O Come Emmanuel (a hip-hop Advent resource)

It’s been wonderful not blogging or surfing social media this week. Lat night, God gave me a song that I’ve had in my head for a good three years and I recorded it. Since it might be a resource for some of you, I felt like He wanted me to interrupt my fast to share it. Its hook is a hybrid between “Look Down,” the opening song of Les Miserables, and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” I’ve kind of allowed myself an exception for my sermon podcasts over Advent as well since they don’t require investing extra effort into blogging. Below are the lyrics; here’s the audio:

…

Chorus:

Look down, look down, don’t look them in the eye;

look down, look down, you’re here until you die.

Look down, look down, you’ll always be a slave;

Look down, look down, you’re standing in your grave.

O come, O come Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

Rejoice, rejoice Emmanuel

Has come to you, O Israel

No room in the inn, and no room in our hearts,

Out of sight, out of mind, another stat for the charts;

So many kids today are born in a manger,

In a room full of feces and a world full of danger;

A long ways away from the third richest county in the United States

But there’s poor people here just outside of our gates;

The shepherds with their earthly possessions in grocery carts;

No room in the inn, and no room in our hearts;

Keep your hands in your pockets when you get off the metro;

Always look straight ahead; and don’t walk too slow;

You’ll be eaten alive; just stay where the crowd is thick;

Don’t walk on roads where there’s not enough traffic.

There’s two kinds of crimes — when people break laws

and when laws that break people, but no one ever sees the latter one as evil.

Hush, manger babies; my heart-string quota is full;

I follow the rules; I shouldn’t have to look at you.

Out of sight, out of mind, another stat for the charts;

There’s no room in the inn, and no room in our hearts.

Chorus

Would you believe a poor teenage girl

If she told you her illegitimate son was gonna save the world?

We’re the ones who are supposed to save the world

With all A’s taking all AP’s so we get into Harvard,

Get a business degree and go down to Wall Street

To make the rain trickle down if it ever leaves the roulette table,

A sanitized reenactment of Cain and Abel,

Hunger is a knife that those with plenty to eat don’t have to hold,

‘Cause it’s not our fault in the game of life when the other people fold;

We earned our five aces fair and square;

Between college and retirement there’s nothing to spare,

So we don’t save the world ’cause we’re saving our cash

Just in case there’s another crash;

No matter how high the Dow ascends,

it could always drop to nothing again;

So play it safe and don’t talk to strangers;

Don’t drink the water; don’t eat from mangers;

If Emmanuel means God with us

And His Word became flesh in a barn;

Then is God really with the people who are safe from all harm?

How can you hold a baby who was born in a manger

If your life is designed to avoid all danger?