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In Our Headphones

Rell Be Free - Paythefeee

In Our Headphones

KEXP

Music, Music Commentary

4.61.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2020

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rell Be Free - "Paythefeee" from the 2020 self-released album P.T.F.D.

Rell Be Free (real name: Jerrell Davis) is a self-described "musician, underground educator, and multifaceted entrepreneur" from the South End of Seattle. A rapper since the age of 12, Davis utilizes his skills to speak out for social justice. He's the Restorative Justice Director and co-founder of the youth organization WA-BLOC (Washington Building Leaders of Change), serves as a Corner Greeter Coordinator for Rainier Beach, and was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine in 2018.

"I’m very comfortable with who I am and so I’m not trying to perpetuate a false image," Davis told the South Seattle Emerald. "When you front, you’ve got to keep it up and I’m not prepared to keep up a façade. I’d rather keep up who I really am. No matter how popular my music gets, I’ve got to remember that it’s really not about me. Honestly, I use music as art, but I really see music as a tool toward revolution – a way to change the material conditions of our people."

Watch Rell Be Free perform today's Song of the Day from an event held by Decriminalize Seattle

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey the food!

0:01.0

Food!

0:02.0

Hey the food!

0:03.0

Hey the food!

0:05.0

Hey the food!

0:07.0

Yeah!

0:08.0

Yeah!

0:10.0

You know what you owe me, pay it up below me I can't keep it lowkey

0:16.6

No you ain't my home now if you gotta show me you gotta persuade me

0:20.8

more like showing loving so I wonder why you hate me and I feel Let's Pay the fee, pay the fee, you're gonna pay the fee, yeah.

0:36.0

Breath up the hood and I put it ahead, all of the bullshit that making the debt,

0:39.0

poke up the government, fuck up the punishment, you want to kill me the aid for my dreads,

0:42.0

give me the land, give me the eggs of my dread.

0:43.0

Say you with us, but you still with the feds.

0:45.0

N'gis don't know about that.

0:46.0

No. You have a cap in your rap, no.

0:48.0

Came for the soul from a plateau.

0:49.0

All that I spit is the facts.

0:50.0

So we had to come to the back though.

0:52.0

Represent from our black folk though represent from our black

0:53.6

though represent for indigenous y'all can't be serious this shit got me

0:57.7

furious who talking about gang truths we hang from the same nooses.

...

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