Learn Truth
2013 · Nature Sounds NSD-159 · New York City, New York
- Artist
- R.A. the Rugged Man
- Title
- Learn Truth
- Release
- Legends Never Die
- Year
- 2013
- Label
- Nature Sounds # NSD-159
- Format
- Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- New York City, New York, USA
- Genre
- Hip Hop · East Coast Hip Hop · Hardcore Hip Hop
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation — Civil Rights Songs
R.A. the Rugged Man - East Coast Hip Hop / Hardcore Hip Hop artist, born Richard Andrew Thorburn on 10 January 1974 in New York, USA - whose father was Staff Sgt. John A. Thorburn, a Vietnam veteran - the subject of the song "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story", which he performed in collaboration with Jedi Mind Tricks. (1) On this album, the song "Learn Truth" (Nature Sounds # NSD-159), in collaboration with Talib Kweli, was a protest, anti-war song, referring to multiply historical events and atrocities, from the Former Yugoslavia, to the Iraq War, and back to World War Two, and of course the Vietnam War: "from Genghis Khan to Vietnam, I can smell the napalm" - a jellied gasoline mixture, with polystyrene, benzene, and gasoline. Declared a war-crime since 1980, the US government extensively used this weapon during the Vietnam conflict, dropping 388,000 tons on Indochina between 1963 and 1973. (1) (2) (3) The song also contained Civil Rights messaging: "redneck Klan members doin' church bombings".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
R.A. the Rugged Man - East Coast Hip Hop / Hardcore Hip Hop artist, born Richard Andrew Thorburn on 10 January 1974 in New York, USA - whose father was Staff Sgt. John A. Thorburn, a Vietnam veteran - the subject of the song "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story", which he performed in collaboration with Jedi Mind Tricks. (1) On this album, the song "Learn Truth" ( Nature Sounds # NSD-159), in collab.
Themes
Napalm · Anti-War · Genocide · Atomic · Reagan · Anti-Government · Civil Rights · WW2 · Hitler · Iraq War · Bosnian War · War Lineage · Violence Metaphor · Cocaine