CHANT DOWN BABYLON; A GUIDE TO SELF DISCOVERY: PART 1
Updated: Jul 30, 2025
"Chant" according to oxford dictionary means, "a repeated rhythmic phrase, typically one shouted or sung in unison by a crowd"
So according to this context, "unison" means collective effort and team work
Babylon on the other hand has multiple meanings depending on the context. Metaphorically speaking, babylon means mayhem, corruption, oppressive system, illusion, deception, propaganda and other systemized narratives! The only good system is the sound system!
The inspiration behind this post's title is the late Bob Marley's Chant Down Babylon, supported by his back up vocalists, The I-Threes, (which included Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt and his wife, Rita Marley). A song off the CONFRONTATION album released posthumously in 1983 two years after his death. The album was coined from his unreleased material and recordings all through his music career.
Chant down Babylon in essence simply means chanting down the oppresive systems, destroying illusion, deception, propaganda and internal mayhem and how could this be achieved? Team work and intentional listening to the right kind of music.
Music is a school of life you intentionally educate yourself through, are you educating yourself with impactful lyrics from time to time or just vibesssss all the time?
The word "freedom" is liberating in itself. . . Free *thy* dom; Free your domination(s) so you can freely liberate your thoughts.
Bob Marley described their music as a road to consciousness in the 1979 Babylon By Bus tour in Australia.... Here goes:
In Jay Z's lyrics from a song Ghost Of Soulja Slim he was featured on by American rapper and record producer, J A Y E L E C T R O N I C A off his A WRITTEN TESIMONY album released on March 13, 2020, he mentioned, "No civilisation is conquered from the outside until it's destorys itself from within". Simply put: Evolution is inside out. Album cover and tracklist below
"The sword is the pencil, the beat is the armor to protect the people from propaganda. - Ikon
These lyrics are from Akintunde by Ikon, (A Nigerian rapper and visionary music producer) featuring Temi DollFace (A Nigerian, electro-pop-soul singer) off THE COLLECTIV3 LP album released in October 1, 2015.
Akintunde according to the Yoruba tradition means return of the brave one in English language. While propaganda has a variety of contexts, we will use a simply relatable one, here goes: Propaganda refers to information, ideas or messages deliberately aimed to influence or persuade the perception, behaviour, actions and opinions of a large audience. While it's been historically associated with negative intentions, it can also be used positively to push a spiritually uplifting agenda to elevate humanity, musically speaking.
Protecting the people from propaganda is a kind of revolutionary warfare that involves the creative power of the pen. Just like the late Bob Marley did in the video below.
The song above is titled War, off the RASTAMAN VIBRATION album released in 1976 and was performed in 1977 at the Rainbow Theatre in London.
There are other warfares like physical, spiritual, digital and chemical that will be explained better in the next part.
There is propaganda in what we watch (with our eyes), what we listen to (with our ears), what we drink and eat (that gets into our bodies) and these are all broadcasted using entertainment and advertisement through the mainstream mediums using industry plants....
TO BE CONTINUED.......
This piece here is fire 🔥 I await the part two indeed the wrong content is just weak a medium to constantly cage people