(INTRO: A dark, brooding minor-key bassline descends like footsteps in a shadow. A single, dissonant organ chord hangs in the air. A Nyahbinghi drum strikes a slow, deliberate rhythm like a funeral march. A deep, echoing voice chants a warning.)
Chant (echoing):
Hear them now…
Watch them now…
Heartless and wicked…
(VERSE 1 - Voice: Weary, heavy with sorrow, low in the mix)
Walk through the city, feel the cold concrete chill
See the hungry mother, begging on the windowsill
And the businessman in his suit of fine silk thread
Just steps right over her, not a word is said
His heart is a calculator, his conscience is a fee
He trades in human suffering for his luxury
He’ll quote a righteous scripture, with a banker’s pleasant smile
While his policies are poison, stretching on for mile and mile…
(CHORUS - Voice rises to a mournful cry. Heavy reverb and delay. Drums and bass thicken.)
Heartless and wicked people, dem a rule the earth!
Planting seeds of sorrow from the moment of their birth.
With a smile full of silver and a soul of bitter coal,
Feeding on the goodness of a struggling man’s soul.
Yeah, heartless and wicked… walking tall in the sun,
But Judgment Day is coming for every wicked one…
(VERSE 2 - Voice shifts: More rhythmic, angry, accusatory. A militant delivery.)
Dem sell the guns in the garrison, then pray for the peace
Dem create the problem, then demand the cease
Dem poison the water, then sell the cure in a bottle
Reduce a man to a slave, for a few more pieces of chattel
Watch the informer weh lick him lip and whisper lies
Watch the politician weh shed his crocodile tears from his eyes
Dem wicked inna boardroom and wicked inna street
From the judge in his high chair to the police on his beat!
(CHORUS - More forceful. A haunted, harmonizing trio joins on “heartless and wicked.”)
Heartless and wicked people, dem a rule the earth! (Rule it!)
Planting seeds of sorrow from the moment of their birth.
With a smile full of silver and a soul of bitter coal, (Soul of coal!)
Feeding on the goodness of a struggling man’s soul.
Yeah, heartless and wicked… walking tall in the sun,
But Babylon walls must fall for every wicked one…
(BRIDGE - Music strips to a sparse, throbbing bassline and skanking guitar. Voice is a tense, prophetic whisper.)
What kind of mind make a plan to bruk a family?
What kind of spirit find its joy in cruelty?
Is it a vacancy where the love should reside?
A hollow darkness growing deep inside?
Dem no have no reflection in the morning mirror…
Just a hollow shadow getting clearer and clearer…
No love for neighbor, no love for self…
Just a heartless spirit, stacking wealth on wealth…
(DUB INTERLUDE - The track explodes into a heavy dubscape. The bass becomes a monstrous, living entity. Drums echo and shatter. Snippets of the vocals from the chorus and verses fly past like ghosts - "WICKED!" "RULE THE EARTH!" "SOUL OF COAL!" The or
JethroKing78
