The songs about real-life tragedies were written almost immediately after the events occurred. Parks chose not to record and release them for many years out of respect to the victims, whom he did not want to capitalize on. "Black Gold" was written and recorded shortly after the 2002 Prestige oil spill and has lyrics dealing with a fantasized version of the events. "Wall Street" was written as a response to the September 11 attacks, and "Money Is King" is described by Parks as "picking up where it left off," illustrating greed in post-9/11 corporate America. Parks elected to write additional lyrics for "Money Is King," the original author of which is Trinidadian calypsonian Growling Tiger. The American bombing of Baghdad is also explored in the lyrics to "Dreaming of Paris". "Missin' Missippi" was written about the Hurricane Katrina disaster, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.