Atomic Misphilosophy

"**Atomic Misphilosophy**" is a song by Lupe Fiasco, published to his SoundCloud page on March 12, 2015. Lyrically it addresses sociopolitical issues, and was intended to appear on his fourth studio album, *Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1* (2012).

In the caption of his track, Fiasco tagged American historian and activist, Howard Zinn, who he named as one of his mentors. In October 2022, he tweeted, "My comments about nuclear proliferation can be found here" and posted a YouTube link to the song when responding to an individual.

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

War gives value to life by showing it can be taken away

And in a perverted way, those who wage war delude themselves into thinking they create life

Or at least make it meaningful

Thus, using that as a basis for grandiose notions of supremacy

Falsely giving themselves the title of masters of the universe

And gatekeepers of morality

[Verse 1]

Peace trials and living power pleasure over pain

Geiger counters check amounts of radiation in the rain

Biochemical nuke, gas masks and rubber boots

Inhale your last gasp without a Hazmat suit

Terrible, unbearable miracle of the modern scientific

Arms race, chase for the horrific

Manhattan project, man cancelling concept

Catastrophic bomb, a fabric-shattering context

A little boy falling from a metal bird

Followed by a fat man who left behind a leveled earth

Imbalanced challenge to survival of the whole piece

Have seeked to staff the whole planet with their own peeps

A zone beeps of contaminated contents

Atomically activated, saturated beyond its

Limits, to live within its boundaries with conscience

To cancer cells, I'm not totally unresponsive

[Hook]

'Cause in the future shock, there where everything's storied

I don't feel like there's anything for me

I hope they put this out

'Cause in the future shock, there where everything's storied

I don't feel like there's anything for me

I hope they figure out

This atomic misphilosophy

[Verse 2]

Uninhabitable avenues, third wars in southern latitudes

Mutually assured that it all happens to

International violence leaves us black and blue

Blast us back into the past if attack ensues

A pack-approved tactic fully practiced

On the evil of the axis back in World War Two

The melted lunchbox of a disintegrated girl

Dogs on fire, the mosquitoes, flies and squirrels

Men, women and children have their bones cooked to ash

And their shadows burning to the ground from the flash

And if they didn't pass what's the future, Hibakusha?

You say you need a job, but they won't give it to ya

In the era where they said the greatest evil was that white man

From the reich land, but this was coming from the same people

Who thought that Jim Crow was all 'ight then'

Same thing that kept Colonel Tibbets on his flight plan

[Hook]

'Cause in the future shock, there where everything's storied

I don't feel like there's anything for me

I hope they put this out

'Cause in the future shock, there where everything's storied

I don't feel like there's anything for me

I hope they figure out

This atomic misphilosophy

[Verse 3]

Nuclear stockpile's America's second largest

The world's most destructive and the world's most heartless

Under the auspices that war will be rendered harmless

And everlasting peace will be in reach if we just bomb shit

Technologically fanatic racial socio-

Economic faux-intellectual fucking nonsense

Dripping with political interludes, typical of a system

Stark raving mad and operating unconscious

Now how do we proceed?

Knowing through the man's fatalism

And probably you'll never leave

A disease trying to cure its own symptoms with disease

Creating an epidemic just to see if it can be

Genuine mistrust of everything but us

Based on artificial evidence, but mostly racists at the crux

Let's pray they throw 'em all out

And I hope I don't see you

Through the foggy field of vision in the fall out

[Hook]

'Cause in the future shock, there where everything's storied

I don't feel like there's anything for me

I hope they put this out

'Cause in the future shock, there where everything's storied

I don't feel like there's anything for me

I hope they figure out

This atomic misphilosophy

## References

1. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco)". *Twitter*. March 12, 2015.
2. ↑ "Listen to Lupe Fiasco, 'Atomic Misphilosophy'". *XXL*. March 13, 2015.
3. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco – "Atomic Misphilosophy" [Prod. By 1500 Or Nothin]". *Daily Chiefers*. March 12, 2015.
4. ↑ Ettinger, Shelley (February 4, 2010). "Howard Zinn's work: a weapon in the class struggle". *Workers World*.
5. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco (@LupeFiasco)". *Twitter*. October 17, 2022.