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Destiny Manifest

by Ridah Ridah Entertainment

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1.
Welcomed by strangers in a new land From away… From afar… Guided by the stars… we come in peace. I mean pieces. Carrying traumas, and baggage packed from generations of oppression All fleeing old worlds or extending the reach of them… Persecuted for religious beliefs or planting the flags in the names of their leaders Gods, and all to attain sweet Freedom and Wealth. From old lands, ideas and ways To be kings and to be queens like they were to them To a new land of promised dreams On land of broken trust and blood. All to be who they wish to become… From their mother and father lands to become… From Potatoes. From taxes. From pains. To come in pieces… “You Come In Peace?” Greeted with opened arms “We welcome you dear strangers…” Have you ever overstayed your welcome at a friends or families house? Have you? Like Pirate Ships with skull and bones They planted seeds in your sweet home… They come in peace… They come in pieces. “Take us to your leaders, we’ll make deals, give you blankets, give you God, give you civilization, give you our word!” “But you said…” “Of course we did, but those are only words…” Sticks and stones will break your bones and words will bond you for us. Tricked by sugars, alcohols, and promises of freedom from our pains… Like letting Dracula into your home, freely he roams…. Sucking the life blood from your motherland and family dry. All Hallow’s Eve was last month, but every day is death and taxes. Hurt people hurt people… But this… This was inhumane. Scalps and cottons, an alien world was subdued and trampled Landscaped, divided, torn apart… And the people… What people? The only people here were the ones who discovered it, cut it into pieces, fought over its resources, and claimed it as their own. We come in piece.
2.
Atiim V1: Enslaving humans... The family tree... Disrupt the system, Ripples time and space to me... Guns and violence! Macro Micro y'all! Rage N' Anger, Ignorance affects us all... I see your beauty. Let's flip the page. Bureaucratic static Magic leads the way... World wide madness. Pandemic life... Choose your ending... What's feeling right? Jaswho V2: Starving is... Rising is… Levels of… Poverty… Money is… Flowing is… Keeping them… Running free… Poisoning… Positive… Solutions… Contemplate... Escalate… Activate… Conclusions… Peace will end… Chorus: Right Now! Pieces break to pieces… Right Now! Super-Hero speeches… Right Now! Wars of countless victims… Right Now! Violent Extinctions... Right Now! Pieces break to pieces… Right Now! Super-Hero speeches… Right Now! Wars of countless victims… Right Now! Violent Extinctions... Outro: Drums and Clava
3.
From clay to sun these bones were cast to form your buildings with brick. From ships to chains & whips 2.4 million of my ancestors sustained sharks on the middle passageway. Those unfortunate souls who survived the disease-ridden ocean of piss, vomit, rape, and confusion were sold like horses or cattle alongside other merchant goods... My Red great-great-great-great grandparents were cleared like brush to build your plantations. The fields are stained with my African ancestors' blood... Overseers become officers. Masters become Banks, Bosses, and Judges. Chains become jails, debts, and ghettos. All a trap is this and that. They “do no more than you let them do.” Firsts the Native, then the Black, then this sky falls on you. I am Black like the night and the stars shine through. I am Red like the brick that you walk on too. I am a reflection of my ancestors and that of you... As my genes are of trauma, and my hands are calloused I’ve clung to the noose of injustice for a breath, and... I can’t BREATH! Have you ever sat up straight with the fear of death inside you when a cop car gets behind you or they pull you over blind you? Have you ever been belittled in a courtroom for a ticket that was bogus from the start when you entered pattered heart? Have you ever felt discomfort from the clenching purses, car doors locking, eyes in store they follow me, or they cross the street even though I’m dressed to kill professionally? Then you’ll never understand below the surface of this skin, degrees, ancestry where from I come or hope to be for my brick and mortar family tree you’ve hung me from.
4.
Verse: 3 10sec: Thomas Jefferson said life and liberty too, But how does that mix With the thing we pursue? In a maze trying to find a better way to live. Like a dog chasing its tail But when does it give? Dealing with overseers, Egotistical men. Paying chump change for the back I break and I bend. Only giving up the minimum to people who work. So a corner job's tempting even though it's in dirt. It’s a shame, How this game got us living a lie. I aspire to live higher And do more than get by. So I have to keep two jobs to make it ahead, Cause’ a man can’t live on only water and bread. If I want to have material and lavish things Midnight candles burn and the crickets sing. Two suns pass by like the days don’t end, For a piece of the pie, I’m gon’ do it again. I won’t pretend that I don’t want money to spare If I had it, I could be almost anywhere Living life with my liberty and doing my thing. Happiness is equivalent to freedom’s ring. Happiness isn’t money it’s what money provides Some come from the green, but still aren’t satisfied. In somebody else’s pocket Under control and stress So they’d rather flap or fall to leave duress. Most don’t really have it, even though it may seem… Credit cards keep em’ slave to their brand new things. Some don’t front they only de al with boulevard cream And the street life liberty's their only routine. Gamblers take chances with the shake of roll Hookers hook for a buck in the midnight stroll Players play the field looking for an ‘okie-doak’ And the rest get caught up for a hit of the blow. Some wait for the opportunity to come Others chase their goals until their days are done Round the clock at the bottom of this pyramid. Living life in pursuit, that’s just the way that it is. On a routine slaves wake up to the sun, Working from 9-5 and then 6 to one… Looking for way out of this ignorant bliss Broken spirits shatter like glass pursuing happiness… Chorus: In pursuit of happiness…, So nobody's home. They’re outside on a corner doing right from a wrong… Counting every single second like it might be their last… Looking up, but it doesn’t trickle down that fast. In pursuit of happiness…, So nobody's home. Everybody’s looking for it, so they’re all in the zone; looking for chrome, and lavish thangs’, a picket fence American Dream. (with) Schemes and plots, but it hangs on string. And “they” dangle it in front of you on a stick with a bet… If you really want it baby you gon’ have to go fetch… In pursuit of happiness, so nobody's home. They're outside on a corner doing right from a wrong.
5.
...Right from wrong… Ice cold - So bold Concrete made me Jungle in the desert of the Beast - It’s crazy! Hazy like a fire in the country with the wine… It’s a shake up when you wake up in this life and time. Sign here! - Accept the rules of the game. When the bombs drop… Conquering the world with your name. Fame is irrelevant. - Breathing is a task. Ice cream from the top - In the castle getting cash. It’s an IOU - Fuck the paper give me gold. I’m gon’ back my crew…When the time's right…GO! Grown up in the belly… It’s a feast my dude. I’m an Oak-town original - The coop I flew. A lover & A fighter… I’m a spook by the door. Inside outsider I’m a seed at the core. Clapping for the Kava. Chanting “Great Spirit!” It’s the truth I spit… You can hug it - You can fear it. It’s the truth I spit… You can hug it - You can fear it. It’s the truth I spit… You can hug it - You can fear it. (lyrics end at 51 seconds)
6.
Life ain’t a game when I wake up in the morning time. Is it mourning time? Did we mourn his mind? Or his body, what he left behind? I’m dotting mine and I’m crossing mine. Make the sign of the time if I fall behind…. Get up off my knees I can’t press rewind. Fast forward ain’t an option so I mind my rhymes. Put it all together. Simple. It ain’t hard to find. Just a 'Can of Wormz' baby and I’m back on the grind... I’ve lost my money and I’ve lost my mind. But my heart still ticks and it’s you I find? Damn girl you’re fine, and you’re right on time. Life ain’t a barrel of monkeys, but if it were…. It’d be the see none, speak none, hear none, Be none of the above… Because Life Ain’t A Game, girl it’s all about love. Chorus: If Life Ain’t Livin’ Then Love Ain’t Lovin’ Your friends ain’t friendly And Bloods Ain’t Cousins Repeat 7x’s
7.
We CAME from CA to ME Seeking less stress more for less A chance to enhance this opportunity to nest Grow roots on our Oak-tree near Spruces and Pines A star to reflect how we both are aligned A reprieve from the hamster wheels of nickels and dimes From the Silicon Valley that was flooded with crimes The gun points and tip toes of walking the lines A safe passage to freedoms that lived only in our minds To inhale fresh air without smoke from the vines A leap of faith into this unknown the beautiful divine From tragedy riddled streets as we choked in our primes The greed, drought and illnesses all signs of a time It was time. C A sky full of birds and an ocean Lobster boats to M E E T home Welcomed from the Golden Gate To vacationland we needed a break from the overstimulation of noises and perpetual maidens and Peter Pans. We paid Attention too much without a return on our investments and set our sights on the land of this lands original people’s From the Ohlone to the Wabanaki From the Spanish Presidios, greedy gold rushes, and great migrants back to the trickery of the French & British colonization We returned with similar hopes to attain life, liberty and the pursuit of prosperity, property, and happiness From our union we planted a beautiful seed of hope with new ideas and a new generation, a new Mainer Born into a lineage of educators, scientists, social workers, warriors, activists, change and freedom makers, sailors, and people who move mountains with faith… We CAME from California to Maine and brought all of our ancestors along from their various journeys from Sea to shining Sea and back again… from the blood shed of innocence and ignorance to the place strangers were once welcomed before they spread like cancer OR COVID-19 Seeking a better life like so many more before us To find our path along the tracks that led so many to freedom To reinvent ourselves in the Whitest state that once purged itself of color after crafting merchant ships for enslavement to now trolling the bottoms for its greatest export Like the native lands in between, Woodie Guthrie lied… This land was and is Wabanaki To acknowledge that alone is not enough Lights, Camera… Action is what we need. We CAME from CA to ME To write a new chapter To right old wrongs Full circle On our Destiny Manifest

about

This album project began with the death of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, which inspired two poems I wrote and published on Instagram. On June 3rd I published one titled Too Two on and the other titled The Sky Has Fallen on June 5th. I later published these two poems on my personal poetry blog (see below). In August Maine based Indigo Arts Alliance Co-Founder Marcia Minter invited me to represent Maine as part of the Washington, D.C.-based John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Social Impact Initiatives, Arts Across America. It’s a program to uplift artists and showcase art from communities and regions across the country.

Indigo Arts Alliance in partnership with Portland Ovations produced an original performance event titled ‘Sacred Resonance’ featuring three Maine artists in this Kennedy Center national series. Atiim Chenzira’s work titled ‘Destiny Manifest’ is a seven-part multi-media art piece utilizing his poetic spoken-word and Hip-Hop lyricism to explore his ancestral experience. His expressive storytelling highlights this familial journey from the East Coast to the West and back. ‘Destiny Manifest’ interweaves Atiim’s personal journey as a husband, father, and “new Mainer,” into his American experience with the larger issues of racism, colonialism, capitalism, and displacement.

credits

released November 30, 2020

CREDITS:

ALBUM:
Released November 30th, 2020

PRODUCTION:
Producer, Executive Producer, Writer & Performer:
Atiim Chenzira

COMPOSER:
JasWho? & Whoville Studios, Berkeley, CA
Tracks 1-7 are all composed by JasWho?

RECORDING:
Atiim Chenzira
Tracks 1-7 Vocals Recorded at Ridah Ridah Studios Portland, ME

JasWho?
Tracks 1-7 at Music Composed, Recorded, and Mixed at Whoville Studios in Berkeley, CA

MASTERING:
Pierre Allard - San Mateo, CA

VIDEO CREATIVE DIRECTOR:
Joaquin Jutt (www.jjutt.com)

ILLUSTRATION & ANIMATION:
Jack Eastgate (www.jackeastgate.com & www.eastrandstudios.com/):
Track 1, 5 & 6 / We Come In Piece; Kava March; & Life Ain’t A Game

Joaquin Jutt: Tracks 1-7

VIDEOGRAPHY:
Reggie Burrows Hodges (www.reggieburrowshodges.com)
Tracks 1-7

CONTACT:
Atiim Chenzira
Ridah Ridah Entertainment
650-762-8446
Atiim@RidahRidah.com

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