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about
EMET (Izdis Hymn?) is a magical realism-oriented ode to Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) a 14-year-old African-American boy from Chicago, lIllinois who was tortured and killed while visiting family in Money, Mississippi for an alleged sexual offense toward a local white woman.
Till’s killers were tried but never convicted.The photograph of his mutilated corpse was viewable at his funeral and appeared in dozens of publications internationally, deeply influencing the then burgeoning Civil Rights Movement.
The song’s title contextualizes the song’s gradual reveal through an overlay of Till’s name with the Hebrew word EMET (“Truth”) and an African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) phonetic refrain (Is This Him?/Is This Hymn?/Izdis Hymn?) pointing toward ceremonial prayer, grief, generational trauma ancestral blood memory.
The lyric and samples further ground references to Black popular cultural media characters murdered/martyred in sexualized violence by Racism/White Supremacy: Daniel Robitaille/“Candyman” (from the eponymous 1992 film) and the wrongly convicted John Coffey from the 1998 film “The Green Mile”.
Chorus 2x
It might not be such a bad idea
If I never ever ever went home again and then
(Someone called at the door)
(Someone called at the door)
[I was obliged to come….]
Honey for the bees knees, neats and needs
Bringing sweets for the sweets,
Meats with treats with peas
It be magic from the art-damaged radical faggot
Get to Frenching like Sebastian Cabot
Lines staggered but ‘Im back in the habit
Fackin’ and crackin’
Prolly Bobby Sengstacke as the backer
Tracking the news
Maybe Jet mag is rappin’ the blues
Fan blades and wires the same
Cutty Wise indicting the game
Moses posed in withered light
And ain’t too frightened to name
With “thar he!” We fly free, from the trees we swang
See the Mississippi muddying,
We shuddering and studying
The nutty been a-cruddying
And sudden with they sullying and
(Stuttering,uttering)
Chorus 2x
Johnny Coffey got it off me
Tallahatchie bout to catch me
Cause they lying and I’m dying
And nobody’s gonna ask me
Mama Mamie is awaiting
Cuz they sent me in a crate and
Saints is fittin’ for the witnessing
So see you at the wake and
I ain’t in it no more
The world has got me so sore
Slo-mo in front of the store
Is all the chores
Gotta go for a ride
The flies know i’m the Lord
My insides, a portal
I’m a lorry to Nevermore
The Raven fades the craven
For the score and the seven more
The maven’s gonna save you
From the bloodying, buddying
From Jackson down to Coffeyville to Money and
Disseminating lemonade
And praying for the sun again
My Uzi weighs a ton again
(Stuttering uttering)
Chorus 2x
Bridge (8x:)
Sweets for the sweet meats, honey for the bees
From Emmett Till the day i die, flying from the trees
Outro (4x:)
Is this him, is this him, is this hymn?
Is this him, is this hymn, is this Emmett?
credits
released January 19, 2023
COMMANDO is:
ANDY MEYERSON drums, percussion
PRINCIPAL DAMMIT lead and rhythm guitar, production
VAN JACKSON-WEAVER bass
JUBA KALAMKA lead/background vox, vox arrangement, samples
LYNNEE BREEDLOVE lead and background vocals
DREW ARRIOLA-SANDS lead/background vox, samples
KRYLON FRYE lead and background vox
HONEY MAHOGANY lead and background vox
Recorded Spring 2018-Fall 2019
by Travis Andrews @ The Den, San Francisco
and Joe Finnochio @ Santo Recording Oakland, California
Mixed by Joe Finnochio at Santo Recording Studio,
Oakland,California February 2020
Mastered by Piper Payne at Infrasonic, Nashville, Tennessee
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