'Chicago Teacher' rap video from the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 finally begins to arrive for fans on the West Coast
"Chicago Teacher" is a nice rap song explicitly composed to support the Chicago Teachers Union during their recent strike. An example of "conscious rap" which only seems available in the Bay Area and on Pacifica radio stations and Free Speech TV and Link TV. The rap video was available through Substance and other outlets during the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 in September 2012, but has not been widely enjoyed since. The URL for the lyrics is:
http://rebeldiaz.bandcamp.com/track/chicago-teacher
Chicago teachers march through the La Salle St. business district of Chicago (Chicago's "Wall Street") with the Board of Trade in the background on the first day of the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012. The teachers picketed at all of the city's more than 600 public schools in the morning, then massed downtown and marched through the Loop in the afternoon, more than 20,000 strong. Substance photo by Kati Gilson.The URL for the video alone is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yN7cRZP58k&feature=related
The lyrics are available:
Chicago Teacher by Rebel Diaz
[CHORUS] Homey I was taught by a Chicago teacher! Chicago teacher, Chicago teacher! I learned to read and write from a Chicago teacher, So I’m inspired by the fight from our Chicago teachers!
[RODSTARZ VERSE] The teachers are tired, the students dumbfounded, the budgets get cut so classes are overcrowded. Streets full of violence, the blue code of silence so imma keep rhyming til salaries start rising! The unions uprising! takin to the streets! The workers are United so the Mayor's got beef! Rahm's a fake pretender with a corporate agenda Neo Liberal Offender, of course you offend us! This aint about money! That’s far from the truth, they want better work conditions to teach the youth. Politicians, I don’t trust em, its all in the name the president, the mayor all want political gain. Theyd rather put the kids in jail, shackle em wit chains, then provide an education that challenges the brain. Top down education..Chicago- the birthplace And now its spreading nationwide all over the place They don’t teach us how to think they teach us how to test! they teach us how to work to put money in they check!s The CEOS need to get up out the classroom before these streets get hotter than the sand in cancun! so join the picket line like mr pickett in his prime, put on ya red shirt like the bulls in 95. hit the streets with a sign that says im fightin for mine IT’S A FORK IN THE ROAD AND U GOTTA CHOOSE A SIDE And yes im proud to say I was a public school student IT WAS PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER THAT FIRST TAUGHT ME MUSIC (2x) [CHORUS]
[G1 VERSE] Went to lil Lincoln School in a lil school bus DEsegragation. Paid 20 cents for lunch Reduced price ticket For the lower income children Art and music classes In between Math and English Now its different They just teachin to the test Forced by the feds Or they losin that check Too many children left behind by this corporate assembly line how they privatize? education is a humam right! and they kids gon be fine they send em to private schools while ours get sent to prison or given a job servin fast food cash rules so it gets treated like a business bought and sold by businessmen turned politicians so if Rahm was the chief of staff and Arne Duncan got his start in Chicago sellin off the education system then Obama gotta respond the teachers or the corporations? Which side is he on? The streets is getting hot They blame the heat on Chief Keef But it’s a million others like him being created every week If we don’t teach we don’t learn And the streets is gon burn Before it gets worse I put on my red shirt [CHORUS]
