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TAO Pt 2

from TAO by Shad

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about

Continues the thread of technology again through this whole conversation but this time more directly and with more humour. The first verse is about the impact of tech on personal relationships, the second has more to do with business and also culture. There's also quotes from CS Lewis' The Abolition Of Man on this one that bookend the song and the verses. Song was produced by 2oolman of A Tribe Called Red.

lyrics

-- Lyrics --

(We are always conquering nature
“Human nature” will be the last part of nature
To surrender to man
The battle will indeed be won but who, precisely, will have won it?
For the power of man to make himself what he pleases means, as we have seen, the power of some men to make other men what they please)

We living in a brave new world
Full of strange new cravings
A little less dope
And a lot more vaping
STI’s and other viral sensations
Just ‘cause it’s new
That don’t make it innovation
I had to switch up the vista
Flickr to Insta
Flipped thru some pictures
Man I clicked thru some sisters
Seen a Tegan and a Sara
Sabrina and a Lara
A Venus and Serena
And a Tia and Tamera
Im still looking for smthg
Im not seeing in the mirror
Will a million pictures
Really help me see it any clearer tho?
Are we looking for a miracle
Or merely pheromones
Or just not being alone
Growing weary?
Was talking all this theory
With a woman named Siri
I nearly fell in love
So I had to pull the plug
Seems kinda like we’re drug fiends
When what we stream
Hits the blood stream
Touching us deep
Beneath the touch screens

(The main objection is that if man chooses
to treat himself as raw material
Raw material he will be
We’ve been trying to have it both ways
It is impossible
Either we are rational spirit
Obliged forever to obey
the absolute values of “the tao”
Or else we are mere nature
To me kneaded and cut into new shapes
For the pleasures of masters)

We’ve been trapped in this fast-paced rat race
And now they turned the race track into ad space
Tracked, traced when I open up a map: waze
Or any chat-based app
In the last days
Where have all the poets gone?
Well can’t hold our focus long enough
with these emoticons and Pokemon gos
Trying to go beyond those
You gotta be, like, borderline Obi wan!
Bro, on my damn applications
Brand activations
Got it all now
Only don’t have the patience
I’m not saying let’s make a shift back to basics
But aint no spaceships got’ take us out this matrix
What we face is bonafide global-wide changes
Old ways is gone
cool but what are they replaced with?
Business as usual?
Business is brutal
And it’s so big now
That all resistance is futile
Let that dream die quick
And take a uber to the funeral
You could Facebook it live
and find the grave on google
Refusal to comply
can result in your removal
From a future they devise
‘Cause they decide who’s useful

(It is not that they are bad men
They are not men at all
Stepping outside the tao
They have stepped into the void
Nor are their subjects necessarily unhappy men
They are not men at all
They are artifacts
Man’s final conquest has proved to be
The abolition of man)

credits

from TAO, released October 1, 2021
Shad - Vocals

Produced by 2oolman and Frank Dukes

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Shad Toronto, Ontario

Shad is a Juno Award-winning rapper from London, Ontario and the host of Netflix’s Hip-Hop Evolution. His albums have been recognized for their sharp lyrics and soulful arrangements.

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