..
We still may not be free up in this piece or treated very equally as
Far as I can see.. now if you saw what I saw
And see what I see on the TV that lead me to write this song
After talking to my father..
But the anger in this song seem to write it's damn self...
Hell No We Ain't Alright
(What is your boy Son of a Bush doing? Hahaha, nothin')
[Verse 1]
Now all these press conferences, breaking news alert this just in
While your government looks for a war to win
Claim for the blame game, names where I begin
Walls closin', need to get some help to my kin
Who cares? While the rest of the Bush nation stares
As the drama unfolds as we the people under the stairs
Fifty percent of this Son of a Bush nation
Is like hatin' on Haiti and settin' up assassinations
Ask Pat Robertson, quiz him
Smells like terrorism
Racism in the news, still one sided views
Sayin' Whites find food
Pray for the National Guard who be ready to shoot
Because they be sayin' us Blacks loot
[Hook]
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no
Damn damn
[Verse 2]
Now them violence is quick, tsunamis, I don't mean to scare
Wasn't this written somewhere?
Disgraces, all I been seein' is hurtin' black faces
Moved out to all them far away places
Emergency statements, corpses, alligators, and snakes
Big difference between this haze and the little diamonds on the VMA's
Betta look what's really important, y'all under the sun
Especially if you are over 21
This ain't no TV show ain't no video this is really real
Beyond them same old keep it real
Posin' for TV stars, drivin' big rim cars
(Streets be floodin', B) No matter where you at, no gas
Driving is a luxury (Urgency)
Don't y'all know? They said this is a state of emergency
Show somebody's government is far from reality
Somebody's government is far from reality
[Hook]
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no
Damn damn
[Interlude]
"And they don't have a clue what's going on down there. And I'm like, 'You gotta be kidding me!' This is a natural disaster. Anyway you look at it, it's a tragedy. It's awful down here, man. God is lookin' down on all this. And if they aren't doing everything in their power to save people, they are gonna pay the price."
"Do you know where I'm coming from?"
[Verse 3]
Now I see we be the new faces of refugees
We ain't even overseas, but stuck here on our knees
Forget the plasma TV, ain't no electricity
New world's upside down and out of order
Shelter? Food? Wassup, (Where's the water?)
No answers from disaster, them masses hurtin'
So who the fuck we call, Halliburton?
Son of a Bush, how you wanna just trust that cat
To fix shit, when all the help is stuck in Iraq?
Makin' war plans, takin' more stands than Afghanistan
2,000 soldiers there dyin' in the sand
But that's over there, right? What's over here?
Is a noise so loud that some can't hear
But on TV I can see
Bunches of people looking just like me
And they ain't all right
(Wait wait wait wait yo yo what?)
[Hook 2]
New Orleans in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
Mississippi in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
Alabama in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
USA in the mornin, afternoon, and night
Hell no, Hell no, we ain't alright!
[Outro]
We definitely ain't alright
"And some of y'all voted for that cat!"
Son of a Bush
"That's right, what God giveth sometimes your country taketh away"
"I'ma see y'all at the Million Man March
Tenth year anniversary of the Million Man March
That's right the minister's gonna drop, that's right, Farrakhan"
"Yeah, and many of our people and our organizations are getting together now in Washington DC
October 16th y'all, 2005"
"We had all these issues to talk about, we got more issues to talk about now y'all"
"Betta yet, ideas to listen to and spread
Yeah, comin' from Public Enemy. Number one, y'all"
"Public Enemy 2005, Public Enemy 2006. Yeah, Public Enemy 2007"
(Let me tell y'all somethin
All of our hearts is out there with y'all, you know what I'm sayin?
And we sendin trucks, we sendin boats, boxes of cans of soup... and everything
Clothes and all of that.. shoes
We donating everything to y'all, you know what I'm saying?
Don't worry, y'all ain't by yourself, you need to know that)
Hell No We Ain’t All Right was written by Chuck D.
Hell No We Ain’t All Right was produced by DJ Johnny Juice.