The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #197

#197: "List of Demands (Reparations)" (2007) - Saul Williams

On the day the first African-American President of the United States of American will be inaugurated, I proffer this paen to the poor and disenfranchised, to those who've felt betrayed and (at least partially) abandoned by their government; this call to action, to stand up and be heard, no microphone necessary (sorry, Nas, Williams tops you here), is brought to you by published poet (and Nuyorican Grand Slam poetry champion) Saul Williams and producer Trent Reznor. Williams (in his guise of Niggy Tardust) wants reparations; not monetary reparations, mind you (as many have feared would happen once Obama was in office), but social ones. He wants the government and the corporations and the people to question the status quo in order to enact social and ethical changes that benefit the poor, the tired, the huddled masses yearning to be free, the homeless, and the wretched refuse, because they are we and we are America, the most prosperous nation in the world, a nation in which no man should have to make this list of demands for reparations, but if he does, we're glad that Saul is doing it, and we're glad that Reznor is providing us with the best hard-rocking dance music [those synths cut and slash like Steve Jones's guitar in "Anarchy in the U.K."] he's ever had to offer ( for just in case we don't get it, we'll at least dance to it, and maybe, just maybe, the information can seep in), and we're glad that we the people of the United States of American can elect a man based on his even-temperament and promise of hope and prosperity not fifty years after a man of his race would even be allowed to vote in the first place.